QUAHOG MOMENTS

The Blue Bird
Susquehanna River
Stephen W Pidcock 2012

I am a bit reluctant to reveal that I am still so fascinated with nature’s design.
It’s a kid like “wonderment” at times.
Oceans are an amazing and awe inspiring environment found only in books and on
National Geographic specials on TV where I grew up in semi-arid northwest Colorado.

Moving to the mid-atlantic area gave me some exposure.
One day walking the beach with my wife, I found an amazing shell, and the living resident along with it. My wife educated me on the creature. Even though I studied biology in college I had not seen a quahog this large before.

I am sure that many quahogs wash ashore and make their safe return to the ocean as a projectile and many more onto seafood menus.
These shells seemed to be strong and inpenetratable alien space ships, aeronautical forms, yet meant to be slow steady creatures with one foot on the ground.

"The Cloak”
Susquehanna River
Stephen W Pidcock 2012

The enclosed structure was fat, bulky, colorful and captivating. I studied the details of the ridges, layers and symmetry. I looked closely at the designs where the two halves joined. A playing card spade, or a heart shape. I wanted to press the form into mud or clay to retain the shape and make a plaster mold of it. I took this creature on an adventure pressing the butt end into various degrees of wet sand that I could find hoping to keep the design somehow. I went farther from the water looking for any kind of left over pool or mud, to no avail.

I stumbled upon another windswept design in the sand of diamonds patterns crisscrossed in perfect ratio. Caught again by design, I returned the quahog projectile fashion back safely to it’s home and then was back to study the sand patterns.

I don’t recall if anyone else was on the beach that day, but if they were watching me it may have been amusing to see me discover the wonders of the universe in the simplest of elements.

It’s this fascination with nature’s art that I find the vision of natural water reflections. Shapes, textures, and colors that symbolize the familiar forms that I photograph. I find the rush and pace of life that our culture and society whirl through time with leaves out so many images and experiences with earth.The small amount of time on the water has allowed me to reconnect with the art of nature.

I value these images and capture moments of sitting and watching nature reveal itself to me in unique form. I hope you enjoy the journey with me.

Join me this week in Wilkes Barre Pa for the art festival May 16-19 2013 for more prints of natures amazing reflective art.

Steve