Jim Jirka ~ Autumn Awakening

I have been in the creative doldrums lately. Today I decided to go out and take a walk, to clear my head, maybe. There is actually not much content up there to really clear. Just went with the camera, no encumbrances of a tripod, one lens and an open mind.

I found today to be a transition, not so much as autumn arriving, but that autumn is just a season, a time of the year. Not so much delineated by the so-called colors and people’s perception that autumn sucks, if the colorful, pretty leaves are not there. I for one find solace in the understanding of autumn, of the actual ritual of the leaves dying out and withering away and the change in the air as the days grow shorter. I enjoy the sounds as the leaves fall to the ground, the wind gently blowing through the trees and the crunching of the grasses as they dry out.

I was very creative today, making images that strengthened my interpretation of autumn, and awakened me from my doldrums.

Comments

[Ana]

That is wonderful, Jim. The trees are present but at the same time they seem to receed into this gentle wash of texture.

[Michelle Parent]

Jim, I love the delicate laciness to the trees. The subtle hints of autumn color are like a wash of watercolor paint over the inklines of the trees. Lovely!

[Mary Dennis]

I love how the only touch of traditional fall color is found in the lower left corner. And that little bit speaks quite loudly in my opinion Jim. I can't tell you how much I identify with what you desrcibe as the "ritual of the leaves dying out." Sometimes I am still amazed that the seasons actually change so dramatically. Maybe it's the pessimist in me but sometimes I half expect the well-oiled machine of mother nature to come to a creaky halt sometimes. But of course it never does and the rituals repeat themselves every year. Maybe I should have more faith in a (the) seed, to quote Thoreau. I love and am comforted by ritual.

[Darwin Wiggett]

Stellar compostion here with the light whitish background creating an inverted traingle in the upper right to counter balance the darker upright triangle in the lower left. Plus there is a circle of vegataation around the entire photo which contains the two triangles. And these shapes are all connected with the ladderlike lines of the tee trunks - really nice stuff! Darwin

[Tom Gallione]

Jim,
This is one of the prettiest non-pretty pictures I've seen...if you know what I mean. A joy to view. So many subtle hues and the composition, as Darwin already alluded to, is very strong.

I want so badly to see what is beyond that grouping of trees.

[Photopop 7.0]

“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.” - Jackson Pollock

as with a number of gravitas' images (ku #381), I see a resemblance either by squinting or by just plain poor eyesight, to a Jackson Pollock painting.

[Photopop 7.0]

“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.” - Jackson Pollock

as with a number of gravitas' images (ku #381), I see a resemblance either by squinting or by just plain poor eyesight, to a Jackson Pollock painting.