Return to Blogging and Mindsights

To my readers and fellow artists, photographers, and bloggers:  Please bear with me while I re-familiarize myself with the technical aspects of blogging.  I have been away from it for awhile.

Thanks for your understanding!

Lynda Lehmann

 

 

 

Thoughts on Creative Process

Cycle of Beauty c 2019 Lynda Lehmann  Available on Prints and Merchandise at http://www.LyndaLehmann.com

Please click the link below to find some of my archived writing on the nature of art-making. I hope something resonates with you!

Thoughts on Creative Process and Art Making

 Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

 

Dance Around a Fallen Tree

DANCE AROUND A FALLEN TREE

Photo and Text by Lynda Lehmann c 2018

Dance around a fallen tree 

like me, like me.

I’m in and out of the fallen tree

but all around her 

roots will sprout

and later spread in boughs replete

with leaves and shade and 

energy

reverberating out

to where sky, earth and water meet.

And this is where I want to be.

At One, at One,

with the fallen tree.

Excelsior Academy Students Visit Indigenous Village 235 in Ecuador

Here’s a short video of the student group that my daughter and her colleague took to Ecuador. The students here are speaking about their perceptions as they visit an indigenous village. It’s amazing to hear these students speak, and if you’re a humanist, you will love this!

(Cross-Posted from Peripheral Vision Blog at innersights.blogspot.com)

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

Global to Local: Advocating Travel Education and Community Service

I’m so proud of my daughter, Jacqueline Hesse, and her colleague Christine McCartney, both teachers at Excelsior Academy, who believe in grassroots action and empowerment. I’m posting this to support their quest to teach and empower their students, who are fighting poverty and other problems in Newburgh, NY, by volunteering and travel education, to help revitalize their community.
It’s truly inspiring to listen to these fine young people who are trying to help themselves and their communities!

In Praise of Abstraction

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Originally posted on Mindsights by Lynda Lehmann:
If we are going to discuss the validation of art by virtue of “skill” or “meaning,” we have to give abstraction a fair shake. To my way of thinking, abstract art is more…

In Praise of Abstraction

Water patterns and textures make an infinitude of abstracts to dazzle the eye. water, patterns, abstracted, nature, beauty, lake, ripples, waves, lake-surface, dazzling, wild, textures, light, reflections. energy,motion, movement, optical

If we are going to discuss the validation of art by virtue of “skill” or “meaning,” we have to give abstraction a fair shake. To my way of thinking, abstract art is more interesting (if not more beautiful) than realism, because it presents a visual experience that has no precedent in reality. It presents something totally new and is its own reality. Realism refers to a single point in time and space even when it is arresting, compelling and speaks to universals.

But abstraction can be richly layered and full of ambiguity and mystery that yields fresh nuances of visual experience with each viewing. To me, abstract art comprises a rich, multi-dimensional experience because it doesn’t cater to the constraints of time and place. The new visual experience it presents is of value in and of itself, and does not require a literal meaning in the usual sense. As a matter of fact, it may call on the viewer to be a more active participant in the viewing, because it reaches beyond our usual scope of perception and lends itself to the subjective reality of each viewer. Art does not need to refer to political or religious ideologies, or even the continuum of human emotions and experience, to garner its meaning. It simply is, and therein lies its meaning. And to me, abstraction is very compelling in its visual (and emotional) richness.

As for the “skills” part of the equation, Kandinsky (among others) manifested a high level of both imagination and skill that many realists don’t possess. Good abstraction is difficult to achieve, often involving both concept and great discipline that match or exceed many realist paintings.

Abstract art is often devalued because, to many people, it “looks” easy.

NOTE:  I appreciate and pursue abstraction in painting, digital art and photogrpahy.  Above you see two of my water abstracts, whose light and patterns I find mesmerizing.

What drives our students to serve…

Motivated #Students and Their #Teachers Who Teach the Value of Community and #Volunterism https://globaltolocal.wordpress.com/2016/11/23/what-drives-our-students-to-serve/ via @wordpressdotcom

globaltolocal

View original post

Superdog’s Leap of Faith!

Superdog’s Leap of Faith – Lynda Lehmann c 2016

 

It’s a bird…. It’s a plane…. NO, Wait!  It’s Superdog!

Perhaps this soulful Rhodesian Ridgeback will swoop in over Everycity to save the world!

Today’s Thoughts on Art

I believe the “logic” of abstract art is purely an internal logic: a logic of the visual language. Some or many elements compete for various positions in the totality of the piece, and those elements can be compared to the elements of spoken language. Some areas are dominant, like the subject of a sentence. Some carry the “action,” as a verb does. Other areas of the composition are transitional and create linkage between one area and another, kind of like a preposition.

This is just my own perception. But in my thinking, I have run into this metaphor again and again. And I’m fascinated by the language comparison: in this case, with the analogous visual parts making up the analogous (visual) “whole.”

Lynda Lehmann c 2013

Originally Posted at “Peripheral Vision: Inner Sights by Lynda Lehmann” www.innersights.blogspot.com

Fish Fiesta – Image c Lynda Lehmann