SHADOWS

This gate, in sad condition now,  is often in my memory.  Gates were important in my life while I was growing up on a cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon.  The gate was a place of safety from horns, hooves, wheels, and disks.  The number one sin on a ranch was to leave a gate open after you walked through it. Shadows of gates, to me, are a double metaphor for that which is between one world and other worlds.

This gate, a memory gate, turns topsy-turvy, dancing with the gate shadows surrounding it.

Shadows appear next to anything of substance, yet they have no substance.   We cannot catch them, touch them, or hold them.  We organize our world to notice what we need to notice.  Since shadows amount to nothing we often do not notice them.

Shadows like to hide in mysterious places, like these small hollows in a tree trunk pecked by woodpeckers.

The shadows of the veins of the dragonfly wing makes a lacy pattern behind the cocoons, like the cracks in a membrane between two worlds.

Shadows move quickly.  When we most need them the larger ones often disappear, leaving only these tiny, dark cavities for only the smallest of creatures.

These shadow creatures fit together, quite conveniently.  One is concave and one is convex.  They are also modest and leave us with our projections (which some would call our shadows) to complete the story of these little shadow shifters.

 

Shadows are sprite-like, creatures of flux and freedom.  They do have method as well as madness.

Shadows have their own laws that connect to the cyclical nature of the earth's orbit of the sun and the rotation of the earth on its axis.   Shadows are a gift that can sharpen our awareness of the daily and yearly rhythmic cycles.

(Illustration of the texts in "Shadows" are details from the series "Shadow Paintings.")

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