alterations

Why Alterations. I found this old negative, a photo of a store on Washington Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, taken many many years ago and I thought how apt of a word, how better than resolution. So, instead of New Year's Resolutions, I created this list of Alterations--all illustrated with photographs. To a great degree, all the Alterations are inter-connected, but I enjoy the way the photos illustrate each alteration. In the book, Balancing Life By The Rule, Debra Farrington shows us the difference between self-help and spiritual growth in her article on creating a "rule" to guide everyday life, based on Christian monastic rules. Contrasting a rule with a New Year's resolution, she says that the latter is based on what we think is wrong with us (too fat, too poor, too tired, etc), while a spiritual rule grows from a desire to become more fully what we were created to be.

Sound and Vision. Two-fold: work to find a way to see images that produce a feeling of sound and work to see more clearly. I am thinking about how art is really about seeing and also the way the painter Arthur Dove captured sound in his paintings. He wrote:

The first step was to chose from nature a motif in color and with that motif to paint from nature, the form still being objective......The second step was to apply this same principle to form, the actual dependence upon the object (representation) disappearing, and the means of expression becoming purely subjective. After working for some time in this way, I no longer observed in the old way, and, not only began to think subjectively but also to remember certain sensations purely through their form and color.............I should like to enjoy life by choosing all its highest instances, to give back in my expressions all that it gives to me...and to give in form and color the reaction that plastic objects and sensations of light from within and without have reflected from my inner consciousness.

Cultivation. Again, two-fold: dig deeper to discover my true self and two-- continue to work to cultivate beauty (the photo below is of an art installation at the Met Roof Garden; Claus Oldenburg)

Friendships. Remember friends who I loved and lost contact with. Here below, Susan Ensley, who I met at a poetry reading at Tin Pan Alley in NYC in the 80s. She, a gifted artist. Her and a friend, Ed, treated me to dinner on my 50th birthday. 

Communication. Remember other distant friends. Below, Janet Brinkos, who I worked with at Hearst Magazines. I called her the other night and did not identify myself and asked for her e-mail address; I said I had something to send to her. I sent this photo and she was surprised; oh, in a good way!!! And today, Betsy pulled out a quilt from Daryls' bedroom closet; an almost complete stranger---a woman I had lunch with a few times in NYC and who also came to visit us here at Birch Lane with her husband--made for Daryl upon his birth, now some 15 years ago.

Spiritual Study. Read the Bible and other spiritual texts.

Frugality. Learn to live within a budget.

Charity. Help those in need.

Meditation. Rise early and pray/meditate.

Medication. This photo for me represents despair and depression. I want to overcome it; so this is a reminder to me.

One Pointed Attention. Listen empathically (getting inside the other person's frame of reference so you listen with one purpose: understanding) until you truly understand the other person's position. Then work on ensuring that you clearly communicate your thoughts and ideas.

Think Outside The Box. 

Remember Who I Am. Know Thy Self.

Humor. Find the humorous in the everyday.