NATURALLY OCCURING ART: THE WELLSPRING OF CREATIVITY FOR US ALL...



Blood Breakast: Stumbled On Art,
Photographed by Ross Bachelder At
Panera Breads in Dover, NH on 6 10 11

 I'm increasingly fascinated with what is often the utterly random nature of creativity. Things that we as artists labor for countless hours to conceive and then make beautiful -- landscapes, portraits, still lifes, abstracts, assemblages -- can be discovered at any moment and at any place in the real world after having been created by chance with what can only be described as astounding aleatory virtuosity.


Here are three remarkable examples of this artist-free genre -- what we might call "Found Beauty" or "Serendipitous Findings" or "Stumbled On Art."

Setting out purposefully to discover such naturally occuring masterworks can be a superb visual training tool for practicing artists. One can think of it as a playful and yet constructive search for the Instant Sublime that's all around us -- moments and snippets of inexplicable beauty that some would call inscrutable and others would call the Hand of God.

Blood Breakfast: This image (upper right), taken just this morning at Panera Breads in Dover, New Hampshire, is actually of the remants of the toast I had -- with tea and the New York Times -- garnished, quite unexpectedly, by rivulets of blood from a hard-to-heal cut I incurred while working as a picture framer.






Aerial Splat: Art from On High,

Conceived and Executed by a Winged

Proponent of Outside Art. -- Photo by

Ross Bachelder, Portsmouth, NH 2010.

Madison Ave-Stract: I snapped this

 picture (lower right) while walking against traffic in a

pedestrian-choked intersection on Madison Avenue 

in New York City in the summer of 2009. I'd come

into town to see the Kandinsky exhibit at the

Guggenheim Museum and the Tim Burton exhibit

at MoMA. What excited me was the thought that

some construction worker, going about his task of

marking a patch of pavement for repair, quite un-

wittingly created a work of art -- indeed, Street Art --

That with proper framing could easily have been

featured in a SoHo exhibit, then lauded by the

Press as a marvelously fresh artwork by an

emerging darling of the Gallery Set.

Acknowledging the random nature of beauty -- and

recognizing its function as the visual artists' primary

source of inspiration -- is a supreme act of humility --

a recognition that we're neither omnicient nor omni-

potent as humans. On the contrary, we're woven

intricately into the fabric of all living things and

utterly dependent on them for our creativity. For that

reason alone, we must take care of this little Orb we

call home and preserve it, as little tampered with as

possible, for furture generations.

                           --     Ross Bachelder 6 10 11

And really, are these ubiquitous elegances, waiting unpretentiously to be discovered, not the very wellspring from which artists derive the often spectacular results of their own passionate search for all things beautiful? They're full of mystery, of color, texture, volume and geometry, these discoveries, and within their magical propertiess are lessons for artists of any kind, anywhere, to learn.

Aerial Splat: A powerful, even majestic instant abstract (at left), created by another of the earth's naturally gifted artists, the common pigeon. The more experimental artists are always looking for fresh approaches and unconventional media, a process that can require hours of theorizing and experimen-tation. But the pigeon -- perhaps an unheralded pioneer in the genre of performance art -- just makes his beauty naturally, with one finely crafted drop of poop -- in this case on a plank of the Middle Bridge in Portsmouth -- and compositional gifts we as humans can only struggle to acquire.





Madison Ave-Stract: Street-wise Graffiti, Created by construction workers and photographed by Ross Bachelder
in the Summer of 2009.











Our Friends the Trees -- May 8th, 2011

Our Friends the Trees -- May 8th, 2011

There is something irresistible about trees.



A recently discovered friend near the end of Goose Island
Trail, Creek Farm Reservation, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

(Photo by Ross Bachelder -- May 6th, 2011)



One can plant them, nurture them, doctor them, climb them, trim them, sit beneath them, contemplate them, display them, alter them, carve heartfelt sentiments on them, make the finest furniture and the most accomodating homes from them.

And one can chop them down or take them for granted, but one had better have a good reason doing so.

Is it not remarkable that one can have a tree as a friend? Trees have such monumentality! Such quiet nobility! And they're marvelously steadfast, meaning no ill for any human as they stand at the ready, tall and available, offering shelter, shade and the irresistible fruits of their earth-bound fecundity.

And yet many communities, countries and cultures around the world are at war with trees, exploiting them for profit, destroying them to make room for questionable developments, showing naught but the most profound disrespect for their invaluable presence in our lives.



The beginning of Goose Island Trail,

A most inviting path to the ocean's edge

at Creek Farm Reservation in Portsmouth -- 

One of the many forests cared for and

protected by the Society for the Pro-

tection of New Hampshire Forests.

(Photo by Ross Bachelder --  May 6th, 2011)

 Whole city streets have been stripped of their trees, robbing their inhabitants of their breathtaking beauty and indisputable utility. Fields and meadows, once lovingly decorated with trees, have been ravished by the wanton, wholesale destruction of forest and grove, fresh-born sapling and gnarled centurian. Trees hundreds and even thousands of years old have been vandalized for cruel and senseless reasons.

As we rush from spring into summer here in New England, let us pause and reflect on trees as indispensible resources, as living, growing objects of beauty, as protectors of ourselves and our planet, and as the inspiration for often sublime poetry that speaks to the importance of trees in our lives from the cradle, where we lie as infants within easy reach of a tree we'll soon be climbing, to the grave, where trees will without hesitation offer themselves as our eternal companions.

What is there not to love about trees?

Be good to them. They deserve our respect! One day soon, in rain or sun, go and sit beneath a tree you've met for the very first time. Read a book there. Draw the tree and its surroundings. And listen to that tree and its neighbors as they whisper amongst themselves about their day. They've much to teach us if we'll just slow down and allow ourselves to be open to their nearly infinite possibilities.

                                                                                             -- Ross Bachelder
                                                                                                 May 8th, 2011


Like any good and loyal friend, a tree has a natural inclination

To reach out and touch us, provide us with shelter and

protect us from harmful influences. This tree at Goose Island

Trail in Portsmouth has the shores of the Atlantic as its

constant companion, but would welcome a visit from you!

Photo by Ross Bachelder -- May 6th, 2011



"Did you know that trees talk? Well, they do. They talk to each other, and they'll talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white man don't listen. They never learned to listen to other voices in nature. But I have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit." 

        

       -- Tatange Mani, a Stoney Indian,

          quoted in "Touch the Earth."