Of Seeds And Roots

How to grow a living system—like a business Often in my contemplations there are both practical and ephemeral considerations. On the practical side, this image represents a critical lesson that, in my professional life, took me years and many trials to learn. It’s a lesson in strategy when trying to create a social entity such […]

Energy And Expansion

Drop a pebble in a pool of water and waves ripple out. Drop a word or  and idea and these ripple out as well. So also emotions, behaviors and the products of creativity. At some level, given enough time, everything affects everything. And everyone else. This is the entire image that I use for my […]

Context And Order

Principles underlying information in human communication I was thinking about the complexity represented in this image when I noticed that it’s also rich in context, providing both time and space perspectives. The nighttime and elevated point of view displays pattern, while the time-exposure reveals motion. Combined, the image speaks to me of complexity, interaction, order, […]

Reflection

  I recently encountered a metaphor relating to reality. I passed over it quickly so I’m not able to reference the source, but the image stuck with me—perhaps because it aligned with Plato’s notion that the reality we experience is akin to shadows projected onto the wall of a cave. In my reading, the author […]

History And Perception

Imagination is at the heart of contemplation My reflection begins with the observation that someone, likely a man with dirty hands, placed this wrench on an oil drum inside a mushroom farm in Loveland, Ohio. But where was it before that? Might it have been used in a factory, a gas station or railroad yard? […]

Vision And Realization

The primacy of consciousness The relationship between the workers seen here and their towering creation took me to that place of amazement over what and how fast we can build. Prior to these steel structures being set in place, beams that would eventually support the bleacher seats in a football stadium, there were innumerable people […]

Coalescence

Making the slightest contact, separate masses tend to “pull” to one another Reflecting upon these raindrops, I’m drawn more to their  journey than to my usual inclination to trace subject matter back to its origins—perhaps because the first appearance of water on Earth has not yet been ascertained. Water known however, that gravity keeps it […]

Form And Function

“Exquisite” happens when parts unite to form a greater whole Aside from the beauty of the reflections, the image of this motorcycle encourages several lines of contemplation. The first is a deep appreciation for the human capacity to extract elements from the earth and shape them into virtually unlimited forms. Size, shape and surface, even […]

Art And Meaning

The random arrangement of visual elements juxtaposing lights and darks in this image comes near to creating abstraction because the subject matter is easily “read.” Another aesthetic feature here is the number of visual elements, each tonal change representing one of them. The more there are, the more complex the image, so there’s increased potential […]

Snow

  High in the field of frigid darkness The place where potentials reside, Atoms rise, congregate and coalesce. I am born, a vaporous singularity.   Wandering there, I reach out to the closest being A speck of dust carried in an atmospheric wave, Clinging, descending. The order within expresses symmetry, six arms.   Growing, gaining […]