SHADOWS

The sun creates cimmerian worlds of shadows. A six foot avocado plant in the corner of a sunroom can cast a sombre forest of gargantuan leaves on surrounding walls. I imagine myself penetrating this momentary universe. Would I find an ephemeral, floating, colourless mirage or a nightmare in black and white? I guess it would depend on my frame of mind.

The most dramatic distortions revolve around the angle of the sun in relation to the horizon. Early mornings and late afternoons provide the longest shadows. Clear skies yield high-contrast shapes, but sunlight diffused by light cloud cover delivers soft, wispy silhouettes.

These shadow compositions materialized during a leisurely walk on a beach in British Columbia. I was hunting for interesting things to photograph when I suddenly noticed my shadow and that of my walking buddy. We couldn't help but play light games. As usual, I ended up with a pair of archetypal horns on my head. 

Seashells provided interesting textures, as did traces of unusually large footprints in the sand.

I decided to experiment with one of the photographs and doodled a gray, devilish-looking couple on my iPad.  Why not "run with" the horns so to speak? The process was not unlike the one I used for my "Tea Stain Mama" paintings. Transient shapes make fine catalysts for ideas. 

More shadow photographs clog my computer's memory; some of gentle moths dying on the windows, others of abstract shapes that appear from nowhere to land on fiercely etched stones.  

Parallel worlds deserve our sighs of wonder.