Sunday 9 September 2012

My Quest, Subtleties of Light.


Notice the new LIGHTS in my studio?

I love lights! Any kind of lights, white or colored I don’t discriminate! If there is an unusual light, I’m on it. I’m like our backyard resident squirrel seeing an intruder to his territory. Immediately, nothing else matters, all other activities and plans disappear and full attention is brought to bare on this new nasty intruder! For example, I not only stop at, but will see every little shop or booth that sells those lighted lapel pins. My poor wife follows me and then discovers I was only going this particular way to get to this shop! I always stop and admire these shops. She has, a long time ago made me promise not to buy any more of these pins.

I love Christmas as the world finally moves into my love of lights. One of our malls here in S. Winnipeg have a “saturation” style of lighting during this season. Hundreds of strings of small twinkling lights are hung vertically from the ceiling over the food court. These millions of “twinkling” lights are a calming therapeutic adventure for me. I go there just to be under these lights! My “endorphins” kick in and work overtime.

I’ve found myself following a kid just to watch the lights blinking on and off on their runners. I realised later, I could have gotten arrested for something like that!

My wife and I have had this argument about the outdoor decorations of our house, ever since we have had houses. I like the “blinking” lights and she dose not. For a few years we divided the house, a larger portion decorated to her style of “non-blinking” lights and only one measly side to my style, of course, fantastic multi-colored “blinking” lights. I have even purchased those plug-in adaptors that make your whole Christmas light system blink. Soon, I hear a high pitch scream and I know my few minute of “light paradise” is over.

When we were in Kansas City with friends, we walked back and forth from our hotel room to city hall where the event we were attending was taking place. One of the hotels had a permanent “laser light show” set up set up as advertising on their exterior wall. My weakness for “light” exhibited itself and it became a practise of the group to “stop here for a few moments so Cliff can admire the same show... again...!” (I have amazing friends, thank you guys!)

I could go on and on. Oh, also, I have to mention the netting of lights hanging from the ceiling inside our outdoor gazebo. I love our gazebo, but especially in the evening, we turn on this net of tiny lights, and a warm friendly glow of light fills the whole area evenly. It’s not to bright, and not to dim. Not only that, it reflects so beautifully from the smoked glass surface of the patio table. Wow, a double whammy of lights. It’s heavenly!

Where does this come from? I think it began on the farm. From very early in my youth I became aware of light. I somehow got my parents to enroll me in a home study course in photography. Here I was introduced to l i g h t! I have been an amateur photographer ever since. I am so aware of the beauty and the emotion that shades of light can evoke in me and others. Even a black and white photograph, which exhibits shades of grey only, can evoke tremendous emotion and feeling. Then consider color and things just get blown into the stratosphere!

Now we are talking “art”. Here is where we begin talking about the quest for such subtleties in color, like in my sculpting and photography that communicates something. I want the sculpture, its shape, it’s tension, together with texture and the correct shade of color to create an emotion. To bring joy, a smile, to understand a story or thought in a new way, to communicate in a way which words would never be able to express.

“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good.”
Genesis 1:3

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