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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