Journal | A genius, so to speak, for sauntering

Still Life from the Side of the Road

Monday · January 12, 2009 | posted under: New Images · Wilderness | 0 comments

Grass Flower | Studio

[More like this in recent images]

A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to
be sad: I fear you have sold your own lands to see
other men's; then, to have seen much and to have
nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands.

—Rosalind from As You Like It:

She's right of course: we often go to extraordinary lengths to get close to nature when often it would be easier just to look around. In his essay The Trouble with Wilderness, William Cronon urges the reader to take this non-divided view of nature, to see the tree in the garden as "no less worthy of our wonder and respect than than the tree in an ancient forest that has never known an ax or a saw..." This essay is troublesome and I find myself disagreeing with much of it, but I frequently try to take his advice to heart and see the little bits of wilderness that spring from the cracks in the sidewalks or take over my garden a sprout at a time. I've added a handful of new still life images of little plants I find growing along the street and in the yard—things I've picked up when walking the dog and brought into the studio to scrutinize them for beauty. It's easy work; most plants are extraordinary when you look closely.