The Metaphysical Portraits Of Loretta Lux

This is the work of East German born artist Loretta Lux.  She chose her name because she explains there are few things you can actually change in life but your name is one of them.  Growing up in a communist country that laid a heavy hand on it's people has given her a particular appreciation for freedom. 

She calls her photos imaginary portraits because as much as she loves the children she photographs, these pictures are not about the specific children but rather they function as metaphors.  She explains that childhood is something that is brief and can not be repeated and yet sets the stage for an entire life. 

Trained as a painter, she approaches each photo like a painting.  After she chooses the best shot from a long photo session, she goes to work with her computer to alter the image in a process that takes months for each image.  The long slow process imbues each picture with a haunting beauty of distilled perfection that does not happen in this world and serves to point to the world that awaits us.

Wild At Heart

The other day we found this temporary structure that was built in the woods beside one of our favorite local parks.  We came back to take a few pictures.  It is a large construction and well built with out the use of nails or any visible lashings.  The whole thing seems to just be stacked and woven out of fallen trees and branches that had been lying about the woods.

I really love that we can have these undeveloped chunks of land with in the city where things can feel a little wild and uncultivated.  I find myself renewed by visiting these kind of wild patches when I go for walks in the neighborhood.  It is as if some wild aspect of my self is affirmed by these places, a place that wants to just remain untamed and natural.

A Night To Remember

Photo Pearl Beerhorst

This is Shepherd pretending to play guitar at Fountain Street church last Thursday morning. Pearl, Shepherd and I went out into the city for a photo shoot and brought along the guitar to use as a prop. We had fun that day and the church is one of the most beautiful in the city. It also happens to be were I saw U2 play back in December of 1981 before anybody around here knew who they were.

That concert was a very important night for me. It was the first time I ever remember dancing.  The sheer  power of the music and the Spirit that was in the church that night was not like anything I had experienced before. It was if I was getting a taste of what was possible with music. It made me want to play in a band and make my own music. When you have an experience like that it is hard to go back to and be satisfied with what you had before. It ruins you in a way because when you have tasted really great cooking it is hard to be satisfied with anything less.

That night was a good memory. I am in a band now called The Wealthy Orphans. I have been dancing ever since that winter night in 1982 in fact I met the beautiful Brenda (Moulds) Beerhorst dancing one night about four years later (after a lot of practice).  Everyone has seminal moments to look back on and revisit.  It is interesting to  take a little time to appreciate their significance to our life journey.  I reconnected with one of mine last Thursday morning.