As a fine art photographer, I always bring my camera on long distance trips.  You never know what might happen.  To be honest, I had second thoughts about bringing them with me on this trip since I have been working on new images much more than my writing projects over the last few months and I was reluctant to spend any more time behind the viewfinder. But after a long conversation with friends who own a gallery and have seen their fair share of average but uninspired photographs, I succumbed to the idea of going against my nature of only catching late evening light and vowed to get up the next morning at 3:30 AM to catch the sun as it peeked over Zumwalt Prairie.  It held little comfort for me when my friends warned that although there could be some really lovely light, it was also a good time to cross paths with wolves and cougars looking for breakfast.

It was early dawn when I rolled out of bed and prepared for my trip the next morning, barely able to remember my name much less my camera equipment as I stumbled around the house and then set on my way.  Admittedly, my fears got the best of me with only four hours of sleep and there were many times that I was tempted to turn the car around and go back to bed. Yet I drove on, to where the pavement turned to gravel and I could only drive about 20mph in my little Honda for several miles while I urged my brain to stay awake, even for the sake of surviving my journey out into the middle of nowhere.

Keeping diligent watch for any signs or silhouettes of predators in the open land around me, I set up my camera, covered it with a blanket to keep it from freezing and waited in the chilly wind for the ‘perfect morning light’.  Even though gray clouds had covered up the Wallowa Mountain range in the south, I kept hopeful, but much to my dismay, the clouds hid the sun from me too. I came up with diddly squat.  But no predators, so my body was still intact, even if my spirit wasn’t.  The muses had not arrived on the scene. I was forced to go home disappointed but relishing my survival of my first early morning shoot in the outback.

I decided to focus on my writing, making edits on a novel I have been working on for years. Then VOILA!!! the path became clearer to me; I needed to change certain passages from ‘lecturing to the reader’ into actions and responses of the characters, and for the first time in months, I was once again an inspired novelist. Later that evening, as I prepared for an early trip to bed, mother nature and her muses taunted me with a miraculous sunset over the valley from my bedroom window, giving me two final shots of the trip. I was elated and vindicated for my willingness to be open to a new way of working.

After all was said and done, I had certainly made some progress, just not in the way I had envisioned, reminding me that sometimes it’s just smarter to throw away my expectations and surrender to what gifts have been placed in front of me; a lesson often taught but easily forgotten. —m.c.reardon

VIENTO  by m.c.reardon

Dark algae bob on olive green water.  Clam shells lie strewn across rocky beaches.West winds glide over frothy crests.Osprey and eagle soar overhead;

they are calling to the Columbia.

 Striated cliffs stand like silent sentinels looming over an afternoon freight train.            Its whistle barely whispers above the roar of the wind:

‘Summer is coming.

My ears are filled with windsong…It sings Remember me, I give life, I flow endlessly, nourishing the spirit and healing the heart.

Gorge winds, take away the salty tears that stick in my throat.  Rip away the tattered threads of a painful past.  Relieve me of this burden. For I want to live like the Chinook; aware of this moment-connected to consciousness-riding joyous…on the current of life.

“This little oasis in the desert is the perfect place to soothe the soul and inspire the artist’s heart.  There is such peace here, with the Painted Hills only minutes away.  In the spring, the scents of soft rains in the desert are intoxicating.  I cannot wait to return to work on my novel while I sit in front of a large window overlooking the colorful garden where bees, hummingbirds, blackbirds, doves and woodpeckers go about their business.  This is a very cozy and unique retreat designed to make every corner and every room a place of discovery, renewal and inspiration.”

If you are looking for a bit of peace and quiet mixed with European hospitality (including farm fresh eggs from their happy chickens) please make sure you tell Aruna I sent you…  Once I finish my body of work on the Painted Hills, including some very colorful images from our full moon night there, I will be sure to post them here and at my website!

Keep that creative light burning!—m.c.reardon

In the last few weeks, I have been given some valuable insight on how playing with chaos can actually be an important ingredient in making my art.

In general, things have not been going the way I had hoped or expected them to but there have been a few wonderful surprises that I am extremely grateful for.  I have recently come to the conclusion that I simply cannot work in a space that is covered with piles of things.  If I can’t find something right away, my creative flow stops. Period.  I love starting with a blank slate–a blank page, a blank canvas, unexposed film or an empty worksurface for me to spread out on while I work.  There is always so much promise when the creative process first begins.  The most surprising note to date is that although I must have organization and empty space in my art studio, I actually thrive on the chaos of working on several projects all at once.  While I am working on one aspect of a specific project, I am making notes on other projects I am working on, multi-tasking like a crazy fiend trying to get down all the information that is flowing through me as fast as it comes.

The creativity really starts to flow as long as  a) I don’t pigeonhole myself into a particular identity–i.e. writer or photographer,  b) I only use a selected theme as the overall basis of a project I am working on and c) I allow myself to wander so that I may have the time to notice the little details of what is around me, unfettered by phone calls, the day’s schedule or obligations I don’t feel comfortable with (unless I am on a strict deadline).  It also helps to throw away the expectations of how the work should look or how it should be received by my audience.  I suppose this has to do with the ‘rugged individualist’ within me, making me give it voice in my work.

As chaos continues to educate me in its own uncontrollable and spontaneous way, I am realizing that when I allow space within the whirlwind to gently coax it in a thematic direction, I end up with some of  my very best work.  When I trust chaos as an energy force, great things do happen.  But sometimes this is absolutely exhausting and I need a serious time out before I dance with chaos again.

Here is a great quote on uncertainty from the book ‘ART & FEAR–Observations on the perils and rewards of Artmaking’, a book I turn to constantly when I am stuck in the mire and cannot move to do a single piece of creative work. Enjoy!                         —m.c.reardon

Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending.  The risks are obvious: you may never get to the end of the sentence at all–or having gotten there, you may not have said anything[...]  What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.  Simply put, making art is chancy–it doesn’t mix well with predictability.  Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art.  And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding.

“You have touched my soul and I guess that souls that have touched can no longer be single souls or sit in a corner alone again–They must always be reaching for the touching again–for their other half–It’s only in the contact with the other soul that they can feel complete–”  ~ Georgia O’Keeffe to Alfred Steiglitz on September 13, 1923

Just found out that some of my work has been accepted for the PhotoLucida exhibit curated by Raymond Meeks. My work will projected onto the side of a building in several locations throughout PDX along with the images of several artists including Christopher Rauschenberg, Stu Levy and Stewart Harvey. The link below shows the locations of this exhibit. First one this Thursday night. If you are in Portland, please come by and take a look!

http://www.thennowhere.org/tnh4.html 

I dream of an open landscape, a crescent moon, stars blanketing the sky in utter silence.  In the distance a monolith stands strong seated within its own silhouette. That is where we meet.  Under a blizzard of stars standing on top of the world, watching the land open its arms up to us and feel love rushing through our bodies like the current of a cosmic river, in the place where dreams are born.   —m.c.reardon

Almost There– by m.c.reardon

The emperor glides

just below the surface

living dreams of reality…

At this very moment,

dreams whisper in my heart, like silent footsteps on soft green moss,

bearing gifts of wisdom:

‘There is love out there

shining in the sun.

Soak it all up.

It was made just for you.’  

  — by m.c.reardon

SOULMATE by m.c.reardon

I trust that you will live your life to the fullest,                                                                never hold yourself back simply to please me,                                                               inspire me to be the best I can be,                                                                                     treat me with the same kind of respect that you want for yourself,                                      sit with me and watch the moon rise when I need you to,                                             realize that your spiteful words should have never been given a voice,                           accept my apologies gracefully,                                                                                           never ask me to give up my light just to please you,                                                          just focus on the things that make you feel good about yourself without forgetting me,    never expect me to stop doing what makes me happy,                                                    do everything you can to tell me how you feel…good or bad,                                       give to me when I need it most,                                                                                    make me feel like there’s no one else,                                                                             listen to your heart rather than your fears,                                                                           keep me as emotionally, physically and spiritually safe as you can                                   because you would never want anyone to harm me…including yourself.