Behold This Day

Gnarled bark upon twisted branches

"Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe. It is every where."
-- Black Elk

"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff."
-- Carl Sagan

Rather than spend today focusing on fear and phobias, I figured that we would take a moment to look at the beauty around us, to cherish our world and our opportunity to live in it. Most importantly, let's rejoice in the company of those we love, present and past and future.

There are so many wonderful things that we may experience and learn. Let's take a day to live it.

Spring flowers, pink and bright

And another quote:

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."
-- Marcus Aurelius

In Darkness

Lights in the kitchen, on a cold, dark night

Last week, I played around with the concept of the fear of heights. This time around, I'm considering fear of the dark. This isn't a phobia that I personally have, but I do have empathy with it. After all, who likes fumbling around in shadows, attempting to get somewhere or do something that requires precision? With a few exceptions, everything that we would like to do is probably done better in the light.

Darkness transforms familiar locations into dangerous unknown realms. Take the simple walk across a familiar room. With normal lighting, it is such a quotidian task that we don't even spend a moment thinking about it. In the dark, stepping on something discarded upon the floor or banging a foot against a newly moved piece of furniture are commonplace missteps. (Yes, I have sympathy for the parents of young and energetic children.)

But beyond the hazards of toys and tables, there is the insidious play of the imagination. Our minds detest a void. When a strange sound comes to us through the darkness, there is an irresistible impulse to visualize how it was made. Was a creak the result of an intruder's footstep upon the stairs? Was that rustling a monstrous vermin? Was that moan something more than the wind? In the brightness of day, a glance towards the source of the bothersome noise sets our minds to peace. But, in a murk of night, the source is unconfirmed, unresolved, and our imaginations may provide disquieting images to match the sound.

Darkness falls, transforming the familiar to the foreign

So, it makes sense that this is one of the oldest and most enduring of human phobias. Heck, if some prehistoric beast preyed upon my little community of hunter-gathers, I'd also be freakin' terrified of the deadly dark. Next to the fire, keeping it well fed and bright, that's where I'd be to hold the nighttime horrors at bay.

Anyways, I have plenty of fears, but I'm really happy that the darkness is not one of them.

Elevated Anxieties

Elevator at the South Bay Galleria

Today, I haven't any special topic prepared. However, since I've been sitting on this photo for a while, I figured it could fill the gap, inspiring some appropriate topic for "Terror Tuesday". Then, I realized that, for all my photos taken, it's rare to have an image looking down, from a balcony or cliff or any precipitous elevation.

The reason is obvious; I'm somewhat afraid of heights. The vertiginous sight on a steep incline, a plunging descent below me, makes me uncomfortable, keeping me back from the edge. Therefore, even when I approach a raised platform or high vista, I tend to record the panorama unfolding before me, not the abyss which recedes beneath me.

So, there are many photos here at Paideia that look up at a soaring structure, but extremely few that showcase the opposite vantage point. It's an amusing bias, one that impacts my craft of image-making in a manner that I had not previously considered.

Going down? Escalators at the South Bay Galleria

Yes, I'm a man of many phobias. Maybe, since it constrains my Art, I'll try to overcome this one. Nevertheless, you will not be finding any rock-climbing photos at this blog anytime too soon. And no sky-diving either!!! ;-)

Hit the Road to Parts Unknown

Image for The Legend of Sleeping Hollow (1958)

"On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!--but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!"

It's been a while since we enjoyed a ghost story. ;-)

This time we're celebrating the birth date of Washington Irving, born on April 3, 1783. Perhaps his best known story is the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", which has spawned numerous adaptations since it was first published in 1820.

Although I really liked Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, my favorite adaptation is still the Disney version that originally was part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949. It has an unforgettable art direction, with superb animation. Excellent visual storytelling.

Image from Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Remember, you can't reason with a headless man. ;-)

The Aesthetics of Dread

Calamity (2011) by Ray Caesar


At the Corey Helford Gallery, the current exhibit is "A Dangerous Inclination," featuring the works of Ray Caesar, displaying his disturbing vision of a twisted Rococo world where beauty is but a facade, hiding a chthonic reality of nightmares and monstrosities.

Scenes of beauty are transgressed by the weird, insectoid legs extending from beneath the ample skirts of Fragonardian ladies, tentacles forming from the silken fabrics of an evening dress, turning an image of voyeuristic thrill into a recoiling vision of horror. It is a reality in which wrongness reigns. Though fully embracing of the dark fantastic, the images retain a Rococo sensibility towards the precious, the gorgeous, the sumptuous, even if vermin swarm the subject.

The contrast between that which invites and that which repels ignites the spark of dramatic conflict in the viewer's imagination, simultaneously inflaming the passions of desire and disgust, searing the beautiful abominations into the mind. It is a vision in which Beauty is the Beast!

Eris (2011) by Ray Caesar

Dark delicacies from a world of dangerous beauty.

Malign Sentience of the Souless Stone

Tomb effigies of the Knights Templar, Temple Church, London

Have you every looked upon a funerary sculpture and imagined the horror that you would feel if it suddenly began to move? There is something vaguely disquieting about such statues and carvings. It's as if they are receptacles for the disembodied spirit of the restless dead. The body of flesh and blood may have decayed into nothingness, but that enduring stone figure presents a cold home for defiant, damned spirit.

And that's the premise of E. Nesbit's classic ghost story, Man-Size in Marble, written in 1893. A newlywed couple finds a delightful cottage, but it has a dreadful connection to the effigies of two knights, known for their maliciousness, entombed at the nearby church. And one night of the year, as local superstition would have it, the inanimate stone becomes animate.

This isn't the best of ghost stories. It's a predictable plot and has annoying characters. But the concept is delightfully chilling. Yeah, it's kind of a cheap thrill, but I always enjoy the dark visions that Man-Size in Marble conjures up in my imagination.

Effigy of Sir Richard Lee in St. Mary's Church, Acton Burnell, Shropshire (Photo by Tom Oates, 2009)

I read this story as a child. Nesbit was a writer of children's fiction. So, I had developed an interest in her stories. Wow! Her Tales of Terror gave me many a sleepless night. But it helped build the foundation for my lifelong explorations into ghostly fiction, both as a reader and as a writer. So, this tale has sentimental value for me. ;-)