In Dystopian Future Dream and The Tale of Twin Mes I write about this really strange dream I had, also I was trying to give some context for this dream. I mention some photos I took during a trip to New Mexico earlier this year. I thought it might be a good idea to share some of those photos.
I am on my way home from a short but sweet trip to the land of enchantment. It was trip with my family, and it was deeply insightful and emotionally complex to say the least.
But my muse was pulling on me, big time.
These are some notes I wrote down in my notebook as the inspiration start to unfold... Musing on the mysteries...
Contemplation is an alternative consciousness that refuses to identify with or feed what are only passing shows. It is the absolute opposite of addiction, consumerism or any egoic consciousness. -Richard Rohr
Life is Messy, Weird and Complex.
This is why the creative process is unpredictable.
I took this trip with my Dad and Uncle to the southwest, Arizona and New Mexico. It all started because my Dad wanted me to take pictures of him and his brother. As I was taking pictures, I started to play around with filters, saturations, contrasts and then with effects afterwards. As the visions unfolding, and pieces of fleeting words came to me. I figured I will try to capture the mosaic of reality, emotions and perceptions that was unfolding as I go deeper into the Crystal Forest...
It was in the Petrified Forest that this idea started to form.
I was just messing around with tablet, taking pictures, and I was like this thing has really great resolution, interesting it has some cool filters, let me touch up this picture, sharpen, increase saturation, crop it.
Hey that ain't half bad. Maybe I should take some video, I was messing around with it in the car and then some music was playing, and that's it the Beat start to hit, and it made all the sense in the world, and we got off to walk a trail, and I saw this sign, When the Crystal Forest was a Forest...
The (Petrified Forest) Crystal Forest is known for its fallen trees fossils that lived in the Late Triassic Period, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century.
When I was reading this, I was like holy fuck Crystal Forest is such a great name. Parts of the park, named Painted Desert, the badlands, and they are all eerily and haunting beautiful, I was like I can get some very painfully beautiful shots and play with this stuff when I get home.
Time to do what I do, and make some beauty,
let the darkness luminate and dance everything into existence
As I sit at the edge of the abyss,
feet dangling at the infinity,
I struggle to BE. HERE. NOW.
blind to the eternal beauty
that is leaking out of reality.
How Immense Life is,
How Full of Mystery
How small we feel at times,
the world can feel like a dark and lonely place
so vast, wide and chaotic
so cold, empty and silent
Life is Messy, Weird and Complex
It what makes it so damn unpredictable
How many times have you felt the eternal connection
The love of another that you thought
would last forever
only to see it be washed away
Now think of all the times,
When you felt the connection to a complete stranger
somehow, someway you have always been dancing
with this person to the songs of eternity
you will once again be apart of
the main thing in the universe
Now the Main thing in the Universe is Nameless
No one really has the guts look it directly in the face
and if they did they wouldn't be able to say anything about it anyways
Since its Nameless I give it the name beauty