Childhood Reinterpreted

  Its funny sometimes the things that bring back memories of childhood.  When I was a kid one of my favorite things were pansies.  They were one of the few flowers that would actually return year after year in the arid clay-based soil of our yard, the first to bloom, and the last to die off in the fall.  I used to collect the seeds and press the flowers for later use in whatever I could come up with.

During my forays to the garden store and the florist in an ongoing search of things to photograph I've always passed the rows of pansies by, opting for more exotic options than one of my beloved childhood friends. 

Well yesterday I looked at pansies again, today in the late morning sunlight I photographed, and here they are, reinterpreted through my camera lens in shades of gold and crimson and deepest amethyst like stained glass.

I'm afraid I'm failing at finding a balance with my new job and the rest of my life.  At times I feel its consuming me, all my time and energy.  But then no one ever said that artists were creatures of moderation.

It occurs to me this evening, as I've spent the past two days pointedly ignoring anything to do with my day job, that perhaps I've been going about it the wrong way.  I function well in terms of extremes.  Perhaps instead of trying to fit all aspects of my life into a single day I should dedicate two days solid to my right brain and my art and the remaining five days to my left brain and systems administration.  Trying to fit both activities within the same day has been requiring a time buffer between the two that I simply don't have.





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