The Contemplation of Beauty

The Contemplation of Beauty, gives the soul wings
: Plato.

My partner gave me this quote not to long ago. It instantly became one of my favorite quotes, I have learned.
It brought a huge smile to my face for in one sentence, not only did I see the truth in it, and have known it, as a fact for my entire life, yes even as a child, and to me it is like somebody saying the sky is blue. It was also in a way a reflection of myself. No not in the sense that I am beautiful. More of how I see the world about me.

I am unsure if it is just me or if other people see what I see, often in the most simple of things, the beauty that surrounds us every day.
I will say a big part of this out look I have, I must attribute to where I live, and have lived all my life. Auckland City New Zealand.

Unlike many cities around the world. No matter where you look there is greenery. and not just a bit here and there, you can’t go more than 5 minutes, most often less than that, in one direction without seeing a sprig of trees, or a park with lush green grass, beds of flowers and trees. Even in the very center of the city where there is a lot of concrete, and of course buildings there is still areas where you can sit down and eat your lunch on the grass under the shade of a tree on a summer’s day.

So I can not deny I am lucky enough to have grown up in a lush green city, though I don’t think you have to live in such a city to see and contemplate the beauty of everyday things around us.

Because no matter where I am, I can simply look at something and see its beauty. Like a pot plant, in an office building, how the plant has grown, the form of the leaf’s their colour and the way the light hits them, and plays with them, creating a unique scene that will most likely never be repeated as it never looks quite the same from one day to the next, mainly because the light never seems to hit it the same way continually, that and one may be viewing it from a different position or altered angle.
I can quite happily sit and look at such a thing, for an age and get lost in it and lose track of time, as I contemplate its uniqueness and feel my soul grow wings, while others give it a passing glance and dismiss it or just simply not take any notice at all. While I can sit there in awe of it, and smile to myself, that just a simple and to most mundane thing can hold so much beauty, radiate such wonder, and be majestic all unto itself.

Though some may say that’s easy to see such a beauty in a pot plant. Yet do they, or could they see the same majestic spender in a lot that’s over gown by weeds ?

I know I have done so.
Two examples would be:
Once when I lived right in the heart of Auckland, when I was in my early twenty’s. A few buildings up lay an empty plot that had become naturally over grown with grass ( weeds) and Dandy Lions and an assortment of other flowering ( weeds). Yet I saw within it a splendor a wild yet graceful beauty. It was at this time, surprisingly enough to myself. When I learned that others simply didn’t see beauty as I did. As one day, as I passed this over grown plot, and was quietly marveling at its beauty and contemplating how the weeds looked like some magical forgotten forest. Two ladies came walking along and looking at what I was looking at, I heard one say to the other as they passed by. “What an eye sore, you think the council could do something about it, we pay enough in rates” I never heard the reply from her companion, yet I felt sad for the lady, and wondered how it was she couldn’t see the glory of life in its natural state.

The second example, is a far more recent occasion, I had become ill and had to endure a number of surgery’s ( another tale for another time) and my partner was pretty much a full-time care giver, thus meaning one can’t do everything on their own. Our small front yard had been neglected, as the company we had engaged hadn’t sent anyone to cut the lawn. There were things at the time, that were far higher on the priority list than, phoning the company and hearing “Yes we’re sending somebody around this week” only for no one to turn up. Personally I loved seeing the daisy’s come up and bloom forming patterns on the back ground of grass. Naturally as the months passed the grass grew taller and the place became more wild. The Birds loved it as it was a full on buffet with all the insects making their home in it. As I convalesced, I would often just sit and look out at this wild beauty and the birds that came swooping down to feed amongst the long grass. It got to the point where somebody left a note in our mail box along the lines of, I can have my Son come and help you, something to that effect. I screwed the paper up and threw it in the bin, rather annoyed and peeved. Then a week or so past and a woman who lived apparently a few houses up came knocking on our door. Asking if we ( my partner and I, and no she didn’t know us) were all right. Yet it was not so much our well-being but the “state of our front yard” that had her come calling as she explained our front lawn was always cut and “kept” so nicely. Part of me was embarrassed the other part was simply offended and annoyed at this woman, ( i am being polite about how I felt) and once again I was reminded that for most people, they simply can’t see beauty in all its forms and appreciate it for what it is. Well that and the fact society has for the most part fooled us into being conformists, and that beauty is something that only comes about by strict control. That beauty is only found in those things we are and have full control over. Perhaps this is an English out look, on how things are meant to be, as dull and boring as I find that.

I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s just… I wonder have we any eyes left to see beauty, when it is in front of us ? Or do we only see what we are told to see, and except only beauty when we are told, what is, and what isn’t beautiful ?

So the next time you see what appears to be just a pot plant, or a weed, or even the flow of water from a tap take a moment and contemplate its beauty and you may feel your soul grow wings.

The Adventures of Buster Boy the Cat

Buster Boy King of the Pussy Cats

I have a cat, unlike any other cat, for no ordinary cat is he.

It’s him I adore,  and what’s more I’m sure he knows it.

Each time he looks upon my face, I hear him whisper friend.

“What’s his name”? I hear you ask, Buster boy…., is what I was informed.

He comes and goes as is his want, for he has a free mind, and will, you see.

I often hear the patter of paws, as he decides to go sight seeing outdoors.

When he finally came’s in, after roaming across his kingdom vast, it’s always with a smile

Why he comes in, is plain to see, for it is of course, to eat and perhaps retire.

I know his heart and where he feels, he is most at home.

For it’s in my lap as a matter of fact when I am at my computer, or upon my chest in front of the T.V.purring most contentedly.

For he knows my hand will come to rest, upon his silken coat. To glide gently down, and with an arch of his back, as I say hello, he smiles purring back at me with a look of don’t you dare stop. For he knows he is the King of the Pussy cats and what more was once before worshiped like a God, yes hes the one that never forgot, and nor will let me either.

Then laying his cheek against my hand, to give me a gently cresses.

With a loving sigh he settles down, and as he closes his eyes.

I feel him drifting off into, pussy cat dreams, to sail off with an owl in a pea green boat

The Clock of Life

The Clock of Life Mouse Pad.
This is one of my most recent designs.
A dear friend gave me a poem, which I used to help create the skull l. It was the poem that gave me the inspiration for this piece.
Though I added a couple of verses myself to the original poem.

Many of my designs start out on paper. This one didn’t, and is a full pixel graphic piece from its conception to its completion.

The Clock of Life M:P by Imp_Productions

The poem reads as follows:

The Clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop At late or early hour. Now is the time you Own, live, love and toil with a will place no faith in “tomorrow” for the clock then may be still. For Young or Old death visits us all, and there is no telling the time of his calling. So Live life with joy for by tomorrow the bell may toll separating your body from soul

I wanted to show the hands of a clock to represent the hands of time. So I was happy not only to get them to be seen as a reflection,  yet better yet I was able to create a  monocle to look like real glass.

The Key is representation of the key of time, or that everything has its own time, taken from the phrase:  The Key to …..  is all in the timing

I altered and made this design on a few other products, one of which is a pro skate board.

The recent tragedy of the Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico along with other world events of catastrophe has gone my mind whirling on my next piece, or rather a series of pieces entitled Humanity’s Legacy.

The Lady in White

Upon the Banks did I sit, As waves gently lapped the shore, tickling my toes with the foam upon their tops, and as they did I could feel upon a breeze, The Lady in White had come to me.
Out of her want, for my need.
She had come the lady in white to sit with me, for awhile as my quill glided like a kite across the parchment of the sky.
I knew she was there, just behind me. I did not feel the need to turn to see the light within her burn.
For there was no reason, for seeing what I could already see.
The Lady in white who sat behind me, for within the breeze that whispered was her essence and all within the words between hello and goodbye that softly spoke
As I sat there my quill gliding like a kite across the parchment of the sky.
The eve had come with its soft glow of good bye to day and as she arose my quill gliding across the parchment of the sky had come to rest for I had come to an end.
I did not have to say good bye just as I did not have to say hello, for much can be said without words as much as can be said with them.
I know she will come and visit with me again another day, and once more will I find my quill like a kite gliding across the parchment of the sky.

Hello world!

Hello World

This is my first blog post. It’s just to say hello to all of you in the Big wide world. I will be writing more in future, mainly about and connected to my art work and photography.
Though not excluding my poetry and some musings from the edge of the world.

To learn more about the person behind Imp Creations simply read my about page.