I Think I've Got It! :) (Golden) (Canterbury)

Good Evening, Sweet Baby,

Okay.....I think I've finally got it. You've gotta keep in mind that I've got a thick skull, lol. You are actually staying out in the woods, in a cabin, with your class. What better way to capture color for an artist, right? Photographers can take pictures, shoot video. Painters can paint. My favorite landscape artist, George Inness, had a stay in Perugia, not too far from where you are now, where he created some of my favorite paintings by him.

So, the important part of The Onion post was the "cabin in the woods" part. You have been out there shooting lots of photos, along with your classmates who are also working on their projects. You possibly even have access to a canoe! And if you do, you have been using it- paddling around for even better access to great scenery.

I am at Pearl's, so I have to keep it short for now, but I hope I've finally got it right!

I Love You and hope you are having a blast.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

(back after hair salon at apprx. 2pm)

2:20pm : Okay, my Darling, I am back. Still super hot here in the Valley. Gonna turn on the air conditioner and relax for a bit. Did I get your message right? I've gotta be at least pretty close. Maybe part of the art school curriculum is to take everybody out to a nature spot that has cabins, and allow you guys to create from there. It sure is a great idea, if that's what is happening. Interestingly enough, the Italian countryside might be similar to that of California. As you probably know, they used to make "Spaghetti Westerns" in the 1960s, using the landscapes of Italy and Spain as stand-ins for The Old West in America. I think your posts could also be a comment on the Fall colors back home in Wisconsin, as Boulder Lake has been featured in a few posts. Whether or not that is part of your message, it sure looks beautiful and I would love to see it. But I know your main message is that you are "in the woods" yourself, with your class, working on projects.

Up at Walker Ranch yesterday, I was struck by an altogether different kind of beauty, or at least something I find quite beautiful in a spiritual way. We are in an extreme drought here in California - no rain basically for the last 4 years - and consequently the mountains surrounding the Valley have been denuded. They are as brown and barren as I have ever seen them, almost totally devoid of vegetation. Also, we have been in a heat wave for several weeks now (which I love, but that's beside the point). Anyway, when I was at Walker - and I saw this at Sage Ranch, too, earlier in the Summer - there are fields of dry grass at both places. This grass is bone dry and dead, about knee high, and it sways when there is a soft breeze. But what gets me is the color. It is not washed out as you might expect, but is instead a rich gold in the noonday sun. There are trees in these fields, scattered sparsely, Oaks and Sycamores mostly, and some of them are still alive. Others are just as dead as the golden grass. The dead trees are sometimes turning an ashen grey, or even black.

And when you are there, at Walker Ranch or Sage Ranch, and you are by yourself and it's real quiet, you get this feeling when you look at those fields. It's like the landscape is saying to you - the dead grass and trees - "I know we haven't had rain, but I hope you still think I am beautiful". 

That's the best way I can put it. It's as if the nature at those places - the spirit - doesn't want to disappoint. It can't produce much greenery, and very few wildflowers, without water, but it still wants to show you something. And what it shows you, in that golden dead grass and ashen looking trees, is a kind of reassurance.

"Don't worry about me. I've lived without water before, many many times, in fact. I'll be okay".

One day it will rain again, even if no rain now seems normal to us. Then the local mountains will turn green again. When that happens, it can look like the rolling hillsides of England. That doesn't happen very often, but when it does, the greenery sticks around for a while. Then slowly it thins out again.

But I've never seen it as dry and bare as it is now, and I'm glad I got to see those fields up close, at Walker and Sage Ranches. I find the golden dried fields quite beautiful indeed, and full of feeling, especially in the searing heat. The heat is part of the cause, and the golden color is the effect, and so when you are there in the heat, you are seeing and feeling the whole picture. It's quite an experience, and it sets in slowly, having the effect of a lasting impression.

I hope you had an awesome day, my Artist. I look forward to seeing what you've been working on, and I bet it has been a wonderful experience. I will be going to the CSUN movie tonight. We are seeing P&P's "A Canterbury Tale", a wartime adaptation of one of Chaucer's stories. Not having read Chaucer, I have no idea what it will be, but knowing P&P, it will definitely be a good movie. I will be home about the usual time, 10 to 10:30pm, and then I will write more when you are waking up.

Sweet Dreams until then. I Love You, Elizabeth!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Midnight : Good Morning, my Darling. I'm getting a late start tonight cause I didn't get home from the movie until 10:15, and then I had to finish my walk. A really great film, though. I am loving these P&P films. They are charming in an almost literal sense, and the stories are idiosyncratic. A film by these guys is never strictly about "The Plot" per se, but about a philosophy, or ideas about life. I don't even want to try to describe what "A Canterbury Tale" is about, except to say that it's about all the stuff we talk about. A fantastic film.

Did you have a good day with your photography? I am sure the answer is Yes, and be sure to soak things in, absorb the atmosphere and make it yours. When you are out taking pictures, minimize any distractions, engage in minimal conversation - get quiet and get with your camera (an extension of your intent), and allow the landscape to show or offer you something.

It will do so, and this is no joke, not "mysticism" or anything New Age like that. It is very real and tangible. If you want it, and are receptive to it, the landscape will show it to you.

If you are still out at the site, still staying at the cabin, then you are probably either outdoors already, or getting ready to go out. The movie tonight is settling in now, and it really blew me away to be honest. So I am sending you those vibes for a great day.

I Love You, Elizabeth!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)