“I can be changed by what happens to me. But…”

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

“On a recent wilderness hike I found myself quite lost, cold and sensing a growing panic in my gut.

I sat to collect my wits and it was then that I noticed this remarkable tree. It had somehow grown through an immovable boulder in an effort to claim its own place, its own life.

I found it an inspiring reminder about how we respond to seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And this photograph and print is the result. – Douglas

Tree of Inspiration, Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2017, http://fineartamerica.com/featured/tree-of-inspiration-douglas-moorezart.html

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“a world where there are Octobers”

 

Through The Island Forest by Douglas MooreZart – copyright 2016, all rights reserved. Original Fine Art Prints By Douglas MooreZart

 

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

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In the mountains of southern California there is a lake with an island in its midst. Outside this island a majority of trees were consumed in a forest fire in 2003 (The infamous Cedar Fire).   Many of the trees had stood 200-300 or more years. But on the lake’s island you can still walk through a landscape of beautiful ancient oak and pine trees. On a fall day, as I walked the island’s edges, I came upon this spot-  a still standing glorious ancient survivor.  Autumn perfection – Fall color surrounds, the air is crisp and clear, migratory birds call above and the sun rests on the horizon.

“It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend”

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend”

Sarah Ban Breathnach

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Within our garden in the high mountains of New Mexico is a 150 year old Pinyon tree.  Our first few years here we made a twice daily pilgrimage to sit beneath this beautiful tree — folding chair in one hand, espresso in the other.

We end up here in time to see the sun rise and the night’s mist vanish.  And in book-end symmetry at sunset we sit silent observers of the distant mountains set beneath an O’Keeffe sky of crimson, orange and purple.

One day a question arrived.  How about more permanent ‘season ticket seating’?  How about an old-fashioned tree swing? How about that branch there?  But it’s old like us and might break. Perhaps an arbor to support it – a little insurance.

Arbor done, swing hung, but something was missing. It needs some color doesn’t it?  Many colors had potential. All were considered and it took some time to settle on just one. The final choice of vibrant yellow worked perfectly, poetically.

All elements in balance now and for 310 days a year (give or take), this swing seems to levitate in the rising and setting sun, like a magic carpet….two performances daily.

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The Yellow Swing – photography by  Douglas MooreZart – Fine Art Prints

 

 

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“We need hope, the sense of a future”

Blue Hope – Douglas Moorezart, c 2016, all rights reserved

 Prints available here.

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“To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings;

we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning,

understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns

in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future. And we need

freedom (or, at least, the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves,

whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning

technology, or in states of mind that allow us to travel to other worlds,

to rise above our immediate surroundings.”

— Oliver Sacks