Valentines from Nature
I was born In February three days after St. Valentine’s Day. Since childhood when I cut and pasted valentines for my classmates, I have considered the holiday intrinsically linked to my own anniversary and have adopted its mid-winter missive of love and friendship as my own. The heart shaped image often catches my eye in the natural world. For this series, each piece started with a photograph which was edited in the computer, printed on photo paper, layered with hand painted fabric and hand made paper, stitched, and mounted on a hand painted backboard.
21 January
Bilateral symmetry that forms a heart,
delicate structures of keratin,
miracle of feathers, human hair and fingernails
... connections
15 January
A winter afternoon wander led to the lake edge
where waves were shattering a film of ice against the rocks.
Among the lace-like shards glinting cold winter light
... a heart stone.
10 February
White tail tracks, valentines in the mud in the evening
are snow-filled by a morning blizzard.
Polar contrast, light and dark,
opposites existing in relation to one another
... love’s dichotomy.
5 March
A heavy casing of ice is glittering in the trees
and pruning the budded twigs of the maples.
Gathered shards fashion a valentine
laid out on the frozen ground
... broken promises.
22 October
Sycamore leaves spin down and pile up in corners.
Buttonwood balls release their radial seeds.
Wood-hard cores are carved and painted,
seeds arranged in the shape of a heart
... Indian summer valentine.
7 September
Sunflowers bloom in a tangle of yellow ribbon
along roadways and around pastures and ponds.
Giant species provide the opportunity to walk
into their midst and greet them face to face
... heart to heart.
2016 © Chris Wolf Edmonds . All rights reserved
Rock and Ice 10.5 x 12
Feathers 10.5 x 12
Deer tracks 10.5 x 12
Maple buds 10.5 x 12
O Sunflower 10.5 x 12
Buttonwood 10.5 x 12
Bilateral Milkweed 42 x 32
O Bilateral Milkweed 2 16 x 16
8 September
The art of nature is transitory,
often evanescent.
It was a blustery day when i meandered
through a field of ripening milkweed with my camera.
Even as I hastened to collect their images
the seeds were whirled away
under silky parachutes
to recommence their cycle of life.