Shiawassee River Series Update

It seems an awful long time ago that I decided to do the Shiawassee River series. I had thought that I would do one print at a time and they would all fit together in the end. But once I got started I realized that I needed to see the river in every season, travel the length several times, talk to more river experts and, finally, refine my skills as a printmaker so there will be consistancy throughout.

I feel like I finally will be able to do the Shiawassee River justice. The series will have all 4 seasons represented. It will show the various typography - from the first trickle out of the ground to swamps, high banks, farm fields, bayou's and finally the flats. It's a wonder filled landscape.

It seems an immeasurable privilege to have traveled the river and seen it's many faces and moods. Growing up with the river as my backyard, I'm sure I, like other people, stopped seeing it. But it keeps traveling the path it has made with no mind to our thoughts. It continues to sustain life in and around it. It continues to accept both man's abuse and recreation, our thoughtless pollution and our care and conservation. It continues.........beautifully.

In the words of John Muir:
One is constantly reminded of the infinite lavishness and fertility of Nature -- inexhaustible abundance amid what seems enormous waste. And yet when we look into any of her operations that lie within reach of our minds, we learn that no particle of her material is wasted or worn out. It is eternally flowing from use to use, beauty to yet higher beauty..........

Stones Unturned

I came upon these stones along the tide line while walking the beach of Lake Huron. I was taken with the simple perfection of their arrangement, the variety of colors and shapes. While I like to collect stones from places I visit, I decided to leave these right where they were.
Leaving stones unturned goes against our grain. We are supposed to "leave NO stone unturned" in our quest to achieve whatever we have set our hearts and minds to do. Opportunities are presented to us and we use whatever means possible to grab it. People use friends and connections. They abuse power and the environment. We've all seen it happen, especially this past year.
But even on a normal day-to-day life we do the same thing. We think just because an opportunity is there that we are fools to not take it. We are fools to leave stones unturned. People don't understand us. But sometimes those opportunities throw us off our path. They wear us down. We lose the focus of what really matters in our life.
Leaving stones unturned doesn't ruin our life. We don't have to say yes to everything! We can look at those opportunities and just enjoy them for what and where they are. Stones Unturned.