27 February 2017
Lens:
Taken in Camera+ and edited in Snapseed and Pixlr
Life Cycle Photomontage; Copyright © 2017 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved
Click onto image to enlarge. Let me know your response to this photomontage. Prints are available upon request.
Pens:
Homage to Hope
I. From Dark and despair, Light emerges.
From Invisibility and fear, Beams appears.
From Renewal and rejuvenation, Triumph illuminates.
II. The altar of compassion, empathy, respect and reverence for humanity has been altered, Systematic and relentlessly fear tactics, meanness, moral turpitude and self-interest edge forward.
Disguised in leadership, we are abandoned by spineless politicians. To bridge this fissure is to win on behalf of the entire human community, Where bountiful hope for our differences and individuality will rise against these insidious forces.
This week’s photomontage is a tribute to abstraction in the guise of my photographic puzzle,* which combines illusion and reality through layers of images. This photograph aims to exemplify the light that spreads through our lives. Now more than ever we can stop and embrace its message of hope for a better tomorrow, because the human animal differentiates itself as the dark inspires what can be fully realized in the light.
* Photographic Puzzle © copyright 2017 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved
Tip of the Week:
With my country’s current administration’s threat to de-fund the arts and humanities, I wanted to pull a passage from The New York Times’s “The Opinion Pages’s The Stone:” On 23 February 2017 Brad Evans in an article titled, “Humans in Dark Times” wrote:
“To that end, as Bracha Ettinger explained, there is a world to be gained by recognizing the humanity of the arts. Art is the ethical space where we encounter the pain of others and truly reflect on its significance to a shared human community. Art is a direct and imaginative response to the traumas of suffering. It refuses an image of the world that is presented to us as catastrophically fated. Art thus places itself on the side of life, as it directly resists the rituals of death and destruction. Indeed, as we confront more and more devastating spectacles of violence on a daily basis, it is with the arts that we truly enter into those most precious and fragile of ethical bonds that foreground the importance of love, compassion and human togetherness.”
View other entries to this week’s challenge:
https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/mobile-photo-challenge-architecture/
https://ohmsweetohm.me/2017/02/27/
https://angelinem.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-carnival-color
https://artalsolife.com/2017/02/28/
https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/the-face-of-disappointment/
https://chasinglifeandfindingdreams.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/taking-myself-out-to-find-love/
Note:
As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. My photographs for the mobile photography challenge are taken with an iPhone 6.
****If you would like to buy a print of any of my photographs or have any questions, please view the Contact Information found on the masthead. Thank you.
If you’d like to join this Mobile Photography Challenge, please click here for details and history of the challenge. If you have any questions, please contact me. Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming challenges:
1st Monday: Nature.
2nd Monday: Macro.
3rd Monday: Black and White.
4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Panorama, Portraiture, Photomontage, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).
5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week.
Lens and Pens by Sally 
Initially, I struggled to interpret this photomontage, and that is exactly the reaction that Abstractions should elicit, to begin with. Lovely work, Sally.
There are many many changes happening in America and its society at the moment. Governments are supposed to govern for the people.
Lovely to hear form you. I appreciate your comment. Yes, our constitution says, “We the people” and many, many of us have been energized to act and resist against the current administration.
Great image and title.
Maria, thanks so much.
Sally, this was exactly what I needed to see this morning. My body took a deep breath and my shoulders relaxed. Thank you.
Janet, your comment did the same for me. Thanks.
Strange times we live in, Sally, but there will always be art. I like your image. 🙂
Jo, thanks and happy walking.
A really delicate and intriguing composite photograph. And, yes, full of layers.
Otto, thanks so much.
I can only echo what the essayist from The Times wrote. It’s is so important (vital, actually) to bear witness and create a hopeful space–especially in times of darkness. Thanks too for your vision and hope of what is possible.
Patti, I’m touched by your thoughtful response. Thanks so much.
Lovely image Sally; both playful and hopeful.
Su, have a good week. Thanks.
Sally, your poem brought tears to my eyes. Today I called yet again about the defunding on international aid, the heart and soul of the work I do as a humanitarian. It breaks my heart. The earth, humanity, everything. Thank you for the wise words and the beautiful photo montage. Keep fighting! We have way too much at stake.
Nicole, thank you for the thoughtful response. WE must hold onto hope with all our might.
Hi Sally, the radiant light in your photo montage does create a feeling hope. I like what you have to say on the subject and your impassioned plea for public funding for the arts. Personally I think government has a role to play in funding the arts. It is an issue over here in Australia too. Public funding does create an environment where artists, musicians, film makers and writers are free to explore forms of creative expression that may not have a broad appeal to the wider public but which do contribute to the cultural depth of a country and of the larger world.
Here’s my response your challenge.
I also believe that public and private domains should share in the support of artists. Aesthetics and artistic production is vital to the health and well being of civilizations. Art is part of the human condition. Enjoy your week. Thanks so much for your comment.
Yes – I’ve often thought it would be wonderful if you could go back to the time of patrons but then we might get lumbered with a modern version of the Medici family. 🙂 Have a good week.
Thanks, hope that you get to take a nature walk.
I agree that we need the arts, just as we need physical education, shop class, and home ec. That’s in the schools. The broader question isn’t whether we need these in the world at large, but who will pay for them and to what extent? Just as we struggle with how much money goes to a military to keep us safe to enjoy these things, we struggle with how much goes to other places as well. Where is the tipping point where society can no longer bear the costs and where working becomes not worth it any longer as so much is taken? These are difficult questions and there isn’t limitless money. It behooves us all to consider them.
But beyond that, I love the photo, colors and, as Allan says, layers.
janet
I should have also said that one of the questions is whether (or how much does) the government (which is also, of course, us) pay for things and how much should individuals, groups, a/o companies pick up?
Indeed…
Janet, worthy points…thanks so much for your comment.
A beautiful photo montage, Sally. I really like the curls, rolls, and lines with light. The NYT piece is very thought provoking as we go forward into the seemingly dark times.
Angeline, we must each hold onto hope as we make our own contribution to the resistance of such forces. Thanks.
Beams appear! That could be the name of the complex interplay of light in this puzzle picture.
Carol, I agree. Have a good week. Thanks so much.
meaning
full abstraction!
may we not
become 1930’s
Germany 🙂
Exactly, enjoy the week ahead. Thanks.
Dark and despair,… indeed. So worrisome…
Amy, yes…thanks for your comment.
I like the layers and color palette of your photomontage, Sally. Thanks for the NYT excerpt, it’s a message worth repeating.
Ω
Allan, thanks so much for your response. See you soon.