23 September 2019
Lens:
Anemone, Garlic Chives and Geranium Flowers Photomontage; All Rights Reserved 2019 Sally W. Donatello
Click onto image to enlarge. Let me know your response to this photomontage. Prints are available upon request.
Pens:
Small and incremental whispers fill our lives. We decide which passions move our ability to listen, to seize those moments and fulfill their destiny. And these inner voices do shape our lives. We just must absorb and process them and then respond.
Every season has its staggeringly majestic natural wonders. And yet jewels consistently appear throughout the natural world; each floral discovery has its seductive powers that in the future will echo the past and remind us what is yet to be. They play a major role in my internal and external narrative.
At summer’s end there is a longing and a forecasting. Longing comes in the shape of what the season has brought, and forecasting is the lead for the uncertainty ahead. This past Friday the youth (plus anyone who is anxious and distraught about the reality of climate change and its worldwide effects, including me) from around the world united to strike against the inaction, especially from America’s government, to save our planet through a partnership between nature and human nature. A deep commitment could be seen across the faces of the participants. It was a startling moment in the history of our planet and proclamation of the “known” urgency to save Mother Earth and generations yet to be born.
And so I work harder and harder at how to make some difference. While I do the usual recycling, creating wildlife habitats, volunteering and awareness of my actions, I also use aesthetic, instinctual and philosophical symbols of each season to reinforce my reverence for Mother Nature and our dependence upon her well-being. This past week the blossoming end-of-the-season anemones, garlic chives and geraniums signaled to me the beauteous fragility of our times–times that could lead to the best versions of humanity. My hope is that it will.
In the Lens section my photomontage uses a deeply fuchsia-colored geranium as a backdrop to the sweetly almost pure-white anemones and fragile tiny white florets of garlic chives; wind flowers and delicate tasting herbs bring comfort and make my heart ache for their longevity: past years of their showiness stack memory upon memory. And I must ask: will the future hold a place for them?
Photomontage allows me to create the layers that are in nature and my mind’s imagination. Nothing stands alone; all is interdependent; each a testament to the evolution of species; each a tribute to the forces of nature; each a tear drop paying tribute to hope for a forever coexistence.
Lens and Pens by Sally 
A gorgeous photo montage. Pure art.
Otto, I’m humbled.
The passion of our youth is the best hope for the future. Sadly those to whom their voices should most matter are the most tone-deaf. Your image and your description of your thoughts behind it are wonderful Sally
Tina, thank you for your thoughtful response. I do appreciate it.
Oh so very lovely, both words and picture!
I appreciate your comment and visit. Thanks.
Thanks as always Sally for your beautiful image and words. I am so distraught about the state of our planet it really is hard. I try my best to do what I can and teach my kids too. Yet it is still so hard. WE can’t give up the fight.
Nicole, the best that we can do is make a difference in our corner of the universe as well as inch out into other ways to change what is. Voting is the number one way and we lust help others see that is our right and each vote really does count (at least where I live it does). Sometime I try to write a comment on your site and it does not allow me to do it. That happens now on at least 1 out of 5 posts I read of others and yours. Happy autumn, breathe in your travels and embrace nature’s bountiful lessons. It’s amazing that the youth of the world are becoming so bold and telling the adults in power how they are stealing their futures. Keep the advocacy moving onward.
We share a passion for geraniums. Great capture!
Virginia, lovely to hear from you. Keep up the fabulous work about the great and lesser-known cities of the world.
What a beautiful and vibrant palette, Sally. A burst of color and warmth before the winter chill sets in.
Patti, indeed, the lush of autumn brings the grey of winter.
Beautiful imagery, Sally, and your last paragraph well explains the significance of your art to you.
Here’s hoping the voices at the Climate Action Strikes have been heard by those who need to hear them.
Yes, listening to the youth of the world shame the adult lawmakers is startling. I hope that it is the tipping point for action.