The eye of the beholder

We spent the weekend with Ed’s family at our house in Michigan.  It was beautiful not only because the evidence of spring was in our bones, but also because Ed’s mom, Joyce, seemed happy and content to be surrounded by her family.  We ate good food, played in our yard, and enjoyed each other.  Not much is simpler, or more profound.

Weekends like that awaken our senses, and provide us with new insight.  I suppose this is why we have Easter, and other such religious markers, at these moments when a shift takes place not only in nature, but in our responses to new life.

Gorilla Girl seemed particularly delighted by the arrival of spring — we noticed the peeping of the crocuses a few weeks ago, but when we arrived this weekend, the full force of spring was apparent. Gorilla Girl was invited by the spring to explore a new art form — in addition to her collections, to her drawings and diggings, I now add her eye and what it captures.  Ed showed her how to use our Canon — the big mama of cameras — and despite it dwarfing and obscuring her face, her eye emerged, capturing her un-obscured view of the world.

I captured her beholding. As she experimented with how to hold the camera, where to point it and exactly what to photograph, her joy and curiosity revealed itself in what she produced.

Gorilla Girl continues to amaze me.  Her creative impulses sometimes seem to have no direction — or at least no direction that is discernible to mere adults.  Her eye, her process, her making meaning may be incomprehensible to me, but therein lies the mystery to unravel.  Giving her the space to explore, while providing some structural parameters might be challenging, but worth the effort.

Gorilla Girl beholds her world:

Her view, of the flowers in our garden, of the fish in the driveway, of her own miraculous creation of “cakes” after digging and foraging, suggest her innate sense of ordering, of making sense of what surrounds her.

We, too, surround her. Here is how she sees us:

I capture her, capturing us.

The budding artist at play in her garden!

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