barely any light left at the horizon,

not much light left over the land.

Is that what is happening to us?

My friend and neighbor John Johnson captured fishermen in the early morning hours on a Michigan Lake.

In New Mexico, my friend Ginger Vary photographed Sandhill cranes migrating back North.

The next picture shows my own attempt at capturing the early morning mist in northern Michigan.  It lacks in action, no people, no birds, all it shows is a rising strip of mist beyond the road.

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What is it about early morning light that interests photographers?

The following two paintings of interiors by Edward Hopper served as inspiration.

While I appreciate Hopper’s genius, I don’t feel like buying into how his paintings make me feel – a persisting, nagging sense of solitude/loneliness.So far, my images, shown here on A&P, activate different emotions in my limbic system. Some of my pictures, similar to Hopper’s art, do remind me of solitude. But others remind me of strength, whimsy, or even appeal to my intellect.   I don’t feel like getting into  groove.

I am curious how other artists deal with the emotional impact of their pictures.  Continuing in their artform – painting, photography, textile art – do they get easily trapped into a particular emotional state ?

Close-ups of the dunes show

sand topped by glistening pebbles,

hopeful baby cottonwoods,

and sliding sand exposing roots of cottonwood above sand rippled by wind.

Another long-distance view shows dune rhythms.

This is were we chose to put down our roots. And yet, this summer, there have been only three hikes into the dunes. In contrast to last year, when I roamed often here and at other sites, collecting tons of dune images. What happened?

Visitors? My mother, 90 yr old, likes to sit at the beach under a shady tree, watching the waves. Likewise, my grandson, a toddler, likes playing at the beach and my friends like beach walks. But still, there was plenty of free time where I could have been roaming in solitude.

Perhaps, I felt more domestic this year, staying closer to the house, except for a couple of solitary mornings shooting rocks? Perhaps, I let my day job intrude, spending too much time at the computer?

Or, more interesting and hopeful, perhaps I am incubating who I am artwise?

Do you have periods during which you seemingly do not do much but that, in retrospect, proved to be fertile?

Verbascum flanking wild carrot – Queen Ann’s Lace

As Angela Ferreira says:

The emptiness of the background is surreal and the atmosphere is dreamy