14 Aug The Art of August
Landscape ~ Wisconsin’s Shores of Lake Michigan; Summer’s Edge
August 13, 2019
Studying landscapes and planning swirl together in a blessed dance. These are among the art of August. Winds Paradox strives to build an enterprise which accompanies the realities of our world, both in times of beauty and in those darkest moments. I pause, always, at the paradox of sadness and joy. How does one create, given this pendulum of existence? What is the role of art?
The world answers its own questions, does it not? Winds Paradox expresses gratitude at each breath and with every day. And art – the expressions of humanity and spirit – serves to both comfort the troubled soul and agitate the complacent mind.
In Wisconsin, the month of August presents an art of the ‘edge’. It’s the edge of summer with autumn on the horizon. One anticipates the dark clarity of night skies for the Perseid meteor showers. County by county, carnivals pop up. In five days time, fair rides are erected, cattle are displayed, cheese curds are dunked in fryers, and demolition derbies are cheered. Sidewalks evolve into creative chalk canvases.
We dance in the moonlight.
Horizons.
The art of August couples these paradoxes into majestic landscapes. These are the photographs and paintings of wandering minds yet comforted souls. The foreground beckons one to smell flowers or touch rocks. But the horizon lifts our eyes to possibilities – to dreams and efforts.
The soft sands of a favorite shoreline fosters as many thoughts as the sand itself.
Winds Paradox shares the art of these landscapes.
Landscapes seem to have room for memories and dreams, to lose into an ocean or offer up to the skies. They have room for feelings, thoughts and also – maybe most importantly – the knowledge that it is not for one alone but for all of us.
The Wing’s Feather.
The Hawk’s Feathered Wing
But true to the name Winds Paradox, the appreciation of landscapes begs for a focus to detail. To lose oneself in the gazing of horizons maybe sharpens the mind to intricacies of life. What is the grander art, the mastering of landscape or the deftness of the feathered wing?
And at that question, one can only smile.
Thankful, for the art of August.
Of feathers and horizons.
May your month of August be the grand blending of celebrations, whether they be gazing to the horizon or studying the masterful coloring of a hawk’s wing feathers or eating cotton candy while cheering at the county fair’s demolition derby.
I am grateful for the opportunity to share all of the art of August with you!
With love,
Stephanie Winds Paradox
