Just Beyond Yourself by David Whyte

Blue (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Redemption Bay, Seward, Alaska)

I love the idea of self-forgetting and all of the possibilities that get folded into it such a state. It's what I experience when I am involved in something intense, like making images, painting, teaching, or deep learning.  This poem by David Whyte reminds me of the importance of movement. All things living move. Some mornings I wake and wonder, what road beckons?  What path just beyond myself--be it made of dirt, asphalt or water--do I now need to know? 

Moving beyond myself--the often too-comfortable place--is in fact where I most need to be. 

JUST BEYOND YOURSELF

     -- by David Whyte

Just beyond

yourself.

It’s where

you need

to be.

Half a step

into

self-forgetting

and the rest

restored

by what

you’ll meet.

There is a road

always

beckoning.

When you see

the two sides

of it

closing together

at that far horizon

and deep in

the foundations

of your own

heart

at exactly

the same

time,

that’s how

you know

it's where

you

have

to go.

That’s how

you know

it’s the road

you

have

to follow.

That’s

how you know.

It’s just beyond

yourself,

it’s

where you

need to be.

…

Winter Images II: New Photographs - Blue Series

Images I made during February, 2014.  (Shot with a Nikon D300, manual. 18-200 mm lens)

Snow Falling, Again (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

One Leaf Left (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

A Stand of Trees (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

Deer in Woods, Snow Falling (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

Entering (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

White Out (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

Posts (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

Trees (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

Snow Falling (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

The Colonade, Again (M.A. Reilly, February, 2014)

Behind The Linen Series: How I Made the Blue Fog Images

The Blue Fog is a series of five images made early in the morning on a foggy day in January (2011).  Although the images were made in various locations in northern New Jersey, I thought they held together given the intensity of the fog.   

The Linen Series: How To

I decided to continue exploring the use of a jpg of linen as a backdrop that alters the photographic image.  The original linen image was purchased through Designer Digitals (Katie Pertiet, Sacked Solids Earthtones #2).  I then altered the jpg as I did not like the density of it or the color for the work I intended. I adjusted the image using photoshop, lessening the green overtones, and lightening the overall image.  This would then become the backdrop for all of the images in the series (as well as my Sea Impressions series too).   

I then determined the first image I would work with from the ones I had made on that foggy January morning.  I did not begin knowing all of the images I would work with, but worked from one to the next until five images had been composed.   I originally worked with 8 images, but rejected three. 

Working with a single image,  I used a photoshop selection tool and removed sections of the photograph that I then layered on to the linen square.  I wanted to rebuild the image using a collage method. I readjusted the size and shape of the section. Then working through layers I adjusted the opacity, often using Hard Light.  I wanted to preserve the linen feel to the work, but not dim the photographic image so much that it was too difficult to see. I layered sections of the image until I recreated the original work (now in a square format) to my liking. I adjusted the sections using hard light, layering light over the image and adjusting that layer, using the curves feature, and lowering opacity on portions of the image. For some of the finished work, I also layered a second copy of the linen jpg and adjusted the opacity again.

I have printed photographic images on actual linen before and enjoyed the finished artwork.   I am considering how I want to print these works at the present time.  Not really sure, but I'll let you know when I do.

I would like to invite you to also view The Linen Series: Sea Impressions here.  These six images were made at Long Beach Island in New Jersey and also began with the a same backdrop of linen.  Each year, my husband Rob and I travel to the shore in late December to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The sea series was made for him.