As mentioned in the previous blog in the series, as one who welcome sensuality and sexuality itself, I discover it frequently in Nature, and not ever conveyed more magically and eloquently than by flowers. Georgia O’Keefe reflected upon it so wonderfully in her paintings, to me. No one or nothing ever does it as imaginatively, rousingly yet intricately, delicately, inventively and so poetically as the one and only - the Nature.
Nature’s unsurpassed poetic, imaginative, intricate and glorious artistic inginuity, the range of infinite design resources through which it is able to express its ideas and experimentation, are never captured visualized as magnificently as in astoundingly delicate designs Nature never seems to run out of, be shy about, or short on alternate renditions of its explorations, all in its perpetual strive for utter perfection.
And thus from the above, seemingly basic, simplistic and unsophisticated arrangements which, upon closer consideration, gloriously reassert the dictum of “less is more”, to the issuing choreography of intricately diverse elements, shapes, curves, colors, patters, textures and amazing contrasts infused into each and all of these values and qualities, I truly hope to inspire in you, the readers, a sense of awe, wonder, respect, appreciation, admiration, intense and infinite gratitude for what Nature offers us, asking only in return that we open our eyes and minds to what it is so passionately striving to share with us.
While it seems inconceivable that any other can outshine the above masterworks, this should never be assumed when it comes to Nature’s inventiveness or ingenuity.
In the above compositions, the equilibrium between all of the unassuming and yet so inventive use elements, weight, shapes, curvatures and flow of lines, is not just exquisite and breathlessly stunning but also utterly unsurpassed.
Having, hopefully, taken your breath away with the magical artistry of Nature, I do not wish to create an impression that its inventiveness is reserved or restricted to biological canvas or possibilities. In fact, as I had stated earlier, its scope of imagination is infinite.
Do you recall particular rocks, or encountering certain mountains only to find within them shapes morphing into features that connect with you, inspiring your imaginary mights?
The two above come from the dessert of Sinai, in Egypt. However, no matter what their setting, their storytelling, imagination inspiring impact is unquestionable and undeniable.
However, while these two fantastical specimens distinctly speak volume for themselves, below are another, which are more secretive and subtle and yet even more potent in the kind of impression and inspirational influence they, over the ages of humanity’s so brief a presence, have imprinted onto those who have or had lived under their vast shadows.
Above, still unspoiled by our impact, spans a vast and astounding range of mountains of Peru. The image on the right has not only caught human imagination but also spawned legends passed from generation to generation, as myth extending religious implications. Grounded in the Death Valley of Peru, it is said to project the likeness of the God itself.
While I find such a fantastical and mythical tale of understandable interest and attraction to those who journey to visit this site to pay their homage to the Almighty’s impression, to me it projects some of our humanity’s entrapment in reality, a lack of inventiveness in a strive to imagine a God who, if even in existent, may be far from material, realistic or, if physical or encompassed in any shape or form, at all humanoid in its personification.
An atheist myself, one who cultivates his own imagination, I cherish and even esteem myths and legends. Yet, if I were a believer, I would find the Almighty’s infinite ingenuity and inventiveness, whether projected through flowers or tinniest of insects, or goliath mountains, or simply in the ecological arrangements that so ingeniously balance the choreography of everything on our infinitesimal planet, and even more so in the infinite universal vastness, simply unparalleled, unmatchable and indisputably superior to ours.
Do you not remember how mountains you have climbed took your breath away, instilling within you a sense of wonderful wander, in fact making you feel thoroughly insignificant, like a human spec here, for but a second, in contrast to the Nature’s majestic, timeless grandiosity.
While the left image comes from Peru, the right one is from Mt. Sinai itself. Wherever it is, it is clear to me that Nature is grand in it palette of creative ideas and appearances.
And while engulfed by the infinite openness of the vaporous space filled with so thin yet purest of air, you may had revered how amazing this planet of our once was without us humans?
As so colorfully illustrated below, whenever we attempt to benefit from, or synergize our mortal efforts with those of the Natures creative powers, our struggles fall very short or mediocre, palling in contrast between the Nature’s artistry and that of humanity. I would even go as far as to stick my neck out, or rather my tongue, to call them kitschy. In the issuing effort at prophetic, our human superiority or “magnificence”, simply looks phallic.
Whether it is a marvelously artful moth, which met its demise by drowning in a fountain, or a radiant flower death of which unexpectedly came about under a human shoe, both, whether in mortality or in vivacity exemplify a homage to Nature’s creative immortality.
Considering Earth’s evolutionary timeline, humanity has been around but for a few fleeting seconds. Yet within this spec of an instance, our impact on all and everything around us has been all but trivial. Without appreciation of others around us, whether living, biological, zoological or inanimate yet infinitely diverse Nature’s dazzling creations, we, likely the most recent and potentially final of its contraptions, have been brutally and violently disrespectful, inconsiderate, egotistical, shortsighted and oblivious.
With this unnerving thought, and a wonderful display of the sunrise as beheld from the very zenith of none other than Mt. Sinai, I shall leave you to reflect upon our roles in the Nature’s majestic, profound design of infinitely thoughtful and ingeniously conceived ecological arrangement. May those twilights ahead of us be as lush as the ones below, it skimmed through the infrequent and constricted urban gaps to the open skies above.