See the World like an Artist

It’s eight thirty and I’m walking home through the woods after getting my son onto the bus. It had snowed the day before, and rained, and snowed again, and what remains is a crusty mix of ice and snow. Under the trees, the snow is pocked with holes from melting water on the branches and the ground is becoming visible. I find the tracks of deer and coyote and know the deer spent the night under the shelter of the great white pines.

I’m almost home when I see a tiny white pine just visible over the snow. It’s a bit icy, and the sun glints off the branches. My artist’s eye knows that this is interesting, as a focal point of a composition, a texture, and a bit of color in a neutral palette. I take out my phone and crouch down in the snow, but unless I lie flat, I can’t see this little tree. Instead, I park my phone case in the snow and blindly take a series of pictures.

I must be very still, because ten feet from me, a squirrel moves across the path, adding his tiny tracks to the snow. He must not see me or knows that I’m not a threat. He leaps onto the stone wall and I think about trying to get a picture of him, but know that I can’t move quickly enough. And sure enough, he’s up a tree before I’m standing.

At home, I remove my heavy boots and coat. Standing in the mudroom, I look at the pictures. None of them are straight and many of them are blurry, but with a little adjustment, I have one good picture.

I doubt I’ll ever do anything with this image, except use it as the inspiration for this blog post and post it to my Instagram stories. Much of what I do is collect things- words, images, photographs, papers, and ideas with no way of knowing what will end up as a piece of art.

Keep collecting.