THE UBIQUIT[Y]OUSNESS OF BEAUT[IF]Y[ING]

Photographic Experiment 7: Language

2010-10-03T20:04:00.001-07:00

Photographic Experiment 6: Winter

2010-01-04T22:36:00.001-08:00

We only received a few this time, but they're awesome nonetheless.

Photographic Experiment 5: Reflections

2009-11-06T23:19:00.001-08:00

We received a few less this time around, but I personally think this collection contains many of our best photographs to date - so quality certainly outweighs quantity for round 5.

Thanks to all who contributed... (click images to see larger).

We received a few less this time around, but I personally think this is our best batch of photographs to date - so quality certainly outweighs quantity for round 5.

Thanks to all who contributed... (click images to see larger).

Photographic Experiment 4: Autumn

2009-10-21T22:47:00.001-07:00

The text above each image corresponds to the image below it, and was provided by the photographer of that photo.

The simple beauty of a leaf, the clarity of it's existence,
the ambiguity of being human, and what is in the space between?

Yellow String

it's not a typical fall photo, but i thought it was really pretty. great salt lake-ish area.

I took this photo because I liked the red splotches on the leaves.
It was raining that day which made it even better.

Fall is a beautiful and yet difficult time for me.
Most of the photos I took thinking about this were dark,
one was of a little skull, and a good number of them involved
the muted color sand fine shapes of dried seeds.
This one is a photo of harvest and hope,
the early morning light coming through the kitchen window.

green and sway

will give way

to rot and decay

biodegradable blessing

in death, there is life, there is death

Chlorophyll Draining

The fall is always wonderful because of the harvest.
You finally get to see the benefits of how hard you worked during the summer and it's truly satisfying.

i like the way
the veins are visible
in the leafs against the sky

this image is important to me because:

it was taken on the gate of the house i grew up in.
so there were a lot of memories made on the other side.

Squaw Peak Road, Provo Canyon. More on sheknewjoy.blogspot.com.

Hanging out in the nothing...

this is autumn.
the explosion,
the moment of color before winter white erases the vibrancy.
this is autumn, the promise of beauty being made.
the clouds, the colors,
the promise of beauty being kept as the chill
ready to steal it all away hangs overhead.
this is autumn.

Pumpkin pumpkin
big and round,
I'm glad you grow
upon the ground.
I'm glad you don't
grow in a tree
for then you might
fall down on me.

Autumn in Bellingham, Washington

Bird Watching

pretty tree at UVU

Um...I'm going to call this picture "Pine of Fire".

I just finished working the potato harvest, and this empty field embodies the pure, complete joy I felt on our last day of work.
No other feeling catches so completely my love for this season.

The only red leaf on the whole tree,
yet soon the whole tree will be red.
Change starts with one.

(CLICK IMAGES TO MAKE THEM LARGER)

Photographic Experiment 3: Strangers

2009-10-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, not very many people participated in this experiment, but it is unique nonetheless. I may run this one again at a later time with some sort of variation. I would like to see an experiment like this take off. Thanks so much to the five of you who made this experiment happen still.

(Click images to see them larger.)

The Road to Kasama

2009-10-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

The landscape was everywhere and was everything, it was dead but also living and it flourished but also struggled.

Photographic Experiment 2: Cracks

2009-10-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

"Crack of Dawn"

Click images to see larger size.

Keep watching for upcoming experiments in photography. Comments welcome.

If you have not seen 'The Cove' yet, see it! (Beautiful clip below)

2009-09-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

Photographic Experiment 1: Facing West

2009-09-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

For this first experiment, people pointed their cameras westward at precisely 7:40 PM (mountain time) and snapped one picture. I received 21 photos from around the world (thanks to Jordan) - 20 photos from Utah and 1 from Canada - and these pictures are displayed below. Enjoy, and keep your eyes open for future artistic and photographic 'experiments'.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who contributed.

Without further ado: 21 different perceptions of the west, taken on Thursday, September 10, 2009, at precisely 7:40 pm. (Click photos to see larger image)

Woodland Hills, Utah (1 photo)

Utah (1 photo)

Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1 photo)

Sandy, Utah (2 photos)

Salt Lake City, Utah (2 photos)

Provo, Utah (2 photos)

Orem, Utah (10 photos)

Lindon, Utah (1 photo)

American Fork, Utah (1 photo)

Enjoy, and please comment.

For Mark

2009-09-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Notice the bee...

Observers in the background...

Click for detail...

don't feel lonely

2009-09-07T22:37:00.001-07:00

when i saw this i thought: that sunflower has windswept hair! and she's got an admirer looking at her while she reaches her arms out. but the two can't touch, can they? or do they, underground, their roots entwined? i don't know. there is smoke in the air and the sunlight's dimmed. what do they think of that?

it's a long way to the sun

2009-09-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

i took this picture, thinking nothing. but then when i looked at it later i thought about how far away the clouds in the background are from the flower. and then i started thinking about how far away the sun was from the flower, and how the flower keeps reaching for it. and then i thought about the stars up there so far, far away.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERIMENT

2009-09-07T20:28:00.001-07:00

RULES:

The rules are simple. Wherever you are in the whole wide world, at EXACTLY 7:40 pm (USA Mountain Time or 9:40 pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, September 10, 2009, point your camera TO THE WESTERN SKY/SCENERY and take ONE picture.

Then, send that picture to jorgen1225@gmail.com - by 11:59pm Friday, Sept. 11 (the next day) - and I will post all pictures on the blog 'The Ubiquitousness of Beauty' (url: http://theubiquitousnessofbeauty.blogspot.com).

IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE EMAIL WRITE: "PHOTOGRAPH: (and then the location it was taken: e.g. Salt Lake City, Utah"

It's as easy as that. Just be sure that you take the picture of the Western Sky/Scenery within that same exact minute (Thursday, Sept. 10, at 7:40 pm USA MOUNTAIN TIME) and be sure to send the picture to the email above by 11:59 pm the following night (Fri. Sept. 11) WITH THE SUBJECT AS STATED ABOVE (so I know which emails are for this experiment).

Then, be sure to check the blog (at the link above) on Saturday morning to see all pictures.
Tell your friends...

blood sunset

2009-09-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

I live on the third floor of a condo facing west and one night last week we were just sitting playing cards and our whole front room slowly turned red and we were wondering what had happened and then looked out the window and saw this. We had to take a picture. The photo doesn't show the whole effect or how bright it was because of our camera, but it was impressive.

Remnants of Summer (w/ alterations)

2009-08-31T16:49:00.001-07:00

Enlightenment tonight

2009-08-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Palmer Penstemon and Gin Martini: Nature and Civilization

2009-06-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

i am a bird now

2009-03-13T00:08:00.001-07:00

In this picture is a stained-glass hummingbird that my great-aunt made with her two hands and me stretching out mine to try and fly. When the sunlight comes through just right, the bird begins to glow and my eyes turn into emeralds.

My great-aunt gave this bird to her sister, my grandmother, whom I cared for during the last year of her life until the evening that she died. But for twenty years this bird hung (or soared) above my grandmother's bed.

So, after my grandmother had died, and my great-aunt had disappeared into some far away place and became forgotten, I found this bird and brought it into my room and placed it near a window where the sunlight could touch it. And then I wrote a letter to my great-aunt which said this: "I know that your sister loved you very much. She kept the bird that you made above her bed for as long as I can remember. I'm sure that every time she saw it, she thought of you and smiled."

Morning Light

2009-03-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Bodysong

2009-01-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen this movie, you should.
Bodysong is a collection of videos documenting human life.
The images are beautiful.
There's no talking throughout most of the film.
The music is composed by Jonny Greenwood.

Virtue Spent

2009-01-19T21:31:00.001-08:00

I will follow but only as long as I can lead.
I will listen but only as long as I am heard.
I will behave but only as long as I am made.
I will laugh but only as long as I mock.
I will appreciate but only as long as I need.
I will fight but only as long as I win.
I will submit but only as long as I endure.
I will hope but only as long as I fear.
I will love but only as long as I can stand.
I will be but only as long as I must.

Looking, as so often before, west

2009-01-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

the sunflowers i planted

2009-01-09T23:37:00.001-08:00

Jill Bolte Taylor

2008-12-26T21:42:00.001-08:00

quiet beauty, looking west

2008-12-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

Slug sex

2008-11-28T14:09:00.001-08:00

Fisheye Rainbow

2008-11-21T16:28:00.001-08:00

Click to make bigger.

While browsing online I came across this person's webpage with many pictures of rainbows. They explain how they took them, etc. Either way, I rather enjoyed this particular image.

Image Found Here: http://www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html

Beauty in Protest

2008-11-20T20:33:00.001-08:00

from here.

2008-11-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

Beckett - Play

2008-11-16T15:10:00.000-08:00

Larry Harper showed me this last night, I haven't seen it before then. It's worth watching again (and again). APOLOGIES FOR THE SLIGHT OFFSET OF AUDIO TO VIDEO.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Music/Sound/Silence/Meaning

2008-11-16T14:58:00.001-08:00

From Saturday's Protest in SLC

2008-11-15T20:50:00.001-08:00

WANTED: MORE PROTESTING

2008-11-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
-- Abraham Lincoln

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
--Elie Wiesel

Stan Trampe Fine Art Nude Photography

2008-11-11T23:29:00.001-08:00

For
those
who
are
interested.
(link
at
bottom)

http://www.stantrampe.com/

3 more poems by Kenneth Patchen

2008-11-11T00:29:00.001-08:00

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I Feel Drunk All the Time

Jesus it's beautiful!
Great mother of big apples it is a pretty
World!

You're a bastard Mr. Death
And I wish you didn't have no look-in here.

I don't know how the rest of you feel,
But I feel drunk all the time

And I wish to hell we didn't have to die.

O you're a merry bastard Mr. Death
And I wish you didn't have no hand in this game

Because it's too damn beautiful for anybody to die.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rites of Darkness

The sleds of the children
Move down the right slope.
To the left, hazed in the tumbling air,
A thousand lights smudge
Within the branches of the old forest,
Like colored moons in a well of milk.

The sleds of the children
Make no sound on the hard-packed snow.
Their bright cries are not heard
On that strange hill.
The youngest are wrapped
In cloth of gold, and their scarfs
Have been dipped in blood.

All the others, from the son
Of Tegos, who is the bishop
Of Black Church--near Tarn,
On to the daughter of the least slut,
Are garbed in love's shining dress;
Naked little eels, they flash
Across the amazed ice.
And behind each sled
There trots a man with his sex
Held like a whip in his snaking hand.

But no one sees the giant horse
That climbs the steps which stretch forth
Between the calling lights and that hill
Straight up to the throne of God.
He is taller than the highest tree
And his flanks steam under the cold moon.
The beat of his heart shakes the sky
And his reaching muzzle snuffles
At the most ancient star.

The innocent alone approach evil
Without fear; in their appointed flame
They acknowledge all living things.
The only evil is doubt; the only good
Is not death, but life. To be is to love.
This I thought as I stood while the snow
Fell in that bitter place, and the riders
Rode their motionless sleds into a nowhere
Of sleep. Ah, God, we can walk so easily,
Bed with women, do every business
That houses and roads are for, scratch
Our shanks and lug candles through
These caves; but, God, we can't believe,
We can't believe in anything.
Because nothing is pure enough.
Because nothing will ever happen
To make us good in our own sight.
Because nothing is evil enough.

I squat on my heels, raise my head
To the moon, and howl.
I dig my nails into my sides,
And laugh when the snow turns red.
As I bend to drink,
I laugh at everything that anyone loves.

All your damn horses climbing to heaven.
---------------------------------------------------------
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'O Fiery River'

O fiery river
Flow out over the land.
Men have destroyed the roads of wonder,
And their cities squat like black toads
In the orchards of life.
Nothing is clean, or real, or as a girl,
Naked to love, or to be a man with.
The arts of this American land
Stink in the air of mountains;
What has made these men sick rats
That they find out every cheap hole?
How can these squeak of greatness?
Push your drugstore-culture into the sewer
With the rest of your creation.
The bell wasn't meant to toll for you.
Keep your filthy little hands off it.

O fiery river
Spread over the American land.
Drown out the falsity, the smug contempt
For what does not pay...
What would you pay Christ to die again?
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Enjoy (if you haven't already) - and watch it to the end.

2008-11-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

Joseph Beuys: How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare

2008-11-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

In How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, Beuys covered his head with honey and gold-leaf, transforming himself into a sculpture. He cradled the dead hare in his arms and took it "to the pictures and I explained to him everything that was to be seen. I let him touch the pictures with his paws and meanwhile talked to him about them....I explained them to him because I do not really like explaining them to people. Of course there is a shadow of truth in this. A hare comprehends more than many human beings with their stubborn rationalism....I told him that he needed only to scan the picture to understand what is really important about it. The hare probably knows better than man that directions are important. You know the hare can turn on a dime. And actually nothing else is involved."

In the same vein as previous post.

2008-11-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is Vanessa Mae one of my favourite violinists, very contemporary but does amazing classics too. This piece is a deconstruction of Bachs Preludio that she performs on another album. Very similar to original but different too.

The small snippet introducing her is from another song she does called Storm but this one is so much better.

Let Us Have Madness

2008-11-06T12:46:00.001-08:00

Let us have madness openly.
O men Of my generation.
Let us follow
The footsteps of this slaughtered age:
See it trail across Time's dim land
Into the closed house of eternity
With the noise that dying has,
With the face that dead things wear--
nor ever say
We wanted more; we looked to find
An open door, an utter deed of love,
Transforming day's evil darkness;
but We found extended hell and fog Upon the earth,
and within the head
A rotting bog of lean huge graves.

Kenneth Patchen

Daydream

2008-11-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Jorgen and I are both very familiar with this. It's a music video of the cellist Giovanni Sollima, directed by Lasse Gjertsen.

Part One-

Part Two-

2008-11-03T23:48:00.000-08:00

These are just a few pictures I've taken over the past couple of years that I really enjoy looking at.

Storm. Taken through the blue strip on the windshield of my car.

I-80 in Winter.

This picture was taken accidentally.

A man-made lake in Canada.

Does anyone remember the clouds on this day?

Red Skies

2008-11-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has seen the touchstones poster has seen this image, but everytime i see it i am in awe. It was a saturday morning at about 6:30 am and i was on my way to administering the ACT on campus and i saw the sky behind me and had to stop, get out of the car and take these shots.

In minutes the sky sun had come up and the sky looked totally different. You don't get these kinds of sunrises in Cambridge England, or anywhere else i have lived.

2 November 2008, looking west

2008-11-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

Firetruck - Open Shutter

2008-11-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

A couple months back a firetruck flew past my house. I was lucky enough (by hearing the sirens a few blocks down the road) to be able to get my camera out just in time, and snap a picture with the shutter open for a full second just as it went by.

Protest: The True "Patriot Act"

2008-11-02T00:23:00.001-07:00

I know that my perspectives about Buddhism have changed since I began this Buddhist Philosophy course with Wayne Hanewicz (highly recommended). But the protests a few months back leave me with a much deeper respect for many of the monks from Burma - and in general. Peaceful protest somehow gets a bad rap, when it should be considered of the most "patriotic" things one can do. If Americans weren't such lazy, passive, blind herds of sheep (excuse the cliche), we would be much better off as a society and a country. The most intelligent people of the world have been pointing this out for decades, yet somehow we believe that the government would never lie to us. And, given our President's track-records on lying, I wonder how we can carry on such ridiculous beliefs.

Foucault was right on in noticing that the Productive Power is much better means of control than the Repressive Power. We have Americans begging for Patriot Acts, when we should be Protesting them (which is the true patriot act).

I can only hope that someday more people will wake up.

Protest is one of the most beautiful arts ever experienced. And, if done correctly, can be the most powerful of all the arts.

Seeing Through

2008-11-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

"The prison was on the heights above the town, and through a small window I coud see the sea. I was gripping the bars, my face straining toward the light." - Albert Camus The Stranger

Purpose

2008-11-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

To post inspiring, astonishing, and otherwise beautiful items of text, story, picture, imagination, and so on...

Let it flow.

Also, if you would like to be an "author" on this blog, post your email here.