Friday, December 22, 2006

My 2006 faves: February

By February, I’m ready for spring. The only problem is that I know from living in the upper Midwestern U.S. that spring won’t arrive for another couple of months. Last February, I walked through a forest preserve near Des Plaines, Illinois. Snow was sparse, and the landscape was a dull brown under a gray sky. The epitome of the dead of winter.

As I crossed a small frozen creek, I noticed the patterns created by leaves and twigs laying on the surface of the ice as well as entombed beneath. Winter still held creation in its icy grip. What was once vital to the life of nearby trees was cast aside, unnecessary in this landscape of death.

Yet those very castaways would, with the spring, nourish the survivors that remained along the creek bed. This is a photograph of the past and the future.

More in the February archive.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2006 James Jordan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

James, thanks for giving us a review of the year and sharing your thoughts. As someone who tries to do a regular art feature on a blog I understand how hard it is to be consistent and keep posting. Your thoughts about the fact that there's rarely perfect conditions, therefore one must deal with what one has, are right on, I found that to be all too true! V. Schroeder