Wrapping Up in Grand Cayman

Yesterday, we ventured to the leeward side of the island for respite from the wind, snorkeling at Smith’s Barcadere, otherwise known by the family as Karen’s Cove. It was one of the locations we snorkeled in 2014 which served as inspiration for a number of paintings. The reef was in better shape than when we visited earlier, due I suspect to lack of tourist activity from Covid and the island not allowing cruise ships. There were some nice examples of elkhorn coral and decent sized schools of blue tangs. We also happened upon a scorpion fish, pictured below, which was a nice surprise. We also noted places where coral frags were attached in hopes of rehabbing the damaged coral heads.

Today, I got up to see the sunrise, with spectacular cloud formations as adornment as the sun broke over the horizon. Later in the morning, though the surf was rough, I snorkeled for a bit to see who was around and active. Visibility wasn’t good for photography, so I enjoyed floating with the surge of the waves, swimming between coral formations as the denizens of the reef scurried about. Knowing this was likely to be my last snorkel, I left the reef and headed towards shore and as I did so, a spotted trunk fish came by to bid me adieu. It is sad to say goodbye to the inhabitants of the reefs we’ve visited and gotten to know but look forward to our next briny adventure, destination unknown.

Surging surf, watercolor 

Sunrise, North Point beach

Clouds at sunrise, North Point beach

Moray eel, trapped in tide pool
waiting for high tide

Smith’s Barcadere, Grand Cayman

Blue tangs, Smith’s Barcadere

Scorpionfish, Smith’s Barcadere

Sargassum weed, washed ashore during a storm

Catch of the Day

Winds kept up today, so no beach or underwater time. The break however gave us the opportunity to visit the Queen Elizabeth Botanic Park which featured an amazing garden with plants grouped by flower color per the images below. The day out of the sun also provided an opportunity to review photos and create studies for potential future paintings. 

Reef Study-watercolor

Valentine’s Day in the Cayman Islands

We awoke this morning to 25 mph winds directly onto the beach. Seven to eight foot waves were breaking on the far reef, with smaller waves cresting the beach. These conditions are expected to persist for the next day or so, with bigger waves expected tomorrow. I can’t imagine being here during a tropical storm or hurricane. It makes you appreciate the power of nature.

Below is a quick watercolor sketch to capture the color of the waves, water and sky.

The following photos were taken the previous two days during very calm weather, on the reef just off the beach.

Warm Weather Travels

Here are some recent underwater photo experiments and sketches from a couple of weeks worth of travels, through Florida and Grand Cayman. For the underwater images, I am using a Sony A6400 camera in an Ikelite housing, with either a 50mm fixed lens and flat port or a 20mm lens with a dome port, using ambient light, as the reef is shallow.

White Ibis, Watercolor
Ding Darling Preserve, Sanibel Island

Brain Coral Studies, Grand Cayman

White Ibis, J.N. Ding Darling Preserve,
 18-135mm zoom

Damsel fish, Grand Cayman,
50mm lens, with Ikelite housing and
flat port, ambient lighting

Squirrelfish, Grand Cayman
50mm, with Ikelite housing and
flat port, ambient lighting

 

Sea Rods, Grand Cayman, 20mm lens,
with Ikelite dome port, ambient lighting

Spotted Trunkfish, Grand Cayman,
50mm lens, with Ikelite flat port, ambient lighting

Juvenile Blue Tang, Grand Cayman,
50mm lens with flat port, ambient lighting 

All Work and No Blog

The title says it all. Between working, returning to northern Michigan for fall colors in October, a quick run up to Madison to visit with friends and paint outdoors at Picnic Point, as well as a making progress on a number of portraits, it hasn't left a lot of time for writing.

So, I'll share what I have accomplished.

Scarf and Blazes 11 x 14, Oil on Panel

Em 11 x 14, Graphite

Study, Summer Waitress 11 x 14, Graphite

Model R. - Quick sketch 8 x 10, Graphite Sketch

Picnic Point, Madison, WI 8 x 10, Oil on Panel

Pumpkin Harvest, Manistee, MI 11 x 14, Oil on Panel

Crystallization - Part 5: Postscript - In Memoriam

Marilyn Milam, August 21, 2015. 

While writing the Crystallization series and coming to the decision to channel my creative energy towards portraiture, I received word that my Aunt Marilyn who I had mentioned in the second installment had passed away.

My early memories of her work and that of her husband at the time, who painted in a surrealist style, are still lodged in my brain decades after seeing them as a child. It was in their house where I gazed up at canvases on the wall that I first realized the power of the painted image to move.

I dedicate the Crystallization series to her and it is my fervent hope that I can carry the torch forward with the same passion that she did throughout her life.

Below are two portraits she did of my grandparents, Cora and Gordon, sometime in the late 1950s or early 60s.

 

Crystallization - Part 4: On being the “Seed” of Change.

So we know what “Aha” moments feel like but is there a way to get them to happen more frequently or is it just something random? 

Dawn 
Grisaille Study in Oil

In the previous three posts I described how I arrived at a decision using a process called insight, which is distinctly different from linear or other non-distributed modes of thinking. Research conducted at Drexel and Northwestern Universities states that “although the experience of insight is sudden and can seem disconnected from the immediately preceding thought, studies show that insight is the     culmination of a series of brain states and processes operating at different time scales.”¹ Mark Jung-Beeman, a cognitive neuroscientist, has devoted over 20 years of research into this type of thinking using fMRI and EEG technology and has discovered a specific series of changes in the brain that precede insights and that you can prepare yourself for them to happen more frequently.² 

What can you do to foster insight?

There isn’t a sure-fire way to cause “aha” moments but there are steps you can take to facilitate the process. Normally it takes some type of question and the bigger and more complex, the better. In my case, it was "what's next professionally/artistically--what is lacking in my life"? to start the process. The next requirement is to be open to possibilities, both internally and externally, and to consider ideas well outside your comfort zone. This will require you to also be aware of the subtle currents of your thoughts and emotions and how they manifest within the body as you feed in different stimuli, be it music, images or experiences. Consider the concept of Fear/Joy mentioned in an earlier post and the role it may play as well. 

Give it time and be optimistic. Don’t give up if it feels like it is taking too long. You may 

need to either take a break from trying to solve the problem or nudge the process along by make a smaller decision or trying something new. Take up a hobby you’ve been thinking

Bust - Grisaille Study
Lavender Studios Reference

about, take a class, join a social group, get out of the house, away from media. Walk in nature. Get active if you are not; you will be amazed at the difference in your thought processes before and after a good workout. Consider getting out and talking to someone that already does what you are thinking about doing. There is a body of research that suggests that you can’t solve tomorrow’s problems with the same thinking/emotions that you are feeling today. In Stumbling Upon Happiness, author Daniel Gilbert describes the imperfect process of how we make memories and if we base tomorrow’s actions on these memories and today’s events, we’ll end up with less than satisfying results later.

Journaling is a great way to track progress as well as how you feel about certain experiences. Whether paper or electronic, make sure to paste images and words into an organized fashion so that you can review them occasionally. I am not great at day-to-day journaling, but over the course of a year will have made enough notes in a variety of places that I can see what I was thinking or feeling over a given period of time. 

Plane Study for
Summer Waitress

And lastly, you can use the technique I described in the second post, meditation. It isn’t complicated and though it can be learned online or by reading a book, I’d strongly recommend taking a class as it can be difficult to start on your own. At its core, meditation simply involves sitting still long enough to become aware of your thoughts and feelings while viewing them in a non-judgmental way. It has been said that “the mind makes a wonderful servant but a terrible master” and by leveraging meditation you no longer are a slave to your mind and its random thoughts. This will leave you clearer and more present, allowing these insights to emerge more freely. 

Given all these factors, eventually, something/someone will trigger the change within you. The more you prepare and the harder the struggle, the greater the capacity for a single trigger to ignite the process. 

So in closing this series of posts I ask you: 

Plane Study for

The Carpenter

What pain are you feeling but are ignoring out of convenience or comfort that could be a sign of where you need to go next? 

Have you ever been the seed of change for a situation or someone in particular? Have you stopped the conversation in your own head long enough to hear what the other person was truly saying and asked a well-placed question that helps clarify their need or desire? Is there something you could have said or done to bring about change but didn’t out of fear or some other hesitation?

And since it takes preparation for this state change to occur, are you committed to keeping your mind open to the world of possibility around us, forcing skepticism and doubt far enough aside to give the small place within each of us time to settle and become still, so that when the time comes we are transformed by some random fleck of awe?

The Bishop - Sandan
Study of Methodology
Portraits from Life - Sandan

Since this is an artistic as well as philosophical post, I’ve included a number of recent studies completed to continue the development of my portraiture skills, though unrelated to the subject above. 













Article References

1. http://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/mbeeman/documents/CurrentDirxns_Kounios-Beeman_2009.pdf"
2. http://www.ysc.com/our-thinking/article/the-aha-moment-a-perspective-from-neuroscience

          Other resources used for this article but not quoted directly:

• http://www.davidrock.net/files/TheAhaMomentASTD2011.pdf
• https://www.emergenetics.com/blog/neuroscience-creativity-aha-moment/
• http://brainworldmagazine.com/the-aha-moment/
• http://www.creativitypost.com/science/the_aha_moment._the_cognitive_neuroscience_of_insight
• http://www.drexel.edu/psychology/news/archive/q-and-a-with-john-kounios/