ACCESS TO LIGHT....

A series of essays....

OLAFUR ELIASSON--REALITY MACHINES
A 'WALK-THROUGH' INSTALLATION OF ART

        Courtesy of  ArkDes



....as seen through my eyes!

 

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Never take what you see around you for granted. Your eyes will always be the windows into the multi-layered world of shape, color, textures, and....light! If we capture our view of the world thinking in these terms, we will better understand how to perceive our surroundings and return to Mother Nature all of the love and respect she deserves.

I remember waking-up in the middle of the night as a child and being so excited about greeting the next day; giddy about celebrating another birthday, getting to wear my Halloween costume to school, or hoping Santa liked his cookies and milk before leaving gifts under the tree. It always took awhile before falling back to sleep. Anticipation is an amazing thing. I still feel this youthful enthusiasm about life. We stimulate our lives, enhance our excitement as human beings, and open-up the creative mind by allowing ourselves to enjoy the simple beauty of the life and light that surrounds us.

Having access to light is our opportunity to benefit from everything the world has to offer. 

COLOR SPECTRUM KALEIDOSCOPE - 2003
OLAFUR ELIASSON

As a child, light helped to keep the scary Bogeyman at bay while we snuggled under our blankets in preparation of sleep. We got to create interesting shapes and write our name in the night’s darkness by the glittering light of a sparkler, a popular firework that emits little sparks when lit. A flashlight hidden beneath the covers, its intense light held beneath the chin, allowed us to be the Bogeyman we hoped to avoid a few months before. The cone of light from the corner streetlight permitted you and your friends to play another game of Hangman using chalk on a slab of sidewalk during many warm, summer nights.

Our teenage years endeared us with our family by knowing that the porch light would always be on, welcoming us home from a date, a long day at work, or a weekend home from college. To understand that someone was inside to greet us and make us feel safe gave that light the utmost importance during our vulnerable years of challenges and uncertainty.

As an adult, we have been given ample time to take in and appreciate all of the natural beauty that makes up the world around us. In terms of light, we may have already built our careers around light as a photographer or photo journalist. We may have been bedazzled by the configurations caused by the natural electrical phenomena of light in the northern skies known as the Aurora Borealis. Or, unforeseen setbacks due to job loss or illness may have us looking longingly at the proverbial ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for answers to our future well-being and progress.

SUNRISE OVER NICE, FRANCE

AUTUMN SUNRISE IN KALAMAZOO

Who among us has not marveled at a rose-splashed sunrise or the brilliant orange glow of an elaborate sunset? These are truly God’s display of art via light and offered to anyone willing to look up into the heavens to enjoy them. 

SUNSET OVER LAKE MICHIGAN

MICHIGAN SUNSET

I believe that as we age we become more attuned to the world around us. Indeed, we have more time for observation and analysis and appreciate many things we had taken for granted for so many years. 

Good friends recently had, literally, tons of huge rocks and boulders, buried since the last ice age, dug up on their farmland to be sold to landscapers to build natural walls and rock gardens for major projects around Michigan. Since many of them outline the border of the farm, Janis has discovered a genuine passion for these beautiful specimens that have anchored the Earth for centuries. And, after they’ve been brought back into the daylight, it is inspiring to see how time has shaped, colored, and artistically painted each one; like 'solid' snowflakes, each possesses its own design, value, and characteristics. It’s easy to see why my friend has become so enamored by their beauty and calculated strength within the history of our amazing Earth.

THE ARTIST HIMSELF ~
OLAFUR ELIASSON

Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist of high acclaim, works with light, water, and air temperature in various ways in order to create many of his large-scale, ‘walk-through’ installations of art. He is often asked if it is The Design of Art or The Art of Design that labels his inspirations. He will tell you....both! I have become fascinated by his spatial research and his personal discovery of light and how it impacts all of us in different ways.

Are you feeling SAD? Even though scientists agree that winter depression remains a mystery, they do agree that people who suffer from ‘seasonal affective disorder,’ or SAD, have one thing in common: They are particularly sensitive to light, or the lack of it. Because winter days are shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, we get less exposure to sunlight and this plays havoc with our system and mood. We can replace lost sunlight with bright, artificial light....but, a trip to a sunny climate for even a short time might do the trick much better!

Mother Nature is an entity that has been crying out for love for a very long time.

NERI OXMAN

Neri Oxman is an American-Israeli designer and professor at the MIT Media Lab where she leads the Mediated Matter research group. She is best known for her art and architecture that combines design with biology, computing, and materials engineering. Her goal is to demolish plastic in the world and utilize all natural materials such as silk, layers of glass, pectin from apples and other fruits, and cellulose, one of the most abundant polymers on earth which comes from plants, and chitosan, (polymer extracted from ocean crustaceans).

“There are two ways to live your life: One as if nothing is a miracle and one as if everything is a miracle.”    ...Neri Oxman. 

I choose the latter concept always, truly believing that everything is a miracle...

Mother Nature can be the answer to all that ails Her these days, given enough time, finances, and dedication by people like Neri Oxman who believe in Her power and abundance. This could be the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for today, tomorrow, and many generations to come.

PHOTO TAKEN IN A TUNNEL DRIVING
ALONG THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY - 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

WALTER CRONKITE AND ME

A series of essays...

WALTER CRONKITE ~ AS I REMEMBER HIM FROM MY CHILDHOOD

Courtesy of RBR.com

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

What exactly makes a person tick? What can breathe life and meaning into their soul and encourage them to discover more about themselves so that they may progress deeper into their personal ‘meaning of life’ narrative and be able to direct their passion into the particular story that will shape or shadow their life, forever?

Examples may include impressionable events such as the assassination of a sitting United States President, baking cookies and cakes alongside Grandma while using the wood burning stove in her farmhouse kitchen, watching the evening news and the war in Vietnam, reading a Nancy Drew Mystery a week until you’d read them all and the school librarian suggested The Hardy Boys series, or taking eighth-grade French class and you just knew that France and the French language would become a large part of your life.

Then...there was Walter Cronkite.

Was it his voice? A bit stodgy yet staunch and reliable with a firm sense of loyalty and commitment, it was a Grandfather’s voice that could soothe away all of your troubles. Was it his looks? As a young reporter, I don’t believe I’d even recognize the mature, stalwart man that sat behind the CBS News desk each evening for nearly twenty years. Facial hair has never been my thing however, Walter’s minimal mustache gave him an edge when it came to style and distinction. 

A YOUNG REPORTER ON THE BEAT

                                                  Courtesey of UO Blogs - University of Oregon

SIMPLE BASIC JOURNALISM

                                      Courtesy of CBS

Walter Cronkite exuded impartiality and journalistic integrity and famously reported the news, not what he thought of the news, in a slower, more reasonable cadence that helped viewers understand him better. He began anchoring the CBS Evening News when I was an impressionable eleven-year-old with a penchant for writing and traveling around the world. His soft spoken style formed budding writers into potential journalists, picking-up on the desire to do research, travel, interview the people involved, and then tell the world about what they discovered and witnessed.

Will Bunch, opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote in 2018, “The reporter's intellect and instincts of Cronkite still echo a half-century later, at a time when a U.S. government is telling lies and threatening basic democratic norms on a scale that once would have seemed unthinkable, even back in the tumultuous 1960's when the Pentagon and the White House kept falsely assuring the public there was "a light at the end of the tunnel" in Vietnam. In 2018, can journalists look past the blinders of contrived objectivity, stare straight into the camera, and speak the plain truth? And when they do, will America listen the way it listened to Walter Cronkite in 1968?”

When he began, the evening news was only fifteen minutes long. After Walter’s first year, the program expanded to an unprecedented thirty minutes. Competition, I must admit, was minimal given the fact that we lived in an era where ABC (if you could pick it up at all), NBC, and CBS were the only broadcast networks.

Walter Cronkite soon became the voice and face of the American news media. It was an era, between 1962 until he retired in 1981, when his nightly exposure insured him great influence over the American viewer. Also, Walter was never afraid to express his emotions on the air. Both women and men could identify with this honest man when he became choked-up over the moon landing, teary eyed as he relayed to us that our president had been assassinated in Dallas, and displayed his own angst while editorializing about the stalemate in Vietnam. These true feelings, viable emotions, made us feel he was a part of our family; the Grandfather at Thanksgiving dinner who caught, plucked, and cooked the most delicious wild turkey with enough leftovers to feed an entire nation.

WALTER CRONKITE'S BROADCASTS INFLUENCED
LBJ  AND CHANGED THE WAY WE
PERCEIVED THE VIETNAM WAR

                                       Courtesy of CBS

I was hooked! By the time I graduated from high school and headed for classes at Indiana University at South Bend (IUSB), journalism courses dotted my freshman class schedule. I was going to be the female equivalent of Walter Cronkite, traveling the world over and writing op-eds to be published by all of the prominent newspapers and magazines. I would be honest and truthful just as Walter had always been, yet plucky and bright as I helped to usher in the new generation of writers and reporters. 

I always felt that Walter was looking over my shoulder as I was being negatively influenced by my early professors and always hoped that he would guide me in the right direction. Eventually, I truly believe he did. Feeling disgruntled and cheated by the teaching that “If your story isn’t strong enough to sell, then embellish it enough to make it stronger,” mentality taught in class, had me asking about the age of Walter’s honest journalism; when had it transitioned into an unreliable entity based upon sales and money? This was back in ‘68, only six years after Walter began anchoring the evening news. I was naive. However, I still believed in honesty and truth.

With Walter always at the back of my mind, I transferred to Michigan State University in order to pursue a writing career. In those days, most schools did not offer creative writing courses and I was advised to enter a Secondary Education English program while opting for a double minor in Theatre and French. 

My writing was always number one with me. I always felt that if I were to embellish upon stories, it was because they were my fictional stories to begin with! But, I seriously believed that I was in the right place for the first time and that Walter had something to do with it. The kindly, soft-spoken, older gentleman I used to listen to talk about worldly events as I slid into a familiar chair each evening with my parents by my side would have been okay with my choices. He would have understood how I could still make a difference and help change the world for the better. 

Sue, a dear, sweet friend of mine, reminded me of the many people, past and present, with whom I share birthday celebrations. Some poets and prose writers were on the list along with a British Princess, a musical composer, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, while a famous actor or two got ‘top billing’ and the humorist and actor, Will Rogers, began blazing his own trail on November 4 back in 1879. Not too shabby! Thank you, Sue.

WHETHER HE WAS SMILING, PLAYING
WITH HIS GLASSES, OR SMOKING HIS PIPE,
HE WAS KNOWN AS 'UNCLE WALTER'

Walter Cronkite is on this list. I’ve known we shared a birthday since I was very little. I believe that we are fellow wanderers and seekers of ideas and truths and that our paths crossing like this has always encouraged me to continue learning, has recharged my passion for creativity, and always helps to breathe life back into my very soul.

Even though the world lost the man on July 17, 2009, I can still hear his famous sign-off catchphrase, “And that’s the way it is. November 4, 2019.”

Happy Birthday, Walter!!!

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

AN AFTERNOON ON THE M-22

 A series of essays....

~~HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!~~
CAN YOU FIND THE ORANGE WITCH?

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

As Michiganders, it’s possible we have, at least, heard about the drive along the M-22 if not taken it several times in our lifetime.....and, plan on taking it as often as possible; it’s just that beautiful! Michigan 22 is striking to the senses all four seasons of the year as it hugs the Lake Michigan coastline and traverses picturesque communities with quaint bed and breakfast establishments of yesterday to sprawling golf courses rising above the lake that could liken the experience of playing eighteen holes on a Scottish course in the Highlands.

 

 

Earlier this year, Dan and I decided to start a journey at the beginning of the M-22 in Manistee County and follow the 116.7-mile stretch of highway from Manistee into Benzie and Leelanau counties before reaching Traverse City, the county seat of Grand Traverse County, at its end. This amazing scenic drive makes up a portion of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour which encompasses portions of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, as well.

BLAUFRANKISCH VINES ON THE RIGHT AND
SLEEPING BEAR DUNES BLUFFS IN THE DISTANCE

This past weekend our focus was picking Chardonnay grapes with old and new friends on a beautifully maintained and much loved vineyard that overlooks Crystal Lake in Beulah, Benzie County, and offers a stunning view of the Sleeping Bear Dunes Bluffs in the distance to the north in Leelanau County.

Heading off to Michael and Nancy’s vineyard early Saturday morning in the dark along with Dan, Leo, Dan’s brother, and his wife, Susie, the goal was to lift the nets off of the fruit before sunrise when the harvesting would begin. Donning an amazing amount of warm clothing and tucking small ‘warmers’ in our footwear and gloves, we secured small, very sharp clippers and began a simple but well choreographed leap-frog routine down each row of vines, gently tossing juicy clusters of ripe grapes into small bins to be picked-up and their contents emptied into large, white bins. 

With more people coming to help harvest as the day progressed, nearly thirty people worked long and hard to fill-up the twenty large bins that were systematically placed in a large truck to be taken to Left Foot Charley in Traverse City and blended into some of the finest wines in the area. Eighteen local growers who do not have wineries themselves produce grapes and sell them exclusively to LFC. These growers help produce wines that are defining terroir in their appellations with their notoriety spanning far beyond their Northern Michigan borders. Our small team of harvesters proudly contributed eight tons of Chardonnay grapes towards this admirable cause last Saturday!!!

1) EDEN HILL VINES

APPELLATION: Benzie County

PLANTED: Chardonnay, Blaufränkisch

ACREAGE: 5

GROWN BY: Michael and Nancy Call

In an effort to help relax and stretch our weary muscles, on Sunday Leo drove Dan, Susie, and me south on the M-22 and introduced us to some very interesting places and sights that lie just beyond the ribbon of concrete that connects the town of Frankfort with the community of Arcadia. 

RELAXING IN THE CLUBHOUSE

A VIEW FROM THE CLUBHOUSE

HAPPY HALLOWEEN
FROM ARCADIA BLUFFS

After stopping to sip drinks at the clubhouse of the world famous Arcadia Bluffs Golf Course and admire the scenic views, we stepped outside to find ourselves taken in by the tall grasses, undulating terrain, and European influences of this amazing golf course that overlooks the shimmering beauty of Lake Michigan. 

A FAMILY OF SWANS

SOMEONE'S HOME

Heading north once again, Susie pointed out that the new marsh boardwalk hovering over the Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve had been opened recently and we should check it out. Totally handicap accessible, this boardwalk stretches across the center of Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve that extends over 273 acres. The preserve sits on the doorstep of the village of Arcadia and stretches across to St. Pierre Road where a handicap, portable toilet is located.

BIRD NESTING SANCTUARY

SUSIE ENTERING A MAGICAL PLACE

THE SUN HIGHLIGHTING THE
ARCADIA MARSH NATURE PRESERVE

This walk is easy and a nature lover and birdwatcher’s dream. Walking along, the four of us heard the equivalent of someone taking a large oar and slamming it, repeatedly, against the water. Upon looking closely across the marsh, we could see what we believed to be a Trumpeter Swan in the distance taking flight just above the water, slapping its wings against the surface of the marsh. The sound still echoes in my mind as this large and powerful beauty rose fifteen to twenty feet above the water, circled the area several times, and flew over the boardwalk to a family of swans on the other side of the marsh. Spectacular!

Continuing to follow the M-22 north to Frankfort, Susie explained that a gentleman by the name of Ed Moody has been carving pumpkins there for over thirty years and has a huge display of his carving talent in front of Stormcloud Brewing Company. Driving by Mr. Moody’s home first, we stopped to meet the man and his giant pumpkins. A jolly man, dressed in denim and orange, with a mustached smile all lively and quick, we knew in a moment it must be....”Pumpkin Ed.” What a delightful gentleman he is! 

'PUMPKIN ED'

HUGE PUMPKINS IN FRONT OF
PUMPKIN ED'S HOUSE IN FRANKFORT

ED'S CARVING SITTING IN FRONT
OF STORMCLOUD BREWING COMPANY

Ed Moody’s work has become a local tradition and 'giant pumpkin' farmers come to the Frankfort Fall Festival each year to enter their ‘giants’ for prize money for growing the largest pumpkin. As the ‘giants’ are weighed, Ed watches from the driver’s seat of the tractor and calls out its weight to the crowd. Some might say that the winning pumpkin is not necessarily the star of the giant pumpkin contest, but the man carefully maneuvering the tractor is. These pumpkins are now donated to Ed to carve as they regally sit in his front yard each year. 

With the bold, orange sun (highly appropriate I must say) swiftly sinking over Lake Michigan and our tummies full of good eats and handcrafted beer at Stormcloud Brewing Company, we decided to head back to the house, the final remnants of daylight surrounding us. With one last glass or two of wine in hand and warm conversation filling the room, we joyfully recapped the day’s adventures and Dan and I vowing to return soon to snowshoe along a few of the trails that branch off of one of the most iconic stretches of highway in Michigan...the M-22.

SUNSET OVER LAKE MICHIGAN,
FRANKFORT, MICHIGAN

ICONIC ROAD SIGN

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

WHITE CARS

 A series of essays....

 

NATURE'S BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF WHITE

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

I have never owned a white car. 

What does this say about me? 

I remember deep, white porcelain sinks that aluminum pans would always mark and scar.

I remember borrowing long, white, cotton gloves from my best friend to wear to the prom.

Stuffing white Bobby/Poodle socks into black and white saddle shoes was a daily routine.

Stuffing white tissues into my bra was never necessary, I’m proud to say.

Come to think about it, boyfriends I dated never owned or drove white cars either.

I did drive a cream colored Chrysler Le Baron many years ago. Poor car kept breaking down all of the time and began to rust away little by little, inch by inch. Even the interior was what we called ‘Granny-gold cloth’ that would stain just by looking at it. Nothing about this car was white!

My parents rented several white houses before purchasing one in Three Rivers, Michigan.

This is the home I carried my white wedding dress into the weekend of my marriage.

I accept white toothpaste that tastes like mint.

I accept the consumption of yellow cheese even when I know it began as white cheese.

Dad never purchased a white car during the many years I remember him driving. Pale blue, deep brown, definitely black, there may have been several shades of green, metallic midnight blue, but not a white vehicle that I can recall.   

Car colors tend to be trendy. When times are gay and upbeat with a good economy to show for it, cars can reflect this positive feeling through bright and cheery colors. When times are more difficult, car colors are more neutral and subdued reflecting the vibe of the people purchasing them. The last several years have given us lots of white, gray, silver, and black cars to choose from. 

A DRIVE THROUGH THE
COUNTRYSIDE IN A SHINY, WHITE CAR!

                                                               Courtesy of www.postercorner.com

Are we working on eliminating boring colors moving along our streets, roads, and highways....finally? Are vibrant paint colors making a comeback after several years of worrisome depression? Will splashy car colors help to fill a void and cheer-up the current mood of doom and gloom we seem to be living with today? If so, this could be a trend we can all learn to support and embrace.

White walls were safe walls in every apartment I’ve ever lived in or visited.

 White wall tires....a thing of the past or a retro statement?

It seems we either embrace the color white to its fullest potential or consider it to be ‘old farmhouse’ with black trim and unhinged shutters slanting within midday shadows. White is all or nothing. White is a perfect compliment to a world filled with uncertainty and darkness. Yet, too much of it can be boring and lifeless to the eye’s colorful palette. White is clean, neat, and tidy. White can compliment all other colors. White trim helps to frame bright and colorful walls; so-called unsafe walls that reject the simple, boring, go-with-everything theory of temporary apartment living.

Back and forth...tug and pull...uninspiring for some...a blank canvas to others!

I like the way the ambient light sparkles off of the textured surfaces of large, artisan, white tiles of a kitchen backsplash, creating movement and flow. My mouth waters at the sight of shimmering white meringue swirled high upon a lemon pie or carefully baked and dried awaiting a filling of precious, French cream. I am inspired by a sheet of blank, white paper or an i-Pad screen filling-up with ideas and scenarios far beyond normal comprehension as my imagination runs rampant.

If white fills me with great pleasure and innocent memories, why have I never owned a white car before? 

And yet, so many cars I see every day still tend to be white. Are we continuing to fill a void with trepidation; settling on living in a joyless world of lies and deceit? I believe it's time for this trend to reverse and we begin to fill our lives, once again, with bold colors and vibrant expectations.

THE WHITE HOUSE, SURROUNDED
BY THE BRILLIANT BLUE AND GREENS
OF NATURE'S COLOR PALETTE

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved