Thursday, June 4, 2009

Reaching for the Ephemeral


Beech leaf, covered in black mud, Bentham, Yorkshire, June 1979. By A. Gormley

I lost my flickr account the other day. About a year’s worth of comments, correspondence, contacts, favorite images - memories erased within minutes. I clenched my fists and shouted; stamped my feet like a little kid. And then I remembered. Most of what we create here, in this digital life, is ephemeral, and I’d better pony up and accept it.

One doesn’t think much of nature at all, when working in the digital, but I thought of the environmental artist Anthony Gormley who writes “Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature.” So where we work, in this digital realm, is also transient. We must learn to be present, appreciate the moment, and let go.