Disappearing Moments of Art

I’ve been on vacation for the last week plus. My doctor has told me that I need to relieve stress so on this vacation I tried very hard not to mix work with pleasure. Yet there are moments that we experience as artists that just happen. I’m calling them disappearing moments of art.

Nature is unequivocally the finest artist there is. We spent most of our time in the woods of northern Michigan and Canada. Out of pure quiet comes a short rhythmic phrase from a bird unseen, one that composers may try to replicate, but it will never be the same.  The sound of accumulating waves on the lake at tide create a hypnotic and soothing rhythm.

Another disappearing moment of art I discovered on this trip were the fireworks on July 4. As I watched the fireworks off the beaches of Mackinaw Bay, I experienced the rhythm, structure and patterns of these fleeting moments of art. I don’t know who makes fireworks and how they work, but to me they are works of art.

Another fleeting moment of art: we were driving the pristine Canadian highways,  which clearly were created from huge boulders of rocks that were cut to create the highways. On top of the boulders there were little rock sculptures. Who put them there? Why? A big mystery, but such a delight to observe as the miles went by.

Disappearing moments of art. They are everywhere, and they make our world just a little bit brighter and magical.