My earliest memory in this life was when I was four years of age. I clearly remember sitting at the kitchen table, it was a sunny summer day, and I was colouring a picture of a train locomotive in a colouring book. My grandmother was standing beside me, and I remember her saying how important it was to colour inside the lines. I still to this day remember thinking (quite loudly inside my own head!!): "But I don't want to stay in the lines!!!" I came to realize that this earliest memory, became an early defining moment in my life!
I explored the visual arts formally from the time I was about eight or nine years of age. This was primarily through drawing and oil painting. There always seemed to be a deep connection between my artistic expression and a deep sense of something beyond the "everyday", but still expressed in the everyday. I recall spending hours in the field behind our house, laying in the summer grass, watching the sky, consciously breathing the air, being in the sensations that surrounded me, and that I seemed to become a part of.
My first true experience with photography came in high school with the purchase of a Minolta SLR. This new form of artistic expression seemed to open a new world to me. A new world both of the creative and of the spiritual. This continued to grow through a challenging time in university, as well as travels through Italy, and an eventual move to Vancouver, British Columbia. I subsequently entered the Franciscan Order in the Roman Catholic church, and again the experiences of the spirit continued to grow.
Years went by, as I essentially abandoned my artistic... and even spiritual endeavours. Well, truth be told, I never abandoned them totally. Because I never truly learned how to "colour in the lines". Many years later, I had the opportunity to be exposed to the dharma teachings of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, transmitted through his lamas. Rinpoche was a highly realized Tibetan Buddhist meditation master, artist and physician who brought the teachings of the buddha to the western world. With the teachings of compassion, loving-kindness and equanimity as shared by Rinpoche’s lamas, my artistry started to take on new meaning. A clearer expression of my inner spirit.
This growth took the next step in my exposure to the Miksang school of contemplative photography, conceived and taught by Michael Wood, a professional photographer and buddha dharma practitioner. I attended Michael's level one workshop in contemplative photography in the summer of 2004. Since that time, my eye has been more clearly opened. It is with thanks to the Chagdud Gonpa lamas, and to Michael Wood, that I feel my eyes are opening to the "everyday magic" that surrounds me and is one with me.
My photographic journey continues. I would like to share that journey with you! Celebrating the "everyday magic" that literally surrounds us... everyday!!