Wabi Sabi Dahlia © 2010 Bo Mackison
This photograph is the last in the series of dahlias I’m posting on Seeded Earth (though there are many, many more in my treasure piles). I showed you ‘Esther’ as a new bud with the light from the setting sun giving her a warm glow. I showed you ‘Esther’ with her petals just beginning to fully unfurl. I gave you a peek of ‘Esther’ from a vantage not often seen – the undersides of the dahlia, softly lit (and one of my favorites). I posted a photograph of ‘Esther’ close up, so close you could almost see her heart. Today we say good bye to ‘Esther’ the dahlia, as she is on the wabi-sabi part of her journey.
What is wabi-sabi? As defined by architect Tadao Ando:
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It’s simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all.
Seems fitting that this is the photo for today. Today is one of those wabi-sabi sorts of days.
another wabi-sabi bit of nature
“Simplicity is the core of wabi-sabi. Nothingness is the ultimate. But before and after nothingness, simplicity is not so simple.” Leonard Koren
Wabi-sabi asks that the essence is pared down, but not stripped of its poetry and emotional warmth. That which binds the meaningful into a whole remains intact. Wabi-sabi does not lessen the quality that compels one to look at something, and then look again and again.
Tiny Diamonds
Sometimes the most ordinary bit of flora– brown, decayed– stands amidst the most amazing of surroundings. With the temperatures below 10˚, and the sun shining, the snow looked like a layering of bitty diamonds.
second in the wabi-sabi set
The bark of the Arizona Sycamore produces a pleasing composition, the pale greens and brown tones play well off each other.
This tree was photographed at Montezuma’s Castle National Monument, just north of Phoenix. The Monument protects Native American dwellings tucked into the breaks of a mountain. The property has many Arizona sycamores and velvet mesquites. Quite a lovely place in the fall, with Arizona’s moderately high temperatures offset by the welcoming shade of the tall Sycamores and a cooling stream running through the property.
This is the second photograph in the wabi-sabi series.
Wabi-Sabi--First in a Series
Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. –Leonard Cohen
I am working in my photography archives, inspired to begin a new project that celebrates the beauty in the old, the worn, the natural, the simple, the impermanent, the imperfect. The photos reflect the ancient Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, a combination of two words: wabi which translates as humble, and sabi which indicates the beauty found in the natural passing of time. It is an aesthetic which focuses on a gentle acceptance of transience, and of the quality of beauty in ephemeral things.
In part, perhaps wabi-sabi is to the East what beauty in perfection is to the West.
In applying the concept to your life, the practice of wabi-sabi invites you to slow down, attach value to a simpler life-style, and de-emphasize the material goods in your life. It offers encouragement to find beauty in the unexpected. It provides for a deeper connection with nature, and a deeper connection with the people around you.
The photograph of these rusted spokes is the first in a series. It was taken deep in the woods in a less-traveled part of Door County in northern Wisconsin last summer..
