I Blinked & Spring is Gone…

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botanical, common weeds, eco, flower, garden, gardening, lavender, macro, macro photo, macro photography, natural, nature, painting, petal, petals, plant, plants, purple, sharon cummings, spring, summer, weeds, wild, wildflower, wildflowers

 

I went outside today to see if there were any flowers left blooming.  In Florida we have a short Winter and then a handful of nice Spring days with bursts of color everywhere.  The azaleas…….the bromeliads……and then it all dies………….9 months of HEAT. Not much grows in Summer except the grass and weeds.  All of my irises are brown and crispy looking.  The lilies look like beef jerky.  But this little group of tiny dancers was still celebrating, so I snapped them quickly before the sun was full in the sky.

I will be in my studio painting now for a good long while……..expect some new acrylic work very soon!

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Field T.R.I.P!!

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bold, botanical, botanical art, botanical photos, botanical prints, clock vine, clock vine flowers, colorful, floral, floral photography, florida, florida botanical gardens, flower, flowers, garden, gardening, gardens, lavender, macro, macro photography, natural, nature, olive flower, periwinkle, photo, photograph, photography, pinellas county, plants, pretty, purple, sharon cummings, spring, spring flowers, spring time, springtime, vibrant, vine, vines, wild flowers, wildflowers

 

Yesterday me and the hubby went on a little field trip.  We found our way to the Florida Botanical Gardens in Pinellas County. Somehow in all of these years in Tampa, this gem has been hidden from me.  We frequently drive down to Sarasota to enjoy the Selby Gardend, but this place was also amazing!  So many flowers all out in the open to see and smell.  The winding paths lead to many beautiful surprises.  Plus there is a little heritage village with old houses and buildings that were to be destroyed, but were saved and moved here. What a treat!

It is a macro lens photographer’s delight. 🙂

 

• The Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, Florida, USA include flora, fauna and natural resources in surroundings intended to inspire, educate and promote environmentally friendly techniques.

• Address: 12520 Ulmerton Rd, Largo, FL 33774

  (727) 582-2100

• Hours: 

  Open today · 7:00 am – 7:00 pm

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Gettin’ W.I.L.D.

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botanical, common weeds, eco, flower, garden, gardening, lavender, macro, macro photo, macro photography, mother nature, natural, nature, orange, pale yellow, petal, petals, plant, plants, purple, sharon cummings, soft, stamen, weeds, wild, wildflower, wildflowers, yellow

Wildflowers that is.

It’s Spring here in Florida and all of the beautiful flowers are in full bloom.  We went out on a photo shoot this weekend and there were so many to choose from.  Hibiscus and bougainvillea were plentiful.  And the stargazer lilies were absolutely stunning!  But as I was snapping away, I realized with a macro lens I can find beauty far beyond the typical floral fare.  So I got on my hands and knees and started looking at the plants and flowers along the raggedy fences. The little “weeds” and scrubs had my full attention for the day. I was absolutely amazed at the beauty I found in these things we normally mow down and look over.  It’s another world of magnificence!

The lavender specimen above revealed to me the most delicate purple hairs with dancing bursts of yellow rimmed in black. Seriously WILD!  The yellow soft surprise below opened it’s inner world to me with a show of orange and delicate veins.

Nature: I bow to you in even your seeming insignificance.  I no longer see “weeds” in my garden. 🙂

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Can You Do This?

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abstract, art, art for sale, art prints, balanced, bands, buy art, canvas, center, circles, contemporary, cool, energy, lavender, lotus, meditate, meditation, modern, neuropathy, painting, perfect, pink, purple, purple abstract, purple abstract art, purple and yellow, purple painting, purple print, rebuilder, ring, rings, sharon cummings, the rebuilder, transcendental meditation, vibration, vibrational, vibrations, wall art, yoga

I am talking about MEDITATION.  Can you meditate?  For years I tried to bring this practice into my life.  After all, I am a type A personality.  And I am not talking an A- either.  I excel at motivation and drive.  I do not stop until I get the job done kinda gal.  I always knew it would be good for me to learn how to mentally “check out” and just “be.  I just did not know how to accomplish it.  I read books, watched videos and listened to tapes.  But I just could not relax and I certainly could not just observe my thoughts and let them pass through like leaves in the wind without attaching myself to them.  It was frustrating which did not help me feel better.  In fact, it did the opposite.  Every time I’d try and fail I would feel like something was wrong with me.  Until…..

About 7 years ago I developed some peripheral neuropathy as a result of a stomach virus.  They call that side effect Guillain-Barré Syndrome and I was lucky that mine was mild.  Some people end up on life support for awhile and others die. I just had pins and needles in my hands and feet.  I got off easy.  Anyway, in a quest to get relief from this annoying buzzing in my extremities, I happened upon a device called a “Rebuilder” which was being used to treat diabetic neuropathy with great success.  It was FDA approved and insurance would cover it if there was a medical need.  Sign me up!

I ordered and received my equipment which consisted of a small rectangular box with 2 dials and electrodes that you attach to the bottom of your feet and palms of your hands.  I am not too keen on electricity passing through my body, but I gave it a go.  It felt kind of strange…like tickling but I tolerated it well.  Once I got used to my 30 minutes a day I started to realize something.  When I used it, I could mentally “check out” and not focus on my thoughts.  I did not fall asleep.  In fact, I’ve tried it for insomnia and it never works.  Instead it puts me into a deep relaxation where my brain can take a breather.  When I snap out of it.  And that is what I do…after about 15 minutes of relaxation I snap up and feel so refreshed it is amazing.

It did heal my neuropathy over time, but it gave me so much more.  The ability to relax and finally…..meditate!

Ever Been Hypnotized?

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art, art for sale, art prints, balanced, bands, block, blocks, bulls-eye, buy art, canvas, center, circles, cool, deep purple, energy, groovy, hypnosis, hypnotherapist, hypnotherapy, hypnotist, lavender, painting, perfect, periwinkle, purple, retro, ring, rings, self hypnosis, sharon cummings, square, squares, vibration, vibrational, vibrations, wall art

A few people have said that my new series “Transforming Energy” is hypnotizing.  I’ve never been hypnotized and am uncertain if it would even be possible.  I am pretty strong willed.  Also I am not very open to suggestion nor does the placebo effect work on me.  I do not believe everything I hear/see and I do not trust doctors very much.  Not that hypnotists are doctors, but to my mind they are close enough in principle.  Additionally as a survivor or childhood abuse I know I would not be comfortable with this practice even if it could work on me.  How could you trust anyone with your psyche like that?  I’d have to have my husband or sister with me and wouldn’t they get hypnotized too?  At any rate, I do find it fascinating.

The term “hypnosis” comes from the Greek word hypnos which means sleep. The words “hypnosis” and “hypnotism” both derive from the term “neuro-hypnotism” (nervous sleep) coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid around 1841. Braid based his practice on that developed by Franz Mesmer and his followers (“Mesmerism” or “animal magnetism“), but differed in his theory as to how the procedure worked.

There is a belief that hypnosis is a form of unconsciousness resembling sleep, but contemporary research suggests that hypnotic subjects are fully awake and are focusing attention, with a corresponding decrease in their peripheral awareness.^[7] Subjects also show an increased response to suggestions.^[8] In the first book on the subject, Neurypnology (1843), Braid described “hypnotism” as a state of physical relaxation accompanied and induced by mental concentration (“abstraction”).^{[9] Source Wikipedia}

I like the last description “state of physical relaxation” and “mental concentration”.  Maybe I will have to try “self” hypnosis. 😉

Creativity vs. Skill

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aromatherapy, botanical, botanical prints, bud, buds, calm, calming, cottage, essential oil, essential oils, field, fields, flora, floral, flower, flower garden, flowers, fragrant, france, french, french lavender, garden, health, herb, herb garden, herbs, homeopathy, lavender, lavender oil, macro, macro flower, macro photo, macro photography, micro, micro photography, natural healing, oils, peaceful, plant, plants, purple, relax, relaxation, relaxing, selby gardens, sleep, sleeping, traditional

 

As I continue my photographic journey I am realizing that a good picture has more to do with creativity than skill.  Skills can be learned, but imaginative expression cannot.  Having shifted my focus recently from my paint table to my camera, I am viewing the world a lot differently.  I am not looking to simply copy what other photographers are doing.  These days with the advent of virtually full-proof cameras, anyone can take a picture of a pretty flower and have it look really good.  I am looking for things that are slightly different.  Perfect flowers can be boring and I am anything but that.  I seek out the slightly edgy or spent.  I want flowers missing from the spray.  I look for torn edges and unpopular subject matter.  Sure, I will capture a perfectly beautiful rose when it happen to be in my visual path, but I am not looking for them.  

This piece titled “Lavender Dance” was a single shoot with missing flowers in a patch of perfectly lovely lavender sprigs.  I liked that nature had taken some of it’s beauty, yet left some for me to capture still….

My skill will improve over time and I hope my imagination will too!

My Fetish

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art, aura, blue mandala, blue violet, canvas, chakra, chakras, chant, circle, circle fetish, circles, crown, crown chakra, divine, divinity, energy, fetish, fractal, fractals, healing, hindi, hindu, hot pink, india, indian, iris, kaleidoscope, lavender, mandala, mandalas, mantra, meditation, namaste, new age, om, paintings, pattern, patterns, prints, purple, purple chakra, purple mandala, reiki, sacred, sacred mandala, sacred mandalas, sanskrit, shakti, sharon cummings, soul, spiritual, symmetrical, symmetry, third eye, vibration, vibrational, violet, wisdom, wise

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/sacred-crown-mandala-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

I’ve always had a thing for circles.  Every since I can remember, I would collect round pretty things.  I would constantly draw them.  I would intersect, separate or make a mosaic.  And as a career artists much of my work features circles and spirals.  To me they symbolize the continuity of all that the Universe entails.  Everything is connected and returns to the starting point.  For some reason lately, I have been seeing these beautiful mandalas everywhere.  It’s as if they were calling to me to create some.  I found some youtube videos showing how to make them with Photoshop but my brain just tuned out, but I did grab a few things from them….enough to figure it out myself by experimenting.  Here are my first mandalas…..I was surprised by their striking beauty.  I hope you like them too!

 

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/heart-aura-mandala-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

 

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/sacred-voice-mandala-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

You can learn more about these sacred symbols here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala