There are always a few who get at and feel the undercurrent, and these simply use the surface appearances selecting them and using them as tools to express the undercurrent, the real life.
If I cannot feel an undercurrent then I see only a series of things. They may be attractive and novel at first but soon grow tiresome.
- Robert Henri, The Art Spirit
I watched a big bird (vulture maybe) flying as a sailor along the air currents yesterday...never flipping a wing feather that I could see, but she just coasted from here to there on these invisible warm updrafts. She somehow could feel her way forward on them, never doubting their reality. Updrafts and soaring birds happen a lot where the land crinkles with mountains and valleys. I wonder how they happen in the flatlands, but won't pursue that question today. These birds know that warm air rises, and thus certain times of day they will expect that to happen from the edges of cliffs...and can be photographed as they are seen by humans. My big bird yesterday was enjoying a free ride with just the valley floor below her, perhaps warmed by the two major highways that stream along it's sides, and probably not from the little river which flooded 5 months ago, for now it isn't big enough to offer much difference in air quality. I do wonder how an updraft happened in mid day for her to enjoy...but she knows these things, and I don't.
Invisible currents...in air and water. What are these forces saying to me? They are movements of an element, which can be felt, but not easily observed. A rip current comes to mind, or an airplane hitting a sudden "air pocket" or downdraft perhaps, where a plane suddenly looses altitude while flying steadily forward. Disturbances in the natural flow are they?
1 comment:
Undercurrents will pull you along whether you realize it or not. As for flat land, the vultures soar all day so it must just be the heat rising up from the earth.
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