Reading Between the Lines - A Visual Meditation, is a project currently in development that acts as a guide to finding clear and deep presence through the use of photography and nature. Surprising and transformative images invite the viewer into a hidden world of flowers, taking the viewer on a visual journey. What can we learn when we allow ourselves to go inside, to look deeply into something? Can we learn, if we don't experience something in relation to the subject? If you could climb into a flower, how wonderful would it feel to be in petal arms? This is perhaps where imagination, slowing down and allowing the mind to be still, opens more space for experiencing and understanding. Is there a kaleidoscope of colors arranged in an unexpected or new way? Is there a point where the familiar loses the boundary of space you previously relied upon for understanding? Imagine how wondrous it would be to rest in a space where words get left behind, whereby being, knowing, is allowed to come forth. An array of images takes in the subject and its environment, then zooms-in and goes deep, looking for new and interesting components, patterns, colors, and textures. The viewer experiences unexplored and unappreciated aspects of flowers through visualization, leading to a level of intimacy we are typically separated from. Evaluating the visual input with what is previously known, leaving the known behind and going deeper, finding more, is the objective of the material.
Retired from the field of Information Technology, Laurel has time to pursue questions of consciousness and life. A natural analyst, she uses her experience with systems and systems practice to explore the potential of life energy through the observation of nature. With a focus on flowers, their demonstration of fractal geometry and their metaphoric exemplar of life, Laurel finds correlates to better understand her own material reality. She looks deeply, not to see the flower, but to discover its nature by looking closely at its various parts. Allowing light to guide her attention, to look for the energetic source of the flower, the point from which it unfolds and unfolds again. Becoming more with each opening, until it reaches its full being and begins its slow retreat and transformation into its next form.
Laurel uses proven strengths to deliberately and strategically recognize and bring attention to the unique aspects of the individual subject, whether a database, a person or a flower. She feels a desire and responsibility to share methods of input and information integration through her photography, to enhance both peace and excitement of the mind, allowing more space and desire for understanding.