Straddling the Ephemeral

There are certain sights that pull my feet off the ground and leave me feeling like a specter in the world of the living. Most of they include things that I know I would have trouble representing visually. Like if I had my sketchbook, I could only draw the image by blowing sand across the pages.

In Canada, those sights include the first time you can see your breath, or when hoarfrost turns a skeletal tree into an icy feather duster. In Afrika it was the glowing embers shining like gems after a field fire, or just smoke. There is always a lot of thick, black smoke in Afrika.

St. Lawrence Ice Floe by Deline Lottering

While in Quebec City last winter, I remember seeing ice floes on the St. Lawrence Seaway. I remember staring at them because it was neither liquid nor solid. Standing there, the river seemed to me like a road built out of clouds. Like an earthly version of the Milky Way, snaking around the isle of Stadacona.

Light House by Julienne Lottering

In a family of visual artists, one thing we all have in common is the desperation of trying to capture those ephemeral images that somehow seem to straddle different worlds. I can already see the next series of paintings I will make. Here's a sample pic: