bsefran, Author at Barbara Sefran Art

Every exit is also an entrance

From the City Called Life series : Every Exit is also an Entrance

The saying, “When one door closes, another opens”, a similar way of putting it, often refers to stages of life, jobs, retirement, relationships, moving homes etc. Now in this Covid time, as so many of our usual “doors” are closed to us, we are, of necessity, learning to find new ways to satisfy our human needs.

I made this picture, a long time ago, of the entrance/exit of a nearby shopping mall, just as it was closing for the night. It is made from a juxtaposition of two photos, one of people entering, one of people exiting. Now I am reminded of that saying every time I go there!

For more about the Series: A City called Life

Sitting through the storms

This was the first picture in the Covid project from which this site evolved and was sent to a group of meditation-orientated friends.

It shows a person sitting (meditating or not, as you like) on a mountainside or hillside, the slope between where we are, and where we might like to be, and becoming still, despite the thunder and lightning crashing all around.

The lightning comes close, wavers around their head, but passes over them and they weather the storm. This time of pandemic is a terrible “storm” we are in now, and we don’t know what may happen to any of us, but we are all trying, each with what we are given, to BE in it, in the best way we can.

So whether you Meditate (sitting,walking or lying down), Question, or Inquire, Sit in Silence at home or in a Meeting, do Yoga, attend a place of worship, simply walk in appreciation of Nature in all its forms, delve into The Great Mystery, chant, practice compassion , work with your anxiety, or a great many other possibilities, I hope you can relate to this.

Tangled Garden: Waterlilies

Tangled Garden : Waterlilies

Abstract. Red.

Abstract. Red.

Here’s an abstract which I originally called “Message”. . . until it dawned on me that people might ask what the message was! And I had no message to share about this one ; it’s just an abstract!

No two people looking at someone or something will be seeing quite the same thing, nor all the history behind the person or object they think they are seeing.

If there is a “message” in this, it is: “As in art, so in life.” We all look at everything through our own personal “filters”: our own darkness, light, sharpness etc, and through our own life histories.

We name what we see, sometimes automatically without thought (red square!). Sometimes our naming is learnt, sometimes we just don’t know what to call that which we see or experience. But every thing and person holds so much more than is obvious at first sight. We know that, but sometimes we forget it.

To find out more about the technique, one of my main methods, and to see what this was made from, go to Art Methods.in the top menu on the Home page and zoom down to this picture.

Two from the Tangled Garden

Tangled Garden Series : Yellow Poppies

Tangled Garden Series: Bitten Leaf

Destination Unknown

This is not a mandala. Maybe it’s a questala! Looking towards the horizon, destination unknown.

Abstract

Just an Abstract! Any suggestions for a title?

If you are interested in methods, you can find the photo from which this one arose, something rather surprising, by looking for it in Art Methods

Passing

Passing

This was made from a photo of reflections on a wall. They did indeed pass, as soon as the sun moved on! When I first saw them, I thought of a group of cloaked figures walking past.

“Passing”: passing through Now, passing beyond the past, passing over the past, “passing on” … , passing over, passing for . . . So much depends on prepositions!

Soundings

Soundings

“To take soundings” means, amongst other things, to drop a line down into the depths, to find out what is down there, below the surface, measuring how deep down the line will go.

In these Covid times, where very little is “normal”, we have been forced, willy nilly, to take stock of our situations and face ourselves to a degree which many of us may have rarely had to do before. In this pandemic, with mega-uncertainty about most things, with outcomes depending on many factors beyond our control and constantly having to make choices whether to do this or that without sufficient information, we are called on to look very deeply into ourselves, to “take soundings” to find out what is really important to us and each in our own way, to find in these depths the resources to cope with it all. All this as horrors play out on the world stage.

And then there are the lesser problems! We are learning that there is more than one way to do many things: work, shop, meet, eat, travel, etc.

This is one of my “Concrete Abstracts” . If interested in the method, go to the page on Art Methods and zoom down to this pic

Untold Story Tree

“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.

We all have our stories, the ones we tell ourselves about who we are and the ones we tell other people about who we are! And they are not always quite the same!

The untold story is the one you don’t tell the world but carry around inside yourself, sometimes a painful story . Or perhaps it’s the third story to someones else’s two-sided story, or may be the imagined story you hold onto about someone else.

Maybe it’s “the real story”. Maybe it is not! It’s a good idea to take out old stories sometimes and give them a shake! (True of nations as well as people!!)