Blog: Contrasts from Costa Rica

Featured image: Beach Sand

I recently spent time fishing off the coast of Costa Rica.  From the boat, the rainforest looks like a dense, thick, impenetrable green.  When the land meets the vast never-ending openness of the sky and ocean, I was awe-struck at the immense contrast between the two.  

Human existence is full of contrast - people see things differently, and often we don’t see eye-to-eye.  When I see this sort of contrast in life, I find myself looking to nature as a way to find resolution. I ask myself how nature would resolve this contrast. 

Take the example of the ocean and sky vs. the rainforest.  The contrast is the opposition in the same space. For me the open-ness of the sky and water, the flow, the rhythm, the movement, resolve the contrast – the fluidity counters the opposition – the swells of the ocean flow into the sky until there is barley color that divides them. 

The works I created in Costa Rica these past few days have been very chaotic and dense – like the rainforest.  I keep going back and reworking them resolve the contrast, to make room for space – to clear it out.  

As people we are born individuals – like a single tree in the forest.  As we grow, the density and complexity of the forest can smother us. But if we clear a space we can illuminate something unique, resolving the contrast and opening a space for a new flowing and growing idea.  

That clear, flowing, new idea – that is creativity. That is art. 

everything natural,

everything infinite, 

everything yes, 

yes yes yes