I am a priest in the Episcopal Church and have served many congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have a deep interest in interreligious experience. During the Pandemic, I wholeheartedly embraced artmaking as solace and public statement and in this time, I have rediscovered my first joy.

Some years ago, I visited the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the original modern-day photographers. In his essay “the Pencil of Nature”, Talbot was led to reflect:

“… on the inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature’s painting which the glass lense of the Camera throws upon the paper in its focus – fairy pictures, creations of a moment, and destined as rapidly to fade away.”

I love this description of the ephemeral nature of photography and I find this spirit in all of my creative pursuits. What seems like a mistake becomes a source of beauty. I find the contemplative act of long periods of looking and gazing at “what is in front of me right now” – beholding, in religious language – to be a life-giving spiritual practice.

sg+

January 2025