China Decoration
by Richard Adams
(Photograph, 2004)
St. Augustine's Episcopal Church - Wilmette, IL
frarico@sbcglobal.net
 

 
These six frames are part of a celebratory collection of some seventy-five intimate, close-up digital images of flowers that I have arranged into a computer-desktop "slideshow." The sequence of images appears on one's computer screen only after a pause of half a minute or more. I suppose that -- at least part of the time -- such pauses happen because the person seated at the computer is a little bit stumped about what to do next.
 
Then these images appear. They have transportive power; the result is that the user forgets the problem at hand and goes on a brief but total re-creative break and  shazam! -- an answer to the problem emerges from a freshly activated intuition! Friends and strangers who have seen the sequence have observed to me unprompted that it makes them see God wonderfully at work, which gladdens me, for one of my highest artistic values is to make myself as transparent as possible in my work!
 
I rejoice at these opportunities to participate in life as one of God's beloved co-creators. And I am grateful for a way to share these moments I am given, moments when I brush against the Creator's cheek as he breathes beauty onto the earth!