I have done a variety of things in my life. I grew up in Rochester and flew Army helicopters in Alaska. I have skied on the Norton Sound at forty below. I have preached and prayed. I have been a "senior technical generalist" and run global web sites. I have paddled a canoe – I love the artistry of the single paddle.
And I've taken photographs. It was my dad who first taught me to think about what I was seeing as I looked through the viewfinder of the camera. I even spilled some developer in his basement darkroom.
It is only in the past few years, however, that I have taken to photography more seriously. Three years ago I opened my pearwood.deviantart.com account so I could comment on the artwork of others. I uploaded a couple of my paddling photographs and found to my surprise that I could hold my own.
Many have commented on the peace I capture in my images. To seek and see the beauty of all things and all people is not to deny the evil and ugliness in the world and people – including myself – but to see evil for what it is and combat it by seeing through it and beyond it.
There are others whose skill and task and art it is to open eyes to the ugliness and evil that exist. Such is a high art and a noble task, for not to see evil is to be defeated by it. Yet my skill and task and art is to open eyes to hope and the reality of the beauty and wholeness that can be.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Soli Deo Gloria
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