Anything else you would like to tell us about your art?
Humans have deep connections to the natural world; ones born of the evolutionary and cultural histories that have shaped our interactions with the other species that inhabit the Earth. These connections, expressed by all cultures, take the form of rich emotional and spiritual ties to the natural world. This sense of wonder, felt when listening to the courting duet of a pair of Great-horned Owls or when marveling at the beauty and migratory feats of Broad-winged Hawks may be shelved as the tedium and press of life catches up with us. To rekindle that wonderment only requires us to allow the child that still exists within to teach our adult selves to be childlike again.
My name is Jim Stewart. I am the son of a salt miner and an elementary school teacher. Arriving in Wisconsin 43 years ago from western New York I fell in love with the state’s natural areas. For all of those many years I have felt, along Wisconsin’s Aldo Leopold, that beauty and perception “grow at home as well as abroad.” Now, with the luxury (and shortness) of time that comes with age I am able to play, camera in hand, in the natural areas that dot Dane County, surrounding counties as well as other mid-western states—jewels that provide sustenance to diverse wildlife. My interest is to use my photography as a means to better see by asking, over and over, two questions posed by Rachel Carson in her remarkable book The Sense of Wonder (1956/1998):
For most of us, knowledge of our world comes largely through sight, yet we look about with such unseeing eyes that we are partially blind. One way to open your eyes to the unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself.
What if I had never seen this before?
What if I knew I would never see it again? (p. 67)
Seeing a a Barn Owl on my grandfather’s farm when about seven years old and then, a few years later, a Red-tailed Hawk capturing a Meadow Mouse along the first-base line of a ball diamond carved out of an abandoned field next to John McGuire’s house in Retsof, New York were instrumental experiences in shaping my lifelong love of raptors and of the natural world more generally. Regardless of taxonomic group, familiarity, or conspicuousness, or proximity of the landscapes to home, my photography has served as a reminder to me to cherish and attend to that which is a part of my everyday life; even though sometimes in the press of the day to day, I don’t take the time to notice. While the original purpose of making photographs served personal motivations there is, I hope, something of value to be shared; something that goes beyond the images themselves and serves for others the same reminder that my photography serves for me—slow down, at least for a few minutes each day, to wonder at and observe some small corner of the natural world that may not have been previously seen or, if seen, appreciated. I invite exhibit viewers to join with the tradition of Wisconsin naturalists, John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Frances Hammerstrom in celebrating, marveling at and protecting our state’s natural heritage.
Jim Stewart—A Sense of Wonder Photography
My name is Jim Stewart. I am the son of a salt miner and an elementary school teacher. Arriving in Wisconsin 43 years ago from western New York I fell in love with the state’s natural areas. For all of those many years I have felt, along Wisconsin’s Aldo Leopold, that beauty and perception “grow at home as well as abroad.” Now, with the luxury (and shortness) of time that comes with age I am able to play, camera in hand, in the natural areas that dot Dane County, surrounding counties as well as other mid-western states—jewels that provide sustenance to diverse wildlife. My interest is to use my photography as a means to better see by asking, over and over, two questions posed by Rachel Carson in her remarkable book The Sense of Wonder (1956/1998):
For most of us, knowledge of our world comes largely through sight, yet we look about with such unseeing eyes that we are partially blind. One way to open your eyes to the unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself.
What if I had never seen this before?
What if I knew I would never see it again? (p. 67)
Seeing a a Barn Owl on my grandfather’s farm when about seven years old and then, a few years later, a Red-tailed Hawk capturing a Meadow Mouse along the first-base line of a ball diamond carved out of an abandoned field next to John McGuire’s house in Retsof, New York were instrumental experiences in shaping my lifelong love of raptors and of the natural world more generally. Regardless of taxonomic group, familiarity, or conspicuousness, or proximity of the landscapes to home, my photography has served as a reminder to me to cherish and attend to that which is a part of my everyday life; even though sometimes in the press of the day to day, I don’t take the time to notice. While the original purpose of making photographs served personal motivations there is, I hope, something of value to be shared; something that goes beyond the images themselves and serves for others the same reminder that my photography serves for me—slow down, at least for a few minutes each day, to wonder at and observe some small corner of the natural world that may not have been previously seen or, if seen, appreciated. I invite exhibit viewers to join with the tradition of Wisconsin naturalists, John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Frances Hammerstrom in celebrating, marveling at and protecting our state’s natural heritage.
Jim Stewart—A Sense of Wonder Photography
