On Wednesday, December 28, 2016, we enjoyed a successful exhibition of photographs of treasured objects from the home of Stiny de Jong, given new life – transposed, re-imagined and renewed out-of-doors in the natural settings she relished. Consider, from this juxtaposition, what it is to be at home, surrounded by simply lovely mementos, gathered from artisans and nature, that keep us connected, beyond walls, with the whole of creation, in all its array.
These photographs, by Stiny’s son Henry de Jong, were created shortly after her home, lovingly crafted over many years, became an estate to be quickly dismantled and dispersed. In Killbear Provincial Park (a far away place she would have loved) and the Ball’s Falls gorge (a place close to home and to her heart), objects of her affection went looking for meaning and for an enduring place in a personal cosmos.
The collection of eighteen, small to large canvas prints, along with a display of the objects and a video impression of Stiny’s home was featured in an evening of fellowship with family and friends.
Over the light and the dark runs a cleft, full depth, crossed over by love.A candle’s glow, unlike the sun’s, draws close, lights bright but leaves the shadows gloam.At water’s edge the light rolls in — and out, and only shells remains of life — full bodied once but now remote.In the ruff of nature’s worth dangle pearls of mother earth.Simple toys from days gone by made real by whirling senses.No rock hewn large is big enough to quell the view of solemn introspection.Too soon are gathered fallen leaves in autumn views whose splendour flees.Colours, once hung high and in the light, now float and sink in bubbling streams beneath the leaden skies.The elemental forms reverberate and grace our lives with style.We watch in vain who seek to find forever more than passing glory.Shadows, deep when morning comes, thrown off by dancers in the gathering sun.In the cleft between infinities, we hold in hand but echoes of a world whose scale we glimpse but cannot comprehend.A splash of vase on gray-swept land brings home a world at our command.For such as this, so finely wrought, let us ever seek to glaze our lives with care and light and thought.Papered creature in papyrus reeds finds light and life beyond our dreams. (Origami by Silas Vriend)There is no end to gathering stones and such from light-grazed distant shores, but only a few, cupped by conscience, are needed to make the gathering sure.Take rest awhile on rippling shores for quiet, hued reflection.In sun-rimmed silica vessels our souls find refreshment.
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