PHOTOGRAPHER'S STATEMENT: Jennifer Holmes

"Believe one who knows: you will find more in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters." - St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153)

"Inspiration, even passion, is indeed necessary for the creative art, but the knowledge of the Science of Space, of the Theory of Proportions, far from narrowing the creative power of the artist, opens for him an infinite variety of choices within the realm of symphonic composition." - Matila Ghyka (Romanian royalty, educator, and writer)

The mathematical principles and patterns that recur throughout the universe are made visible in flowers, shells, crystals, plants, insects, storms, molecules, the human body and absolutely every living and man made thing. These principles are also expressed in the symbolic language of folk sayings and fairy tales, myth and religion, art and architecture.

Here are some examples. Ancient Hindu priests used circular mandalas, an example of the monad, to practice focusing the mind. The preeminent symbol for divinity is the triad, as with the holy trinities, and seen in architectural symbols like that of the luminous triangular eye on the pyramid on a dollar bill. Islamic tile pattern and the Hindu meditative diagram are based upon the hexagon. The yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz begins as a golden spiral, a representation of the pentagon. Four basic "key" designs of classic architectural ornament indicate the four ancient elements, and chessboards are a clear example of how we use the square. We can also discover musical harmonies in painting. For instance, Botticelli, perhaps best known for his depiction of Venus being born by arising from the foam of the sea atop a scallop shell, composed his works using the harmonious proportions of the eight toned diatonic musical scale.

"Human ingenuity may make various inventions...but it will never devise any inventions more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than Nature does; because in her inventions nothing is wanting and nothing is superfluous." - Leonardo da Vinci

Have you ever really taken a close look at a pine cone, or a leaf, or a bivalve shell and wondered about it's structure, and the universal principles of creation that cause each and every pine cone, leaf or shell to be formed as they are? How about the bubbles in sea foam or a bubble bath? Ice crystals and human lung alveoli both form a hexagonal net. Take a look at the bottom of any familiar fruit and see the pentagonal remains of it's five petaled flower. Ever notice the pattern on a sand dollar or the shape of a starfish? The next time you are about to eat an apple or pear, cut it in half at it's equator to see the star pattern in which it's seeds are arranged. Every time we look at any leaf, flower, fruit, creature or crystal we are gazing at the invisible energy web made visible as a pattern of living cells or molecular expressions of mathematical certainties.

"The beautiful is the manifestation of the secret laws of nature... When nature begins to reveal her open secret to a person, he feels an irresistible longing for her most worthy interpreter, Art." - Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 - 1832, German poet)

The ancient philosophers saw the natural world of earth, water, air, and fire within us as the quatrain, or four elements, of our soul. With this inner symbolism these four elements are seen as four levels of motivation within ourselves. Square labyrinths and those built around squares are metaphors of our wanderings through the earth, symbolically within ourself, and our path of transcendence.

Of course my goal here is not about guiding you on your path of transcendence, but perhaps it is to help open your eyes to the beauty and the wonder of our natural world; to perhaps notice a little more closely the strange wonder surrounding us. For this showing of my work, I have chosen to focus on the elements of earth and water in these images, exploring the various recurring patterns and the tactile experience of movement and texture.