Sky Watch Friday ... What Is Art ?

My Letter To The Editor was printed in yesterday's Public Opinion.

The Northeastern Artists Network "Deck The Walls" annual Art Show took place here last weekend. If you took time to appreciate these artists, we thank you. Perhaps you saw the show while attending Laura Dahle's Empty Bowl Project which was held in conjunction and benefits People Against Child Hunger. If you did not attend, intentionally or otherwise, please consider these thoughts.

Art is the process of arranging items, with symbolic significance, in order to influence our senses, emotions, and intellect. Art is expressed through music, literature, movies, sculpture, painting, photography, carving, jewelry, glass works, pottery, collage, and fiber.

Long ago, art meant skill. That changed during the romantic period when it became "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science." Finally, art is made with one purpose only: to stimulate thought and emotion.

I take the explanations of art from my dictionary, Google, and Wickipedia, to make my point: It's important. It's good stuff. It would not be aligned with Religion and Science if it were not.

To ignore Art is a mistake. To take it for granted is shameful. We should see it and dare to understand it. If we don't stimulate thought and emotion through Art generated in our world as well as our community, what are we doing ?

You may be a struggling wage earner with several jobs. You're a farmer, a highly paid executive, or a business owner. You govern us or sit on a board ... it matters not. If you fail to take an interest in the Art created in Watertown, you fail your community. You fail your world. You fail yourself.

Opinions make the world go round ... and so does Art. Check out Sky Watch Friday. It's your world. Photo: the old church turned welding shop, Tinkertown, South Dakota.

What A Beautiful Mess I'm In ...

There is no better feeling than screaming down the highway and seeing something that takes your breath away. For me, it's a must stop situation. This happens to me often here on The Prairie. It's a rare occasion for me to ignore the call to capture a scene that may only last a moment or so.

This week it was a field of Sunflowers, under a wavy gravy sky west of Clark, South Dakota. And one lone Sunflower spoke to us all.

At Sky Watch Friday the Earth is calling to you from every corner.

A Rare & Scientific Sky Watch Friday ...

These trees are ours. They border the north side of our 3.22 acres. The dirt belongs to a guy named Steve, who rents it out to a guy named Nathan. Nathan just harvested his wheat and what you see here, the soil, is all glacial debris that has traveled from Canada with the glaciers. It's very handy to be married to a Scientist.

A simple blue sky without clouds is rare here on The Prairie. Check out Sky Watch Friday where rare can sometimes be the norm ... or not.