Friday, September 14 5-730 pmOpen House Saturday, September 15 10 am-5 pm, Artist Talk 12 pm“To be in the Carla Massoni Gallery is often to feel a sense of sanctuary. I can breathe, find myself suddenly exhaling. a door opens to being present, fully absorbed.
The places that draw me to them with camera in hand are a similar experience. The sanctuary of a well known shore, a field, a garden, a path to the sea, a greenhouse, a wood, a marsh – I can breathe in these places. I find myself exhaling, fully present, absorbed.
I venture close in order to photograph what I feel – spirit by way of form and light. Sometimes this happens after I (or others) have brought a small piece of such a place home. Focusing on these forms and experiencing them physically and sensually can open a door for me into something else that is unseen. When that happens these bits of shell and stone, glass, rock, leaf, reed, and blossom become my lifeline to spirit, and so, in turn, the world becomes my lifeline to you.
From the time I step behind the camera I hone each image – photographing, selecting, printing, presenting. It is practice for honing my own life that I may live better every day, and that I may love better every day.
Because I have spent my whole adult life as an artist expressing what is in my heart, I understand on some level what it is like to find the courage to speak out. I am sharing with Living out Loud, the program my sister founded, because I love her, because I desire to serve others who are “stepping up” in their own lives, and because it feels right to use my photographs as agents for healing and lightheartedness.”
– Celia Pearson
Vessels by Joe Dickey