Introducing two folios of photographs which are reminiscent of recent explorations and journeys on the Island with vague destinations in mind. At times, there was a To the Lighthouse urge to Morant Point to reach a place where the sun first rises on the Rock, and a marker for etching the geographical outlines of the mysteries-revelations within.

The Images can be viewed in the Photo Gallery as:

• ZED Mix Blessing 1A
• ZED Mix Blessing 2

From the Lighthouse will travel through the haven of Bath, wading in its heated springs, treading up the Sulphur River, where the gift of rainfall is measured in the memory of the force of the stream or the placidity of its pools.

Poetry enters the staging to help unwrap phenomenon such as a trickle emerging from stone and setting its own course like the the Plantation Garden River, which is the only one of Jamaica's 120 or so rivers flowing east-west. The others, because of the mountain's predominant orientations, flow north-south.

An instinct to pursue follows the River as as it plays hide-and seek, to eventually arrive at Holland Bay, but not before tripping through the maze of the cane fields at Duckenfield and some bitterness entrained in this sweet crops history.
Will there be a pristine beach, a pleasurable relief where sea and river mingle? No...rather a depository of careless detritus scarring the Blessing.

The poetry in these folios are not intended for publication. With the exception of Mix Blessing, which served as a travel journal, I wish to acknowledge the "Caribbean" poets complementing the photos, and the assistance they provide in texturing the daily lives, landscapes and meditations seeking a peaceful balance...before the next correction.

Zed does the Plantation Garden River not flow west to east and not vice versa? Also there are rivers flowing south to north as well.

Spooky Dude...OOPS!...Very careless of me in the description...shows how Mix Up my typing-mental state can become. Thanks for both corrections. The "Plantation" (Plantain) Garden River does flow eastward in the direction to Holland Bay...and yes, I ought to have been more directional in the river flows according to the sloping of the mountains such as: north-south (Black R., Rio Minho...), and south-north (Rio Grande in Portland; Martha Brae in Trelawny); White River in St Ann).
Spooks...I didn't expect "editing" from you, but I stand corrected and grateful.

Another gross error, which I can't fall back on poetic license to explain, is that the river in question is not the Plantation Garden River, but the Plantain Garden River. Apparently, in haste to place an ancestral plantation into the travel-poem, the "plantain" was consumed.

Since the mountains (of Jamaica) run primarily from west to east, the rivers generally flow to the north and the south to reach the coast. Those that flow south tend to be longer than those flowing north, as the mountains in the south are further away from the coast than those in the north...Most of Jamaica's rivers are not navigable for any distance - the Black River holds the distinction of being navigable up to about 15 miles from the river mouth. (Source: Real Jamaica Vacations)

Yes I spotted the error in the name, but I did not have time to check it so I let that one pass..next time I will be more careful, LOL!! Well, some 'editings' are useful, the ones that enlighten.

Hi Zed,

Enjoyed the pics. Loved seeing folk as they are rather than too posed.
Am grateful for one photo in particular since a three year old was able to see her Daddy for the first time in a long time as he's rather camera shy and we're a long way from JA. She loved the pic. One Love. Jah Bless.

Kazie...would you mind pointing out the folio/number of the camera-shy person to whom you are referring...as there are several potential "daddies" in the Treasure Beach home-portion.
I, too, am grateful to all the imagistic or other-wise encounters that enrich my life.

Hey Zed,

Our proud Daddy is Guilty whom I believe you captured at Calabash House at the annual art workshop. Our very proud daughter is Ras Enya age three. It was fun hearing her tell her Daddy how tired he looked with his 'whitey' beard and that he must rest before he is too old. The folio is Mixed Blessings 1A photo no 32.
Maybe take a trip up to his shop in Great Bay he's a prolific artist with an extensive art collection to inspire magic.

Thanks for the photos. The colors are amazingly vibrant. Loved the camera angles too.

Oh Kazie...Sorry for not recognizing yours and Ras Enya's name from Right On...Of course I know the amazingly intuitive paintings by Guilty and I believe that everyone, who cares for his Ab-Stract-Ions should collect his work, before he becomes beyond our price point (like a Harmony Hall Gallery "discovery")...He is an artist who absorbs the lively, spiritual, sensual environment all around and lays it down so beautifully on whatever surface pleases.

While circling Back Seaside, with johncrow, I've enjoyed happening upon his drift-odds-ends/painting-strewn studio/cotch at times when he must have been wandering about collecting the materials of his love's labours found.
I smile when I see, not a tired Guilty, but a Natural Mystic, drawing on the sacramental-vegetal Blessing. (nuh?)

Of Note: Two of Guilty's paintings (an Abstraction and a Portrait) can be see in the photo of your beloved.

Hi Zed,

I am in agreement with your sentiment. Guilty is indeed a mystic. As with many artists the dedication to his divine inspired creativity often is a struggle and financially challenging. However, as I always, in all ways, say to the man, 'It only takes one other crazy person to discover the genius and the collection is sold for millions.' Hold the faith. Believe in yourself. Trust your intuition.
One day Guilty's time will come, I know it is within his lifetime, and soon. He deserves it!
One day. One Love. Jah Bless.

Your art too is magical. I laughed. I cried. I long f'home. I feel closer to home in your photography. One day. One Love. Jah Bless.
Kazie and Enya

Thanks Kazie...as your thoughts came tumbling out, I wondered to myself if you and Guilty had ever read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince to Enya. I don't know why exactly, but for its sense of childlike innocence in the "little miracles" (some sub-atomic) that pass us by at the peril of our fulfillment.

There is someone out in these ethereal spaces, who is spooked when "quotes" are painted into our understandings and tales. In this case, choh, let me fly freely with this aviator-inspirer, who can see beyond...

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”

“It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.”

“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.

“I showed the grown ups my masterpiece, and I asked them if my drawing scared them. They answered why be scared of a hat? My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince

“What he had yearned to embrace was not the flesh but a down spirit, a spark, the impalpable angel that inhabits the flesh.”

Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than iteself. ”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Wind, Sand, and Stars

“You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night...You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.”

“No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Flight to Arras

Hey,

You are a man of humanistic philosophies. Thank you for the tip.
And today Zed and Z both quote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart." I love.

One Love. One Heart. Out of many one people.
Jah Bless.

Kazie...I was taken away by your observation: As with many artists the dedication to his divine inspired creativity often is a struggle and financially challenging....dedication to the divine, a sense of intricate living in all things, which some deign "inanimate"...no...no...no, in the transcendental approach of Native Americans to the Great Spirit and Earth Mother, we breathe and flow with all that we take into our bodies in necessity and festivity...rock and plant, and as Christian mystic, St Francis exclaimed: Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures...especially Brother Sun...Who is the day through whom You give us light...And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour...Of You Most High, he bears the likeness...Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars... In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

I won't soon forget the pleasure and honour of discovering the "revelations" of a humble intuitive mystic artist, Brother Everald Brown at the Harmony Hall Gallery in Ochie. In his densely vegetated paintings and shamanistic carvings, all "be-ings" shared, if not a polytheistic equivalence, most certainly a harmony and righteous behaviour.
His stringed gourd instruments were painted with stories that came alive in the playing and his ceremonies...extensions of the dance and songs of the divine.

In a review of a past exhibit of Brother Brown's and other Intuitives' presentations at the National Gallery of Jamaica, a critic had these insights:
These art-makers are the world's self-taught, visionary or, as they are known in Jamaica, "Intuitive" artists. Also called "outsiders" because they operate beyond the cultural mainstream, these art innovators paint, make sculpture or sometimes create gardens or monuments that do not fall into familiar art categories. In recent decades, Jamaica has become known for having produced a significant number of such notably individualistic talents. Some of the Jamaican Intuitives may even be better known overseas than they are at home.

In Brother Browns case, his roots deepened in Kingston where he founded the Assembly of the Living, "a self-styled mission of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, evoking in his art a "farmer mystic theme", before actually moving his family to a rural farm in the parish of St Ann, where "his art flourished, as did his spiritual life."

Referring to two of his emblematic paintings, "Bush Have Ears" (1976) and "Mysteries of the Stones" (1984), the critic regales:
"Both honor nature's divine spirits. With their intricate, abstract brushwork, they could easily hang alongside schooled artists' creations from the Surrealist and Abstractionist movements of the 20th century....Brown's mature works "reflect a vision of nature and the land in which everything is imbued with spiritual meaning and ancient truths...Brown once said he saw "visions of the mysteries of God" that he felt compelled to "impart to the world."

Kazie, when it comes to art movements, and academic tastes, a cautionary note is floated for perked ears to hear: Harmony Hall's owner/art dealer, Annabella Proudlock, asks the question, that after the ex-piration of the charter wave of Intuitive artists: "Where will the next generation of talented, self-taught artists come from? How will we find them?"

Some art dealers and curators have begun wrestling with those questions. However, David Boxer (curator of the National Gallery) said, "even now, mainstream, middle-class Jamaican taste has not fully embraced the Intuitives, partly for class-related reasons." He noted, too, that some academically trained artists have resented the critical praise their self-taught counterparts have received from abroad.

Some Tings to suss over...Walk Good along your chosen and faithful paths.

New York Times LINK:...The Vitality of Jamaica's 'Intuitive" Artists
www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/style/02iht-jamart_ed3_.html?pagewanted=all


Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord, All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong, and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all weather's moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.

Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and pure.

Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon for love of You and bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those who endure in peace, By You Most High, they will be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape. Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.

No second death can do them harm. Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.
Canticle of St Francis of Assisi

"Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty."...David Hume (1711-1776::Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, essayist & skeptic...spooky)

"Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder"; a much more succinct way of saying the same thing. Is it true however? Is there nothing as objective beauty? The sunset is it not beauty in itself whichever eyes are beholding it? I would say that beauty is quality in things themselves, but not all minds can see the beauty. Same with ugly, there are things which are ugly in themselves, but various minds may perceive them differently. What do you think Z?