Getting a Glimpse of Creation
In nature, it is not common for any wildlife to make itself obvious to humans and usually it will look for ways to disguise itself, however, when humans are not present, they will often be relaxed, or going about their daily instinctive behaviors such as hunting, sleeping etc. My desire is to give us a peek into the secret lives and normal conditions of all of creation. I believe the Creator took great joy in all of His natural creation. He made it, and if we look closely and observe it, we can see a bit of His personality in it all. His wonders never cease, His beauty never fails and it is continually hanging every day.
God gave us a creative mind.
I’ve been asked, how do I get my compositions? Well, I am outdoors as much as can be. With camera in hand, hiking boots on, and the willingness to travel, I explore as many new places and scenes as I can. Always searching for a new and different background scene or subject to experience . It is not often my subject will be exactly where or how I want it to be for a composition, so I do have to take trips to places that have more controlled environments such as wildlife preserves and refuges, elk preserves. or yes, even zoos. My buffalo painting was from a private buffalo farm preserve in Oregon. He did not like being photographed and nearly killed me in the process. But thankfully he was aware of his electric wire fence and stopped just short of tossing me into the air. I’m sure you would have laughed. My wolf painting was a combination of a hike in the Rockies and a trip to a gray wolf refuge located in the State of Washington called Northwest Trek. I prefer the refuges and preserves that have wildlife in their natural environments as apposed to zoos. Zoos may be a good source for education, study, artistic and photographic details however, I never enjoy seeing the confines of the environment.
We are stewards of the earth and all that is in it.
I’m not a conservation activist, or an environmental activist. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about them both. In fact I care a great deal about both. I believe we were put on this earth to be responsible stewards of all creation. As God said to Adam & Eve, Genesis 1:28 says, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And he told them to manage the garden and that garden was Gods home!
So God has given us humans a higher intelligence (when we use it) that is above all the natural creation to manage it responsibly or to be a good stewards of it. None of which is possible without the help of God Himself after all, He did created it. We must never forget that we too, are created from God and therefore we are dependent on Him to help us understand and show us all the ways to take care of the life on this planet which includes each other.
I believe together, we are called to assist in managing the balance of nature and to protect it from the imbalance of land raping, and ungoverned abuse and destruction, for the purposes of greed and selfish gain. However, God did say “be fruitful and multiply” so we have to realize there is going to be development and things will need to increase, such as the need for resources to help with the progress of mankind which is a necessary part of society. It really comes down to managing the world’s resources with respect, responsibility and balance, and for the ultimate reason…to *GLORIFY” the Creator of it all. God created us and he invited Adam and Eve to be a helpers with Him with that creation. So we all have His creative energy inside us. The real question is; how will we use it?
