Artist Statement
“A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.” ~ Marcel Proust
“Every day begins with its own unique weather. Weather is the great mood signifier and mood creator and mood changer. My mood for the day begins with whatever weather I am waking into and walking into, because, my ritual, for years and years, is to rise and then walk, in as natural a setting as possible, wherever I am, whatever the weather. I appreciate the experience of rain, mud, ice, hot sun, dry air and being outdoors––as long as there is no lightning! And my daily practice is to have my attention arrested by something from nature that calls to me, and to take this photo. I sometimes take many––but at least one––that feels beautiful and true, natural and organic and spontaneous. I only take what I consider to be found images––not planned, not arranged, not cleaned up. Not choreographed by my hand, but composed by my eye, my vision, my impulse and instinct.
This selection of my daily photos, Weather to Call Home, was inspired by Feral’s theme of weather, and my engaging with the idea of the troposphere––as the Spaceplace Nasa website writes is “a pretty nice layer [of the atmosphere] to call home.” I let lines from the definition of troposphere inspire my selection of these photos, taken along the Charles River, (my actual home) and other places where I have felt at home during travels, including the Ardeche region of France, the desert near Santa Fe, New Mexico, a bird sanctuary on Longboat Key, Florida, along the Gulf of Mexico, in the Chilmark hills and beaches of Vineyard Sound, Martha’s Vineyard, and in Truchas, New Mexico.
In all these experiences of taking these photos, I felt grateful for both the astonishing beauty and the stark truth churned up by troposphere––that we will die––and may accept the imperative that every kind of weather offers to us to be here now.”
Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator from Boston. She’s author of three poetry chapbooks, girl in tree bark (Nixes Mate, 2019), Tree of the Apple (Two of Cups Press), and All These Cures (Lit House Press). Her poems, prose and photos are published in many literary journals including Bellevue Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Crab Fat, Storm Cellar, Corium & Tiferet, and frequently in Feral. Kelly serves on the Board of the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG), and produces the Bi-Monthly Open Mic Writer Series attended by women worldwide. She blogs her daily nature photos & creative writing at kellydumar.com/blog.