Synchronous.

Some things appear to happen synchronously...images speak to other images, words to words, experiences to experiences. Whenever you turn on your awareness, you start to notice how the things around you connect in ways that may take you by surprise. 

My friend, the poet-artist-musician Spencer Bell (who died in late 2006 and about whom I have extensively written), left behind a myriad of journals filled with art, doodles, lyrics, poems, and dreams. He allowed me to view a couple of journals in person, but I was only exposed to the rest after he died. Some pages became available on the website dedicated to his artistic/musical legacy, and one such image struck me because it seemed un-Spencerian...in fact, it seemed more like drawings I used to do. No one really knows for sure if Spencer drew it, or if someone else did (sometimes he let friends doodle on his pages), but the thickness of the lines and the little notes make me think it was indeed him.

Now for the synchronicity...I bought myself a dance calender for 2012 because, as you may know, I wish I were a dancer. February's image reminded me of that one page in one of Spencer's many journals, which I then found to compare...

 photograph by Lois Greenfield

artwork by Spencer Bell

While the similarities are evident, here comes the strangest part. If the copyright on Lois's page is correct, then she took that photograph of Natalie Lomonte and Marcus Bellamy in 2010. Spencer's art, obviously, was done several years prior. It makes me wonder if he was inspired by something else Lois has photographed (she's an eminent dance photographer), or if there's some kind of cosmic understanding of the human form floating around in the ether. The images themselves are inherently synchronous (two things happening, or existing, at the same time), or at least they represent a very fluid duality --- a dance of romance. A give and take, in either direction. 

And in more synchronous news, I am soon embarking on a new writing venture as a blogger for The Ballerina Project, which I absolutely adore and have already spotlighted here, on my blog. On my birthday last week, I happened to come upon The Ballerina Project in action when I spotted Dane Shitagi photographing a girl in pointe shoes in my own backyard: Washington Square Park. I couldn't believe my luck! When I got back to my apartment, I eagerly wrote Dane for the first time (in a state of giddy birthday glee). Since then, we have met in person to discuss how I will contribute my writing to the blog aspect of his project. So far, only one image has emerged from that Washington Square Park photoshoot with a young dancer named Emma...

photo by The Ballerina Project

"All motion is cyclic. It circulates to the limits of its possibilities and then 

returns to its starting point."  --  Robert Collier

-a.d.