Are these just cans in the grass?

When I find a site where I want to shoot, I don't always know why or what meaning or feeling it evokes. I am just drawn to it or see light and shadow or color I like. Sometimes, after the picture is taken, sometimes weeks after, I really look at it and see reasons for it.

This is one of those pictures. I was shooting a barn and as I walked to another side, I saw these old cans in the field. I liked the look of them and took several shots. Now I've taken time to really look at this one, my favorite. First, I like the rust on top and the rich color of it, especially with the silver/blue of the can and sky. Then I notice the shape of the rust as it meets the silver on the front can. What an intricate and sharp edge, just from elements working on metal.

The cans are practical and solid. Around them the weeds and grasses are like lace, so fragile, so tangled. I like the crispness of the grass against the smooth solid side of the can. So what could the rust against silver, grass against metal represent or suggest?

Could be

• survival - both the metal and the grass have survived winter cold, snow, and ice; the cans have survived years in the elements


• usefulness discarded, hard work in days gone by


• refusal to give up - both cans are damaged as well as aged and yet they are present and to me, at least, artful


• beauty in the ordinary


• aged beauty


• history, stories of lives past


• what else?

This image suggests coolness and calm to me. Of course, I was there and it was cold; but I think it is the coolness of the colors and the starkness of the shapes. Do I see myself or my life there? Practicality, certainly -I could always be washing clothes and dishes, sweeping, picking up, cooking and shopping - everyday practical tasks. Calmness, these days, no, not with two four year olds! :-)

What about internally, less concretely? Boy, I would like to think I am the sturdy, practical, surviving being that has its own beauty. Well, I guess, actually, I am. I am not, however, discarded! I still have lots of life to do.

I hope this image evokes something for you and that you will take time to look at it, at life images, and at other art in this way. It can be quite interesting and revealing.