Gaze into the Before afterwards.

György Stiffel True pictorialism. I like it too. Would like to know more about your method of abrasion toning digital photographs.


György Stiffel - Thank you. I basically use what Mortensen did, nearly down to the letter, with paper negatives (i actually have done that to those too, and still do from time to time), Except for lightening with razor cuts - cant truly do that one, but i am experimenting with different brush strokes on split brushes in PS every now and then, trying to get there. - Sergei Rodionov 

AIR by photographer, Sergei Rodionov, created, he said, digitally with abrasion toning. (March 2014).

This dreamscape is similar to the space I remember before my birth above the waters I lived in before birth. . . Incredible how the dream of the Creator travels to each of us with different stories to interpret!... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Art in Wonder.

HR Images

What a beautiful moment! It reminds me of the perspective I had, and wondered about as a child: "Capturing sunlight and essence is a work of art from the standpoint of photography, or any visual art. But, the capture of sunlight is a natural event, or capacity in living, and capturing the essence of someone in a glance is an inherent part of being alive, being human..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7/4/18

Colored Woman by Pasckie Pascua. acrylic. watercolor. pens. sharpies. pastels. oil. paper canvas.

Yaniksa Lee

Yaniksa Lee Robles by Roland Dawson. The defiance is on purpose. It is clear as the water reflects.

Old testaments.

Lauren Hutton left quite the impression upon me of the process of beauty aging with humor enjoying the flow of time, experience and substance in the ethereal. It felt like this for me in younger years. Today, I know what I felt in her. There is someone pondering the same in me in their young years. It is all part of the passage of time into space meaning timelessness; eternity have you.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
4/1/18

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg walking carefree in a time, an era settled in our collective past as a calmer, more intelligent way of dealing with change. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/1/18

IN the Breath of Life: creativity works...

photo by William Hundley

photographer Blake Little, an older woman covered in honey. 

Kim Kardashian as a nursing mother

Kat Attack Photography of Shelby Mason X. (2017).

Thoughts within.

"Introspective beauty well done. Hats off to the timelessness of this moment of stillness available each day!" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 8.30.17

Creativity as Creator



Alice in Wonderland working.

Dreams of people's lives come from the Dream of Life. How we see them to live them comes from our dreams. Our dreamtime can be a dismissal of what impedes the flow of creativity and connection to the precious. Jealousy infuses the mind with unreason suspending higher thought lowering the expectations of good outcome. In this state of mind nothing grows and every suspicion is the child of fear. This is a dark mystery. Like all mystery light went first from the black of not knowing. Knowing and understanding how to emote within darkness the dream of new birth can come into light. These reciprocal relationships are weavers who dreamt of us.

 

Gregory E. Woods

Oct. 1, 2015

 

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2015/stylewatch/blog/150803/kim-kardashian-z-600x800.jpg



an introspective by danial gowans a powerful feeling comes from the ancient symbol of women on the young woman's arm and something about the isolation of the subject holding secret knowledge timidly, or gingerly holds meanings on the peripheral of the popular culture. . . ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.2.15  

 

In Waters Where Whales Live . .

"In waters where whales live I dreamt, but never swam. I can't swim in water. I can flow in dreams in time with the ebb and flow of water, as I did and remember doing in my mother's womb. The dance in the womb is not different from dancing beneath the sea, the ocean, or the rivers of water upon the land. What is different is the safety of one, and the inherent dangers of the others.

Not being able to swim in either of the oceans I've waded in both from either side with the whales invisible to me, but present to themselves. The Black ancestors from one ocean, and the Red relatives from the other oceans don't sing of me, they murmur below where it is audible for me to discern their languages. I can intuit the stories of Africans in the Atlantic. Feeling every emotion from their individual lives during the Middle Passage I cannot enter the Atlantic until I leave an offering of tobacco with my words. Those moments come across as magical pulls into the deep where I suddenly realize it was at a place of no return, and began to feel the panic of drowning. As terrible and terrifying as panic is panic creates spontaneous actions and creative ideas surface. Drowning in those waters, and remembering I had not Medicine powers with Water Spirits the idea to let go as a child was revolutionary and it saved my life..." - Gregory E. Woods, DawnWolf,  Keeper of Stories

February 17, 2014 at 10:46am ·

 

Rest to Recover

Jordan Carver resting and playing with the camera's eye.
June 15, 2013
13 of 13

Rest and sleep were meant to slow the rapidity of being alive and calm the excitement of being alive in a body. It takes a lot to be a spirit in a body. In our beginnings we were challenged to be still when our spirits were accustomed to movement. It is always a shock for babies how it feels to move far less than they did, and use to express. At first their spirits reach out as custom and habit dictates for the few years they learn how restrictive a physical life is. Thus, from the beginnings, our beginnings the quest for freedom takes on a life of its own and we cannot help but play and dream of being free, and later on in life fight to be free! It becomes a life long campaign, and when found it is first of all in our resting, and our sleeps. Without resting we never gain the correct scope on the enormity of space, and timelessness, and freed movement. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12.2.13

The Shadow of Who You Were



a specter  from Egypt's past viewing the hieroglyphs of his culturefrom the gallery of  Sole Satya
September 18, 2012

"... and they come back as spectators, and to us as specters, from time to time to see themselves. What has transpired in their absence is of no importance to them. It is the life they lived and what they left behind that concerns them. It is the only thing they have control over save the memories they could never share. Their memories we cannot mingle with intimately because the nature of memories are the substance of wind and sand. They are the mist of early sunsets, and like the chill of the mornings waiting for the sun to burn the chill away is our promise of connecting with the ancient past whenever they subject themselves to the task of reappearing." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.5.13

WE DREAM WE ARE

Old Soul Luxury



opulence

Everyone in each era, each lifetime should experience at least one night of opulence feeling what it is like to be indulged, special and without a care in the world. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10.5.13

 

Old building - inside the main chapel doors of an abandoned school in central Belgium.
The school next door was plundered, the adjacent church still stands © Matt Emmett

 

 

pretty African American woman smiling

Lucy Liu



Angie Vu Ha celebrating Easter dinner 2015

Know this

Darvece Monson

Darvece Monson's breathtaking beauty 

There are so many things to consider as a young woman fixated on style and fashion and being seen. It doesn't help being unevolved, and lacking, not for ambition, but intellectual curiosity. In dreams it has been advised by people well-versed in that world to look at, or try to look at your feet when dreaming. There are still cultures today whose days begin with recitations of each members dreams in a public circle. The dreams design the day and give direction to the community, and respect to the individual who is esteemed by the People for their facility in the dream worlds. The disadvantage of modern life is the abstract nature of dreams and dreaming. Dreams are given minimal status outside of what kind of occupation one aspires towards.

This is a cautionary tale. Think about this, daughter. It is important to see what I've shown you. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.5.13

perfect form of a white woman on shore line

A Story Born

♫♫ ♫♫ ♫♫ ♫♫


"The soft music of a touch, the smell, the ardor of the Earth, our Mother, the way it feels to look at you and hear songs, and symphony makes for the way I say your name, and know who you are..."

She looked off into the distance his voice trailing off in her mind down a narrow path in a forest wet with morning dew, and sighed into her feelings. She'd heard herself over time yearn to be loved, appreciated and seen for who she is, but in the presence of it it was more than she was prepared to receive. - Gregory E. Woods 10.7.13

from Deb Young's gallery

The Piano Lady

Dec. 4, 2012

♫♫ ♫♫ ♫♫ ♫♫
♫♫ ♫♫ ♫♫ ♫♫

DREAM CATCHER

absolute beauty of Desiree's composition 

There are absolutes and they fall into the categories of art, formlessness, and composition. Deep in these recurring dreams of compositions we can write in the changes, and form the bounty, and make vague the borders, or cling to the misconceptions, or hear and learn of dreams not yet formed into temporal  space and design. It is a mythical design the form of dream we live in when enveloped and intertwined within the folds of the women designed for us, meant for us and calling us into the form they need, and we want to be in to be received by the dream She is. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 7.22.13

She Saw

Gina Ostarly, fitness coach in form
 

 

"Sacred forms may come in moments and re-appear as sublime dreams, or glimpses into a sphere we cannot influence, but may be a part of as a participant in the dream conjured by the fantasy she dreamt of in you." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7. 8. 13

portrait of a champion Gina Ostarly, fitness coach in
 April 28, 2010 · 

  

A World I Saw

Art is beauty



In the first instance I saw two worlds, one atop the other held by a monkey in the middle enjoying his game pretending the upside down world held above his head was a hat. To him it was a game. 

The next instance after the shock of watching the monkey play I thought of how questions and the monkey looked disappointed and annoyed. I heard a collective sigh from somewhere, and the monkey skillfully flipped the top world one rotation and it settled atop the other making it uncomfortable for the bottom world. There was a groan, and the firmament from above was separated, and depth and distance was given to the scene.

The People liked the change. I saw some come out to thank the Gods they perceived. One of them, no two saw me, and let out an exclamation which cast doubt to the believers. The Seers let out a mournful, but understanding sigh, and began the task of getting people to dream again.

When next I looked the dream was there, but it was different than the first glimpse. There was an island, a placid body of water and mountains in the distance. Nobody paid attention to the Sky Beings. I was one of the Sky Beings, and noticed the People's disinterest in the Above World. It made me said, and for a moment I doubted and questioned my worth as a Sky Being. The Creator reminded me of the importance of being a servant and servicing a People.

I looked down at the People content with myself and the way things were. I knew gratitude would return in season. For now there was the calm sounds of the body of water, the children playing, the women walking together, and the men pondering the sea.  ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.5.13

to 'see'

Victoria Henderson by D. Jamaal Photography
March 2013 ·  · 

 
as a dream

"There are dreams we come to see." 

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5.14.13

black model Tiffany's face 

black model Victoria Henderson by Vergil in Panama City Beach, Florida 7.27.12

Black Cougar 

beautiful Island woman, Reba by Toby

beautiful leg of Rashel Diaz, news anchor 

beautiful legs of an Arabian woman 

beautiful African woman 2

classic African American woman's hair do with an elegant style 

classic African American beauty of Victoria Henderson, model 6.26.12

abcd

african  beauty of Oluchi Onweagba

DREAMS illuminate

Part of the illusion within wealth is the way wealth can blend fantasy with the accumulation of wealth as a banner of arrival for a select few fond of telling others to dream big without giving them tools, or the trade secrets of finance and wealth to but a select few. But, alas wealth isn't the sum of existence, nor is fantasy the end result of good living. Wealth is an expendable commodity, in one way of looking at it, and fantasy is the dreams we come from and remember as reality. Science likes to listen to the dreamers and make manifest the dreams of the dreamers who tell their stories so well, or paint their dreams so well.  Wealth needs the fantasy, and fantasies need the release money provides to the dreamer bound by a need to give expression to the dreams constantly coming in the day and the night times. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.13.13

IN THE WATERS

The Photo

The SITE

A favorite conceptual idea involves the dream of water, being in and of water. Creatures of the waters have something beautiful and unattainable to anyone. It is outside of the reach and deep within us all: water. Water teaches us and holds us from conception to birth, and if you are not European, has always been part of the daily ritual of life.  Water is the sacred element that tells the story of everyone's religion, and debunks theories of supremacy, and dominance. Water gauges all attempts to waste. The stillness and the ferocity of water are the women we come from, and seek in life as mates, friends and companions if we have wisdom and are balanced with truths, and clarity and are willing to submit to the stability and ability and uncertainty and the calmness of water.

Water talks to the elements of stone, metal, air, Earth, our Mother, Fire, and anger, love, fear in such a way that one either drowns or comes alive renewed. Water is the burial for the dead, and the resurrection of the seed. Water is a She and is the powerful force of nature women carry within them. It is within the Wombs of Mothers, and Virgins, and within the sacred places of our Wise Women. Water balances and dominates when necessary the judgements and the healing qualities of Fire the way a woman's touch eases the brow of a man's rage. Water is the tutor of the Soul, and the bearer of  children.

How I've come to revere Water as I revere the other sacred elements in relationship to Her came through the waters I lived in. The words of my Mommy's soul echoed. The words of Mommy were Life. They were as powerful as the Creator's. The powers of Life and Death resided there with authority as capable as the Love she cultivated within herself.

 I live with memories of my Mother's soul caring for me while I lived within Mommy for 9 months, and nursed as a baby until I was weaned into the deeper aspects of self, play, and discovery that marked the concentric circles of being loved and protected by my father, and his relationship to the waters, and his understanding relationship with love, and the way he loved his wife. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2013

African mermaid

MOMMY'S SONG IN ME

PART 15

I sometimes think we shrink a bit so our children can measure their growth better. I think at other times our children's growth in later years is made to endure and become more than they imagined when our lives shorten, and death is more engaged with the possibility of tomorrow. It is an interesting thing to speculate. Each year laws are working indifferent to our feelings. We grow and become, give birth, our children become adults, our parents age and die, we become the elders, and our children learn to become, and if they are powerful enough learn to forgive and evolve their understandings. So many questions to answer and ask, so many things to accept, or be forever mystified by, it seems, at every stage of life.

How does our parent’s death teach our spirits, and instruct our children, and their great-grandchildren? If anything it teaches us to play and to pray differently. © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

PART 18

Mommy and I spent a lot of time alone or together in the medina in Rabat. Many a morning, an afternoon I spent wandering local medinas discreetly watching women paint henna designs on their hands and feet chattering with each other oblivious to everyone passing by about an upcoming wedding, and the prospect of marriage. Mules, and beggars, tourists, families were common to the medina. The stench of tanneries in Fez, or the mellow sense of place in Rabat, or the frantic energies of Tangier, and the dizziness of Marrakech’s medina could produce within you in one day were always the place women engaged in something mysterious and aloof from the things men liked to believe about women. © Gregory E. Woods

PART 29

“You'll know the songs of the singer dancing within her soul, or the contemplation of the Muse by the poems she inspires. You'll hear her words as syllables of words unspoken in your native tongue, and think she is divine, or that divinity is a touch. The accessible codes of conduct in the physical world are not the ruling force in other worlds we gaze into when the veil thins between worlds not too long before our deaths.

A woman is the mystery of becoming. Her body holds secrets of bondage, and freedom, of birth and life, death and release, storm and tempest, peace, tranquility and the scope of life shapes within her in moments accessible through sex, intimacy, marriage, food preparation, the words of her man’s heart to her heart. The spiritual powers she holds are the energies formed to birth us into manhood and masculinity from the first tinges of vulnerability she inspires by her glance into our souls.”  © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.18.13

IDEA OF POWERS

Nuwaupuyee Bi-Etanet
on Jan. 25, 2013

"We all dream of something or someone and it and that someone materializes before our eyes. How we receive it and that person is solely dependent upon one's intent, what they actually said at the beginning of their conjuring. Words. It is the words that matter. Words designed us, and words bring what we need into our life as deftly as words send out the emotions that color the atmosphere and our expectations." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.11.13

Mereana Taki

December 1, 2011

Art is Collaboration

Ann VanDyne
May 31, 2010

 "There is an acceptable measure of pride in being a mother, being gentle, being pretty or beautiful, and playful. There has to be. It, the small measure of pride, balances more humble elements that need coaching, at times, to believe in themselves." - Gregory E. Woods (Dawn Wolf) Keeper of Stories Nov. 5, 2010

painter Pasckie Pascua's dream & glimpse into the 21st century

That scripture, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God..." is the same as the first lesson of power: to unlearn all you know. The link between the teachings from the Bible and holy Qu'ran with indigenous teachings is clear and in relationship with the way the Earth, our Mother teaches receptive spirits. The Hebrews were a nomadic people and developed from the teachings of Earth and the ethers the way all peoples did and do who live close to the Earth.

Pity that 'modern' people's lives of disconnection from the primal forces of the natural worlds keeps them afraid of the entities and teachers able to teach their spirits and connect them to what is important. From experience I know it is unpleasant to live a life in fear of judgement, afraid and incapable of reaching into the Unknowable Unknown, and being awkward around one's death. To unlearn these tendencies is to walk as Jesus walked upon the Earth, our Mother. - Gregory E. Woods 9.12.13

Lion killing water buffalo