Canada day 2001. We’re at Pender Island’s Beaumont marine park. On our
annual camping trip with friends from Vancouver. We had spent at lazy afternoon
in the sun. Parents reading and sunning, children exploring the water’s edge.
Blythe (4) and my daughter Sarah (5), are shown here. They’re involved in the
game of the moment. When the world is new, everything is exciting and fun.
.
It seems that kids can find play in almost everything. Last week’s beach outing
found us packing home a rock, shaped like a seal head, pieces of broken clay
tile, and the always popular beach glass... sand polished to a satin smooth finish.
Each item was a treasure of the mind. The seal head rock was a stretch, but to
Charlotte, it was the Shroud of Turin. The broken tile was painted with strange
designs that were messages from aliens, trying to make contact with earth.
The beach glass gem stones could be worth a fortune.
.
Light and heat were the point of this painting. The sun was so bright that the
children glowed with it’s reflection. Blythe’s wispy white-blond hair shone in stark
contrast to the dark reflection of the trees on the far shore. I liked the feeling
of stillness and introspection to their poses. Playing together, but each lost in
their own thought.
.
As an adult I think I know too much. I know it’s just broken tile or bottle glass.
Where’s the potential in that kind of thinking? There’s always too much reality,
it’s time to make room for more seals, gems and aliens.
.
Mark Heine
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