The Frozen Magic Lantern Show

Frozen confections made of ice, and beads, and light.

We had a night that was cold enough for ice to freeze. The cat bowl on the front porch was just a bunch of shattered crystal shards, but the water bowl from the yard had some great complex ice formations, so that was what I focused on.

I dumped the water out; turned the ice block upside down in my clear Pyrex bowl; got my beads and my headlamp and placed them under the ice; turned off the overhead lights; took a bunch of pictures in the dark. You may see a set of my 10 favorites on Instagram. Above is one I'm pretty fond of. I especially enjoy the rainbow waterfall formations to the right.

It is a complete joy to me to make these kinds of abstracts, and I find them both beautiful and strange. I don't know of anyone else in the world who does exactly this sort of thing. Is there something weird about me that makes me love taking a hundred photos of close-ups of ICE?

I posted these photos last night on Instagram and I was instantly contacted by one of the arts sites. They wanted permission to reshare my photos among their various Instagram offerings. Okay, seemed harmless.

I said I'd give my permission on two conditions: if they'd indicate the photos were mine and tag me as such; and if there would be no cost to me. I guess I was flattered for a hot second, just before they wrote back and asked if I wanted to see their PRICE LIST to do such. "No, thank you!"

I share lots of ice abstracts on Facebook. I admit I get few likes on them. The eight people who like them don't usually comment much, but my one friend did say this, which made me feel appreciated: "I love having artistic friends because the kind of work you show here is beautiful and would never occur to me to create because that's not the way my brain works." So thank you, friend, for calling me an artist, and for putting some love on my work!

I thought about my ice abstracts and realized that they remind me of a magic lantern show, with my headlamp flickering, and the vivid colors from the beads dancing all over my melting ice (the circles are water droplets from the melt). The only question is, Do You Believe In Magic? Shaun Cassidy says Yes!