Framing is about setting limits.
When an artist chooses a scene to paint or a photographer a subject to photograph, they are framing. They limit their view to perhaps 10 degrees of their 120 degree peripheral vision.
When we limit our material possessions, we are framing.
When we prune the number of activities we pursue, we are framing.
The acceptance of limits produces ease of mind.Soestsu Yanagi, The Unknown Craftsman
Framing frees up the intuitive mind to perceive the whole through the parts by restricting the unbridled flow of sensory input (See Holographs, Writing and the Emergent Whole).
One gradually sees that any frameable portion of nature contains wholeness and exhibits patterns of relationship between the parts and the whole that echo any other portion of nature that might be framed.
All is a study of light, shadow and color.
This leads to an experiential understanding of the following principle from tradition: Nothing exists except in relationship to everything else. Everything exists only in relationship to everything else.Daan Hoekstra, The Artist's Study of Nature and Its Relationship to Goethean Science
By setting self-imposed limits, we are better able to experience the individual parts that remain and their relationship to each other. By doing so, new insight and meaning emerge. This is the wholeness that is revealed through the parts.
-J.D. Stein | December 2013