Artist's Statement

Signs in Stone

Photography work by Lenka Holubec

A notion about nature being our home and not just a background to our activities has inspired and guided my work for a long time. Yet, it was my long-standing interest in photographing rock formations along the Great Lakes that made me to realize more fully why I was repeatedly focusing on the natural world surrounding us. It occurred to me, when looking through the lens, that I was actually trying to reach out to connect with nature beyond our increasingly self-absorbed and anguished reality.

Signs in Stone reveals as artifacts the countless variations of signs, found on dolomite stones constituting the backbone of the Bruce Peninsula - a part of the Niagara Escarpment. Slowly and meticulously sculpted by the action of wind, water and ice over millions of years, intricate signs in stone inspire us to contemplate the origins of creativity.

When we are on a shoreline, walking over the blocks of dolomite, an intriguing pattern on stone nearby may catch our eye. Once we truly emerge ourselves into seeking a meaning of that pattern, a revelation of an inspirational sign, and artifact, is within our grasp. The ingenuity of signs, whether resembling realistic forms or being abstract, stimulates our imagination, while giving us both joy and a feeling of humility. Perhaps, it is this immense impact, enabling us to merge with the outside reality, that inspires us to consider our creativity within the same universal creative powers as manifested in the natural world .

Signs in Stone is conveying to us a message about this enormous creative force capable of having an immediate, energizing and uplifting effect upon us. It is a message about a vibrant reality of a natural world surrounding us that exists within our reach. The work appeals to us to connect with nature more closely, to appreciate and explore it fully as an essential condition of our survival as humans and spiritual beings.