RESELLERS 
Kevin's Web Log
Welcome! This blog should provide two things. First, a vicarious experience of nature through images, captions, and video. Secondly, the blog will share some of the research and literature that reinforces the paradigm of nature as a restorative and healing force. The goal is to give an educational, and rejuvenating "virtual nature experience".
Nature, Art & Health
July 06, 2010 - 10:28 AM
The Story Behind the Shot
Title: "Nepenthe at Garrapata" (Nepenthe is a Spanish word meaning "no sorrow")
Location: Garrapata State Park, Big Sur Coastline of California
Welcome! I am instituting a new type of posting. Every once in a while, I'm going to tell you a story about how a particular shot was acquired, "The Story Behind the Shot". I have some crazy fun, adventurous, and sometimes humorous experiences you will enjoy. I've been encouraged to share. I want to give you a more textured vicarious experience, a few lively steps beyond the tacit implications of the visual composition.
In this blog venue, the stories will be brief. If I can't tell it to you in two minutes or less, I'm not doing my job! Here goes:
“I really hope we don’t have to come back this way!” My intrepid girlfriend Adele had just scrambled up a particularly precarious slippery tangle of roots & mud on our way to a brutally steep ascent. The promise was of incredible fields of wildflowers on rolling slopes high above the Big Sur coastline of California. We would watch the sunset, take some shots, then hike back the longer, more gradual descent back to the car; in the dark, with headlamps.
It wasn’t working. The trail was is very bad shape through the Redwood forest, poorly marked and it gradually petered out to a faint trace into the fern draped shadows. Hopes and our stalled momentum hung in the humid understory.
Standing still for a moment in the late hour, brought the inevitable smart conclusion to turn around, hike back down the gnarly slopes and hope we didn’t slip. Many places had a high probability of a fall, and a fall would probably result in a broken arm or ankle as you took a rude and rollicking ride into the rocky creek below. Going forward had all the feel of pushing your luck too far.
My hopes of one final shooting hike were grandiose. I had saved the best and hardest hike for last, and now all I had hopes for was getting us both back to the car safely. The salt in the wound was a lost opportunity for one last incredible shot.
Thanks to hiking poles for added balance and stability, (I call them sissy sticks no more - great hiking assets!), we made it back to the car safely, and in time to make one last dash of a hike to the coastline. A frantic search and heart pounding pace led us to this particular vantage point. The light had great character, and the balance of compositional elements held promise. As it turns out, this may have been one of the best landscape shots of the trip!
My dashed expectations have often led to a nadir in attitude, but often those same unforeseen circumstances have lead me to opportunities I could never have imagined. We never gave up, kept moving forward and found what may have been a better shot than we could have found on the top of that elusive ridge. Dinner tasted really good that night!
June 30, 2010 - 2:52 PM
New California Images!
Title: "Waking Flowers and Coyote Song"
Location: Shell Creek Road, Los Padres National Forest, California
Hello again! Pardon my brief absence from the blogosphere - I’ve been working overtime on some new images from my very productive trip to California. The new images can be seen as the default collection in the Image Gallery. Just click on any of the thumbnails in the filmstrip to see enlarged views.
Most of these images are composites. I take multiple pictures of each scene, varying focus point and exposure, and then all of these images are combined to make the final file. Although time consuming, this method allows for precise control of sharpness and tonal range. My goal is to give a sense of the actual experience of seeing and feeling the places first hand. This precision is necessary because many of my images are sold as very large prints (30 x 40 and above), and the added effort really pays off in these large reproductions!
The image above was created using six different shots; 4 in varying points of focus from near to far, then another 2 exposures to capture detail in shadow and highlight areas. The end result is the best representation of what the scene looked like had you been standing there with me. The only thing missing, as the title suggests, is the sound of a group of coyotes singing loudly to the just rising sun.
I would love to get your feedback on your favorite images in this grouping! Please email any comments to info@kevinsink.com Thanks! Oh, and by the way.... I will be changing the format of this blog to a WordPress format in the near future, where leaving comments will be much easier. Thanks for your patience and enjoy!
June 09, 2010 - 11:50 AM
Sterile Walls = Poor ROI
Title: "Waving Big Bluestem"
Location: Vascular Surgery Associates, Overland Park, Kansas
For many people, access to nature or nature art has a calming effect. It turns out this has implications for healthcare waiting areas.
Sara Marberry recently had an interesting post titled “Evolving Innovation” on the Center for Health Design blog. She observed the judging of 130 projects for the Healthcare Design Magazine’s Architectural Showcase. Although a very positive, interesting article, one of her conclusions stated, “... disturbing still to see sterile, stark interiors - particularly in clinical spaces. Less is not more when it comes to healthcare spaces.” Patient satisfaction is critical in the growing and competitive marketplace of Ambulatory Care. Two key influences on patient satisfaction are the perceived attractiveness of the physical environment and perceived waiting times.
Franklin Becker and Stephanie Jones Douglass conducted a study titled, “The ecology of the patient visit: Physical attractiveness, waiting times, and perceived quality of care”.
Their conclusions reinforce Ms. Marberry’s observations:
1. The more attractive the environment:
the higher the perceived quality of medical care
the greater the reported reduction of anxiety
the more positive the reported interaction with staff
the more patients recommended the office to others
2. Attractiveness of the environment influences perceived waiting time. (The more attractive, the less the perceived wait time.)
3. Perceived waiting time was significantly related to perception of care quality.
In a separate study by Debajyoti Pati, perceived waiting times were reduced, and calming behavior increased by providing positive distractions and access to nature through video, ambient art or an aquarium.
In my estimation, the bottom line here seems to be that blank, sterile walls can actually work against the clinic’s best interest and competitive advantage. Nature art would be a wise investment with long lasting benefits. The investment in art would be offset by the increased patient perception of quality and satisfaction, and an increase in their referrals to friends and family.
Becker, F & Douglass, S. (2008). The Ecology of the Patient Visit: Physical Attractiveness, Waiting Times, and Perceived Quality of Care. Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, 31(2), 128-141.
Pati, D., Nanda, U., & Waggener, L. (2009). Influence of Positive Distraction on Children in Hospital Waiting Areas. Dallas: HKS, Inc.
June 02, 2010 - 5:45 PM
Satisfying Preferences in Healthcare Art: Balance
Title:
"Orchids in Flight"
Location:
Powell Gardens, Lone Jack, Missouri
In choosing amongst the staggering amount of art in the marketplace, its helpful to have some guidelines. In a previous post I talked about evaluating work using the Trinity Rule.
This post will discuss the important compositional technique of balance. Balance is often evaluated with the Rule of Thirds, where a hypothetical grid is superimposed on the artwork that breaks the image into horizontal and vertical thirds. If the artwork doesn’t have its primary points of interest positioned on or balanced with respect to the third lines, particularly on the intersection of the horizontal and vertical third lines, the image will appear to be out of balance. Here is a graphic example with the above picture:
Why are balance and the number three so intimately connected? My experiential observations seem to suggest a connection to the most primal parts of the brain. When I learned to rock climb I was told, “if possible, always have at least three firm holds”. Most often this means two firm foot holds and one arm feeling solidly confident and secure. Fewer than three holds and you start to feel very insecure.
The same could be said of just standing upright. You have your two feet, and the third “hold” on balance is your vision of spatial depth as well as the horizon line. Take one of these away, and you start feeling out of balance and insecure.
Maintaining a physiological and psychological sense of balance is of primary importance to patients and staff in healthcare environments. When you are healthy, your multiple organ systems are in synergistic equilibrium. When you are sick enough to be in a hospital, your organ systems are out of balance due to injury or disease. Subconsciously your body and mind are yearning for balance, and a return to a visceral sense of equilibrium. Artwork in healthcare should have a calming effect, and to a great extent that is achieved with balanced composition.
Artistic rules are often successfully broken; that’s one reason why art is fun! However, to a challenged patient, I believe the more the artwork deviates from this rule, the more difficult it becomes for the artwork to be therapeutic and calming.
One artist I would like to highlight here does and incredible job of incorporating a sense of balance in his superb prints. Christopher Burkett’s photographs are some of the most beautifully crafted prints I’ve ever seen, and he has been an inspiration throughout my career. Thanks to Christopher for allowing me to post his image below:
Title:
"Aspen Grove, Colorado" copyright, Christopher Burkett
May 31, 2010 - 4:49 PM
Healthcare Art Image Spotlight
Title:
"Niawathe Prairie"
Location:
Niawathe Prairie Natural Area, Dade County, MO
Nature images that are well received in the healthcare setting are often characterized by bright sunlight, open views with depth, and where the color green is prominent. This time of year I often think of the tallgrass prairie for those types of images. The flower bloom is particularly intense this time of year. Below is the caption for this location. For additional information, you can visit the Missouri Department of Conservation's website.
Caption:
Southwestern Missouri is an area that transitions from Ozark Plateau to the east and to Tallgrass Prairie to the west. There are still a very few excellent examples of tallgrass prairie in this region, and Niawathe Prairie is one of the showiest.
Although there is almost always something blooming on the tallgrass prairie during the growing season, the second week of June could be described as the glory days on the prairie. Black-eyed Susans and Pale Purple Coneflower are at their peak and Niawathe Prairie has an abundance of both.
There are certain times that come up as favorites for me when doing my field work. Watching the sun rise on a showy prairie in June is one of them. There is usually a mist or light fog in the pre-dawn air, taking the edge off the brightness of the rising sun, yet its warm light glistens off the copious dew drops on vegetation.
The sounds of Meadowlarks, Henslow’s & Grasshopper Sparrows, Cardinals, Blue Jays, and the occasional screech of a Red Tailed Hawk all interact with the light and flowers & mist to create a bucolic scene that arrests & pacifies your mind.
May 24, 2010 - 3:50 PM
Satisfying Preferences in Healthcare Art
Title: "Wheat Sunset"
Location: near Troy, Idaho
After twenty years selling nature art to healthcare, corporate and commercial facilities I’m still frequently surprised by which works are selected. I’ve observed what sells and what doesn’t, and some basic principles have presented themselves. One of these principles is the Trinity Rule. This rule may be food for thought when making your next selection of artwork.
The Trinity Rule:
There are many compositional techniques used in art: line, form, color, movement, balance, depth, mood, unique light, juxtaposition, etc. My observation of what people respond to most favorably has led to the following conclusion: people instinctively are drawn to work that uses three of the compositional techniques prominently. (The Trinity Rule!) If a work just uses color well, but not line or depth, it appears lacking.
The picture above is an illustrative example. “Wheat Sunset” has been one my consistently best-selling images. The predominant compositional elements here are color, line, and depth. All three work synergistically to create a pleasing aesthetic that resonates with many people.
Of all the compositional elements, people seem to have the most striking affinity for visual depth. This conclusion comes from my experience with natural landscape photographs, but I think it also holds true with successful abstract art. At first glance, a Rothko looks like flat panels of color, but those panels of color have variations with intense depth, almost like you are falling into a deep pool of hue.
Another attribute of landscape works exhibiting the "Trinity Rule", is that often people will associate the place with somewhere they grew up or where they spent a great deal of time. I have had people insist an image came from a place hundreds or thousands of miles from where it was actually taken! These places often elicit very fond, powerfully positive memories, which have a comforting effect on people.
Patient experiences in healthcare are often emotionally charged, and natural landscape scenes that feature the "Trinity Rule" can be like an “anchor of calm” in an anxious voyage.
May 18, 2010 - 12:13 PM
Interview: Dr. Toby Israel
Title: "Japanese Garden Azalea"
Location: Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco Arboretum
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Toby Israel, Ph.D., the visionary founder of the new field of Design Psychology. Her worldwide experience and groundbreaking theories are summarized in her book Some Place Like Home: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places.
Design psychology considers psychology to be integral to the practice of architecture and interior design. Based in Princeton, N.J., Dr. Israel helps clients “design from within” to create deeply human homes, healthcare environments, and schools. For more information see www.designpsychology.net For information on Dr. Israel’s next Home Therapy Workshop series beginning June 16 , click here.
Dr. Israel talks about her work and how it draws from the groundbreaking work of Abraham Maslow, in an article published in The Nurture Report.
By High Positive Associations I mean associations that trigger the most positive memories that you have of past places or present places. This term came out of the field of positive psychology, which is a branch of psychology that looks at what kinds of experiences make people happy, rather than a branch of psychology that is trying to cure somebody of a psychological problem. The emphasis on positive psychology is on enhancing someone’s happiness.In your Nurture article you refer to High Positive Associations, and what are some examples?
There is a period in early childhood where we haven’t learned language proficiency and don’t think of things so much in terms of labels and familiar terms and we experience the world as a more sensory place, and these experiences become embedded in us as a magical, transcendent time.
I wouldn’t be able to give you a percentage, but I would say a majority. When I ask people about their favorite places from childhood, a large percentage of people refer to a natural place.
Yes. What Maslow was suggesting is that we are attempting to reach a higher level of self-actualization, where you feel more complete and whole, and the goal is to have those peak experiences on a more regular basis. So what I have done is transpose Maslow’s hierarchy to the field of design. If we design in a holistic manner, we will similarly consider all aspects of a design version of Maslow’s theory. The design would address the hierarchy of human needs for satisfaction of shelter, social interaction, psychological satisfaction, and aesthetic satisfaction. When all of those needs are addressed we will have actualized a sense of place where peak experiences are more likely to occur. It’s a very satisfying process for me and for my clients.
I’m also concerned about children of today not having the same amount of contact and experiences in nature as we had as children. As a child I had an open space across the street from my house where I spent untold hours playing and exploring. This was not a place I was particularly aware of as an adult until I did the past place exercise. So for me this was an experiential link. There are theories that say our affinity for nature is hard wired from a long evolution developing from the natural world, but is this true? We don’t know. It does concern me when we had big snows this last winter, that when I went out to shovel the drive, I didn’t see kids out building snowmen and playing as they did when I was young. I wonder where they all are; probably inside playing on the computer.
I have another book project on the topic I call Oasis; Healing by Design Psychology, and I’m currently collecting case studies for that project. Much of it is based on the experiences people have that have gone through my design psychology process, and the designs that result from that process. I share how we dig deeply into their past, present and future sense of place to come up with a place that creates positive growth and change. To gather these case studies I put on workshops and webinars on what I call home therapy. The webinars have been very successful where the people here in Princeton, New Jersey can interact and share with people from San Francisco to Calgary to Boca Raton. It’s been amazing to see how through these small, long distance webinars, we are actually able to create a really intimate bond between participants as they learn how to “design from within” based on their own, personal psychology.
Exactly. I say it’s like opening our treasure chest of past places! You also speak on your website of early childhood amnesia, and how design psychology assists in uncovering those early positive memories for use in interior design. Why do you think these early childhood experiences are so powerful?
If you were to ask 100 people what places and experiences in their childhood are most memorable, how many of those associations would be directly tied to nature?
In the Nurture article you tie the process of Design Psychology to the hierarchy of human needs as defined by Maslow. He also coined the term “peak experiences” which he defined as sudden feelings of intense well being, happiness, and feeling connected to one’s surroundings. These peak experiences happen in childhood and in adulthood. Do you think they have implications for design psychology?
I’m particularly concerned about how adults and children are becoming more and more removed from Nature by technology, busy schedules and the like. Do you think the affinity for nature that you see in people’s art choices and design preferences is hard wired into us, or is it experientially based?
What projects are you working on now?
This sounds like fascinating and very exciting work! So much of therapeutic psychology is focused on dealing with traumatic events, whereas the work you are doing is uncovering positive psychological references to emphasize and incorporate into daily life for therapeutic effect.
May 13, 2010 - 5:18 PM
Nature Art in Healthcare Article
Title: "Pink Camelia"Location: Filoli Garden, Redwood City, CaliforniaOne of the goals of this blog is to share some of the research and literature that reinforces the paradigm of nature as a restorative and healing force. Henry Domke M.D. is a friend and a very fine nature photographer. He has written an excellent article for World Health Design magazine on artwork in health care environments. He shares his own experience as a physician, and summarizes an extensive review of scientific studies on the subject. He makes the following four conclusions about the role of artwork in the therapeutic process:
1. Realistic nature art is best.
2. Abstract art is the worst.
3. There is no ideal color.
4. Evidence based design is great but not much is known yet.
The article is a concise, interesting read and can be found on the April 19, 2010 entry of Henry’s blog. Henry's artistic perspective and craftsmanship are excellent, and more of his work can be found on his website.
In future posts, I will explore my own theories and intuitions on WHY nature art is so popular and therapeutic. I will draw from my own 20 year career as a nature photographer, and from my education in human physiology.
May 04, 2010 - 2:16 PM
Feeling Stressed and Overwhelmed? 3 Easy Steps in 5 Minutes for Relief
I’m sick of stress, how about you? When I feel frazzled I try to follow nature's lessons for a healthy mindset.
1. Nature is adaptability in action.
Life and our minds conspire to create stress. The biggest culprit? Expectations meeting unforeseen circumstances and events. Nature doesn’t argue with the world or hold expectations, it relentlessly adapts to changes, without anger or grudges (huge wastes of energy and time). Set goals, kill expectations, adapt with diversity. Nature’s track record is pretty good with this mode of behavior. It always wins. Always.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein
2. Nature is “taking the long view” in action.
The pace of nature is steady, most often slow and deliberate. There are sometimes bursts of intensity, but nature operates on a canvas of calm and equanimity. A hurried, frenzied mind kills the creativity from which insight and innovation spring. Embrace the long view with contentment and confidence.
“Make haste slowly.” Lao Tzu
3. Nature rejuvenates the human spirit.
Enjoy a direct experience with nature every day. It will give you a new, healthy perspective. Take a walk, sit in a park, listen to what nature has to say. Start now by watching this video I shot at sunrise in Santa Cruz, California. It’s 3 minutes, 44 seconds long - if you’re stressed, you’ve earned this much time for yourself. (Hint: The video looks a bit better if on the Youtube controls just below the picture you change the resolution to 480 from 360)
P.S. If you liked this post, share it with a friend!
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