Bubbles. The sound of them bounces jovially across the lips. Bubbles. Ephemeral spheres borne from a soapy pool of water. They are short-lived artifacts of playfulness and sheer magic. They inspire the imaginations of children and their older counterparts, should they permit their minds to disengage from the mundane and be permitted to flow. Bubbles can be found in many parks where there is a vendor who dips magic wands into a bucket of solution and lifts them into the air letting the breeze release torrents of bubbles into the crowd.
Shining, giggling children chase them under watchful parental eyes. The dogs follow them, confused as they pop and are gone. This makes me smile. Bubbles make me lean toward the imaginary, beyond the physics of surface tension, into the magic soap and water can create. I wonder about the uncertainty of existence and how bubbles move into the unknown like fragile explorers. Then, too, I think of the cosmos and theories of how the universe came into being...could we be part of an unimaginably large bubble that blebbed off another universe? Would that make the big bang the moment at which “our” universe pinched off the other? Makes one wonder about the immensity of life, its marvels, and how things can emerge seemingly from next to nothing and disappear in the blink of an eye. And they are all the more amazing and joyful despite the brevity of their existence.
These bubbles were captured in flight in Barcelona at the long city park near the Arc de Triomf, not far from the Galeria Valid Photo where a piece of mine was included in the 10th Julia Margaret Cameron Exhibition in Barcelona.
I am honored and delighted that this image of Blue Bubbles sailing into an uncertain expanse was selected from the many submissions to the online fine art gallery, Your Daily Photograph.