You think looking at an individual painting or sculpture for 10 minutes seems long? How about a year?

James Gorman reviews a new book, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature, in the New York Times Science Times today. It turns out the author, David Haskell, spent a year slowly watching a patch of nature.

Haskell, a scientist, “did no experiments and no research…He sat, and watched, and listened” for this yearlong meditative study.

For example, one day he spent an hour slowly observing squirrels. That simple activity helped him realize something obvious and profound. Like a Slow Art Day participant who discovers a color, texture or other seemingly hidden element, Haskell joyfully discovered that “squirrels appear to enjoy the sun, a phenomenon that occurs nowhere in the curriculum of modern biology.”

I’m getting the book today. I recommend you do the same.

– Phil Terry, Slow Art Day Founder