Handspinning! Something I learned years ago. I have not had anything to put in my fingers of late – knitting is just at a dead standstill for now – and the end result was an awful restlessness which nothing could satisfy. Thinking, taking pictures, hiking, reading, blobbing, drawing – nothing, but nothing, had it. Then I looked at my spinning wheel, and went out to the garage where I have some carded fleece stored. And there was the answer.
Moorit Shetland
A small fleece, carded and ready to spin, was on the garage shelf, stored with lavender. Below it is a heathery grey one. Two balls of lace-weight yarn were already spun. What I am doing now is a bit heavier, but not much, and the two will be plied together for something. This is true satisfaction!
Personally, I find too many group activities overwhelming. Too many people. Too much stimulus. Too much to distract from the focus of the group. Certainly, lots can be learned from seeing what others do, but too much can also be lost in the mix. I am a definite introvert, and while I like people, I prefer them in small doses . . . unless its a despotic situation, and I am the despot!
Anyway, one thing rather nice about the internet is the fact you can belong to some kind of group activity, but not be overwhelmed with others. I like a number of flickr groups for this reason – photographers with similar interests, occasional comments, groups with a focal theme and good postings. These are groups I can check in with, and check out of, and no one gets hurt feelings.
Fugue 4
One I am finding particularly enjoyable is “Our Daily Challenge, 2” – the second group formed as an offshoot of the first. Highly original and creative photos emerge from a daily challenge. Themes for the day have included Distorted, Runs or Running, Hidden, and so on. What the photographer does can be staged, spontaneous, an impetus and go out and shoot something familiar but with a different skew. This puts a creative push behind photography.
Today’s theme is Distorted. I could putz with software and create special effects, I could destroy something and have a distorted item to snap. Instead, I have a zoom lens that creeps. It moves along and can be rather frustrating. But this is what made my theme for Distorted – the blur from the creep. So I simply moved the lens in-and-out, using a small f/stop to have a longer exposure. I was very, very pleased with the results. (No, I am not the first person in the world to do this.) The pleasure lies in the pattern repetition, somewhat recognizable in some of the pictures, and hinted at in others: Fugue.
The Conejo Valley Botanical Gar4den has on longterm loan seven statues from the Morris B. Squire Art Foundation, a philanthropic nonprofit established by Morris Bear Squire, an artist who lives in Santa Barbara. A number of them – seven specifically – have been installed throughout the property, and three have been placed in the Kids’ Adventure section. I have seen two of them, but did not really check them out too much, as I was in pursuit of butterflies.
Statue at the Gate
This is the one right inside the entrance of the garden, and I am rather amused by it. There is something rather fun about it. It’s a dreadful photo of it. The colors are what I like, and now that I look at it a bit more, I recall the leaves at the top also caught my eye.
Sculpture is rather an elusive like-don’t like thing. For one thing, at home, I think of 3-D art as something needing to be dusted. Given my aversion to housework, which gets done out of necessity and vanity more than an overwhelming need for cleanliness, that is the first thing that comes to mind. How can this be easily cleaned? Solution: hose it off.
That aside, just having artwork in a garden is always a risk factor. What is the art, where is it placed, how does it work with the environment? And then the eternal question of “what is art?”
For now, I have only glanced at this sculpture. I saw another in the garden I did not like, but that is because there were people in the sculpure, painted on, and rather amateurish. Snobbery on my part, but the fact is, people do not hold much appeal to me when painted onto a statue. I glanced at that one and walked on.
Yesterday, the real art in the garden was the garden itself. I love that place – so many wonderful plants and trees and paths to follow. Flowers are blooming like crazy, and the butterflies were flitting around. I sat on a bench, and just watched them. I have forgotten that beauty of the butterfly because I am too busy running around after other things, not chasing butterflies in the woods like I once did. There were more Monarch butterflies than any other but I did capture another orange one.
Small Visitor
Yesterday was so much fun – time to look and think and watch and do. Home, then, to lie in the sun and listen to an audiobook. Been awhile I have actually done nothing. And then I even got out my spinning wheel and some dark brown Shetland to spin.
I cannot say that working with a computer and software is any form of art. Maybe it is, but I don’t see it. To me, the computer is a tool, and mastery of the tool is one way in which art can be created. Writing and designing the software is an art – it requires a vision and a goal, and like art, software evolves and changes, sometimes for the best, sometimes for the worst. (A lot of times, software becomes increasingly kludgy as it evolves.)
This is what I mean . . . here is an original picture, below, of water lilies taken at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Water Lilies
This next image is edited in the pixel bender filter in CS5.
Water Lilies and Pixel Bender Filter “Oil Paint”
Finally, this is the same image, with increased contrast added in CS5.
Water Lilies – Pixel Bender Oil Paint – Increased Contrast
Is any of this art? Or is it just manipulation? I don’t think I would ooh! ahh! over any of these, nor would I pay good money to hang these on the wall. But, they are fun to do!
With sensing a bit of accomplishment in the field of photography, it is beginning to take a place for me in the world of creativity. I am beginning to see what I could not see before. This ability to relate to photography pools it into other arts, specifically, painting. Consequently, I am re-reading about and re-evaluating the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, and as an extrapolation, the life and works of Ansel Adams, both whom I admire as artists.
Georgia O’Keeffe – Blue & Green Music – 1921
Their creative viewpoints resonate with my own. While I doubt I shall ever meet their productivity, or creativity, I can appreciate their work as individuals. What interests them interests me – looking at landscapes, parts of things, plants. The natural world in color and in black and white, both lush and sensuous, and stark and contrasting.
Ansel Adams – Church, Taos Pueblo – 1942
In particular, I like the fact they do not put people in their works. I cannot think of a single painting by O’Keeffe in which there is a person; few photographs by Adams include individuals. And that is not to say I do not enjoy images of people, but it is more likely I am not going to go out of my way to pursue then. People like Kirk Tuck and Vivian Maier are wonderful photographers, both of whom photograph people. Kirk works often in his studio, but also does street portraiture; Maier, on the other hand, was a street photographer at its finest.
I may at some point venture out to take pictures of the random person, but for now, the textures and colors of the world around me intrigue me enough to focus on them. And perhaps I shall begin painting again – my period of apprenticeship in photography may be ending.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 