Month: May 2021

Mixed Metaphor

Mixed Metaphor

I have always been fond of Oriental carpets and have usually had one or more wherever I have lived, from childhood on. When I moved to an apartment where there was no space for my favorite rug, it remained rolled up in storage. Later when I went to unroll it, out flew hundreds of moths! They had had such a good meal that, though I considered it, there was no sense in trying to restore it. So, sadly, out it went. A rug which had flown across several continents, both before it became mine, and afterwards as I moved, made a final journey into the garbage!

This is made from a photo of a poor replica of such a carpet. The resulting twist reminds me both of a butterfly and of the flying carpets of myth and children’s stories, both of which could be a metaphor for flying away to some wonderful place or state.

It is interesting to consider why you love to have certain objects around you in whatever place you may live. Is it because your childhood home had them? Is there a symbolic reason? For instance, I have lived in many types of dwelling, from one room to a house, but in my home there always have to be oriental rugs, cushions, handmade pottery, lots of little wooden drawers and, because I am a bookish woman, many shelves.

Do you have certain musts in your furnishings or decorations?

Mandala: Lines of Connection

Mandala : Lines of Connection

Just as I have many Tree pictures, I also have quite a few mandalas, created in many different ways. It is the making of them, more than the final result, which is the project for me. It also happens to be soothing and absorbing in times of stress.

This mandala, if it is “about” anything, is probably about the tangled interconnections between . . . everything!

A page about Mandalas in general is coming to the Home Page header soon.

At the edge of the woods

The Tree at the Edge of the Woods

The edge of the woods… Did you think that meant looking in to the woods, or looking out towards the town from inside the woods !

SOME QUOTES ABOUT EDGES:
When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and you take the first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid for you to stand upon
or you will be taught to fly.
-Patrick Overton

“Life” is a concept, like the Universe, that expands as soon as we reach what we think is the edge. – Kamand Kojuri

Sooner or later, we will come to the edge of all that we can control and find life waiting there for us . – Rachel Naomi Remen

for more on art method

Through a blind, light-ly

Through a blind – light-ly.

This is a picture probably best left undescribed, but if you do want an explanation . . . read on!

It shows a view of trees through one of those long roll-up patio blinds . Actually, there is a view of trees through that blind, but it’s not those particular trees. They are somewhere else! This is a composition using two different photos. The colours of the top one, the blind, are intensified.

Sometimes our distant memory actually does confuse or put together two different events!

Everything that we see, that we experience, is seen through filters of one sort or another: the amount of light (physical or mental) which we can shed upon it; our own personal and cultural history and our memory. Of course, generally speaking, we have to proceed, day by day, taking things as they appear to be but it is good to remember that whatever we see, it is always from a certain angle, from one physical, emotional or mental point-of-view, at a particular degree of magnification!

Perfectly Imperfect Mandala

Perfectly imperfect mandala (larger)

This mandala, made from a photo of a natural process, is called “Perfectly Imperfect Mandala” because:

1) I much prefer somewhat asymmetrical mandalas to rigidly constructed, perfectly circular ones.
2) Life, to me, is both “perfect” and imperfect. Don’t ask me to explain that one!!

I make my digital artworks in several different ways; the category, Art Methods (in the header) explains several basic methods for those interested. In the case of this post, because the method explains the name, I’ll tell you here. It’s simple: I notice something. I take a photograph of it. I play with it … and something else “arrives”!

I have a small, square black plate. I don’t have a dishwasher, so sometimes a few dishes may remain on the counter by the sink overnight! In the morning I noticed that as the plate dried, it had grown some crystals, flat ones like frosted glass, probably from a bit of salt or soda and probably a splash of detergent. Where there was a glass standing on it, a circle appeared. I started to wipe the plate then realized that the circle was somewhat mandalic and I could make something of it. So I did!

This way of working appeals to me because it involves three things: the offerings of the world, chance, and whatever I make out of it. ( As we all do every day: just what we do with what we are given!)

All the added parts are cuts of various tiny crystal formations on the photo. The picture below shows the black plate with the crystals. Unfortunately I wiped off the bottom part before it occurred to me to save it.

A City Called Life : All the World’s a Stage

From A City Called Life Series: All the World’s a Stage

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. – William Shakespeare (from As You Like It)

For more about the Series, A City Called Life

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Tangled Garden: Chocolate Lilies

Tangled Garden Series : Chocolate lilies

Tangled Garden Series : Chocolate lilies

All native west coast wild lilies, including also Camas or Easter Lilies, are a real source of joy in the Springtime.

Chocolate lilies, Fritillaria, are found all along the Pacific Coast from California up British Columbia to Alaska.  The Salish and other indigenous peoples used them for food.  The root is bulb-like, containing  grains a bit like rice,  which could be boiled or steamed. They could also be dried and stored for the coming winter.

The name comes from the colour, a purplish brown, not the taste, which is somewhat bitter, and as for the smell, the nicest way to put it     . . . is a bit like skunk cabbage! This attracts flies, which are the pollinators rather than bees.

If you want to know more about this interesting plant, here’s one source, a great site about nature on the west coast:

https://heartofthewestcoast.com/2012/04/26/spring-feast-for-the-eyes-chocolate-lilies/