You See But You Do Not Observe
Sherlock Holmes: "You See But You Do Not Observe"
What is the best part of being an artist? Looking for the beauty in your environment on a daily basis changes your perception of the world around you. Observing, instead of merely seeing enhances your experience of even a simple walk around the neighborhood.
Let's start with something easy. Flowers are easily appreciated. Pay attention to their shape, color, textures, and fragrance.
Pay attention to all the different types of bark on the trees. The colors and textures are more obvious in some barks.
Look at trees from different perspectives.
Leaves can be touched, held up to the light, and observed at close distances.
Move around the leaves you are inspecting. Change your viewpoint by squatting down. Pay attention to how rain effects your view.
Much of the Pacific Northwest is covered with a carpet of various types of moss and lichen. Pay close attention to the variations in texture and color.
Vines produce wonderful organic patterns on buildings.
Rocks and stones vary based on location, lighting, weathering and moisture.
Pay closer attention to insects and animals.
Now, try to find the beauty in what is normally considered ugly or plain.
Explore the city for different patterns on the sidewalks and roads.
Sidewalk repairs made with different materials easily catch your attention.
Some patterns are more obvious during or after rain.
Light poles weather, age, and change in texture from environmental influences.
Oil and water may not mix, but they do make lovely colors and patterns on the road.
Sometimes dappled sunlight, shadows, and reflections are more interesting than what is creating them.
The absence of color noise can sometimes illuminate the lines of a subject.
Cross-sections of objects create a unique perspective.
Looking through color filters, camera lenses, binoculars, etc. sometimes help eliminate backgrounds that might be distracting. My oddest technique is squinting. Look at the aerial view of this intersection.
Borrow someone's glasses, close one eye, or squint. These techniques can trick your eye into seeing shapes instead of identifying the object. An abstract composition emerges when quickly blurring this aerial view. You stop identifying what you see as an intersection and instead see color blocks or shapes.
Grab a sketchbook or camera and take a walk. See how many interesting images you see using these techniques and thoughts. I imagine that within a mile from your house you can document numerous items that you observe instead of simply seeing.
Movie Reel
The movie reel is in place. I wanted to post pictures of all the stages, people, and help that went in to completing this project. It took a lot of hands and help from the public to create this public art. I am truly grateful to everyone that helped pull this off: Donna Belt, Julia Mastropaolo, Lidia Churakova, Lorry McCoy, Ia Ormond, Anna Langston, Joann Ingoglia, Jim Belt, Art Whitley, Sue Ann Glennon, Tutu School of Raleigh, Glenwood South Neighborhood Collective, Downtown Raleigh Alliance, United Arts Council, Visual Art Exchange, Office of Raleigh Arts, Raleigh Public Works, and the Raleigh Transportation and Planning Department, and the many other volunteers that I have failed to name.
Inspired by Plywood
Every day we walk through life seeing ordinary objects. But only occasionally do we stop and enjoy their beauty.
While walking around my dad's barn, I was lucky to see this weathered grey piece of plywood glistening in the sun. The varied greys and organic lines of the wood pieces contrasted with the stamped symbols. Weathering had warped the individual splinters of wood creating a dynamic texture.
I wanted to translate the individuality of the splinters into a harmonious collage in fabrics.
I started dyeing various colors of grey fabrics. In my quest to obtain greys, I created a range of greys from green to blue. Once I had my symbolic plywood base from dyed fabrics, I started thinking of ways to maintain some aspects of the plywood that I liked. I chose to represent the weathered look of the plywood by layering hand-dyed organza on top of my symbolic plywood base. This softened the sharp lines in the collage. I was surprised by the map-like quality the collage had taken on unexpectedly.
The grain of the wood is interpreted in machine stitching. Several strong lines from the photo are hand-stitched as well as my representation of the stamped symbols.
Though hard to photograph, my plywood shapes are encased in black organza so the light comes through the panels to mimic the way the sun glistened on the plywood that day.
Coupeville, WA
Let me start by saying I would move to Coupeville, WA tomorrow with no regrets. My experience of place was one I will always remember. Long walks every day allowed me to really explore the island within my walkable distance.
Let me start by saying I would move to Coupeville, WA tomorrow with no regrets. My experience of place was one I will always remember. Long walks every day allowed me to really explore the island within my walkable distance. The island also has free bus service to areas outside your walking comfort zone. The B&B owners picked me up from the airport shuttle stop on the island so I did not need a car the whole week I was there. Being car free enhanced my experience as you see so many things you would not notice in the confines of a car.
The island is very green even though it is in a rain shadow of the mountain and therefore does not get all the rain like Seattle. Flowers, trees, and animals are in abundance. The coolest thing though was that in June while I was visiting the sun doesn't set until after 9 at night so I was able to take long walks both in the morning and after class.
I can't say enough about my stay at The Blue Goose Inn. It wasn't overly fussy and the rooms were a nice size. The owners were overly accommodating in transporting me to and from the airport shuttle stop. Every morning the guest were greeted with a phenomenal breakfast that was included in the cost of your room. I am a Pescatarian and another guest had dairy aversion and the owners worked within the limitations and came up with dishes above and beyond expectation. They used local produce and a extensive mix of ingredients to fashion lovely meals each morning.
I did not have a bad meal the entire time I was in Coupeville. All of the restaurants had options for a Pescatarian. Being from North Carolina, I can assure you that is a rare experience for me. Also, the Chardonnays from the Pacific Northwest were wonderful. I was surprised that even the "house wine" was really good at the restaurants. Everyone says you have to try the mussels on the island. I thought they were good but it didn't blow me away. I'm not a huge oyster person either though so I may not be a good judge of mussels.
Moving on to the reason I was in Coupeville, WA................The Pacific Northwest Art School is a fabulous hidden gem. It was an intimate facility with all the basics for various art classes. It was especially nice for a fibers class as they had numerous wash sinks, clotheslines, a fabric spinner, a washer, and a dryer. The space could be divided in half for two smaller classes and there was also teaching space at Fort Casey. In reviewing their class listing, it was obvious that a lot of time and thought had been put into selecting known teachers and including a mix of disciplines.
Having graduated from a Design School (NC State College of Design) I was aware of the impact of being in a collaborative classroom environment. Working alone in my studio I have really missed the input of other artists. So much can be learned from just bouncing ideas off each other or talking about each persons varied experiences. Techniques, books, vendors, products and info about other artists to check out gets discussed while in the working environment. In North Carolina, it has been hard for me to find advanced classes offered in fiber arts. Most local classes are either in other disciplines, too Intro, or not the avenue of fiber arts I am interested in. Quilting, Weaving, Knitting, and Felting comprise the majority of Fiber Art classes in my area. On my list of To Do's is to try again to find classes available closer to home. In my next post, I will go into detail on my class at Pacific Northwest Art School.
Go West
Experience of place was a saying used often in my Architectural Design classes in college. It refers to your psychological, emotional, or biological response to a place or room. As I prefer the outdoors, I think of experience of place more outside the boundaries of four walls.
Go West
We will start this journey with my trip to the Pacific Northwest. My husband, my biggest critic and my biggest supporter, granted me the chance of a lifetime. I flew out to Whidbey Island to Coupeville, WA for a week long class at the Pacific Northwest Art School.
I will talk about the class in detail in a subsequent blog. For now, I want to talk about the experience of place and how it changed me.
Every morning, I awoke early to walk along the beach while enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day. I always took my camera along with me to document anything and everything that I found interesting. Most people return from trips with tons of pictures of tourist stops. I returned with pictures of moss, bark, mussels, seaweed, sand patterns, pebbles, birds, insects, wood, flowers, and anything else that influenced my experience of place.
Having graduated from Design School 18 years ago, I know how to look at the world through a different filter. However, over the years I had forgotten to stop and look at the world through this filter.....to really look..... For me, finding that again was the most important part of this journey.
So, I challenge you to start your day tomorrow really looking at the world. Pay attention to the little things:
- the patterns in tree bark
- all the different varieties of moss or mushrooms growing in your neighborhood
- the darker patterns in the road cracks after a rain shower
- shadows on the side of a building
- the lines of the veins in leaves
- peeling paint
- rust patterns on old metal
Look at ordinary things and find the beauty in them the colors, the lines, and the textures. The more you practice this the more often you will find yourself automatically "seeing" and enjoying the world around you. This will translate into your art and if not will at least improve your day and your experience of place.
“(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) Lots of open air
(Go West) To begin life new
(Go West) This is what we’ll do”
Experience of place was a saying used often in my Architectural Design classes in college. It refers to your psychological, emotional, or biological response to a place or room. As I prefer the outdoors, I think of experience of place more outside the boundaries of four walls.