boundaries




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before the masts




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triplicated




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noon ascending a staircase


~ This title is a play on words referring to Marcel Duchamp's famous Nude Descending A Staircase (1912) which caused a scandal at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City.



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"aluminum arabesque"



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linear language




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line - A mark with length and direction. Types of line include: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, straight or ruled, curved, bent, angular, thin, thick or wide, interrupted (dotted, dashed, broken, etc.), blurred or fuzzy, controlled, freehand, parallel, hatching, meandering, and spiraling.
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"It is to be observed that straight lines vary only in length, and therefore are least ornamental. That curv'd lines as they can be varied in their degrees of curvature as well as in their length, begin on that account to be ornamental. That straight and curv'd lines joined, being a compound line, vary more than curves alone, and so become somewhat more ornamental. That the waving line, or line of beauty, varying still more, being composed of two curves contrasted, becomes still more ornamental and pleasing . . . and that the serpentine line, or line of grace, by its waving and winding at the same time different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of its variety."

William Hogarth (1697-1764), English painter. The Analysis of Beauty.

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The photograph "intermetallic light" captures a piece of found art. My hairstylist (MM) has her business cards on display in the M in her salon. When I saw it next to the foil squares she was about to use to color my hair....eureka! I moved everything around on her counter, took the cards out of the holder and placed it on top of the aluminium foil. I am obsessed!

The term found art—more commonly found object (French: objet trouvé) or readymade—describes art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a mundane, utilitarian function. Marcel Duchamp was the originator of this in the early 20th-century.

Found art derives significance from the designation placed upon it by the artist. The context into which it is placed (e.g. a gallery or museum) is usually also a highly relevant factor. The idea of dignifying commonplace objects in this way was originally a shocking challenge to the accepted distinction between what was considered art as opposed to not art. Although it is now widely accepted in the art world as a viable practice, it continues to arouse media and public hostility, as with the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize exhibition of Tracey Emin's My Bed, which consisted literally of her unmade and dishevelled bed.

Found art, however, has to have the artist's input, at the very least an idea about it, i.e. the artist's designation of the object as art, which is nearly always reinforced with a title. There is mostly also some degree of modification of the object, although not to the extent that it cannot be recognised. The modification may lead to it being designated a "modified", "interpreted" or "adapted" found object.




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intermetallic light




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"Where Alph the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man."



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darker side




"A clean uncomplicated grid - everything, all wilder routes - in forfeiture to order"




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windowscape illuminated




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"waiting for the story to unfold"




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I took this shot yesterday in Nikki's garage and....
...found this "Supermodel" by Marlene Dumas looking at NY Times online.




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"endless forms most beautiful"




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In preparing my "self" for a class on Visual Perception which starts tomorrow, I find my mind awhirl with thoughts about creativity, originality, titles, techniques and on and on and on.

A bit obsessive, but it has me reading a variety of subjects about art/photography/physics/drawing/art history. So...I'm going to put some of the ideas I come across on xola so I can remember them and maybe utilize them in my photography "practice." I hope you will enjoy reading these entries too.

"The principle that ‘originality’ is more about a kind of transformation of existing ideas than the invention of entirely new ones is one that I can relate to as an artist and author. I’m wary of using words like ‘inspiration’ or ‘creativity’ without at least trying to demystify them first. They can easily convey a false impression that ideas or feelings appear spontaneously and of their own accord; “creation” in particular is a term that originally entered our language with divine connotations. My own experience is that inspiration is has more to do with careful research and looking for a challenge; and that creativity is about playing with what I find, testing one proposition against another and seeing how things combine and react.

For me, that’s what creativity is - playing with found objects, reconstructing things that already exist, transforming ideas or stories I already know. It’s not about the colonisation of new territory, it’s about exploring inwards, examining your existing presumptions, squinting at the archive of experience from new angles, and hoping for some sort of revelation."

~Shaun Tan - Austrailian artist




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architextual




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With this title, I thought I had invented a new word to extend the meaning of this image! As you can see from the following notation, I apparently tapped into some higher thought processor and un/dis/covered this little gem defining the categories of a text.

"These categories [were] developed by Gérard Genette... Intertextual includes allusion, quotation, and plaigarism; paratextual includes prefaces, photographs, and dedications; architextual includes generic conventions, such as the division of a play into acts and scenes; and hypotextual includes genre innovation, parody, and satire."

Wow!






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"from chaos to art"

Desiring to live the creative life is one thing. Actually living as an artist is quite another. Leonard Cohen's, Book of Longing, contains a lyric that maps the psychic terrain that many artists have to navigate:

I followed the course
From chaos to art
Desire the horse
Depression the cart

My page too white
My ink too thin
The day wouldn't write
What the night penciled in

Here are the trademarks of Cohen's oeuvre: desire, depression, and absence. But there is an ambiguous optimism in the second stanza. Is it possible that the day wouldn't write what the night penciled in because of the illuminating perspective that daylight provides? It's easy to go the other way, that the scrutiny of daylight destroys the creativity of the evening, but the rest of his book bears out the previous, positive interpretation. - edited from a book review by Gerry Donaghy




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calliope concerto in pvc major




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"in visible light"



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"Let your eyes fall on whatever happens to be in front of you. It may be a plant or bush or a tree, or perhaps it is just... {a roll of tape}. Close your eyes for the next five minutes . . .

Now open your eyes and focus on whatever you observed before.... Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. Feel that you are alone with it on Earth! That it is the most important thing in the universe, that it contains all the riddles of life and death. It does! You are no longer looking, you are seeing."


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awash




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"seeing is forgetting the name of the thing"


~ Paul Valery said, "Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing that one sees." In other, less poetic words: when we really see something, we don't convert the image into symbols, tokens, words in a language; instead, we accept the direct impression of the thing itself on our visual cortex. It's like tasting a fruit, smelling a rose, kissing a friend --- imminent contact with reality --- rather than reading a description of the event and reconstructing it in the imagination.




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footloose

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alternate titles:

"soleful" MW
"red rubber" JI

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~ A word about my titles...the titles in quotation marks are "found" titles, ones I have discovered in my readings and have been collecting to use on xola. The rest are either mine or actual art/photography/science terms, etc. Like "fugitive color." These colors are "Pigments and dyes that fade, especially those that lose color relatively quickly when exposed to natural light. Although still commonly used, the term is misleading because it implies that FADING represents the flight of color, rather than a chemical change." Of course, I like the notion of colors in flight!

Today Jani reminded my of how we are always coming up with titles for books that we will never write. So all those years of practicing this "art" are not wasted!

I would love for you who look at xola to come up with alternate titles. Mine don't have much emotional significance. I seem to be more in thinking than feeling mode.

fugitive color




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"scattering in black and white"




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"theme with variations"




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stardom




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These two images elaborate the essence of the Feininger quote and illustrate how I unconsciously applied it when taking this photograph.

Looking at this complex scene in a window, a story formed in my imagination that focused on the sculptured torso. It transformed into a movie star - one who is isolated from ordinary life, seen only in fragmented form and celebrated more for body than for mind or spirit. The endless wheel of this existence is difficult to escape while striving to maintain the reflected glory of celebrity.

With the extreme cropping and color manipulation, the final image was close to what I had "seen" looking back at me from the deli window.

So much for ever again taking a simple snapshot!



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On reconstructing reality ~

“Seeing in terms of photography means realizing potentialities; visualizing things not as they are, but as they could be made to appear in picture form.”

– Andreas Feininger (1906-1999) French-born American photographer.




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"how geometry sculpts the void"




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harmonic




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I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.
I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.
I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.
I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.
I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.
I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.
I'm simply obsessed with visual patterns and repetitions.

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corona






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crossroad



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oblique





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flashback





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quadratic




In the spirit of looking down to observe what is right in front of my toes... a drain cover in that art-filled destination, Safeway parking lot. Apparently there is a lot to see there.



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fanfare




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blueprint




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In the spirit of seeing what I'm seeing, I decided to vary my typical driving routes. On an oceanside street in Pacifica, this kaleidoscopic composition of color, line and pattern truly dazzled me. When I saw the image onscreen, I found a hidden narrative feature as well.



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perihelium




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perihelium ~ That point of the orbit of a planet or comet which is nearest to the sun.

The blistering surface of a sun splits apart for an instant and the cosmic night is exposed to glimpse a brilliant comet arcing across infinity.

No? Ok, how about a weathered cement post in Safeway parking lot with a fragment of paper attached?




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encounter




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This stairway is located on a wall next to the local post office. I no doubt look at it almost every day, but realize I hadn't "seen" it until Saturday. Usually I pop out of the car, hurriedly collect the mail, pop back in the car and never spend a moment noticing anything. Especially anything as mundane as a grey metal stairway. Maybe the light was in precisely the right place, but it's design and shadows and rusting edges captivated me. I sat looking at it for a long time before taking this one shot through car's front window.

Most apparent are the patterns created by strong horizontal and vertical lines. While these might represent solidity and stability, the more subtle downward-angled shadow of the iron railing suggests movement and mutability.

The layering of light and dark, the textures of the wall and red rust and the overall feeling of mystery - of an event about to occur - make it interesting to me both as an abstract study and as a visual narrative.


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