Mindful, Day 23, Left, Right, Left

I think the way this cactus grows, alternating its new pads left, right, left is interesting. Why does it grow that way? Balance, maximum sun, more area exposed to predators? In any case, it feeds my need for pattern and symmetry today!

Pattern on pattern

Pattern on pattern in the courtyard.

Texture and pattern

One of the things I love about the desert is the plants - there is so much to look at in terms of texture and pattern. The play of sunlight snd shadow makes everything look  sharp and defined.
I go for a walk and the camera gets a workout because I am stopping to look at all the different things I see along the way. I shott all these same things last year but I still need to look again.

Kindergarten drawing

I came across my kindergaten drawing again at the studio and finally scanned it. As much as I personally love minimalist art, Japnaese art and all things subtle, my own art tends to be much more pattern heavy (as you can see the "pattern" was set many years ago!)

Pattern, pattern everywhere

Going back through some of my pattern files to find some candidates for new thermofax screens. I like this one of plastic fencing. Lots more to explore in the file.

Snow dye samples from yesterday

Samples of the snow dyed fabrics. Black, black cherry, vanilla bean and chino dye in these 4 pieces. It was interesting to see how long it took for the snow to melt and for the  dye to tricke down into the fabric. I overdyed some of them again today but the second time around was not as good as the first. Probably because I did not wait as long to see what would happen and also the fabric already had a lot of dye in it. Fun to do once but I don't think I would do it again.

Red and more red

This beautiful bowl was a Christmas present. It is red lacquer on the inside and and it was reflecting sunlight and patterns when the sun hit it yesterday. I think that it something that I could shoot quite often and always see something new.

More black and white patterns - old paint!

Black and white patterns

Back from a great trip out East and will be putting up images that I saw along the way! Starting with this one of stacked chairs creatign a wonderfully busy pattern!

Pattern upon pattern

Flying just gives me such an opportunity to see the world in new ways. Flying over Iowa and Nebraska there are miles upon miles of fields that are planted and harvested in interesting patterns. Here is one example. It reminds me of many quilts I have seen!

Sunlight and shadow

Pattern play again

Stacked roof tiles make an undulating pattern when shot from the side.

Shadow and pattern, again!

Shadow patterns

Falling water

This is a detail of a metal serrated columnal sculpture at Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville, Water runs silently down all 4 sides of the sculpture sliding over the serrated edges. Somehow this creates rapidly changing patterns in the flowing water. Depending on how the light hits it there is dimension to the water as well. It is lovely and soothing and a photo does not do it justice.

Patternmakers

Something is chewing little patterns into the these leaves. I am fascinated that they are not just "holes" but these precise little geometric shapes. They look a bit like hieroglyphics.

Color opposites

All of a sudden my coleus plants are growing like crazy and this chratreuse and red violet leaved one is bright and intense. How many different ways the leaves combine the 2 colors togehter in differing patterns.

I am off for a road trip for 10 days and may not be blogging - all depends on where we end up staying! But I will be finding lots of photo opportunites along the way so that will be lots of fun.

Pavement patterns

Driving down some backroads yesterday I notice along stretch of payement that has been patched with black tar (?).  Much of it looks like Japanese calligraphy. It would have been fun to be high above the road and see it all as one long scroll.

Glass patterns

My daughters gave me a glass beehive for Mother's Day. It is meant for outdoor entertaining for water or ice tea. I like the way the light through the clear glass is always creating new patterns. Not an easy thing to capture in a photo but here is a try!

Some things don't change

Some things don't change - this is a drawing I did in kindergarten - I liked pattern, color and shape even then. I came across this while trying to wade through old photos these past few days. I have discovered "shoebox scanning" at Osco - I can scan hundreds of photos on to a CD at the speed of light. I can't feed the machine fast enough! I have been wanting to get all of these photos into a digital format for some time and it always seemed like a daunting task but this process has made it doable.