Time Marches On!

Coming soon! It’s a new month, a new day, with hopefully some new interesting content and images. Thank you for reading, Wishing everyone days and nights filled with vivid colors and hopeful radiant light!

Ciao for now!

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

 

Look closely at the tiny white circle. Is it…

Above?

or

Below?

You sure?

Above?

or

Below?

Talk amongst yourselves. Discuss.

Spring Marches Along

Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.

Spring flowers from the kitchen window.
I think there’s a busy squirrel out there somewhere!

A Springtime Glimpse Of The Golden Hour

A quick glance out the kitchen window quite often yields a subtle, almost surreal natural drama. Photographers refer to a visual phenomenon known as the “golden hour”. It occurs shortly after sunrise and again right before sunset and paints the landscape in soft hues of red and gold. The picture below, dating from this past April 22nd at around 7:30 pm EDT, reveals something similar. However, what I find unique is that around the very same time on the very next day, the golden band atop the trees up the street had since disappeared and I haven’t seen it look like that since. Perhaps the sun-drenched leaves were changing color at just that exact peak moment. I also think a heavy dusting of sneeze-inducing pollen might be a factor.

Whether it’s wild turkeys raucously running up the road, an ominous abandoned hornet nest high up in a near tree, or winter birds dive-bombing the holly bush for fresh berries during an unseasonably warm winter afternoon, a gaze out onto the side porch provides a brief feast for the eyes at various times throughout the seasonal calendar.

Get Hoppin’, Easter Sunday 2015

 

Happy Easter!

 

Click The Egg!

The GIF That Keeps on Giving!

‘Tis the season that we nurture

Peace on Earth…

                                              R. Amos

…Beginning from our own piece of earth!

A Brief History of The Hand Turkey

If you attended public school in the USA sometime within the last two centuries, you’ve been there…

It may have been traced, finger-painted, or cut out of construction paper, and, using paste or glue-stick, paper-plated and hung up on the family refrigerator.

Behold The Mighty Hand Turkey!

But then came PCs, Apple iMacs, latptops, tablets, smartphones, scanners, stylii, and trackpads; and so, the early grade school artistic rite of passage would never be the same!

Many people might go their entire lives without seeing a real live turkey other than the cooked flesh of the one situated between the mashed potatoes and green casserole on their dinner plate. Below is a photo of some wild turkeys on my street:

Before the end of another holiday season, might it not be a good idea to reclaim a little bit of your lost innocence? Step away from the computer or TV and grab your kids, your nieces and nephews, grandchildren, whomever, and make some good old-fashioned hand turkeys! And then, to get ready for Christmas, string together some green and red paper chains and cut out some paper snow flakes (especially the authentic looking six-sided ones, not the funky rectangular ones from elementary school):

Click on the image below to view my very short animation of a 21st century hand turkey painted with an iPhone app. Maybe the folks at Pixar or Dreamworks could get together with me on this and start something big for next holiday season! (may require Flash).

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Gray Area

Moderation in all things…

A Google search of the above quote fails to yield a specific source. Several variations can be attributed to Emerson, Wilde, Aristotle, Petronius, the Holy Bible, etc., etc. Moderation seems a much valued character trait in our society, especially in the intertwined realms of politics and religion. However, much like those drawings depicting optical illusions wherein an object appears to be darker or lighter than it really is against a contrasting background, moderate behaviors manifest themselves in comparison to the extreme acts of others.

Political and spiritual leaders frequently use this to gain competitive advantage. Sometimes displaying a moderate temperament reveals an aptitude for working well with others, or highlights an emotional make-up of sensitivity and/or compassion. Conversely, sometimes people in power want to act boldly and with great intiative and so they ridicule so-called moderate behavior as docile and indecisive and weak and incompetent. A similar strategy is to advance opinions and viewpoints way beyond the norm, and, even outwardly hostile to competitive ideas over a lenghty period of time, during which extreme positions and behaviors devolve into a  general perception of appearing moderate, responsible and disciplined.

Recently, a popular politician in our region won a big election and received nationwide acclaim for his moderate views and ability to work with contrasting sides of a huge partisan divide. A small, crazy but powerful element acting from within his own “side of the aisle” enjoys portraying him as too appeasing, yielding and compromising, a traitorous “turncoat”, even.

At some point, one comes away with the sense that powerful people, either from within the ranks of their own, or while engaged in debate from “across the aisle”, take great comfort in the monochrome illusion of modertation that allows them to appear as a special breed apart from the competition. While thriving in the comforting complacency of the “gray area” they enjoy the ability to draw battle lines wherever and whenever they choose so they can step in out of them intermittently to maintain their own advantage and privilege.

A lesson learned from all this is to choose a life moderated by clear lines and gentle boundaries, of contrasting shafts of light and color and shadows of darkness, in a manner that defines who and what we are, rather than railing in anger and cynical despair at vague, poorly-conceived illusory notions of what we are not.

You Can’t Win If You Don’t Play

I recently came across some information on my Twitter feed about a fun contest presented by G-Technology, makers of digital media drives. There are both amateur and professional competitive categories for almost everyone (18 and over) who enjoys creating visual media: video, music, photography, etc. Only entries dating from 2012-2013 are eligible, but the competition doesn’t close until the end of October so there is plenty of time to enter. Entrants will not only have an opportuntiy to provide a brief description of their submitted work, but can also enjoy viewing a web gallery of other entries and cast their votes for the best ones.

The top prize is a brand new Thunderbolt drive and $5,000! I have never purchased a G-Technology product but have seen and read good things about them. However, as an owner of a mid-2009 MacBook Pro which still utilizes Firewire I am a little bummed about Thunderbolt to be honest.  But hey, five grand can get you a pretty nice upgraded machine (enough even to make you switch from Windows to Mac, maybe) to go along with your new shiny, metallic-finish drive. Not to mention Thunderbolt is supposed to be super-fast!

So take a photo, make a video, record some cool sounds. Use equipment you already have on hand and see what you can come up with (which Is what I did). You’ve got nothing to lose and can view your work next to all the other participants and cast a vote! Good luck and have fun! Link to the contest information is here:

http://drivencreativity.g-technology.com – Page

 

What Do You Think You’re Looking At?

Seems everywhere we go these days, we either can’t be without our “smartphone”, nor can we avoid anyone else’s. While on vacation, watch your step so you won’t trod in front of someone trying to capture that special moment with their HD camera phone. Conversely, how often have we excitedly focused in on that great catch at the ballpark, that rare butterfly, or some other magnificent specimen of flora or fauna, only to have it ruined by someone’s head positioned oh-so-unaesthetically within your memorable dream shot? Fortunately, if you are just a tad bit tech savvy you can avail yourself of a nice variety of photo editing apps and software options to enhance that hi-tech cam that conveniently fits in your shirt pocket or purse.

The photo above represents one of my quick attempts at snapping a decent shot of the ocean at the Jersey Shore. It was a sunny and windy day, which meant that I felt greatly hindered by the iPhone cam’s lack of any kind of backlighting or even basic anti-glare features, so I just clicked away and cropped and straightened the spot with the built in iPhoto OS, all the while only vaguely aware of just exactly what it was I was shooting. Upon returning home I added just a little image sharpening, but actually felt pleased with the slight fuzziness of my shot by the water. Additionally, l think the man-made structures and Boardwalk pedestrians appear arranged across the seascape in a pleasant way.

Lately, this particular beach scene has caused me to reflect upon some of the more powerful works of art I’ve experienced in my lifetime. I’ve grown up in a world where the Golden Age of American Television led to 24 hour worldwide live, “real time” video news coverage; where cinema verite became “reality TV”. From within their vast  “social networks” people find themselves eager to be seen and wanting to see everything! But historically, many of the greatest geniuses of the visual arts seems to have concerned themselves, not with what they wanted to show you, but more so with provoking you to closely examine what you think you see.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Las_Meninas_detail.jpg

Consider the mid 17th century painting, Las Meninas by the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez. I remember like it was yesterday, when my freshman Spanish teacher introduced her class to this incredible work of art in a classroom slideshow presentation. In the early nineties I was fortunate to see it up close in the Prado Museum during my first trip to Europe. To desribe this work from the “Spanish Golden Age of Painting” as a very early example of “picture-in-picture” would be an understatement. The scene involves the viewer on so many levels beyond just the depiction of the “little maidens” of the Royal Spanish Court. The artist seems to look right at us, so it is in part self-portrait. And of course, what is he painting, what are we really looking at, AND where are we anyway, really? Look in the mirror. As the king and queen sit for their portrait so do we become them!

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/salvador-dali/figure-at-a-window

I did not have to travel to Spain to see Salvador Dali’s Figure at a Window, and in fact had never heard of it before viewing it at the travelling exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It’s an earlier work and not typical of what one thinks of as being Dali-esque as with melting clocks, dreamlike freakish creatures, etc. The viewpoint is a deceptively simple one. Her living space seems quite sparse, almost barren, her attire very basic, almost plain, as she stares into a narrow opening onto a vast widening seascape. Is it a hopeful scene pointed at a brightening future of smooth sailing, or one of quiet desperation and grayish skies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wyeth

The painting was positioned chronologically near the beginning of the exhibit in Philadelphia, and upon seeing it for the first time, Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World immediately came to mind (which was created a couple decades later). Many Americans have seen Wyeth’s famous painting (at the very least in print reproductions and in art books) of the young girl, her face (as with the Dali painting) turned away from us, sprawled out across a grassy farm field. Unlike the Dali painting, the young woman doesn’t seem enclosed by her immediate surroundings. I’ve never seen the actual painting but it does seem to challenge the viewer  in a manner similar to Dali’s work. Is Christina enthralled by this natural world with all it’s unforeseen possibilities or will she feel consumed by the sheer vastness of it?

A few years back I attended a college basketball game and secured nice seating by the railing and snapped a few quick shots of player warm ups. This particular seating area adjacent to the main entrance of the building did not offer particularly good lighting for photography. I am always fascinated with bright, bold, vivid colors and so when I returned home to my computer desk I selected and cropped the best shots and experiment liberally with filters, hue and exposure adjustments and especially posterizations. While my initial intent was to capture the exuberance of the players as they formed a circle to rally themselves for the opening tip off, I always came away with a strange feeling regarding the ominous look of the tall, dark slender figure of the head coach leaning off to the side. As it turns out, the coach enjoyed very little success and was eventually dismissed by the University due to, let’s just say, some scandalous, abusive team management techniques.

The next time you examine a particularly fascinating piece of art, whether it be a painting, a photo, film, sculpted object, etc. immerse yourself in the artist’s intent and purpose and outwardly emerging creative energies. But ultimately, ask of yourself “What do you think you’re looking at?”

Click Album Art to Play: “I’m Looking Through You“- Lennon/McCartney