Katy is channeling me!

My internet pen pal Katy has been on my wavelength recently. 

First, she took up my challenge to make daily art and is doing a calendar quilt with a square for every day. Her rule is to make five-inch blocks, using only solid colors, representing something about her day.  She's finished 20 blocks so far and is feeling energized.

Second, she used the April Quilt Date technique of piecing narrow lines. You can see both of these projects on her blog. 

I am so happy that some of my ideas have found a receptive mind to alight in.  One of the great joys of the internet, and of the art communities that it has enabled, is the opportunity to give and get ideas and support.

A year ago, in fact, it was Katy who was supporting me.  I wrote on the Quiltart list that I was doing a huge job of sinking the thread ends in a quilt, and had managed to break two or three needle threaders already.  Where do you buy needle threaders? I asked the list (without having to buy a whole pack of crummy needles to get one threader).  Katy replied that she had acquired a whole box of them from her sewing machine repair guy, and would send me some.  Which she did -- a lifetime supply and then some.  What a friend!!

just some of the needle threaders Katy sent me last year

So I'm happy to see that I can return the favor by giving her an idea or two.

PS -- Katy's new calendar quilt project brings to mind the fact that I made a calendar quilt several years ago too.  I have referred to it in passing on the blog, but I should really talk a little more about it.  Tune in tomorrow.

Photo thoughts 5 -- still lifes

Another category I enjoy is still lifes. I love still life as an art genre, owning many of them as paintings, and I suppose it’s natural that I would enjoy composing them for photographs.

Like my nature photographs, these tend to be desperation shots.  Still lifes are for days when not only do I not have anything better but it’s too rainy or dark to go outside and shoot the garden. But sometimes I am struck by the simple beauty of a pile of apples, a tumble of fabric scraps or a pile of spools.

I think a big challenge for any photographer is how much fussing to do in staging pictures. I won’t fuss when I take pictures outside, except for maybe to kick a piece of trash out of the frame. I love serendipitous “found collages” but I won’t go piling stones into a cairn or picking flowers to strew picturesquely over a gravestone. Not that other people might not get great results this way, but it’s against the rules I have set for myself.

However, in still lifes I allow myself a little latitude to find a nice bowl for the artichokes or to shove the spools into a closer configuration. I know you can learn a lot about the technical aspects of photography from still lifes, and it would probably be time well spent to practice more with this genre. But I’m not sure how well that would fit within my self-imposed rules for the photo project.

Life imitates art 1

unposed -- I swear it!

Photo thoughts 4 -- nature pictures

Another category of photos that I don’t do very often is nature. I admire Ansel Adams as much as you do, but I don’t aspire to take his kind of pictures. You can’t do a very good job capturing the grandeur of nature with a point-and-shoot, and living in the city it’s not like I’m passing up the chance to shoot Half Dome in the moonlight anyway.

I tend to use nature photos as my desperation shots – for the days when I didn’t get a decent photo of anything else and I just need something fast to fulfill my daily art commitment. Fortunately my husband keeps a glorious garden so I can always find a decent picture in three minutes door to door, but I consider these shots to be uninspired. Beautiful, yes, but you can get the same effect from a seed catalog.

I live within walking distance of two marvelous parks and a beautiful though sometimes smelly creek, but I have not done them justice in my photographic pursuits. Maybe I should resolve to do more walking in the park and see what I can find to take pictures of.

Photo thoughts 3 -- pictures of people

I wrote Saturday about how my favorite category of photos is those showing what people do to their surroundings. But that’s not my only area of interest.

I have always admired photos of people, but I rarely take them, except for the occasional family snapshot. That’s because I have a point-and-shoot camera, with a slow response time (by the time the shutter opens the person has already walked out of the frame) and until a week ago I had only a 3x zoom lens (I could rarely get close enough to somebody to shoot them unawares).

It has always seemed rude to take pictures of strangers, let along asking for trouble if somebody decides you’re a pedophile shooting kiddie porn at the playground. And it’s also borderline rude to post pictures of your friends on the internet, so I sometimes crop or blur on purpose (or sometimes not on purpose).

I like to take candids of people doing things. I think practically everything children do is photogenic. 

I like to take pictures of people taking pictures! Somehow if lots of other people have their cameras out, I don’t feel so intrusive with my own.

Now I have a 7x zoom on my new camera and suspect that people may start appearing more frequently. Here are a couple from last week.

Ideas of Inspiration

I have a new adventure! I have joined a blogging group of artists mostly in the UK called Ideas of Inspiration. It’s set up both to challenge the participants to respond to monthly themes, colors or other points of departure, and to share what we come up with.

I am intrigued with group processes, having participated in Compositional Conversation last year (a bunch of us worked on a progressive quilt) as well as several different kinds of group challenges and projects in the past. I have never really seen a process like this one and I hope it proves fruitful.

I’m also looking forward to being in a group where I am in the clear demographic minority. Of the 30 current members, six are from the US, two are from Pacific Rim countries, and the rest are from Europe. One of the great joys of the internet is that it enables virtual friendships and exchange of ideas with people all over the world, a phenomenon I have enjoyed for over a decade on the Quiltart list. But that list is dominated by Americans, and it’s good occasionally to step out of your own culture and play in somebody else’s sandbox.

I am getting to know my fellow participants by reading past blog entries and visiting their blogs and websites, but I think I will have fun in this group. I invite you to stop by and see what we’re up to.