The Sunday Creative: Magnified

Aspen Bark, Cloudcroft, NM, March 2011

Given how the past two weeks have been, it figures it's Saturday and I'm just getting to this past week's Sunday Creative -- I did take this photo last Sunday, though, so that's appropriate, right? This week's theme is "magnified," and that's an easy one for me because I love how macro/close-up photography reveals things we don't usually notice at first glance. For me it also demonstrates the power (and necessity) of stopping for a moment to consider, on a deeper level than usual, the world around us. What seems like one thing on the surface, whether a tree or a person or an incident, will likely reveal itself to be much more complex when considered up close and personal. The photo above shows an aspen that, seen from further away, has seemingly smooth white bark that contrasts starkly with the deep blue mountain sky; looking more closely at this bark I see green moss, rust and golden lichens, and rugged scars marking this tree's long and varied tenure in a mountain forest. I know that sometimes we need to step back to "see the forest for the trees" (okay, I'm beating this metaphor to death), but I also see the importance and beauty that comes when pause and closely consider the trees in the forest. Everything is, and is not, what it seems; the closer we look, the more we see, both around and within ourselves.

The Sunday Creative: Affection

Max and Rocky haz a luv

Lucy out on a hike, 2009

I like this week's Sunday Creative theme, but I have a confession: I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. Never have been, in fact, and it's probably because of the expectations -- if I'm part of a couple, I have to do certain things (give a card, make dinner reservations, etc.; my ex-husband had a LOT of expectations and I never seemed to meet them, so that could have fueled my cynicism just a bit), and if I'm not part of a couple, well, I feel left out, I guess. Except that last night, as I helped the kids with their Valentines for school, I realized I have a totally different kind of love now: the real kind. Maybe someday I'll believe in romantic love again -- I know it's out there in the world because I know people who have had truly loving partnerships, but at some point in the last 3 years, since ending a painful marriage and enduring an even more painful divorce, I let go of the notion that it's for me. "They're writing songs of love, but not for me," croons Ella Fitzgerald; that song is at the top of my Pity Party Playlist... except, again, I realize now that I have an entirely different kind of love in my life now, thanks to my kids and, I dare say, my big dog Lucy. It is total, unconditional, encompassing, crazy and exhausting sometimes because the two little people have their own minds and are learning all about asserting themselves, and this kind of love is worth far more than any dozen roses or box of chocolates because the love I have for them and that they have for me is helping me learn to love myself in a new way. Not conditionally, as in, I have to do this or be that to be okay and worthy; I am worthy right here and now. It's still not an entirely comfortable concept for me, but I'm getting there. I see love all around me, when I let go of my expectations of what "love" is supposed to be.

And thus ends this sermon, which came out less cynical than I expected. Walk in beauty, my friends; it is all around you -- and within you, too.

The Sunday Creative: Perspective

Bugeyed, Praying mantis under a sunflower leaf, July 2010, Magdalena NM

Time for The Sunday Creative again (and I'm on time this week!); when I saw that this week's prompt was "perspective" I knew exactly which photo I wanted to put up. Last summer I caught this praying mantis hiding under a leaf of my mammoth sunflower; I had my macro filter on (I was shooting the sunflower buds) and thought about taking the filter off so I could get more depth of field, but s/he surely would have fled, and in any case I love how this photo came out.

Not only did this week's prompt inspire me to re-process this photo (using the Topaz Detail filter for Photoshop, which I wrote about last month) but before I posted here I sat down and put together a bracelet from a clutch of spring green beads I had set aside a while back but never pulled together. So it's a multimedia Sunday Creative for me this week! I don't feel like this bracelet is finished (a recent issue for me; I guess my style used to be simpler) but here's a shot anyway; I might add some charms and lightly oxidize the copper, and I will almost certainly change the clasp because the one I made seems a bit clunky for this bracelet. I can do that later when the kids and I are having a movie marathon in lieu of some big ol' football game that's taking up the entire day... ;-)  Hope you all are enjoying your day, whatever you're up to!

The Sunday Creative: Extent

Winter Picket Fence, Magdalena, NM, Jan. 2011

Extent (n):

1. The area covered by something: "an enclosure ten acres in extent".

2. The degree to which something has spread; the size or scale of something.

This week's prompt for The Sunday Creative (yes, I know it's Wednesday...) brought to mind a photo I took on Monday during our first (and, as it turned out, much milder) snowstorm of the week. We have a modest wooden plank fence around our yard that doesn't stand out much but, as most rustic things do, takes on a special charm after a light snowfall.

As that storm headed east and pummelled the midwest with snow and ice and even thunder and lightning, New Mexico got a second storm that swirled around the state all day and left nearly a foot of snow in some places, including here. As a special treat it also brought sub-zero(F) cold... zero in Fahrenheit is near minus-20 Celsius, just to give my international readers an idea of how FRICKIN' COLD it is today. We're approaching noon, and the sun is sort of out, and the temperature still hasn't climbed above zero(F) -- something I've never seen in my tenure here in NM. Oh, and did I mention the foot of snow? ;-) I don't find anything particularly charming after a heavy snowfall. But that's just me. Yep, just me, cooling my heels indoors, twitching and pacing and glaring out the window trying to WILL the weather to cut this crap out.

The cats, on the other hand, don't seem to care much either way, as long as they're on the warmer side of the window. This is where I'll be all day, too, unless Dad needs help digging more wood out of the woodpile.

Max and Rocky sleeping through Groundhog Day

The Sunday Creative: Solace

Gravesite, Old Pine Street Church, Philadelphia, July 2010

This week's Sunday Creative prompt is "solace," and as always it is inspiring many different interpretations among those of us participating. For me it evoked the relatively recent memories of being at my mom's bedside as she passed away last summer, then staying there in Philadelphia for two weeks to help my dad sort through things before he moved out here to live with me and the kids. I took this photo of an 18th-century gravesite with lilies during one of my many therapeutic, soul-settling walks around my old hometown during those two weeks. I have been using this image today as inspiration for a jewelry set that uses labradorite, oxidized sterling silver, peridot, and cat's eye glass that exactly matches the lily in this photo. I like using my photos as inspiration for jewelry; that's not my explicit intention when I take them, but it seems logical that whatever captures my eye through the lens is more likely to capture the eye when interpreted into another creative form. One thing that did occur to me when naming the photo is that naming jewelry is a rather different process: a piece entitled "gravesite" likely won't spur curiosity or a purchase, so I'm thinking "Remembrance" or something a bit less somber than "gravesite"....

The Sunday Creative: Extension



Self-Portrait in a Mosaicist's Workshop, Philadelphia, August 2010

I'm a week late with this post; I couldn't decided what to do with last week's Sunday Creative prompt, "Extension," until I was browsing through photos for this week's prompt (which I'll post on shortly) and came across this one, shot last summer during a family visit in Philadelphia. My camera is most definitely an extension of myself, to the point that I "see" in photos even when I'm not using my camera. I feel like the ability to take photographs gives me the ability to see, express, and share a particular vision of the world around me that I would not otherwise be able to communicate. Last summer I was finally able to get myself an entry-level digital SLR that gives me much more creative control than my point-and-shoot camera, particularly over focus and depth of field, and I've been able to rediscover photography and reconnect with my creative vision in a very fulfilling way. So this is me with my favorite tool, one that allows me to extend my creative self into the world.

Open Window

Still no words today... Well, a few: Mom was due to come home from the hospital today but ran a fever last night, so she'll be staying till tomorrow at least. I suppose we needed another day; we haven't heard from the home health care people yet, and we'll need help getting her settled in.

That's it for now; it's Craft Time with the kids. Today: fiber arts.

Open in My Garden Today

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), my kitchen garden; June 2010

This week's theme for The Sunday Creative (oh how I love these challenges!) is "open," and I've decided to go with that theme all week, in various media, starting with this entry. I added this echinacea to my kitchen garden last week both for its beautiful flowers and to eventually harvest some roots for my herb collection. My evolving kitchen garden is just in front of the house, visible from the kitchen window, and although it's mostly for herbs I've added some perennial flowers to "pretty" it up for myself as well as visitors.

Everything in front and back is now on a drip irrigation system; after 7 years here in the high-mountain southwest, I feel confident I've finally figured out drip irrigation, including how to clean the emitters that inevitably get clogged from our ridiculously hard water. If you garden in a dry climate zone, want to save water and labor, or are just a gardening fanatic and seek a new challenge, I highly recommend drip irrigation. I get all my supplies and most of my info from Dripworks, which has both a catalog and a Web site for ordering, but many other vendors offer equipment and guidance as well. Once you get the system laid out and operational, it's time to mulch the soil... which is what I'm off to do right now....