STUDIES IN GROCERY PARKING LOT

IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS!

I was waiting in the car and a bit bored while my partner and a friend were in the grocery store getting a few supplies.  So I started studying people and the cars around me.  There was also a big trash truck that had interesting rust and markings.  I reached for my little Lumix camera and began to look for interesting shots and angles. I began to see lines, shapes and patterns.  As my eyes honed in for details I turned my camera this way and that, then I came in really really close on certain part, what happened was very interesting.  I guess it is a way of saying there are no small moments in art. If you train your eye to look as artist do you can see the most amazing things that you miss in every day life. There are amazing colors that are faded my the sun, or darkened by shadow.  There are marks, scratches and a rosetta stone of communication on old trucks and pick up trucks.  If we just look there are natural and man made compositions everywhere.  The study of the shovel on the dump truck is one example.  I played with the size, the cropping and the color.  I could have also tried black and white devoid of color. And when there is monotones just set off by a red or another bright color it adds emphasis to the composition.  In this area of the mountains there are many cultures that peak through, I tried to capture one with the Confederate flag and wolf tag.  And lastly reflections, a glass and a mirror offer a double reflection, if you look closely you will see it.  
It is just handy to keep a small camera or a sketch book with you at most times within reach.  So many times things catch your eye, that never happen again and it is missed.  You know those times and say to yourself, " I just wish I had a camera".  I am the same way with sound, I would love to gather bits of sound to use in an installation or an interactive sculpture.  

Studies in texture, color, shape, line and shadow can be found anywhere

The slanting line in this shot was interesting to me contrasted against the
shape of the steering wheel…and 

LOOKING AT LIFE ON BOTH SIDES NOW!

WE WERE RIDING THOUGH ASHEVILLE

 AND IT STARTED TO RAIN

A COLD FRONT COMING THROUGH

 I WAS WAITING IN THE CAR
 WHILE ERRANDS WERE BEING DONE
 AND GOT A LITTLE BORED. 

I LOOKED OUT THE CAR WINDOW 
AND HOW THE RAIN DISTORTED THE VIEW.  

 I LOVED THE WAY IT MADE ME LOOK 
AT FAMILIAR OBJECTS IN AN ABSTRACT WAY

 IT TOOK ON SOME THOUGHTS OF MONET, 
AND OTHER FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST AS WELL,

MONET

CAILLEBOTTE

IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO TAKE TIME WHEN YOUR INNER ARTIST SAYS " HEY, I HAVE AN IDEA".  EASY TO IGNORE, EASY TO MISS A MOMENT THAT CAN BE LONG GONE, AND NOT BORN.  

STOP 

TAKE TIME

 CREATE

 BE IN THE MOMENT 

THINK 




PS.  Photo's taken with little point and shoot Lumix by Panasonic.  Love this little camera. It has a leica lens and 20x zoom, but fits in my pocket.

The Day My Camera Died!

photo by elizabeth gordon

My trusty little lumix digital camera by panasonic has done me good stead.  I carry it in my pocket of a jacket or jeans and it just fits.  It doesn't get treated with great tenderness.  It has wonderful color, but only has one fault..it seems easy for dust to get into the camera body and then I can't get it out so I buy another.  No one wants to fix it, because it would cost more than just buying a new one.  This particular day my camera seemed to go haywire, the focus was all skewed.  But I thought it was neat and kept taking photos.  There are some new low end cameras made to do just this.  No more than I had taken three or four photo's then it healed itself and has since worked perfectly.

I think the message of this experience is to work with mistakes as they happen and you can be insured they will happen.  The one thing you can be most certain is that won't happen is that everything will go perfectly.  And I think you really don't want it to go that smoothly or where would the learning take place.  It is when things take a different path than we had intended we are forced out out comfort zone or boxed in way of perceiving and create something new.  I used to tell my students, mistakes are the best thing that happen to us!  They looked at me incredulously, certainly that couldn't be so when every other teacher they had marked a mistake with a big red X.