February 28, 2009

February 27, 2009

February 26, 2009

February 25, 2009

"Without the difficulty of being hemmed in, a tree in the forest would not be forced to marshal its power to grow toward the light. It must truly bring forth all its inner strength to spread its branches. If it becomes grand, it is in part because of its suffering. Thus the times of adversity can  be crucial to the development of one's inner personality."

#54: Adversity

365 Tao

Deng Ming-Dao

February 24, 2009

February 23, 2009

"Flowers arouse in us an instinct to protect them, to appreciate them and to shelter them. The world is too ugly, too violent. There should be something delicate to care about. To do so is to be lifted above the brute and to go toward the refined...

The tenderness of flowers arouses mercy, compassion and understanding. If that beauty is delicate, so much the better. Life itself is fleeting. We should take time to appreciate beauty in the midst of temporality."

#51 Beauty

365 Tao: Daily Meditations

Deng Ming-Dao

February 22, 2009

February 21, 2009

February 20, 2009

February 19, 2009

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Albert Einstein

February 18, 2009

February 17, 2009

February 16, 2009

February 15, 2009

February 14, 2009

This Year's Valentine

They could

pump frenzy into air ducts

and rage into reservoirs,

dynamite dams 

and drown the cities,

cry fire in theaters

as the victims are burning,

but

I will find my way through the blackened streets

and kneel down at your side.

They could

jump the median, head-on,

and obliterate the future,

fit 45's to the hands of kids

and skate them off to school,

flip live butts onto tinderbox forests

and hellfire half the heavens,

but

in the rubble of smoking cottages

I will hold you in my arms.

They could 

send kidnappers to kindergartens

and pedophiles to playgrounds,

wrap themselves in Old Glory

and gut the Bill of Rights,

pound at the door with holy screed

and put an end to reason,

but

I will cut through their curtains of cunning

and find you somewhere in the moonlight.

Whatever they do with their anthrax or chainsaws,

however they strip search or brainwash or blackmail,

They cannot prevent me from sending you robins,

all of them singing, I'll be there.

Phillip Appleman

February 13, 3009

I've been organizing new sets of color chips for a class I teach soon, and I am dreaming color at night. It's the perfect time to do a series of images inspired by colors.

Blue and green are analogous colors. Neighbors on the color wheel. This blue pot is set off by the beautiful range of green colors around it - the second pot, the bench and the foliage in the background. The bits of orange brick wall play an important part generating interest. Orange is the complement to blue - its opposite on the color wheel. Adding (or finding) the complement in a picture creates valuable color contrast. Most of the time it only takes a small amount of the contrasting color to spark the composition. 

February 12, 2009

February 11, 2009

February 10, 2009

Footsteps in the sand

Quickly washed away;

The seashore mind.

  

"We often let thoughts, regrets, and doubts from past activities carry over into the present. This leads us to conflict. Instead of allowing this to happen, we should act without leaving consequences. This requires great thoroughness. Such completeness is challenging, but to succeed, is to live perfectly. By resolving the problems of each day to our utmost satisfaction, we attain the sublime purity of a beach constantly washed by waves."

41: Resolution

365 Tao: Daily Meditations

Deng Ming-Dao

February 9, 2009

Heaven embraces the horizon

        No matter how jagged the profile, 

The sky faithfully conforms.

"Wherever you are, the sky constantly meets the horizon...We often think of the landscape as being in the foreground and the sky as the background. It is because the sky is always in the background that it can meet the outline of the foreground perfectly. If we emulate this feature of being in the background, then we too can find perfect conformity with life. Such adaptation is not passivity, however. It is concordance. It is because the sky is in the background that it is in fact supreme. So too with ourselves. If we know how to adapt, we end up being supreme."

Adapting

365 Tao: Daily Meditations

Den Ming Dao

February 8, 2009

February 7, 2009

February 6, 2009

Another photograph that would make a good simplification/abstraction study of form. The most important forms are the two purple bottles, the turquoise bottle, and the negative space on the left that curves around to the top right. The two purple bottles are the same shape, so repetition supports relationship in the composition.

Reduced to the four basic forms we see here, the new picture might not be very interesting. It would be well balanced, as the bottom-heavy shape of the purple bottles provides visual weight. But without the beautiful translucence of the glass and the subtle color variations, the interest generated by the image would be minimal.

That's one challenge of abstracting and/or simplifying a composition. How could color and texture be re-introduced, in order to keep the image one worth studying?

February 5, 2009

February 4, 2009

One way to think about abstraction and composition is to study a picture in terms of form.  Many images - whether photographs or scenes from real life - are complicated by detail. An aspect of thinking abstractly involves reducing a picture to its most important forms. 

In this image, there are three dominant and individual forms: the large flower and mass of green leaf, the smaller bud and stalk of green attached to it, and the orange wall.

The wall counts as a form, even though many people would only see it as background. The wall is the negative space and this part of a composition isn't always recognized as valuable. But the positive elements of a picture have to react to something - to some background. A strong color like orange, or patterning and texture, make a background more interesting, and increase its contribution to the composition.

If I wanted to explore this still life's potential as an abstract composition I could cover it with tracing paper, and trace the outlines of the three main forms. Transferring the line drawing to paper or cloth would allow me to paint in the shapes; formalizing the basic compositional structure. There would still be issues to consider - balance, and certainly color. Reducing this picture to three elements removes the gorgeous texture and pattern that made it a successful photo. Color selection and application would be critical in order to translate it into an equally successful abstract image.

February 3, 2009

Sometimes there isn't anything that can be done to fix a work in progress. Many surface designers have experienced the frustration of burning a hole in fabric with bleach. Or the regrettable last printed image that isn't working, but you don't see it until after the paint has dried. Maybe you've tried a creative save under those circumstances, but you never feel really great about it. At least I don't. I would rather turn back the hands of time...

This picture suffers, unfortunately, from design problems that can't be fixed. Ok, maybe in Photoshop, but that's not an option for me. 

Here's why:

The partial body on the right leads the viewer's eyes out of the picture. And a partial human being disrupts the visual comfort zone. Part of anything has to be a deliberate choice; the human eye yearns to complete the form! But it is impossible to crop out the mother without losing part of the daughter, too. And that just won't do.

The little girl's head gets lost against the background of trees beyond the wall, and that's a problem too. If only I'd caught her a few steps away from her mother, and one step down!  A little girl joyfully hopping down the steps - the focal point of the composition without the distraction of the trees, the sky, and the mother. Eliminating the distractions and keeping her close to the middle of the picture would be a great statement on centering and bliss. The picture had potential, but the opportunity was lost. There's something to be said for recognizing that and moving on.

February 2, 2009

These images are examples of the importance of balance in a composition. The image on the right is the first one I generated. I liked the four columns (repetition) and the strong girders, which both support the vertical elements and oppose them. But there was something off about the way I'd cropped the photograph. The longer I studied it, the more I realized that the red-orange support on the right was too big. It overpowers the rest of the elements, even though it only fills about a third of the space!

I copied the photo and played around with cropping it again. I settled on the version you see at the top. The large column on the right is now balanced within the picture world through the addition of the blue sky elements on the right and left. Notice that the blue sky form on the left is broken into two segments by one of the narrow columns, but it reads visually as a continuous shape.

In the first version of the picture, the two blue bits of sky don't hold their own against the bold, largest column. In the second picture the introduction of new blue elements changes two aspects of the composition. By adding the additional blue forms, an imaginary triangle is introduced. The triangle keeps my eyes moving around inside the picture world. The new blue form also expands the right side of the composition, so my eyes no longer bumps uncomfortably into the red-orange pillar. Balance has been introduced and the audience breathes a sigh of relief.

February 1, 2009