starting again

developed the 3rd roll with the Zero Image pinhole camera yesterday.  

this is an intentional double exposure with also a frame overlap.  

i feel like every new camera i've had required bags of learning before there is much competency with it - and the Zero Image  pinhole is no exception.  with other cameras it's just taken keeping at it and i hope it will be the same with this one. 

my POSITIVITY book has been lent out so i can't quote directly from it but i believe Barbara L. Fredrickson says spending time outside in the spring and early summer boosts our mood and going outside to places where we can see for a long way has the effect of opening our minds and helping us think more creatively.  we are of course heading in to winter - not summer - but still i love being outside.

i have a mental list of open spaces around here and most lunch hours i try to get to one of these places even for a few minutes.  one day last week i went to an estuary near work at lunch.  i saw crows, an eagle and a flock of small brown birds.  i love watching a flock take off together and swirl around before they land somewhere else.  i also love this estuary spot and i expected to feel a bit lighter by the time i left and probably i did but the real visual treat that lunch hour was found when i returned to work.  i parked my truck in the work parking lot and looked up to see a maple tree i hadn't noticed before - about 80% of the leaves had already fallen off.  there was a slight breeze and the remaining burnt orange leaves were dangling from the tree like earrings or ornaments in motion.  the movement was amusing, beautiful, memorable.  i sat and watched it for a while and even though i didn't write this moment down until now it stands out as one of the most satisfying moments of last week.  

 i've finally gotten my drawing pencils out again.  a big drawing on the wall feels too ambitious right now but i've set up a drawing table and there's a small sketchbook on it.  small pages feel right.  in the past i've mostly drawn from images or objects but now i've set myself a little assignment to draw from inside so i've been doing tiny simple sketches with lots of cross hatching.  i've long admired the work of Agnes Martin - of course these are no Agnes Martins but it's nice to liberate myself from the expectation of making a drawing that looks like something.  

and in knitting news i'm going to rip out what i've got done on the Sound of Waves wrap for my mother and start again.  i'm about 6 inches into this wrap and there are way too many mistakes in it.  my mother has a high tolerance for mistakes in knitting but there are too many for me - so it's back to the beginning with this one.  that's okay.

Comments

[RoseRed]

Getting outside is always refreshing (maybe not in below zero temperatures, but we don't get those here!). Always good medicine for the soul, I think.