So different, yet still the same?

Years ago as a child, I used to keep scrapbooks (didn't we all?) and later in junior college, journals  -  a proverbial mountain of them.  Oh my, I was filled with so much angst in those days - I'm so glad they're over.  Then it was off to art college and my whole life was recorded in sketchbooks of some form or another.  Each of those venues was about the record-keeping, having a spot to put things one didn't want to forget...or was inspired by...a place to capture an idea before it flew.  For good.

Lately,  forced into a stretch of "down time" away from all my usual life activities ...you know, that spot of trouble with my right hand I've mentioned before...I've had a lot of time to think.  Unable to do many of my most loved things, I have finally been able to type so I decided to use this big chunk of time and catch up with the art world in general and more specifically my three main passions: photography, textile art, and beadwork, all via the internet.  Guilt free research.  Heaven.

I'm going to blame what happened next on Robyn over at Art Propelled (go over and look at her blog, it's gorgeous) because she started a Tumblr blog  (Tumblr...huh?...what's that?)  I came across it by trawling one late night and one thing led to another, some correspondence started, questions were answered and before I knew it, Robyn had persuaded me to start one of my own.

She has not steered me wrong.  It's been fantastic!

All the images I'm posting today are from my Tumblr collection and can be clicked over there to enlarge.    The globe can be found here, girl in the dress here.


The outcome of this leap into yet ANOTHER blog (good grief, I can barely deep up with this wee blog!) is now I have a scrapbook, a journal, and an idea sketchbook all in one spot.  Hopefully I will no longer be losing links to wonderful things I see online.  Best of all?  My image library is growing into a veritable encyclopedia of inspiration...

Images above:  wagga by India Flint here, painted leaves here.

When I sat down to write this post, I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it.  Generally, I love to share images, you all know that by now, but when I pulled up my Tumblr Archive today's theme almost shouted at me.  Funny what happens when you mass together a group of pictures that strike a chord.  You begin to see yourself more clearly.  You begin to see how you see...

Images above: feather from Normandy, France, here;  17th century Ottoman tent here.

My penchant for spirals cropped up repeatedly.  I must have a good twenty bookmarked so far.  These two - a macro & an aerial - are favorite extremes...

Images above: spiral lacework on velvet here, Richat structure in the Sahara Desert here.


More extremes, real and imagined...

Images above:  bridge here, illustration of precipice here.


Knitting - sharing some cell structure with trees?  It's all about relationships really....

Images above:  lace weight knitting here, photomicrograph of juvenile pine here.


Ann Wood creates the most fantastic owls from repurposed vintage clothing and bits of old quilts, utilizing antique buttons for eyes, paper mache feet and hand stitching details.  The boro patching on the right was utilitarian in nature, traditional.  I love these two photos together, contemporary alongside timeworn...

Images above: owl here, sashiko stitching & boro patching here.


Images above:  cloud tree here, flowering tree here.

I think these two are quite extraordinary together, right down to the matching high collars..

Images above:  woman with medallion here, Thomas Dodd's 'Brainstorm' here.

As you reach the end of my post and see these last two photos, you may be asking yourself, "what on earth...???"  Up on the left is an inflatable bicycle helmet for the fashion conscious.  And on the right?  Well, that's my hand, after yesterday's surgery on the infamous finger that drove me to all this in the first place.  My very own finger helmet.

So different yet still the same, don't you think?

Be sure to let me know if you're on Tumblr and I'll come by your place for a visit  :>]

Images above: bicycle helmet here and here.

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind.

— Dorothea Lange