Minding my maps

Merriam-Webster defines  map :

1 a:  a representation usually on a flat surface of the whole or a part of an area

b:  a representation of the celestial sphere or a part of it

2 :  something that represents with a clarity suggestive of a map

~ the Freudian 'map' of the mind -- Harold Bloom

so I got to thinking ....

could photographs act just as easily as maps of a  life?

If I mapped myself, what might that look like?

And if I focused on, say, my creative life, would it be telling?

Could I show the route from back there 

to here?

So I gave it a try & here's where it led me ...

To the convergence of paper and books

to beads on cloth with an uncertain latitude

towards an elusive north star

with an ever present guiding light

and a dear navigator who teaches all the compass points.

Just a small smattering of map pages - old directions & new ...

so yes,  I can see how I got here

but perhaps the more important question is

just where am I going?

[ this is where a hushed voice offers, "Only the cartographer knows for sure..." ]

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Sweet, sweet spring

An explosion of petals everywhere I look!

How I love this time of year ....

purple-leaved plum in the parking lot at the post office

variegated dogwood, 'Blue Muffin' viburnum, 'Midnight Masquerade' clematis, and a

spritely pink volunteer aquilegia in the front garden

a rose and her bud in the back garden

street rose gone wild behind the grocery store in Friday Harbor

and my favorite petal of all, snoozy in the back of the car,

riding with her new cotinus bush ['Royal Purple' all a'bloom]

and baskets from the Thrift

for the new studio digs  ...

More on that wonderful story in the coming month.

HAPPY SPRING

to all my pals in the northern hemisphere

(and a beautiful autumn to you southerlies)

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Getting the hang of it

Someday I hope to unwrap a bundled article of clothing

and have it 

not

look like an old paint rag.

Assembling the right combination of ingredients isn't the key ...

choosing the right fabric doesn't seem to be the key either ...

nor is how I roll it up, tie the string,

the cooking time or whether the vegetation was frozen or fresh

or how long I've let time be my friend afterwards ...

and shoot, I may have forgotten to pre-mordant.

None of these is  the  key

because

ALL

of

them

are.

So

that's the main thing I'm learning about this natural dyeing process,

the reason why it's so critical to keep practicing, work steadily, experiment,

build a knowledge base one step on top of the other.

Luck will only get ya so far.

Then

there's that no-small-matter of

 intuition ... 

often just a quiet fluttering off to the side,

a barely noticeable nudge

 towards a choice I wasn't going to make.

Am I listening hard enough?

I will concede that

some paint rags are prettier than others

but

I've got miles to go before

purple blobs are gonna be skillfully arranged into a

worthy item of clothing ...

at least

that's how it feels today.

But I am a bit cranky.

Maybe I should just blame it on the Super Moon ...

I feel a bit like that button !

Tis one good thing tho:

thrift store stuff is cheap

and fairly plentiful.

Oh.

TWO good things ...

nothing in the world like having the fine company of Her Fluffiness 

when I'm a tad grumpy ... 

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Out to the edge

When I was a little girl,

I had a big crazy dream

about wanting to become the first woman astronaut.

Visions of walking around the outside of a space capsule while

looking back from the edge of the universe towards earth,

were completely captivating

and compelled me to study the sciences

while striving to be the best student possible.

NASA was demanding.  This I knew.

So it was a good thing I found out early

I was too short for space exploration

[then, the minimum height for pilots was 5' 4"]

because I never excelled in the sciences

and was fairly hopeless in math,

two very important subjects for discovering new worlds

in the cosmos.

~ evening view from Iceberg Point, on the far southwest tip of Lopez Island ~

What has never left me after all these years

is my unwavering attraction to the edges of places.

Funny to think of it this way but

when I look back on where I've travelled

and where I've chosen to live,

I see the pattern ...

still that wannabe astronaut, albeit in disguise.

Instead of space boots

it's likely a pair of Keens [or Blunnies when it's cold] these days.

And as often as possible

there's a certain four-pawed companion in tow,

a bit frowned on within intergalactic travel.

~ view from Spencer Spit, eastern side of Lopez Island, Swift's Bay on one side, Lopez Sound on the other ~

No, there may not have been rocket transport to the moon in my history

nor a glimpse of Mars from a capsule window,

but a simple outboard motor can surely be a 

perfect enough shuttle on a fine summer day when

there's an outer island to explore ....

~ passing through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, outer San Juan Islands ~

Not much traffic in the low-season

aside from the odd floating log

or a few seals just offshore.

~ the signal building, Turn Point Light Station, Stuart Island, San Juan Islands ~

My friend Pat & her husband do some caretaking out at Turn Point Light Station

although often, Pat heads over on her own.  In need of an extra pair 

of helping hands for this trip, Pat offered a ride.

Located way out on Stuart Island ... the farthest northwest point in the San Juan Islands ...

it's still only a 40 minute journey from the marina on Fisherman Bay.

The views are breathtaking.

Still, I can barely imagine living life out there - full time - as the keepers of old used to do.

While reading their stories, carefully preserved & documented in the small museum,

I couldn't help but think how  THIS  would be truly

living on the edge.

Many of the keepers didn't last too long in such a remote spot

except for this one ...

~ copy of photo from Turn Point Light Station Museum ~

Louis A. Borchers, keeper & amateur photographer.

I could relate to his propensity for picture-taking

~ copy of photo from Turn Point Light Station Museum ~

and probably would have spent my own time doing

much of the same.

Although, look at that beast of a tripod !

Good, sturdy legs for Borcher's Putnam Marvel,

a beautiful wood 5 x 8 view camera that would have cost

a pretty penny back in the day.

~ cliff at Lover's Leap [left], southwesterly view from Stuart Island ~

~ view to Vancouver Island, Canada from Stuart Island, USA ~

We ate our lunch on the bluff in front of the signal building

where the rushing confluence of tides was pleasant music

on such a peaceful, windless afternoon.

Sitting there in awe of this beautiful world,

right there on the boundary line between the States

and our western neighbor, B.C., Canada,

I pulled out my little pocket camera [phone]

while expressing thanks to all the explorers that came before.

Fortunately, there's no height restriction for this kind of adventuring

and I'm sure some were short just like me.

It was a fine day out.

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From the sea

It's been a fine, fine week

filled with many things

that just

make my heart sing

Pebbles were aligned,

tides were watched,

while in between

there was quite a bit of dunking.

I'd dyed a thrift shirt

in honor of my friend's visit

and much like in days of old

watching a photograph come to life

in the darkroom tray,

so too, my shirt's colors

after a dip in the salty brink.

Magic

pure and simple.

Kelp jewelry

and an abundant assortment of seaweed gifts

piled along the shore

inspired an experiment ...

what if they might give color?

Although I live by the sea, I have never tried.

So I waited, mustering patience

while my seaweed bundle

rested for five long days.

This morning, I unwrapped her

and I do believe a treasure trove of possibilities

await.

: : :

My  Friday Find ... joining in with the gang over at Kim's place

to celebrate life's simple pleasures.

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Seeing double

When I think back on the countless hours spent in darkrooms

attempting to create [at the least] something a little bit  interesting

by combining two disparate negatives into one print,

well, I sit here shaking my head.  Not a time waste exactly, no I wouldn't want to say that,

but I never was very good at it and I never did come up with

a single picture worth hanging onto.

What did happen, I guess, is that I never lost my love for composites

and recently when my faraway friend happened to post a super cool photo she

created with a phone app 

- an app I'd never heard of, one that superimposes two images, adds filters & effects 

all in about three seconds - 

let's just say

I couldn't download that puppy fast enough.

This app, named Diana Photo,

 has what I might venture to call an uncanny ability to "choose" which images

to stack together to bring out the best of both worlds

and in my case, it keeps choosing pairs that feel entirely significant and appropriate

to what I'm doing with life, my work, and how I feel about where I live at this moment.

Silly, really.

Of course an app can't  KNOW  but when Diana began to combine my dye bundles

with sand & sea 

and dyed cloths were superimposed with tree leaves & blossoms ...

you can see my point perhaps?

She even went so far as to match up one of the [rare] front-on portraits of dear dawg

with the driftwood piles on her favorite off-leash beach;

the very same driftwood she played on, photographed on her 4th birthday ...

two photos taken five years apart

from an album numbering in the thousands !

HOW does Diana know???

Tis not all serious stuff, not by a long shot.

Endless supplies of whimsy occur from the combos ...

dawg as evidence,

bedecked here with her own tail ...

all part of the rolling-the-dice fun & darn good for some fine belly chuckles

[although I think dawg would be mortified].

What I'm really after, what appeals most, is the symbolic double vision.

Hard to put into words ...

simplified, it's about taking a subject I've shot in one context,

"randomly" layering it with a subject from another, 

creating a final image that has - somehow - through overlapping effects,

intensified in meaning.

Double exposure.

So far I've had my beaded world appear

and seen my work under water here in this isolated island place I call home.

These have me looking at kinship to tides of all kinds

real and imagined ...

symbolically speaking, that is.

Here I am.

Self portrait within my watery world,

wondering how in the heck a little 99 cent app could have

brought up so much introspection.

:::

Diana Photo app for iPhone is HERE

for Android HERE

:::

Linking up with the gang over at Kim's place for Friday Finds

as this was truly my biggest "find" of the week ...

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A view is all in how you see it

This was my view today, pretty much all day.  From the ferry line, to the back roads,

to the main line - Interstate 5 - WET.  While the east coast deals with

white and snow, out here in the northwest we deal with grey and rain.  Endless amounts of it.  

Day after day 'till at times I think I may lose my friggin' marbles.

Per usual for these late winter blues, I put extra effort into "seeing the light" so to speak

through other means.  I scream for favors from friends afar .... oh, let me live vicariously!

Tell me about laughing, about dancing, about how you spent time with your loved one.

Show me all your pretty pictures - I need color ... show me the whole world has not gone dormant!

I listen to energizing music [very loud] and make a special point of smiling at every person

I meet who looks like I feel.  I eat more food that nourishes and I stick to uplifting books

and leave the heavies for later.

Most of all, I try to stay grateful because it's hard to be down when you're thankful.

Isla dawg happens to be one of the great lights of my life

 so during the outward bound downpour, I pulled this image from my iphone archives

and played with the sun flare around her fluffy self.

With me today, like usual, she rode in the back of the jeep & didn't fail to beg a cookie

from the ferry man.  She rides for hours without complaint only popping her head up front

for a cuddle every now & then.

Hard to believe she's almost 10 ... she still shines so bright, does she.

I know we are counting days together now

but I dearly try to not take a single moment with her for granted.

Her reticence around cameras is a bit legendary at this point

[just how does she know that thing I talk into is also trying to take her picture?]

I've used many a trick over the years to capture her portrait ...

sometimes I've been lucky enough to bypass her wily ways.

That's my girlie.

Best pal ever, rain or shine.

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Really, truly listening

These two girlies aren't friends and they probably won't ever be ...
they're as different as salt and sugar, with different needs
and quite opposite approaches to living in this world of humans
where they depend on us for most everything.
They both crave human companionship
but you won't find them trying to acquire it in the same way.

What do you see when you look at this photo ...
how would you interpret Quinn's busy-ness with her stick
while Isla stands nearby on such high alert?

They are about six feet apart.
I'm inside the house with a long lens - Quinn is watching me through the window
because she knows from past experience [see that light green ball in the right foreground?]
at any moment, I may come out the door to play fetch with her.
Isla, on the other hand, is ruled by a fierce prey drive
and has her attention focused on the lower branch of a nearby tree.
This drive - stronger than her drive to play - keeps her fixated on her "prize" ...
which on this morning is the resident bald eagle who's just landed on the lower branch
of the fir tree on our southern boundary.   She's prepared for a chase.
[Don't worry ... this game has been going on for years ... the eagles pay her no mind.]

What struck me today when I re-found this picture from winter 2012
was how these girlies communicate so perfectly via body language.
How they read each other [I know you're there, but I need some distance],
read humans [I know you're there, wanna play? ... or ... I'm busy right now],
read their environment [it's a cold, frosty morn but I'm so happy in the sunshine] ...
all the while watching for signals to interpret and react to
in one millesecond.

They speak Dog     and
I speak English ...
but I ask you, what language do we ultimately speak together?

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