Transparency in many forms

I have been coming to some personal conclusions about transparency.  I started by asking, 

what else defines transparency besides the ability

to see through something?

Can transparency add another dimension to a point of view

like the turning of perception

upside down?

Since my last post about watercolor, I've been thinking a lot about this subject

so I went to various dictionaries looking for definitions of the word "transparent"
and after diving into the collection of images over on Tumblr,

finally, some thoughts are coming together...

Note:  click on the highlighted word(s) under each photo to go to the Tumblr source and photo credit.

Defined as:   allowing radiation to pass through with little or no resistance...

...so fine in texture that it can be seen through...

...open in texture, gauzy...

...sheer enough for light to pass through...

...diaphanous...

...neither opaque,

nor translucent.

With those descriptions in mind, I searched for examples of transparency

in various art forms from artists engaged in differing mediums, 

to see how they might visualize and create something transparent

in their own unique way.

Some may not have been thinking about transparency at all 

(most were probably not)

this is only my very subjective interpretation...

Photographers manipulate images with layers & textures these days, 

setting opacity levels from practically opaque to almost 

completely transparent,

combining subjects in such a way that new worlds are presented,

amazing worlds of the imagination...

For centuries, photographers have used the power of backlighting to create luminosity,

draw our attention to what is important to them,

and capture extraordinary moments that were about being in the right place, at the right time.

This piece is entitled "She Lied" by Jean Myers...

isn't this also transparency of emotion?

mixed media used to great effect...

and here in 'Essence' by Wen Redmond...

'The Night of Many Promises' painted by Joanne Williams...

Some may wonder at this one,
but in this painting/illustration of an owl by K. Mijadzava

there is so much depth in those feathers from the transparency of meticulous brush strokes,
layer upon layer...

Textile artists know the power of silk ~ so strong for something so sheer...

some strong crochet, like a spider's web.

This maker, Ryo Yamada, took their art installation outdoors...
'Vertical Landscape'
sways in the breeze, makes me think of ghosts dancing

while this makes me want to pick up needle and thread,
layer cloth, stitch something beautiful.
If I only had this skill.
I wonder if the woman who stitched this Edwardian tea apron would have
ever imagined that a hundred years later another woman
might look at her handwork with such admiration that she wished it were her own...

My transparent sincerity.


In a 'Paris Review' interview, poet Stanley Kunitz (then in his seventies) said this:

At my age, after you're done - or ruefully think you're done - with the nagging anxieties
and complications of your youth, what is there left for you to confront but the great
simplicities?  I never tire of birdsong and sky and weather.  I want to write poems that are
natural, luminous, deep, spare.  I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through
and see the world.

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Just add water...

Somewhere in the back of my mind I had been harboring the idea of

sketching again with watercolors.

Too many uncountable years ago, I attempted this painting technique in art college

 and quickly put the judgement on myself that I'd failed miserably

(why do we do that to ourselves?)

so when I learned that Jane Voorhees was coming to visit our island locale

and

was going to offer a workshop on small format watercolor painting,

I knew that's where I wanted to be...

All those technical terms I'd forgotten!

Washes, wet in wet, dry brush, lifting off, dropping in color...

back again like old friends.

Made this little sampler (above) for future reference, added some marks

and remembered what I so loved about this medium of painting...

transparency.

I mentioned to Jane that these days, while working mainly with stitching and beads, 

I'd taken to the layering of silks - sheer silk - to achieve a similar transparency with cloth.

It was a definite "ah hah" kind of moment.

Jane has a killer smile...

and a very patient teaching style.

It was challenging to work directly from photographs...

how do you make the paint express what you're trying to say?

You have all the tools:  a selection of brushes, an extensive color palette for mixing,

the texture of good paper...

and the single most important ingredient,

water...

which seems to have a mind of its own.

What didn't I do in school that I want to do now?

LET

IT

FLOW

Thank you, Jane, for the very inspiring day...come back soon!

###

To learn more about Jane and see her paintings, click here

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Last day of August...

This may not have been the summer to write home about
(did we even have summer here in the Pacific northwest?)
and it wasn't exactly a summer destined for the memoirs.
But it was bountiful, yes,
in its own way...

To say this summer had gone to the dawgs, well, that wouldn't mean what you might think...

literally, it was for my dawgs.

They'd waited out a long spring of inactivity,

they were deserving - my most loyal friends...hangin' with me through thick n' thin.

Being of four paws, they need to RUN.  It's not an understatement to say they require it

and if they don't get it, we all go a bit nutso.

 That is putting it mildly.

Our local 'Agility Gang' (do you like our name?) put on a small demonstration for the community
at the first annual Dog Promenade...
this is O, running her two year old border collie, directing him to take the tunnel.
O herself is eighty.
I hope to have one tenth of her tenacity when I am eighty...O, you're my hero!

This one went to her first 'Doggy Manners' class...

she was so fearful when she first came to live here, but now

she's learning that the world is not as scary as she thought and staying calm

feels pretty good.

I'm mighty proud of her ~ a smooch on yer sweet nose, black flash.

We fit in quite a bit of exploring...
mysterious forts had shown up on the beaches

and that perennial question, "what if?" seemed to follow us everywhere.

This is a question about possibilities...

what if you ask this question whenever you think you can't do something?

Getting around is much trickier here in the summer...especially in August

when it seems like the whole world is on vacation except us.

We spend a lot of time waiting around in

looooong lines at the ferry terminal...

so I stitched me some long lines while waiting in the car...

and was treated to a few of these while in transit.

Most nights, I headed upstairs to this gabled corner where I worked late, late, late.

Dawgs slept.  Baby great horned owls screeched.  I cursed at tiny beads.

Do not be fooled by the seeming austerity of this view

because this is what my corner table really looked like...

a huge beadiful mess!

One big beady project consumed almost every night in August...

but all fingers functioned properly,

praise doG.

So now it's on to September...I hope I'll remember to run with it, make the best use of waiting 

that I possibly can.

Make messes.

Kiss me some dawg faces.

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One thousand feathers...

...what if...?

This is a question that Jude Hill from Spirit Cloth never stops asking.

And this time, that question led her to create this...

...the Magic Feather Project is a collaborative effort

open to anyone willing to stitch one simple feather.

All the feathers will then gather at Jude's place, a flock of at least one thousand,

where they will be joined together into larger cloths...

for charitable uses...

for the greater good of children.

Feathers are already flying 'round the world!

The gathering is well underway and can be seen over here...

...all the info about how to participate, including a short video tutorial, is here.

There is no end to the possibilities of feather inspiration...

Double-crested cormorant
(c) Amy Marques

...the beauty of our winged companions is all around us.

Bengal eagle owl
(c) hawkgenes

photographer unknown, from my Tumblr collection

We need only to open our eyes.

unknown photographer, from my Tumblr collection

Many hands are needed and all are welcome to join...

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Directional flow...

Sometimes, you just have to roll with it...

drop everything and try something you've never done before.

It's one of best things about the Web (for me),

this inspiration that comes from people so openly sharing their handiwork...

I've been following the beauteous progress of Karen's circle work over on Stitching Life. 

When she stitched this one,

I was upstairs within five minutes pulling out materials to give it a go.

It just happens that way sometimes.

My couched spiral didn't end up quite as solid...in fact, it went quite cattywampus.

It's not symmetrical, nor tidy, and all the couching is very uneven.

But this is who I am with cloth.

One of the most appealing aspects of the couching technique is the wide range

of materials one can use/re-use to "couch."   This spiral is recycled sari ribbon but think of the possibilities

for upcycling old clothes, worn linens...

Go over here to see Judy Martin's eleven months of couching obsession.

She even stitches in her car.

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Summer rain...

...not a particularly extraordinary thing, but unusual for around here.
It hasn't rained in summer since I moved to these islands, far as I can remember.

And it  never  rained in summer where I came from (hot, inland area of northern California)...

so

although everyone has been complaining,

I am secretly delighted.

I have a story cloth project on the horizon,
one that needs parameters,
a set direction for stitching and beading,

so I had the idea today to use my phone camera as a sketching tool,
as a thought gatherer, of sorts.

I'd recently loaded a new app to play with called 'Grungetastic' and thought
why not use it to work through a few ideas...

...I'm probably more comfortable with a camera in my hand than a drawing
tool these days anyway...

so I caught some rain laden purple foliage

and some purple blooms so dark they are almost black...

...and dawg, overseer of all goings-on,
who isn't much concerned with petals and such, only concerned about where I happen to be.
A beautiful thing is that.

I see these "grunge" veils as veils of silk ~ can you see it?

There was this beauty too...who will bloom shortly and then be gone.
An ephemeral.

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One porch, two dogs and a lapful of scraps...

...perfect companions on most days,

especially good on a rainy morning in July.

Frayed edges are an important part of anyone's story.

This one continues on from here.

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Some thoughts on variegation...

It's the height of summer around here and we take many walks.  You can't see it from this angle

but my fur gal is watching a river otter swim through the bull kelp.

She'd be down there in a flash if she liked to swim.  Instead, she gets her picture taken

while I sit there saying to myself for the umpteenth time how much I love that soft patch of white...

Here's a plant with some varied patches of its own.
Oh, how I adore this...a sweet little honeysuckle called 'Harlequin.'
I suppose those leaves could be called tricolored?

Anywhoo,

while watering the garden the other evening I had a gander around and realized just how many variegated plants I've added to the mix.  My garden is young - barely two years old - and I've already gone a little

nutso for mottled and streaked foliage.

This is a favorite way to use it...stick it in front of a plain green background.

Here in the Pacific Northwest we have so. much. green.    greengreengreengreenGREEN.

Don't get me wrong...our native rose hedges are beauteous (in bloom there in the back)

and the scent is nothing short of intoxicating,

but after a brief bloom time in June they are, dare I say, nothing short of boring.

And that's why that variegated red twig dogwood came to be in that spot.

This combo is on the shady porch, a velvety coleus co-mingling with a delightful plant

that happens to go by the un-delightful name of spotted dead nettle.

Okay...I'll admit here and now that I'm a total snob about my variegation.
It must meet, shall I say, certain ***criteria*** for me to like it.

I do NOT like all variegation.

In fact, some of it is so downright hideous that I'd like to have a word with the plant breeder

and ask them,

 "WHUT were you thinking?!?"

Here's one I can't stand...belongs in the compost pile, if you ask me...

unlike this sweetie which I can't live without,

a tough and extremely useful creeping thyme called 'Highland Cream.'

I have this one stuffed all around the flagstones...fluffs up the edges, if you know what I mean,

and doesn't bat a blossom from all the dawg paw traffic.

Bred in England, it has a lot more variegated restraint than that aforementioned monstrosity.

Here's my latest acquisition, Caryopteris 'White Surprise,'   Since this photo it's been planted in front of a dark, purple-leaved smokebush called 'Grace.'

Everyone

needs

a

little

drama

in

their

garden.

Of all my variegated plants, this one 

is my most special treasure.

It gets babied more than the dawgs - and that's sayin' somethin.

Can you blame me?  Look at it!

Acer pseudoplatanus 'Prinz Handjery.'

A maple tree whose newest leaves are APRICOT colored and then become (in my opinion) divinely speckled.

But those aren't the real reasons it's so special.  The real reason is not the least bit frivolous.

It was a gift...

from a friend who understands the meaning of giving me such a heartfelt present.

This is not a plant, but it's another form of variegation happening in the garden...

To my dawg pals, Let's Walk!

To my plant friends, Happy Growing!

And to my sewing sistahs, Happy Stitching!

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