Saturday, January 03, 2009

Close-ups


Here's a little exercise you may find fun. I took my cue from Felicity's "Up Close and Personal" post here. What we think about ourselves and surroundings may be different from what the camera sees up close. I took these in the room I use for an office/guest room. The one above is the view out one of the windows which has blinds. Seeing this on screen suggests ways to break up a design with horizontal strips.

Below is the chair I use at the computer. It's from an antique English table and chairs set. The angles of the legs and crossbars puts me in mind of Escher and some of his impossible designs.


Here's another antique - a junior size bentwood chair.


The room as two desks. This lamp sits atop a small roll-top I use for bill paying and letter writing. It's from the early 1970's, which makes it, if not an antique, at least a collectible by now!


Here are some of the basic supplies I keep on this desk. That calculator is also a collectible I think. I'm sure I've had it since the late 1970's. I discovered it is powered by a lithium battery, which I had to replace a couple of years ago. For as much use as this calculator gets, I'm amazed that battery lasted at least 20 years.


Couldn't resist zooming in on the keypad. Funny how things look one way to the naked eye, another way through the focus of the camera and yet another when viewed on the screen. I suddenly see inspiration for my ongoing grid series in this picture.


The other desk holds the computer, printer, printer supplies, reference books and files. This is looking straight into the printer, where the paper spits out. The rectangle on top has several different slots for various media cards.


And here's that window again, but reflected in the computer monitor.


Sitting on the desk is this Thesaurus. I've been searching it for a resolution word for 2009. Love these graceful curves.


Next to the desk sits the surge protector full of plugs.


This is a unique clock...it has a zero hour...


I still haven't put this box away from the art show back in Oct/Nov. I often label boxes the easy way, with magic marker.


You may want to click on this one for a larger view - it's a lamp shade.


And this is an old style glass shade for the overhead light.


I've inherited a collection of wildlife prints, all signed by the various artists. I'm still not comfortable signing my work on the front.

So what do these pictures tell you about me that you didn't know or might seem contrary to the way I portray myself?

2 comments:

Felicity Grace said...

These are absolutely fascinating! Your view through the blinds reflects the style of your birch series - I wonder were you influenced conciously or subconciously?

I hope more bloggers will do this. I too found that looking through the camera lens made me see things differently and the results were not as I predicted. Perhaps it could also be a useful and quick exercise for those times when we are stuck in a rut and need to do something, anything, to help us out of it?

The Idaho Beauty said...

I'd have to say the influence is fairly conscious. It all goes back to those walks in Wisconsin, when I was first widowed and trying to heal. The birch trees stood out from the rest and really caught my attention. I've been working with that image ever since.

I agree that the close-up exercise would be good for breaking those rutty times. I recently was going through my photo files saved under various categories of "Design Inspiration" and was struck by how many good ideas there were in there. Many I'd absolutely forgotten about and many I'm sure I was seeing something different in than when I took them. My overall impression after THAT little exercise was, well, I have no lack of ideas to work with, even though I've felt a little dry lately.

If we'd just use the resources we already have instead of always searching for new sources and solutions...