fireworks for new year’s eve
i read a lot, i especially like artists diaries, writings, and biographies. over the years, i have become very jealous of artists who were part of, in the middle of, artisitc movements: impressionists of the late 1800s, the cubists of 1920, and the abstract expressionists of the 1940s. the idea of being part of something significant like that sounded romantic. well, 202o certainly was significant. and it sure wasn’t romantic. great art movements often follow on the heels of great tragedy (the circumstances that enabled the 1920s, and 1940’s art movements were in large part created by the two world wars). i wonder what will come, artistically, as a result of 2020? i wonder if i will be a part of it? i wonder if i will want to. or if it will want me.
dried goatsbeard seedheads (salsisfy)
on working intuitively
after all the commotion of the holidays, i am clearly craving simplicity. without even being aware of it, i have created nothing but spare images ever since. i wonder, has STILL has become a place where i retreat to work out my subconscious needs? it would make sense–it repetitive, it’s ritualistic, it’s intuitive, it’s quiet, it’s mine. so, if you’re ever wondering how i am doing, look at today’s STILL image. it may not say it all, but it sure says a lot.
winter clover
magnificent weed
my husband is a writer. he has a long list of forbidden words–words like stunning, awesome, lovely, fierce, and god forbid, dance. he calls them lazy words. those words your mind grabs first when it trying to say something quickly, but that are so overused as to have become meaningless. so, when i say that angelica is magnificent. i really mean it. i’m choosing that word carefully.
angelica in winter
the space between
do you see forking angelica stems here, or do you see white polygons divided by angelica stem borders? do you positive space? or negative space? i am evenly divided.
angelica stem detail
white background
part of the still blog credo is that i take one photo a day of a natural object found near me, against a white background. what constitutes a white background? well, most days, it is a rectangle of white tagboard. but some days it is a blanket of undisturbed snow behind a shock of winter stems. i said white background. i didn’t say what kind.
winter stems in snow
Thank you for all the beauty you’ve shared with us over the past year, MJ. STILL is one of the small anchors that has helped maintain sanity in the face of the opposite.