vocab test
question: are the sharp, needlelike growths sprouting from the joints of this twig: 1) thorns, 2) spines, 3) prickles, or 4) trichomes? (FWIW i haven’t been able to figure it out, and i’m really anxious to hear from you…)
(unidentified) stem with thorns
pantone
i just missed a local art exhibition based on pantone colors. i tried to get to the show today but it had already folded up and moved on. so as a consolation, i am submitting the following colors for the 2019 pantone color of the year: iron ranger boot leather, alder swamp green, zucchini blossom, moose maple carmine, and mahogany oak leaf. vote your conscience.
fall leaves sorted by color
my back yard is quite literally carpeted with acorns this year. they cover more square inches than the grass. what struck me about this photo, which i should have been aware of but which never registered for some reason, is that fall is the season when oak trees sprout. i normally think of spring as the season of sprouting and budding and new growth. but all of the acorns in my yard are growing little squiggly root tails, and some of those roots have started boring into the ground in a very celebratory springlike way, and so i may need to adjust my thoughts about which is the hopeful season of growth, and which is the melancholy season of harvest.
sprouted red oak acorn
organized neatly
two days ago i got an email from a psychology researcher in the netherlands. she had just completed a study about how people’s tendencies toward order and complexity correlated with aesthetic appreciation. she found that the more ordered and the less complex an image is perceived to be, the more soothing it is for most people. she used still blog images as part of her research, and suddenly my science background and my art background fused together. in 2012 i posted my first still blog image, and i’ve posted a new image every day since then. at no point did i ever assume that one of my images would be used to predict somebody’s aesthetic response to order or complexity in the netherlands. but in no way could that ever have happened, if i hadn’t started still blog in 2012, and posted a new image every day since then.
wild blue asters
looking ahead
a national retailer called last week to me ask about STILL-related ideas for christmas 2019. yup, that is not a typo…2019. i don’t know if it will go anywhere yet, and if there will be any kind of formal collaboration down the road. but in the meantime, i am stocking up on all the holiday related imagery i can assemble. which means you will be getting a certain taste of winter before the end of autumn this year on STILL blog. can you hear that? that’s me, not apologizing.
white pine and crab apples
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YOU GO GIRL! Opening my computer to STILL every day is soooo good.
reply
Ok, I fell for it and went right down the rabbit hole! Interesting journey, for sure. I, like you, have no idea, but I think that in order to determine the answer you ought to first determine what the plant is. And is this really a vocab question, or a science question? Anyhow, I learned something new, thanks MJ!