one way to make art is to broaden your mind. another way is to narrow it, and do the same thing over and over, until something obsessively interesting emerges. take, for instance, a nature blog where you photograph something on a white background for 1500-plus days in a row. something like that. gulp.

symmetrical  branching

saint paul, minnesota

these gerbera daisies were models once. in their youth they were supple and voluptuous and they starred in a photo shoot with mary jo hoffman for the target back to college collection. that was a long time ago now. days ago. maybe even weeks. the good old days.

gerbera daisy is the fifth most used cut flower in the world (after rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, and tulip). who knew?

dried gerbera daisies

remember your high school math? remember fibonacci? he’s one of my personal faves. in a fibonacci sequence each number is the sum of the two numbers before it. fibonacci spirals are quite common in nature: the shape of a fiddle head fern, the curve of a nautilus shell, the bottom of a pine cone, the leaves of an aloe plant, the center of a daisy,  the swirl of a galaxy, even the shape of our ear. do you want to know something else? i’m the biggest nerd in the world. because i actually remember high school math, and i associate fibonacci with my math studies, and not, as my entire family has just informed me, with the massively bestselling book “the da vinci code,” which i have not read, and which apparently deals extensively with fibonacci. as for me, i see fibonacci and i think about clearasil, acne, and a math teacher named mr. kauls.

(ponderosa?) pine cone

minnesota

the wind wasn’t blowing when i took this photo, but it had already shaped these weathered willow stems like all the sunny days that turned the cowboy’s face to leather.

over wintered willow

rice creek trail, saint paul, minnesota

juniper berries are green when young, and eventually mature to a purple-black color. they are just like olives that way, except that i don’t want to saute my onions and garlic in extra virgin juniper oil.

juniper berries

saint paul, minnesota