**Poetry and Photography: the memory thread

Tonight

2011-10-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

Dear reader, if there are any of you left. I hope to come back to this blog with something more substantial. But here is tonight's candle flame. A gift from my son, who knew we needed to signal that we had candy. And a good time was had by all.

After the Frost

2011-10-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

The tomato plants crumpled into brown papery bits after a couple of hard frosts. And thus, this afternoon, I cold look out the kitchen window and catch the sunglow on these nightshade berries .
I ran right out with my trusty Lumix. In this shot you can clearly see the tripartite leaves of this non-native, but quite pretty plant. Here it grows as a vine.

Just a peek at Zion National Park

2011-09-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

My brother took me here after the reunion.
We spent all day and I loved every minute!

Lavender Scent in Summer Air

2011-08-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

My brother and I spent the late afternoon with our excellent second cousin, Randy, discussing our relatives and the upcoming Redd reunion in New Harmony, Utah. It was a lovely, wide-ranging conversation over families, Mormon history, art and other topics. We looked at many of his scanned photos of our ancestors and collateral relatives. On the way home, my brother thought to visit a Salt Lake City park on the site of the First Encampment the emigrants under Brigham Young made after they entered Salt Lake Valley. Our great-great-grandfather was a member of this group. We found that the names of these people were carved on stones through the First Encampment Park (link). Lavender was blooming near the plaque which explained this, and filled the air with heavy scent when we pushed it aside. It was a beautiful summer evening which had just turned dark. My brother decided to look for the name of Solomon Chamberlain; (link) I didn't see how we could find it in the dark, but we had only located a handful of engraved rocks before we found his. So here it is, a flash picture of a rock. I was very happy to see it.

Albrecht Durer pencils the lower tier of colors

2011-08-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

This is the lower tier of the 60 color set I blogged about yesterday. I am particularly pleased by the selection of greens and off-greens.

Perfect afternoon in the shade

2011-08-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

This afternoon on the shady terrace was perfect for making color charts with a new set of 60 Albrecht Durer Watercolour Pencils
I got from Amazon. It was interesting to see how tricky it was to make matching squares to fill with each color, pressing hard and stroking the paper softly with each color. This is the top of the set--I'll put up the lower tier tomorrow. I was delighted with the strength of the colored leads and also the soft buttery feel of the application of colors. Only one color and the black was a little crumbly. I suppose these slight differences in handling are due to the pigments. I haven't tried wetting them yet, but I have seen lots of demonstrations of their use by Cathy/Kate Johnson who is a big fan. Today I read a book about doing something creative every day for a year. To judge by my neglect of my blog, might not be for me. But tempting, nonetheless.

The Mouse Bride

2011-07-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

I call this the Mouse Bride and I think it is quite wonderfully weird! It is in the first lap of scanning a couple of boxes of family slides from the 1950s that have been in storage. Almost everybody is passing through rooms telling me that this search through the past isn't worth it. Still, I think this is a find. I had already left home, and my little sister is dressing for Halloween, I imagine. Isn't she sweet?

By the time I got to Phoenix . . . .

2011-07-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

my short visit was almosst over. Left to right, myself, my brother Dave, my cousin Susan. my cousin "little" Marita, my cousin's wife, Neva and my cousin Dwayne. Here we are (it is 110 degrees outside) eating delicious Chicago style pizza. Dave, Susan and I came to Phoenix to visit my Aunt Louise after she broke her hip. It was Susan's idea to celebrate her retirement after 22 years of teaching. We were housed and royally entertained by our Mesa cousins, some of whom I hadn't seen for 30-50 years! You should have seen Aunt Louise's face light up when we came into the room! We had a lovely visit and many memories were shared.

My brother came for a visit . .

2011-05-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

And I took him to see the Mackinaw Bridge on this gorgeous blue day! This was taken below newly renovated lighthouse at McGulpin point.

The Yellow Trout Lily Proof

2011-05-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

I think it really is SPRING! My brother, Dave came for a visit and today we went for a walk in the woods. I saw many of these mottled leaves and finally found a bloom. Hello, Sweet Baby!

Such good suet

2011-04-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

These red breasted nuthatches are quite feisty at the feeder and often chase away the chickadees.

Sparrow

2011-04-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Several of these have been hanging around near the feeders with a pack of slaty juncos--the kind with cute little pink bills. I'm pretty much in love with the subtle colors and the feather pattern.

Yellow Roses of Memory

2011-04-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

Trying to find another photo in my digital archives, I found this one and began playing with it using Nik filters in an old copy of Photoshop on my old laptop. I made several new versions, and I'm not really sure about this one, but I loved what happened when I brought up the light. I have lost my Silver Efex Pro software and was somewhat consoled by finding I can still use this. I wish I had mastered putting these filters into the new versions of Photoshop, but I never learn what I should and then it is time to learn something else. Here is a bouquet from the past, altered. Which is also a characteristic of the Memory Thread. Good night.

Morning light

2011-04-21T21:26:00.001-07:00

P1040477, a photo by jhhymas on Flickr.

I took a lot of these this morning, but tonight they seem a little dark. It was a beautiful dawn!

Late winter browse in sepia

2011-04-11T20:38:00.001-07:00

Late winter browse P1120244, a photo by jhhymas on Flickr.

I guess what I like most about this is the conga-line aspect. And that all three have lifted the left rear leg. I took this through the window, because if I go out on the porch, they all run away.

Rainbow at Sunset Tonight

2011-04-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about blogs and what they are for, or what they might be for. . . I cannot say I have reached any conclusions, but I can tell you that just as the sun was saying goodnight, there was a rainbow! I want to write about the things I am reading this summer--because I have been doing an immense amount of reading. I am getting used books from Amazon and electronic books and classics for the Kindle. Never before have I been reading so many different books at the same time--but it isn't too hard to switch and keep track. I'm surprised. And the resonance, humming, or clustering of fact and thought can be wonderful. So maybe I will write about it after all. I guess I should write a thank you letter to Jeff Bezos. After having been a librarian all my life. . .

The beauty of sunset

2011-04-10T21:56:00.001-07:00

P1120311, a photo by jhhymas on Flickr.

This is the third time I've tried tonight--there seems to be a problem with the Picasa-Blogger interface. I have been thinking a lot about blogging and what it is for and if I should start a new blog that is "for" something else, my year of reading. Since coming here, I have relied on Amazon Kindle and the used books from Amazon. I have pursued all sorts of things I want to write about on blog that are neither poetry nor photography. We'll see if this one uploads. Fingers crossed. To be continued. . .

A moment of light before the sun is gone

2011-02-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

Maybe five minutes of this kind of light at the end of an extremely windy day! This is really beautiful and you can see it better by clicking on it for a larger image. I figured out how to upload these photos from Picasa into this template. I have to set it from the left edge. I used to center them, but it doesn't work with photos from this camera.

G. Randall Goss talks about photography

2011-02-15T21:44:00.000-08:00

This is the wonderful photographer who chose a picture of mine to be included in the current year's exhibit at the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey. He has an exhibit, too! You can see two of his photos behind him. This morning he gave an informal talk at the Center; it was wonderful, I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

Last night at sunset

2011-02-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

You can just make out our house tucked into the wood's edge.

Burt lake special

2011-02-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

Well, the placement of the last post is weird! But here's another duck. Good night.

Another glorious way to fritter away time

2011-02-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have just spent two and a half hours using the Google Photo thing and editing photos with Piknik from there. I was planning never to use Google photos, being very satisfied with Flickr. But last summer I uploaded several sets of photos by mistake and tonight I found them and began playing with a few. By making huge alterations in exposure and contrast, I found all sorts of lurking beauties, like the lovely subtle colors in this tranquil photo of ducks at rest in the twilight on Burt Lake. I am very happy and will spend some more time here, even though I keep saying I have enough hobbies already.

His yellow eye

2011-02-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is the male; you can tell by his red moustache. I left both the similiar posts below to remind myself of the vagaries of computing. After I did the first one, I got a message that I could not blog because Java was not enabled on my browser. So I spent a while trying to "enable" it but couldn't figure out how. So I did it over from Flickr--I would like to do it always from Flickr because it connects to the other photos related to the post, but I don't like the smaller size photo I get that way.
I have had endless fun watching these birds--it is making the wintertime quite a delight!

Summer's Lease Hath All Too Short a Date

2011-02-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

It will come again. There are so many wonderful blogs that another whine about the cold weather won't be missed, but this just popped up while I was looking for something else in Picasa. The Blues and the Greens, incredible!

SUET

2011-01-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

Luckily, my feed store had a special on suet cakes!

Why I left that standing dead tree behnd the house . ..

2011-01-23T18:09:00.000-08:00

And my wish came true. I have to photograph through two panes of glass, but he comes almost every morning between 9:30 and 10:30 and several times there have been two of them! Today was sunny and some of the pictures were better. Happiness!

He's Back!

2011-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

Right now in my back yard. I tried to get a video, but don't know yet if it worked.
Very cool, no???

Hopper Family Christmas circa1947 Round Trim

2011-01-06T20:10:00.001-08:00

Hopper Family Christmas circa1947
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

My mother had the unfortunate habit of trimming photos like this. Maybe somewhere the whole photo or negative exists, maybe not. This is what I have of the Christmas when I wore such dark red lipstick and held David on my lap at lower left. Dig the Santa mask, and notice how Richard (on Santa's lap) is always so sure of himself and self-directed. We were still living in Scotia, New York at this time.

My family 1946?

2011-01-05T20:13:00.001-08:00

My family 1946?
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I'm on the left. Notice the separation between me (an only child for 4 years!) and them. This is an example of the informal family portrait in outdoor light. My mom and dad are looking good. I also notice that this is one of the few pictures of Richard (far right) that he doesn't look happy and completely self-possessed.
I have a broken key on one laptop and the hard drive on the other just stopped working. Alas, a sad, sad story.

Another family group photo

2011-01-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

Look at the expressions on some of the faces. Even though the photo has faded, it still is fun to look at, and an example of the fresh look I like. Look at my mother's face! She and my dad are gone now and the baby boy with the cast on his arm. And Barbara Vroman, who came on that trip with us, where are you now?? I would love to hear from you.

On Family Portraits

2011-01-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

At this season of the year, lots of family portraits have been landing in my mailbox, my inbox, and my Facebook feed. They have been formal and informal, current and quite antique; it has gotten me thinking about this tradition in my own family. My husband's family was too poor and often too demoralized, after the death of his little brother, to have ever had one made. My family made only a couple of sporadic attempts to have group pictures taken. I remember one of the first five children by a traveling photographer, one by a photographer for the Schenectady Gazette, when my mother was Mother of the Year for the County, and one by a friend, whose lens caused the heads at the edges of the photo to be misshapen. You might get to see all of these very soon now that I am thinking of them. S and I made one attempt, only partly successful, before our first two children were in school. Since I like photography SO MUCH, one might think I would have managed more. What I like, though, are those gesture-captures like the one above of married friends at a campfire we had this fall--the feet of their child also in the photo. I hope to post others in the coming days.

My sister Susan married a man with a tradition--they had a family portrait taken every year. Most ot them were tacked to a school-sized corkboard in their family room for many years.

Here is what Saul Steinberg said in the 1970s, deploring the decline of traditional photographic portraiture. It's in the current Paris Review #195, page 36. (I LOVE the Paris Review, but lately, I have been loving the New Yorker even more. If it is true: the predicted death of magazines, I will mourn forever.)

"Russia remains the only place where portraits are still made according to the old rules. I've made drawings of them. A couple: a man in military uniform, with all the medals on his chest, and his wife whose chest is as big as his, without medals. Both of them are on the verge of bursting into tears from the sheer seriousness of the thing. And naked babies, plump as whales, and entire families photographed in the most dignified way: the older people in chairs, the younger people surrounding them, and the littlest ones at the base of the pyramid."

Snow Shadow and EReader

2011-01-02T21:07:00.001-08:00

P1100867
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Here I am on the porch after a snowy night before Christmas. What I like about this is the delicate traceries of the weeds against the blue-shadowed snow. It makes me want to be a textile designer, without of course, having to learn how, or interview for a job. More snow last night, but not this much.
Had a fine chat with my brother, D, and his wife today. She is getting an ereader and we both wound up ordering the refurb. Sony that Woot was offering today. Will we be sorry? Stay tuned, probably for quite a while, since Woot stuff comes on the slow train. Still, it was pretty cheap.

Of course it is all melted now

2011-01-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

This view of the West Meadow was taken on December 13 after the wind blew wet snow against trees all night. We got more snow after that, but the last couple of nights brought warm rains and the snow has mostly melted now. And 2010 has also melted away and I have become an irregular and irresponsible blogger. Here's a fresh start. Hello, June and Joann and anybody else who might still be sticking with me!
My planned project for 2011 is to put up a lot of the passages in the books I have been reading through the summer and fall.
Here's the first one -- I found it today when I looked up William Styron in Wikipedia. Turns out this quote is already ALL OVER the web. Perhaps the excellence of Google is a little too much of a good thing.

"I felt myself no longer a husk but a body with some of the body's sweet juices stirring again. I had my first dream in many months, confused but to this day imperishable, with a flute in it somewhere, and a wild goose, and a dancing girl." This is from Darkness Visible, his memoir about his severe depression.
For this New Year, may you have great dreams. Like this one, each dream should have music, the natural world and maybe a little sex.
Good night! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Deepening winter

2010-12-27T15:03:00.000-08:00

Getting close to the New Year. Tonight's sky reminds me that perhaps tomorrow will be better and next year I can reward the readers of this blog with actual posting. May all your clouds be pink at the end of the day!

Winter coming in seriously

2010-12-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing for three days now. A little more seriously winter, involving shoveling off the porches three times today. Tonight, the wind!

American Autumn

2010-11-13T12:49:00.000-08:00

EMILY DICKENSON
Cornell and Dickenson are both in the end unknowable. They live within the riddle, as Dickenson would say. Their biographies explain nothing. They are without precedent, eccentric, original, and thoroughly American. If her poems are like his boxes, a place where secrets are kept, his boxes are like her poems, the place of unlikely things coming together.
They both worry about their soul's salvation. Voyagers and explorers of their own solitudes, they make them vast, make them cosmic. They are religious artists in a world in which old metaphysics and aesthetic ideas were eclipsed. To read her poems, to look at his boxes, is to begin to think in a new way about American literature and art.

from Dime-Store Alchemy; the art of Joseph Cornell by Charles Simic, NYRB, 1992.

This adorable book is a pleasure to hold in the hand! 7.25" x 5" and bound in midnight blue cloth lettered in silver and with a Cornell image applied to the front cover it the perfect size and shape for this group of appreciations and quotations from Joseph Cornell's notes by the poet Charles Simic. I'm in love! But it is only fair to admit that I was a beeg fan of the work of both men before I ever saw this volume. It would be the perfect gift for that quirky, discerning friend.

Thomas Lynch reads in Petoskey

2010-11-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight to an excellent reading by the poet and writer Thomas Lynch, a merry fellow. He read from his new book Working Papers and from a book of his short fiction. Quite a few people bought the book so they could read the rest of the story. I met a very nice woman who introduced me to the wife of the doctor we saw today and who will be managing our next try at Coumadin. That's the kind of thing that can happen in a place like this. A huge center of population is not an unmixed blessing. The reading was sponsored by the fine independant bookstore, McLean and Eakin and held at North Michigan Community College. I am feeling quite poetic!

Grackle Visit

2010-10-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

The whole assembly didn't last more than 15 minutes. More and more came as they moved across the lawn; then they all took flight toward the blue patch of sky in this photo. Horizontal lines on far trees are reflections caused by photographing through windows. If I had opened the door, or gone out on the porch, they would have flown at once. I've only seen this once before. That time, instead of moving beside the house, they came in a flood over it and headed south, not west.

Gathering storm

2010-10-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

This cold front storm is predicted to be a big one--very windy, and to last until tomorrow. It makes spectacular skies and rays of heavenly light. Tomorrow, my husband will be coming home from the hospital.

Bay Wind

2010-10-25T01:28:00.000-07:00

high autumn wind
I leave my husband
at the hospital

Departing Autumn

2010-10-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

This clump of bigtooth aspen at the end of the west meadow holds its yellow!

Gathering Storm

2010-10-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight S. is back in the hospital, with what I call "Coumadin poisoning" I was taking his things to him and snapped this picture of the sunset beyond the wast meadow. I think it will storm tonight.

September moon

2010-09-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

Grabbed camera; ran outside. Moon had disappeared, lost in cloud. Kept playing hide and seek, but I finally caught it! Skywatch, Friday! Look at the Skywatch Friday meme http://skyley.blogspot.com/

There's a new guy on the block!

2010-09-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today's addition to the group of deer I've been able to photograph through my window. I think this is sort of s rutting gesture--it is similar to what rams do. He's an awesome fellow and the other deer defer to him.

Fragrant Tenderness

2010-09-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

I found this bag of micellaneous buttons at the Flea Market at the Alanson Riverfest. I love thinking about where they have been and how they got to me. Some have little bits of thread and fabric on them and the grooves of the large button at the top look dirty. They are not part of my own past, but they speak another language. A big part of my memory thread is attached to objects that remind me of times gone past. I am reading (part of my Russian summer) a two volume biography of Nabokov by Brian Boyd. It is long and crammed with detail and very, very interesting. Here is a taste of VN.

“The horse-drawn tram has vanished, and so will the trolley, and some eccentric Berlin writer in the twenties of the twenty-first century, wishing to portray our time, will go to a museum of technological history and locate a hundred-year old streetcar, yellow, uncouth, with old-fashioned curved seats, and in a museum of old costumes dig up a black, shiny-buttoned conductor's uniform. Then he will go home and compile a description of Berlin streets of bygone days. Everything, every trifle, will be valuable and meaningful: the conductor's purse, the advertisement over the window, that peculiar jolting motion which our great-grandchildren will perhaps imagine—everything will be ennobled and justified by its age.
I think that here lies the sense of literary creation: to portray ordinary objects as they will be reflected in the kindly mirrors of future times; to find in the objects around us the fragrant tenderness that only posterity will discern and appreciate in the far-off times when every trifle of our plain everyday life will become exquisite and functional in its own right: the times when a man who might put on the most ordinary jacket of today will be dressed up for an elegant masquerade.”

Vladimir Nabokov, translation from A Guide to Berlin as quoted in Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: the Russian Years, pp 250-251.

Morning Llight

2010-09-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, I cannot stop this! Here are the kids and one of the mothers. The kids bump each other playfully, like any young animals. The larger one has very big ears!

A spear of grass

2010-09-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

The four whitetail deer have been here every day this week, most usually in the morning and evening. Thus they are sidelit from one side or the other, making for beautiful effects. There are two mothers and two fawns. What I have noticed about the chance to watch deer this way is their alertness, their fine-boned delicacy and their grace. It makes me wish that hunting season would never come. . .

This is what I meant about grace

2010-09-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

She's like a ballerina: all neck and limbs.

Yesterday Morning

2010-09-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

They have been here every morning this week, when I was getting ready to go to Senior Citizen exercise swim. But this morning they are not there. It's an overcast day, not the sort of day you would want to swim outdoors, but the boring motel pool isn't a European vacation delight, either. I've been nominated to suggest they clean and refill the pool--let's see if I manage it. I wrote a long post last night: "We are sorry, but your message wasn't sent. Arghhhh
Don't you think the deer has dainty legs? Even her tongue is dainty.

Benjamin's Apotheosis

2010-09-02T22:00:00.001-07:00

Benjamin's Apotheosis
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I should have gone to bed, but just found this iPhone app after someone saw another app treatment of Benjamin on Flickr and made it a favorite. This one was first treated in the app addLib and then in the aptly named Percolator. I almost cannot stand to go to bed now!

Monarchs on the move

2010-09-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

For the past week, I have seen two or three monarch butterflies every day. They are definitely on the move! If you want to follow their adventures, read the book Chasing Monarchs; Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage by Robert Michael Pyle! And if you want them to come to your yard, plant phlox like my daughter did!

Through the front window in afternoon light

2010-08-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

They pause and look back before they move into the trees. I'm looking back often, now. This week I took a watercolor journal class in the mornings with one other student. We painted and wrote a few short childhood memories. We had a fine time. Today, after the last class, I came home and S. turned to the satellite radio opera channel for me. Sirius has the Metropolitan Opera station, which is much inferior to the Vox channel on the subsumed XM Radio. Still, it has its moments, and today's recording of Die Valkyre as performed on December 6, 1941 has to count as one of them. Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior in full monaural sound, including a little tape or disc hiss! For the memory thread, look at the date, a Saturday in late 1941. Sunday, December 7, 1941 is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was six years old then, and I remember the adults were paying unusual, focused attention to the radio. I knew something was up, but I didn't really get it at all.
When my son called me early on September 11, 2001 and told me to turn on the the television, I did so and watched the Towers fall, and fall and fall . . . I knew then that my world had changed forever, once again. I think about Traubel and Melchior going to bed that Saturday night and waking up to a day when everything would be forever changed in a short space of time. It was a long time ago, and really not so long at all.

Ice Cream no more and time passing . . .

2010-08-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

Along the Crooked River, boats could stop for ice cream. We used to bring our grandsons here, mostly by land. I favored the black cherry, which I suppose is a classic Michigan flavor. That was before they painted the building yellow and green, creating these superb reflection possibilities. The building has been vacant now for a couple of years; the dock we used to feed swans and mallards is beginning to crumble. We had lovely, lovely times here!

Late summer weeds

2010-08-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

I was noodling along coming home from my watercolor journaling class, and enjoying the woodsy beauty; a truck was coughing up my exhaust, so I turned into Amon Meadows, a partly developed group of housing estates on the shores of Crooked Lake. And coasted slowly to a stop and opened the car window and took some pictures of a Mama browsing with this fawn. In this one, the fawn is attractively framed by grasses and Queen Anne's Lace, with color splashes from Canada Goldenrod. I couldn't have staged it any better myself. The fawn's ears were rimmed by backlight, which also pinkened the ears, showing the blood inside. It pretty much made my day!

The Humongous Swan

2010-08-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

At the Alanson Riverfest Storytelling Contest last Saturday, this lovely person told a tall tale about a swan and fishing with her grandfather. I love the way the green of her shirt blends with the lit green foliage behind her. At the Riverfest Flea Market, I bought not one, but two, sewing machines--a non-working treadle and a Kenmore from about 1970. It's a nice machine, and as soon as I buy some pins, I will make myself a shift from some fabric I have had a long time. More later. Good night!

Content aware fill with Photoshop CS5

2010-08-07T17:43:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Photoshop CS5: content aware fill. My first try, using panorama from 20 vertical shots taken in mid-July at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. Only the topmost cloud in the upper right is completely fake; I was not able to discourage it.
For larger view, double-click this photo to go to Flickr, where the original ragged panorama is also displayed.

Sammi in Sepia

2010-08-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

I was playing with the functions of the DMC-ZS7, when I grabbed this sepia test. I think this is the answer to photographing the brown dachshund, which doesn't show that well in regular color. All that undifferentiated brown! This shows the texture of the fur, and the modeling of the form. And means we will have to have a portrait shoot of all of them. Window light helps, too!

Goatsbeard, or Salsify

2010-08-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

When our daughter was left a widow with two young boys, she found a place to raise them in the country and called it Goatsbeard Farm, after this plant and in recognition of the goats she kept for milk. We bought some acreage adjacent to her place and built what I often call Goatsbeard Manor, because the farm has a hundred year old house on it, and the manor was new fifteen years ago.
Last night, those boys, now 22 and 24, were home for a visit and we were taking them out to dinner at the Northwood, which is decorated with wooden wall sculptures theit father made. But first, I had to have S. stop the car when I saw the late afternoon light on this perfectly symmetrical seedhead. This was taken with my new favorite camera, the Panasonic Lumix ZS7, using the zoom and the automatic program. It's all about light . . .

The humble zinnia in evening's last light

2010-07-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed seeing my daughter's flowers, too, last night.

2010-07-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

The sun was leaving as my daughter put the harvest meal on her table. New potatoes with chopped parsley, beets, beans, chard, purple cauliflower from the garden with baked chicken. Everything so fresh and delicious. And beautiful clouds above the trees.

Herb Robert

2010-07-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

The tiny flower of this plant, Geranium Robertianum, blooms reliably throughout the summer here and there at Thorne Swift Nature Preserve, where I first learned its name from Sally Stebbins. Since the name is that of my dear brother, Robert, who died too young, I haven't forgotten it. The name "geranium" derives from the Greek geranos, crane, because of the shape of the seedpod, like a crane's bill. Two pairs of these pods are visible in this photo, as is the ferny shape of the leaves. The flowers are small, five-petaled, and range through the pale pinks to white. It is a widespread plant, growing in Europe and Asia, and widely naturalized in the US. Formerly it was used in treating wounds, and there are now claims for it as a cancer fighter.
The article in Wikipedia deals with all the Roberts who might have provided the name for this plant, and the links at the end of the article add interesting facts and theories.
Although the plant can grow to a substantial size, I have only ever seen a small version, a few tiny flowers, dainty leaves, as in this photo taken at the nature preserve. However, in King County, Washington, it is classed as a noxious weed, and seems to be able to eat up pastures or woodlands. The name "Stinky Bob" refers to the odor produced by several chemical constituents of this plant.

The Whippy Dip is Open, what flavor do you want?

2010-07-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

A chocolate-dipped cone on a summer evening after a drive through the wooded fields of northern Michigan was just the ticket. We were taking my grandson to pick up his car, but when he found it had been leaking transmission fluid we left it in capable hands there and brought him back to borrow one of his mother's vehicles. So we went nowhere and back again and had a very pleasant time together.

Watercolor moon

2010-07-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Went out to dinner with grandson, home for a visit. All the way back, the beautiful vari-clouded sky was lit by the moon to the east while the twilight was still visible over the western woods.

The spiky beauty of the spotted knapweed

2010-07-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a portrait of the little item that may obliterate my meadow. It actually is quite pretty in bllom--giving the field a lavendar sheen. It secretes a chemical which makes it difficult for the seeds of other plants to sprout. Its stems are tough and woody. It is the bane of ranchers all over this country, ever since it hitched a ride fro the far east. It has a very deep carrot shaped root , making it quite easy to pull; where you pull it, dozens sprout, but I still cannot resist. I don't think I should give up without a fight.

Symphony in blues and greens

2010-07-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

I spent a lovely morning at the Thorne Swift Nature Preserve with the members of the Petoskey Regional Audubon Society. This fellow seems to have eaten his fill and was just resting peacefully in the pond. This nature preserve has lovely boardwalks that meander through much of what is essentially wetlands so you can see the plants and animals. Even a little bit of duckweed makes an elegant appearance here.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

2010-07-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

An iPhone panorama made with the autostitch app. I will have to try more of these an include more foreground! It was a too-bright sunny day at the Park, but I still enjoyed our brief stop there.
Click on the picture to have it fill your screen!

The Greeting

2010-07-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

As we drove into the parking lot for the views of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, here he sat. It was a lovely day in North Dakota, and greener than I have seen it before. Swathes of yellow sweet clover moved in the strong breeze,and gave off a faint sweet odor. The sun was too overhead for really great photos, but the place it so beautiful it ALMOST didn't matter.

Old cottonwoods and clouds

2010-07-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

Montana afternoon light behind the motel in Miles City.

Neighborhood fireworks for the Fourth

2010-07-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't even been able to look at all the pictures yet, but I like the varied light sources in this one. The food was magical, the kids and the neighbors and the dogs were great! Hope you had a glorious Fourth!

Fourth of July

2010-07-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

Met these guys this morning at the Eagle Saturday Market. In their own crisp, patriotic way they are wishing you a Fabulous Fourth! Strike up the Band!

Web after rain

2010-07-02T21:02:00.001-07:00

photo
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I have been driven crazy trying to manage the photos on my iphone. I was trying to download them to my laptop and wound up COPYING until the iPhone was FILLED to theBRIM. After a great deal of fussing and reading tip sites on the Web, I think I solved it. It still seems NUTS the way you just cannot control what transfers, except by the dread "synchronizing" If my iPHone wasn't the favorite tool I have ever had, I would NEVER have anything to do with Apple.
This is an iPhone photo, cropped and modified with the Camerabag app. Kinda neat, I think.

Marie's treadle sewing machine

2010-06-19T17:33:00.000-07:00

My son called early this morning and told me that just two blocks away there was an estate sale. Of course I went right over. And I bought this extraordinary sewing machine. One of my secret desires has always been to own such a machine. This one is in a very nice cabinet, which is not shown here.

Marie's Life: from a short recounting by two of her daughter's children, from whom I bought Marie's Singer treadle sewing machine at the estate sale held by her daughter's family this fine sunny Saturday morning. As I was leaving, her granddaughter told me she was glad I liked her grandmother's sewing machine. I went back in the afternoon to find out at least the name of the original owner, so I could put it in the cabinet.

Marie Archmisbere was from Hisparren, France. At age nine she was indentured to kitchen service in a large home or castle. Later, her sister was able to buy out the remainder of her indenture and arrange a marriage with John Beterbide, an American-immigrant Basque sheepherder based near Golconda, Nevada. Marie emigrated through Ellis Island in 1913 and made the train trip west with her destination pinned to her coat, since she could not speak English. She was met in Nevada, and worked there for a year, since Basque custom decreed that couples be engaged for a year before they marry.

After their marriage, John and Marie traveled throughout northeastern Nevada, living in sheep camps while John worked at sheep herding.

In the early 1920's, with a decline in the sheep business, the couple moved to Reno, Nevada. There Marie was a cook in a boarding house on California Street in Reno. Her daugher, the mother of the people I met today, was born in 1923.

The sewing machine, which we think was manufactured in 1919, was too heavy to carry in the sheep herding life. Their grandson thinks they bought it after they went to Reno, when it was probably new or nearly new. It may have been later fitted into its current wooden cabinet, which does not resemble the Singer cabinets I have been able to find, and which seems to have more of a Thirties look.

Later in the 1920's, the Beterbide family moved to Susanville, California, and opened a Basque boarding house there.

Here is a Google translation from a Spanish periodical article about Basque boarding houses in Nevada and California which is posted on the web.

In Marysville there were only three hotels and Uriz Hotel continues, although it is not Basque.
In the town of Susanville, Hotel St. Francis still active with the owners Richard and Angie Goñi. It was built in 1914 and Richard's mother, Marie Jeanne Goñi, bought it in 1947. Basque dances were organized each month and it was a popular place for the Basques and non-Basques. Other hotels were the Basques in the Pyrenees town of John and Marie Beterbide, and Marion's Hotel Larrea family. The Commercial Hotel Basque worked as a pension in the early 40s, but in the 60s of the Twentieth Century a fire destroyed it.

Both John and Marie are buried in Lassen Cemetery in Susanville and are listed on the Cemetery website:
Marie: born 3 Feb 1894, died July, 1983.
John: born 15 Jan 1887, died 3 Jan 1966.

I would like to thank the family for sharing their family history with me.

I brought the machine straight home. My son carried it into the bedroom for me. I mended three items I had been planning to stitch up by hand, since my sewing machine is at the other place. Tomorrow, I plan to clean and oil the machine, if I can get a little brush and some sewing machine oil. The Singer works like a charm and makes a beautiful, even, straight stitch. I learned to sew on a machine like this. It was my mother's, but had been electrified by my father. He made the iron base into a small table, which eventually broke and was thrown away. I need to practice treadling, but it is sort of intuitive. If you stop and restart you may go backwards and break the thread, This machine should, however, be ideal for the short straight seams of quilt blocks. I won't try making anything too complex until I get better at it.

This whole happy experience has made this an excellent day. It has made me think about immigration, Western history, manufacturing history, clothing history, Basque culture, sheep herding and the whole splendid pageant of the past and its partial preservation in its material remnants. I have made an inventory of the things in a small box that was in the cabinet. Here it is:

Marie's Singer treadle machine Accessories Inventory; most of these items were in a worn, but intact vintage dark green cardboard box with embossed lettering. It had contained ½ pound of #7 “Crescent Superior Quality Bank Pins.” The embossing on the box shows an example of each of the sizes of straight pins. It is hard to scan or photograph, but I will keep trying.

6 bobbins, each wound with short lengths of different colors of thread

1 large wooden spool of white Talon mercerized sewing thread

8 Singer needles, assorted small sizes in Singer paper packet,
look unused

11 needles for hand sewing, assorted sizes

73 straight pins, assorted sizes and types

5 dress hooks on partial card; one hook fastener, loose

½ snap

3 white buttons, each unique

1 straight pin with fake pearls on it

1 tiny brass safety pin

2 ball-headed pins

6 large pins, really too large for sewing

5 bent pins, really unusable, but still saved

1 tiny pin, size 7 on the box

½ inch nail

5 small paper clips

2 attractive old keys to the cabinet, one of which locks it

4 thimbles, three of which fit me

1 poor-quality mended measuring tape

Felt needle holder: removed from neck of machine. I am using it for the needles.

Small screw driver, looks as if it was fashioned from another tool, ground down shaft shows a brass tip.

This is an inventory of thrift.

A single rose

2010-06-17T22:33:00.001-07:00

no message

Boise River -- running high!

2010-06-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

There are beautiful trails along the greenbelt.

Crab Feast

2010-06-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is my grandson working on his birthday crab. (I am happy the uploader is working again.)
Crab is his favorite food. We all went to Joe's Crab Shack for the birthday dinner and the whole restaurant sang to him.

Under the Willow P1030431

2010-05-23T21:12:00.001-07:00

Under the Willow P1030431
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Having a terrible time uploading! Trying through Flickr now. Testing . . .

Tapestry

2010-05-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

We picked up the bird seed in the early afternoon. The feeder had been up about an hour hanging from one of the cottonwood trees above the Little Union Canal behind the new place in Idaho. I had already seen a small bird there. As I was taking this picture, the squirrel obliged by assuming delightful poses. This is my favorite: I like the balance, the pose, the willow branches, the willow leaves and the leaves of the cottonwood suckers. The color, light and the textures remind me of a tapestry. Good night.

Oakleigh Dominator

2010-05-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

Honestly, that is the name of this particular epiphyllum, which has eight blooms out this morning. I can hardly bear to leave on this trip. I'm really glad we were prevented from leaving sooner, or I would have missed wpi bloom season. What I need is a traveling greehouse I could tow behind my car. Now, off to Idaho and the iris garden.

My Angel

2010-05-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be packing the car, and stopped for a moment of play . . .

It's duckling time!

2010-05-10T01:02:00.000-07:00

Lovely haiku reading and events at the Teahouse in San Jose's Japanese Friendship Garden. Highlights were the many ducklings, of course, and the guided tour of the koi nursery tanks, where they are growing some koi that that hope to restore to the pond after the new filtration system is installed. It was Penny, a genuine Koi Ranger who took us on a tour.
I was trying out a new camera and it made me quite happy with its 12x zoom. This is the full frame, the ducklings can be seen in all their shaprt cuteness and I like the way the little touches of vegetation are in two corners.
We also had a haiku ginko, or garden walk, and a mighty drum session with two drummers from the group Maiko Drum. They were pretty awesome and made that old teahouse rattle!
More pictures of this great day here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/junehymas/sets/72157623896989809/show/

Music I love; people I love

2010-05-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight on satellite radio, Robert Aubry Davis played Brahms' German Requiem in a recording conducted by Robert Shaw. Robert Aubry Davis (I always call him by his full name since I fell in love with his voice and his brilliant and funny comments on the old Vox channel on XM Radio.) This delightful channel which played all sorts of music for the human voice from Monteverdi to Verdi and all sorts of masses and plainchants, leider and art songs of all descriptions is no more: a victim of the folding together of the two satellite radio companies. The replacement is the Metropolitan Opera channel on Sirius-XM, which plays ONLY music from the Met, so mostly opera, and many dull old recordings of the played-out few popular operas. But (perhaps due to his large and noisy fan base) R.A.D. soldiers on as a host on the Symphony Hall channel and is as wonderful and well-informed as ever. He searches out rare recordings, and the best recordings, and plans programs for the centennials, tri-centennials and all sorts of anniversaries for musicians. He sends out a weekly email newsletter so we can be sure to catch the things we especially want to hear. And he is a person I love.
In the early 1980s, I sang with the Gavilan College Concert Choir under the direction of Ronald Graham. Preparation for our concerts created the most outstanding musical experiences of my life. And Ron is a person I love, who made a great difference in my life through his teaching. Toward the end of this golden era, we sang the Brahms, or at least as much of it as we could credibly prepare in one semester. Once you have learned such music, it stays with you forever.
In his introduction, Robert Aubry Davis talked about the writing of the this work, and its relation to the deaths of Brahms' mother and the death of his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann. There is a little bit about this in Wikipedia.
As the music began to play, I slowed and then stopped my Kindle-reading of They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell, a beloved author. As I listened, the music entered my chest just above my heart and swelled, swelled, swelled and settled there.
So, there they are, three beloved art-guys.
And above, a rose (planted by my husband, another beloved fellow) after rain. This is one of the first dozen taken with my new camera, a 12 megapixel beauty with a fast sharp lens and a 12x zoom. Might turn out to be the perfect camera.

Might turn out to be a perfect life.

2010-04-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

This is the Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto, right adjacent to a main road. I think the owner left it for public use. The plant I liked the best (and there were many spectacular choices) was borage, with its fuzzy stems. It must seed itself, because it was all over the garden. I decided to try to get some for my own garden. This is a classic garden in classic late spring.

His Golden Slippers

2010-04-21T21:47:00.001-07:00

IMG_2960crp
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Here's a snowy egret from the Palo Alto Baylands yesterday. I had the most divine time! Things have changed a lot since I went on so many birdwalks here 20 years ago. It is still wild, weedy and beautiful, with the changing water levels, amazing birds, weeds and clouds.
I have another place I often go to now, closer to my home. I wrote a poem about it and my poem was recently chosen as one of 30 poems on Santa Clara County (for the thirty days in National Poetry Month) to be posted--one each day--during April. My poem went up a couple of days ago and you can see it here.

I also made a panorama by blending 12 vertical shots. Here it is. Wish you could have come. Tomorrow, the garden I also visited Tuesday.

You'll have to park in the Dirt Lot

2010-04-17T21:15:00.001-07:00

You'll have to park in the Dirt Lot
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I went to a great poetry reading today by Willis and Tony Barnstone. It was held upstairs in the Firehouse at San Jose's History Park and sponsored by the San Jose Poetry Center and by the local Jacaranda Press. It's a baseball Saturday (the stadium is across the street) and the parking lots were full when I got there. But I was thrilled to get the senior discount $2, instead of the baseball day $6, and to actually get a spot. The reflections in the puddle in the dirt lot were really quite pretty, I thought, and the orange fencing punched up the color quotient. It took me a while to walk from there, but the reading hadn't started yet when I arrived. Nice cookies, Sun Chips and an odd assortment of orange pop, gingerale and juice.
My only previous knowledge of the name Barnstone was of the children's author, Aliki (Barnstone,) whose children's books were published under Aliki, as a single name. But at the library, we knew better and always added the typed label: Barnstone and shelved them under B. I guess she's the mom, but I didn't ask, but she also does adult stuff and translations like the guys I heard today and I read in Wikipedia, that his parents altered his name, and it is unusual. I always liked her books and I wanted to ask about her, but restrained myself. There is much more to tell, and I'll tell it in the next post.
Pictures of the Barnstones reading and the History Park here.

Wildflowers at Blue Oak Ranch

2010-04-11T00:25:00.000-07:00

The spring wildflower walk of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society was held this afternoon at the Blue Oak Ranch in the foothills above San Jose. I don't know the name of these little beauties, yet, but will let you know when I do. Highlights coming soon. More pictures here.

Joan Schulze: Poetic License and the BIG RISK

2010-04-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

There is a retrospective exhibit of her work (she lives nearby, in Sunnyvale) at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose. The work is well-hung in large spaces. There are central benches so one can sit and look for a long time. This small, handsome museum is an unsung gem! Today the artist will be here from 11-1 to talk about the work and lead a tour. I have worried about getting a parking place, but when I get there 10 minutes late (I had to stop for gas) I am the seventh person there; by the time she finishes, there are thirteen, including a couple from Bend, Oregon, who just dropped by. Alas, photography inside the museum is forbidden, but here is shown the outdoor view across the street. Tell me why the trees are wrapped in red tape, is it art, commerce or law?

Joan Schulze: Her voice is very soft. I look in my bag for my hearing aids. They aren't there. I begin to pay a more fierce attention and soon understand her quite well. Leaving the museum, I reach for the camera from my bag and there is the case in the little pocket I usually only keep keys in . . . I put the aids in and get to hear traffic sounds on the way home.

She is talking about her California quilt as I come in. I hear only her interesting, uncontextualized phrase: “to give California back to myself.”

She shows us the correspondence between two quilts many years apart. She shows us the autumnal color palette in the center of one and at the left side of the newer one. I notice that she looks at the museum label to check the date when each piece was made.

“That's what happens when you have a retrospective” [and a lot of your work is up on the walls,

you can notice correspondences.]

“A lot of my work is autobiographical.”

She talks about her interest in displaying the back side to see the quilting, knots and thread ends. The process of the quilt and the emphasis on the assembly of it. “I wanted to make a statement about who deep the layers of a quilt are--not only physically but emotionally.” “to celebrate the beginnings and endings of things”

After some time, she started using paper and “marrying it with fabric”

“Anytime I say it's a quilt . . .” [it's a quilt?] 2 layers, three layers . . .

On her time in Holland on on of those USIA exchanges—there was no sink in the workroom there.

“Now I can work all day in my studio with only a pint of water.” [She may have said a cup. But

I couldn't believe that long enough to write it down.]

If you paint your fabric (dilute acrylic) on a tarp the paint will settle and make different patterns on the back of the fabric.

[A series of smallish 30” square quilts with translucent and transparent elements are hung at about a 45-degree angle to the wall so one can see both sides—]“the light comes through.” [They are based on the garden.]

“Artists need to take a BIG RISK.” “. . . am I doing something new; am I challenging myself?”

[When looking at my] “failures, can I take another avenue?”

“I'm addicted to entering exhibitions. . .” On her 2008 piece in the Triennial, “It has legs.” and is getting a lot of useful attention.

Method for transferring images using glue: Use PVA [polyvinyl adhesive] available at art stores and bookbinding suppliers. With a large brush apply it to the face of a color copy or photocopy (inkjets won't work) While wet, press face down onto cotton or silk fabric. Let dry at least one full day. Iron back side through freezer paper to remove all traces of moisture. Dampen a shamwow (or some such) and lay on the paper side for a time to dampen the paper thoroughly. Then, using rubber gloves, peel (and rub?) the dampened paper carefully away. [It looked to me as if some of the pieces in the exhibit had some paper left on them. Since the quilts “marry” paper and fabric in other ways, why not this way?]

Joan quotes an artist (not sure, but I think she said) Klee, “as you work the image will reveal itself.” No need to think everything out in advance. See what happens while you work and respond to the developing image.

On making art: “If you are living a fragmented life, you learn how to concentrate in a short space of time.” [I should note that this has been difficult for me.]

Look at your accidents [to see what you can learn.]

When questioned about “appropriation”: “I didn't even think about that; I was raising four children . . .]

She used to make artist's patches on her children's clothing. They thought it was so cool, that they began to rip here and there to get more patches. “I finally had to say: no more than one patch per clothing.”

On submitting art to exhibits and competitions: “Put the thing you don't want in your home out there.” These are things that might not be "pretty," they might be scary or a little unsettling. You might not understand everything about what you have made, and some pieces you might not want to look at every day or explain to your family or casual visitors.

“Traditional art doesn't inform my work at all, even though I like being part of history, especially women's history.”

Here's her web site with pictures of many of the quilts I saw.

In the text above, where I wrote down the exact words I am pretty sure I heard her say, I have enclosed those words in quotes. My sense-completions are in brackets and the other text is mine.

Afterwards, since my notebook was already out, I made preliminary versions of some haiku:

museum silence--

air conditioning's faint hum

this early April

quilt exhibit--

the woman with white curls

holds a magnifying glass

Reminder to self: some things for this woman (me)to do:

Get some PVA. Get some acrylics.

Try small collages, paper and fabric, glued and sewn. 5”x7” and 8”x10.” Frame them.

Use pieces of my monoprints as a base for fabric and other papers.

French knots. Small beads, buttons. . .ribbons, lace.

Monoprint on fabric. Possible with oil inks I have??

Use my unworn too-thin cream-colored silk blouses for transparent layers. And try printing on them.

Acupuncture and Herbs

2010-04-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

On a trip to downtown San Jose today, I marvel at the uses to which some of the fine old houses have been put.

Duck Nap

2010-04-05T00:17:00.001-07:00

Duck Nap
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

See their eyes watching me as I walk closer and then closer?

Here is the first paragraph of
Beyond Intention; poetry and the art of recklessness by Dean Young in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of Poet's and Writer's Magazine.

"Let us suppose that everyone in the world wakes up tomorrow and tries to write a poem. It is impossible to know what will happen next, but certainly we will be assured that the world will not be made worse. I believe in the divinity of profligacy. The creation of art--okay, just the attempt at the creation of art, as well as the appreciation of it--ia both an enlarging of the world and an expanding of consciousness. To write a poem is to explore the unknown capacities of the mind and the heart; it is an emotive, empathetic exercise, and, like being struck by lightning, it will probably leave you stunned and singed, but also a bit brighter-- and your odds of being struck again then become much higher."

I would like to give you a link to the whole article, but it is not online--I think it is part of the forthcoming book THE ART OF RECKLESSNESS, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in August, 2010. I just preordered it from Amazon.

Across high desert in early February

2010-04-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have been looking again at the iPhone photos and found this one in a fromthecar series I really like. I have been reading so much poetry and other stuff as I clean up my stacks of printed matter that ti is hard to decide which thing to blog about, so here is a photo for tonight. May the mists be with you. . .

Another sad, sad story

2010-04-03T00:04:00.001-07:00

IMG_2006
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

My dentist's lovely newish digs features a fish tank. The fish think the camera is a predator and I have worked very hard during several recent visits to snap them. I like this one for the furniture in the waiting room. I got the final bridgework installed yesterday, and my familiar friends were gone and replaced with (still elusive) stranger-fish.
A heater malfunction had cleared the tank and caused the weekend death of all the others. These yellow guys were particular favorites of mine. My dentist is very prompt, so sometimes I stayed after just to watch them.

2010-04-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at Almaden Quicksilver Park, looking at the beautiful grasslands and playing with the iPhone photo applications. I haven't mastered this yet, but like this effect, particularly fun with an undistinguished shot. Gorgeous clouds; it's been raining ever since, off and on. Our water heater is leaking and we are awaiting rescue by our special fixit man.

A lovely sketchday

2010-04-02T00:11:00.001-07:00

A lovely sketchday
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I really have more talent as a writer, but this sketching idea keeps calling to me. I have lots of pens, brushes, colors and lovely notebooks (too beautiful to ruin) and have recently gotten together with a group that paints and sketches weekly. I can never decide which to so watercolor or ink drawing, so this week I did both and then superimposed the ink on the painting through the magic of Photoshop. Voila! I'm merrily off in a new direction!

Dominant Overlook

2010-03-31T23:56:00.001-07:00

P1030358 crp luc
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I spent a recent afternoon at an exhibit of Chinese painting by the four great artists who were born mid-Nineteenth century and lived well into the Twentieth. They are considered to be the outstanding painters of this period and this is the first time a survey of their masterpieces has been seen in the west.
The artists are Wu Changshuo (1844–1927), Qi Bashi (1864–1957), Huang Binhong (1865–1955) and Pan Tianshou (1897–1971.) Only Pan lived to be harassed during the Cultural Revolution.
The picture shows the picture that made the greatest impression on me in this visit; it is titles Dominant Overlook. It is an immense vertical scroll-mounted painting. Two vultures are perched atop a steep cliff above a waterfall. Their sinister expressions suggest that they could stand in for Communist overlords. And indeed this artist died of being beaten and denied medical attention during this upheaval. Faintly seen near the bottom is a chalked inventory mark from the painting's seizure and condemnation.

iPhone play

2010-03-29T22:13:00.001-07:00

photo
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I made this cheesy landscape with my very own iPhone. And I quite like it. It's not crooked; it's a hill. And the light was fantastic! Spring in CaliforniaLand. Good night.

Clivia

2010-03-28T21:35:00.001-07:00

P1030379 no mod
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

When the sun shines, it is out to the back yard to catch some golden rays.

Lupine in bloom in bright afternoon sun

2010-03-26T22:19:00.001-07:00

Lupine in bloom in bright afternoon sun
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

The bright sun makes the edges look like they were frosted. Today I went to a great exhibit on Chinese painting at Stanford. Three other people were taking pictures, so I snapped a couple and was told off, even though I wasn't using the flash. This is always embarassing. Some museums allow it, some do not. . .

Mist rising from Uvas Reservoir

2010-03-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

From 1970 until 1983, I drove past this place most days I went to work. I took this way Tuesday on my way to Monterey Dunes. Already late-ish, I had to stop because of the light and the reflections! This is a blend of 11 vertical shots using Photomerge. I'm in love and have to go again!

Dune Paintbrush

2010-03-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

The ocean light at midday in spring makes a person feel very alive!

A day in which I saw MANY things and did not take a single picture! Hard to believe . . .

2010-03-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

This is my friend, donnalynn and her dog Tesha, right after she took over its care. Before that, the dog had a sort of vagabond life. Behind them you can see part of donnalynn's studio, which she had built behind her house as a space for her art-making, her art workshops and her women's circles. I took this picture last year. (See title of this post.)
Today, donnalynn and I spent the afternoon at two exhibits in the revitalized art district on South First Street in downtown San Jose. One was at the ICA, or Institute for Contemporary Art and their annual Monotype Marathon, which had an exhibit featuring one work by each of the many invited artists which was created over one weekend in the monotype print form. At the end of the exhibit, the works are sold in a silent auction which benefits the ICA.
We enjoyed the show very much and I have just found that photos of many of the prints are posted here on Flickr. Take a look. There was also an excellent exhibit of
textile or thread work by
We also toured their Print Room, which is the only publicly available print studio in the South Bay. Classes and workshops are held here and printmakers can use the facility for a moderate fee.
After that we went too the Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and, after tearing ourselves away from the splendid array of items in their gift shop (an exhibit in itself) we passed down a hallway hung with some of the most beautiful and finely woven Navajo rugs I have ever seen. These are the work of Ellen Begay who learned to weave from her mother who also taught her granddaughter, Lucy Begay. The exhibit is called Navajo Weaving in the Present Tense. These beautiful textiles were woven from handspun wool from the Churro sheep, dyed with vegetal, not aniline, dyes. The large rug at the end of the hall is a symphony in muted grays, off-yellows and tans. There is another room hung with these rugs, mostly from a private collection; it would be worth a museum visit just to see them.

Both of these institutions have new homes in repurposed older commercial buildings in this area, located close together along an attractive new stretch of faux slate sidewalk with tile mosaic inserts. I belong to both groups, but had not visited either in their new location.

to be continued

Moving into Fourth Position

2010-03-09T22:27:00.000-08:00

In two more days, it will be just one year since I caught this. Grandchild time flies especially fast. Last night on Flickr I saw a wedding photo from Bulgaria in 1880. Then, a photo was a special occassion deal. So this type of expressive moment wasn't captured. And, without digital photography, I wouldn't have captured it, either. With film, I was always conscious of the developing costs and the limit of the roll of film I had in my camera, and of the maybe one other roll I brought along. So the digital camera that my co-workers gave me when I retired at the end of the last century was the beginning of a thrilling journey.
The only problem is that SO MANY pictures, and such easy ways to crop and sharpen them, means that I am piling up the megabites and gigabites and--who knows--terabytes and beyond (how do you spell that stuff, anyway)? And I clog my hard drive with great amounts of it, until the laptop almost cannot run. And then, every night, I open Picasa and browse my archives, looking for an excuse not to go to bed. . .