Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration’
the glory in the morning
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, color, flowers, Inspiration, light, morning glories, nature, Photography, urban landscape, vines on October 13, 2015| 3 Comments »
the northern lights and john cage
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, caustics, experimentation, fun, Inspiration, music, nature, oak tree, Photography, physics, poetry, refraction, science, silence, sunlight, time, urban landscape, videography on October 12, 2015| 2 Comments »
Caustic in Black & White 1
Okay, I first remember reading about John Cage in a story by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. The piece opened with a description of the 1952 performance of John Cage’s composition, 4’33”, which turned out to be four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. It’s a bit more complicated than that, or maybe not, but you can read more via this article link. John Cage and silence came to mind recently because I was sharing a video I’d made with the physicist in my life and when I asked him what piece of music should I pair with these images, he suggested, “soundtrack by John Cage.”
Caustic in Black & White 2
At first I thought he was kidding. There had to be a short classical piece to fit the light and motion so reminiscent of northern lights. When I’d asked him what music to pair with a short video of sunlit water flowing over rocks, he’d suggested Faure’s Requiem in Paradisum. Now he recommended silence? On my own, I found Bartock’s Evening in the Village. I tried the pairing. He appreciated Bartok but he still favored Cage. I read a bit more about Cage, his compositions, his performances, his poetry … an interesting man to say the last.
Caustics in Color
So what I captured on the wall one morning took place in less than four minutes and thirty-three seconds. It involved a rippled window, a different one in the house. Light shone down through the gaps in the leaves and branches of the oak tree that towers over the house. That light made its way through the glass refracting through the ripples producing a dynamic pattern of caustics on the wall. Most often that pattern of light is static but this particular morning the wind was blowing. The branches and the leaves they moved creating what that physicist described as “a pattern of illumination that varied in space and time.” It was a good moment inspiring some experimentation as you can see in the video below. The flickering on the wall is as it happened … in less than four minutes and thirty-three seconds.
A Silent Dance from Cynthia Staples on Vimeo.
and the walls came crumbling down
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, colors, destruction, Inspiration, Photography, Somerville, strange beauty, urban landscape on October 11, 2015| 4 Comments »
The demolition before construction of a major new development in my neighborhood. A rather strange beauty in the early morning light.
a feather found on the ground today
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged abstract, beauty, feather, Inspiration, nature, Photography, urban landscape on October 10, 2015| 2 Comments »
this afternoon when I lifted the window …
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, Inspiration, leaves, nature, Photography, sunlight, urban landscape, windows on October 8, 2015| 1 Comment »
in this morning’s light
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, tagged art, beauty, color, Inspiration, light, Photography, ripple glass, storytelling, urban landscape, windows on October 8, 2015| 5 Comments »
Yes, through the rippled glass. The landlord recently told me that he had specifically selected that rippled glass. A carpenter, he had found the glass in a building being demolished. And when he assembled the windows for his home, he used the rippled glass.
in alabama …
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged African American history, Alabama, architecture, art, beauty, black history, civil rights, history, Inspiration, Katherine Lamb Tait, music, negro spirituals, Photography, religion, Robert Moton, slavery, stained glass windows, storytelling, Tuskegee on October 7, 2015| 3 Comments »
… there was a school and on the campus there was a chapel and inside the chapel there was a stained glass window known as The Singing Window.
photo by Carol M. Highsmith
Sources and Additional Readings
Learn more about the photographer Carol M. Highsmith on the Library of Congress website: Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Learn more about Tuskegee University including its tours and the history of the chapel.
I almost see an eagle …
Posted in Inspiration, tagged blue, colors, imagination, Inspiration, Photography, urban landscape, water on October 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »
… bald head, wings spread wide, feathers catching the morning light. In fact it is water racing down the asphalt hill near where I live as the workmen opened up a fire hydrant. The convergence of several flows …
… a cool sight for me but not so entertaining for those suddenly wading through an unexpected stream.
a somerville sunset
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged colors, Inspiration, nature, Photography, sky, Somerville, sunset, urban landscape on October 6, 2015| 2 Comments »
zoe langosy: fashion as art and inspiration
Posted in Guest Contributor, Inspiration, tagged art, beauty, design, family, fashion, fashion magazines, fashion week, illustration, Inspiration, magazines, Photography, storytelling, style, Vogue, Zoe Langosy on October 4, 2015| 3 Comments »
Remember the hand of the budding artist? Well, mom is artist Zoe Langosy. Recently, she mentioned how important this period of fashion weeks around the world had been in her artistic growth and I asked her to share more through her words and images …
When I was 14, the fashion world became a magic kingdom to me. Fashion took me on a journey through music, pop culture, the arts… I couldn’t get enough. Already developing into a figurative artist, my drawings became filled with long-legged, often tragic looking, beauties. All my characters were adorned in lavish attire made from a patchwork of fabrics and colors. As this was before the internet, the way I kept up with my new found passion and muse was either on TV or through magazines. My teenage bedroom began to overflow with Vogue’s from all over the world, Harpaar’s Bazaar, The Face, Sky… Nothing ever compared, though, to the September issue of American Vogue.
Each year seemed to compete with the year before… More pages, more looks, more exclusive inserts from designers. Each year, as summer drew to a close, my sister and I would check newsstands every day anticipating its arrival. The first issue I purchased was in 1991. Linda Evangelista donned the cover, smoldering with red hair and tartan. I must have turned the pages of that issue a thousand times, and yet somehow kept it pristine like only a true collector could. Never letting any hands on it but my own.
24 years have passed, and I still feel a buzz when the September Vogue appears on the newsstand. It remains a guilty pleasure of mine, still inspiring my art … Of course, I have other inspirations these days as well.
These days, I’m okay if the cover gets scratched or my one-year old tears out a page. Now, it’s become so ingrained in my world it’s like buying a new set of pencils. Something I’m prepared to destroy and use purely as a visual playground that will set my imagination running.
Follow Zoe’s creative journey …
Words + Images 