A History

Some highlights from the interpretive center at Ocean Shores, Washington that struck me as being particularly painterly. I recommend clicking to enlarge these ones.


Message in a Bottle



Barbwire on Paisley




The Mouse in His House




The Catchers and the Caught

The Friday poem

Children, if you dare to think
Of the greatness, rareness, muchness
Fewness of this precious only
Endless world in which you say
You live, you think of things like this:
Blocks of slate enclosing dappled
Red and green, enclosing tawny
Yellow nets, enclosing white
And black acres of dominoes,
Where a neat brown paper parcel
Tempts you to untie the string.
In the parcel a small island,
On the island a large tree,
On the tree a husky fruit.
Strip the husk and pare the rind off:
In the kernel you will see
Blocks of slate enclosed by dappled
Red and green, enclosed by tawny
Yellow nets, enclosed by white
And black acres of dominoes,
Where the same brown paper parcel -
Children, leave the string alone!
For who dares undo the parcel
Finds himself at once inside it,
On the island, in the fruit,
Blocks of slate about his head,
Finds himself enclosed by dappled
Green and red, enclosed by yellow
Tawny nets, enclosed by black
And white acres of dominoes,
With the same brown paper parcel
Still untied upon his knee.
And, if he then should dare to think
Of the fewness, muchness, rareness,
Greatness of this endless only
Precious world in which he says
he lives - he then unties the string.

Warning to Children
Robert Graves

It Can't Happen Here

Does this look like a dangerous photo to you?

This just in from the Times Online. "Did you hear the one about the mother banned from taking a snapshot of her baby in the pool? Or the student prevented from photographing Tower Bridge at sunset? Be warned. The authorities now have the power to confiscate your camera — or even arrest you — for daring to take a picture in public."

So the next time I visit the UK, I should beware in a situation like this.





Or even this.



Fortunately there is a good deal of outcry.

Remixing the London police's anti-photographer terror posters











So can it happen here? There are certainly cases here where folks have gotten hauled in as terrorists (or pedophiles) for taking innocuous photos.

Oddly the US seems to have no problem with people carrying deadly weapons about in public, despite our Yankee penchant for actually using them, often and at random. Let's hope that spirit of lusty independence continues to carry over to the less deadly photojournalistic field as well.

Morphic Resonance

Saw this sorta fashion shoot outside the Seattle Public Library. Awfully nippy out for a minidress.



Weirdly similar to this recent Philadelphia photo on the brand-spankin' new www.theurbanity.com

A Photographer, Not a Terrorist

A new campaign for photographers' rights: mapping, reporting, and fighting back against restrictions on photography in the UK.

"Photography is under attack. Across [England] it that seems anyone with a camera is being targeted as a potential terrorist, whether amateur or professional, whether landscape, architectural, or street photographer.

Not only is it corrosive of press freedom, but creation of the collective visual history of our country is extinguished by anti-terrorist legislation designed to protect the heritage it prevents us recording.

This campaign is for everyone who values visual imagery, not just photographers.

We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it."

It's not just happening in England.

Art Professor Sues over Detention While Photographing Power Lines

Top U.S. Photographer Arrested & Injured by Police for Photographing Santa Claus

AP Photographer Arrested Covering Anti-war Protest

Garage Doors: The Joy of Paint

Aside from performing design magic with little strips of wood, you can go crazy with paint.


Some might place windows in this position, but these folks have used paint. If you blow this up, you'll also notice the subtle diamond shape-within-a-shape.



Here are some artfully placed rectangles -- painted brown!



Here the paint is applied -- asymmetrically of course -- to the natural paneling of the door.



Hey, you can also do it with squares!



Boy howdy, can you!



Or you can just freak out and do a real painting.

Garage Doors: The Bevel Made Me Do It

Nothing like beveled corners to add snazz and pizzazz.


Not only beveled but asymmetrical!



Or if you prefer, right-handed. (What's up with the faux clerestory effect?)



The TV-screen look.





This one looks like it's about to swallow the car.



Here they got just a tad carried away and continued the motif on to the front door.



In case you missed it, here's one from my earlier "bullseye" post.

Garage Doors: Rectilinear Distinction

There are a host of just plain rectangles in Garageworld, but I like rare variations such as these.


Cells floating proudly with their skinny nuclei.



Reticent rectangles in chains.



Sticking close together for safety.



Offset randomly or by painstaking design?



Optically messing with your head - is this cruciform design just a big rectangle laid over a couple of long ones, or are those four petals surrounding it?



I don't know what this one is trying to tell me.

Garage Doors: X Meets Frankenstein

Now we have a palette of basic shapes to work with, let's mix and match!


It might start out as a simple X motif...



...but by clever positioning you subliminally add, say, a diamond...



...or a chevron or two...



...or a rectangle or two...


...or some squares and more diamonds...



...or what the hell, a mess of bars, rectangles, and fancy windows...and look out.

Stars of the Garage World

Am I a star or asterisk? You be the judge.


I am a Bethlehem style star.


I am a rectangular star.


I am a diamond star.



We are conjoined-twin rectangle stars.


I have an identity crisis... am I a constellation or just a bunch of linked rectangles?

Deconstruction/Construction

What goes up must first come down.