reflections

a drive to Haines Junction, gateway to the St. Elias Mountain Range

most of the peaks were shrouded in cloud cover but a stop at Pine Lake gave a different view...

the end of May, but the cold hard land persists

the water was breathtakingly still, the reflections near perfect

I took over a dozen photos and then edited them in a number of different ways

it was awe-inspiring

after about twenty minutes a lone loon came along, it's diving for minnows disrupting the reflections 

I zoomed in to get a clearer shot of the loon and when I looked at the photo I had taken to see how things looked I realized that not only had the zoom helped make the loon more visible, the reflections in the water were stunning, looking as if they were an abstract painting of the water

impressionism perhaps?

 I took many more photos, each unique, as the loon continued to alternate between diving and floating and the water changed again and again with each motion

it was so inspiring it became the day's poem

a single loon

floating on an abstract painting

diving beauty

the 100 Day project is coming to a close, only two left to write

it's been wonderful, difficult, tiring, informative, and immensely satisfying

they made me think about old ideas in new ways and taught me much about what mattered

but oh, I will be glad to be finished

I fought with some,  recorded others as they came; some will be left that way, others  edited further

eventually I'll make a book of my favourites

and be glad I took the time

filling the well...

a late spring in the Yukon...

the benefit of that is the stunning white-topped mountain views as a backdrop to the emerging greens

yesterday we went to Carcross, an hour's drive south-west of Whitehorse

Bennett Lake, from the Carcross Desert

Carcross is where the Tutshi paddlewheeler was based

 my dad was a deckhand on it as a teenager one summer in the 1950s

 it was decommissioned in 1955, beached and left alone until the Yukon government bought the boat in the early 1970s

shortly before its restoration was completed, it burnt in the summer of 1990.

 the burned-out hull of the boat lay  on the shore for decades and finally some work was done to create a viewing platform reminiscent of the length, width and height of the original boat when attached to the remnants of the bow

oh for a bit of that charred wood!

below is the old docking point, as seen in the photo near the top of this post

I love all the interesting details I captured - I've never been able to get this close to the Tutshi before so I was very glad to be able to get these interesting and inspiring images

the plan is print off a number of these photos to use in collage work and I'll also be interpreting some in stitch and paint, and whatever else comes to mind as I go

feeling inspired...

not much...

not much to show in the way of creative work this week

tomorrow I leave for a month in the Yukon and there's been little to no studio time but after last week's post I was itching to get started on some small samples so took an afternoon off from the unending yard work and tried a few things

working with cloth and stitch takes time, at least for me, and time was in short supply but I had a few ideas of things I wanted to do with coloured pencils and ink

I thought about what format to use for the sampling and remembered some sample-work I did a while back where I used circle shapes

loving that look, I worked out four circles to a page in the current sketchbook where all the Japan-inspired work is going

and then had a little play

acrylic ink on a very soft paper with a lot of texture

the one below was done with Derwent Inktense and Tinted Charcoal pencils with a Sakura Pigma pen in black

Golden Fibre Paste on the bottom portion to add texture and more Inktense and Tinted Charcoal pencils in the upper portion

(I do love Fibre Paste - I use it on paper beneath watercolour for interesting effects and have also painted it on cheesecloth to create a very interesting textured fabric)

all of these are inspired by the pottery of past and present Japanese artists

there is such subtlety in the colours and textures of the glazes they develop and use, almost always with a strong connection to the land

sampling in this way helps me work out how to achieve similarities in texture on paper which makes it possible for me to create larger versions of my own ideas that I can then use in my own work

and when I get back from trip I'm also going to have a go at working with pigment-painted cloth to get similar visual textures

slowly but surely the stockpile is building

explorations

I've been pulled away from my work this past week but  yesterday I spent some time at my worktable rummaging through various bits and pieces of fabric, thread and paper of the work I've been doing exploring ...

where was I and where am I going to?

and how might I get there...

a few thoughts trickled in, then another and another and in an instant I went from feeling inspired to feeling rather overwhelmed

with limited time how do I capture all this so I don't forget the excitement of it?

I've tried writing detailed notes and drawing diagrams etc. but something is always lost in the translation and over time the notes aren't enough and everything I was feeling fizzles out

a few years ago I was in the same position with a different idea and I took to making small studies in fabric, thread and paper

little snapshots of what I was seeing in my mind, as fragmented as the fleeting thoughts themselves

for some reason a tiny piece of fabric can hold as much information as a few dozen words 

and it holds the excitement as well

in looking through these small studies (they're approx. 1 1/4" square) I was taken back when to when I did them, the reasons why are as sharp and relevant now as they were then

a few stitches, scrap of cloth

some held together by pins or paperclips

over time I referred back to them whilst working on various things

there's always something there to guide me, or to spark an idea

over the past few weeks I've gathered so many ideas for my Japanese design aesthetic inspired work that I haven't been able to keep up with documenting them but I think this might be the perfect way to do it

small snippets, just a few stitches, or one ragged edge

a wealth of information in the smallest pieces and the simplest work

sometimes I think these little pieces are not just a way to store information or ideas

sometimes I think they might just be the way

the Haiku continue… it hasn’t been easy but i’ve kept at it, every day. Here are a couple of recent ones:

Crocus 

spring's purple anthem

perversely poking through snow

tenacious impatience

crocuses in the Yukon… through thick and thin, and snow

Bald Eagle

that piercing gaze

measure taken, then dismissed

the humbling of it

an eagle sitting atop a tree, looking down at me for a moment, and then not

jillayne

making my mark

last Sunday morning, whilst sitting at my writing table I noticed the sun was reflecting something onto the wall at my right

after watching it for a while I decided it reminded me some kind of letter form

not one in a written language I was familiar with, more of an Asemic version of what a letter/word mark might look like

I started trying to write it but was afraid the light show might disappear before I had it so I ran and grabbed my phone to take a picture

because the reflection was down low and there was a cabinet blocking my access I had to take the photo from an odd angle so it doesn't look quite like what I saw from my desk but it's close

the lines on the left weren't there and faint lines at the bottom centre weren't visible either, just the stronger, bolder ones

the two small marks on the scrap of graph paper in the image below are what I first drew - as I shifted side to side in my chair I could see both of those marks

then I edited them, simplifying, striving for something cleaner, less intricate

I did many of the small versions and when I was satisfied with what I was doing I thought about what I might use the mark for

it feels rather personal, the way it happened to show up on my wall, just where I could see it as I wrote... perhaps I could use it a "maker's mark"?

maybe I should go back and read what I was writing when I noticed it...

I remembered the writing exercise I did a while back, where I had to write about something painful, burn the paper, make ink from the ashes and then use that to write or draw

as I had enjoyed that very much I decided to do it again though this time I didn't write about anything specific, more the pain inflicted on us and the pain we can sometimes cause others

the ash ink was a soft pale grey so I went over it a few times on each of these larger, simpler versions of the mark

another very interesting process 

not what I had thought I would be doing when I sat down to do my morning writing 

but once I notice something that intrigues me in such a way I usually want to get right at it 

and I'm so glad I did