Design and sequence

Here are some very interesting images curated by some people who collect the work of self-taught photographers and artists.

While the images are fascinating in themselves, the best aspect of this page is the design - a successful sequence of images that led me to cycle through the set several times in a row - seeing different aspects of each image as a result of looking at the other ones.

This reminds me of Christopher Alexander's new work on sequences.  I wonder if the people who made the webpage here know his work?  I'll have to post something about him later.

New focus this spring

The last post was a month ago, wherein I mentioned not loving the sinus infection? Well, I didn't love it, but I harbored it for many many days! Ugh. Now, I am finally feeling better, and so I have the impulse to improved my life. Eating better, fixing and finishing projects, doing the most important thing - this is my focus over then next little while.

Snow time like the present...

Well, what a week.

My sweet old horse Candy died of the strange horse digestive problem known as twisted gut. This leaves Cesar an orphan and Sheba, now in charge, is taking care of him but seems anxious and worried. So sad.

Then, the "record breaking winter storm" hit the next night. This storm, here at Maple Knoll, gave us about 8 inches of fairly heavy non-drifting snow and one night where the low was 2 degrees. We've had much worse, although I think further east and south they are still having big problems. Adorable hubby spent most of Wednesday plowing the driveway - the Kubota tractor is one of the best investments we've made since moving here!

Now the sun is shining, and I need to catch up with all the things on my list that I have been distracted from by these unusual events. Catch up on my classes, mainly. Spend more time with my ponies. Get focused on my consulting business - need to start bringing in some more money. Make some pottery and sell it. That's what I really want to do, I suppose.

So, I spent a lot of time yesterday designing the template for a little slab teapot. I will cut the template pieces out of cardboard after I get my classes caught up and make this teapot and some matching cups Saturday morning.

I also designed and drew up a materials list for the chicken coop we are going to build this spring. Although I should be focusing more on more immediate project, maple sugaring time is almost upon us.

Ah, so many things, so little time. More later.

Wholeness Unfolding in the World

Here's an except from an interview the mystic architect, Christopher Alexander, did with Tricycle Magazine a while ago.... "In the grass there were a very small number of flowers, rather sparse. I think there was one blue flower and a few white flowers, but mainly it was grass. I was lying there looking at this, and the perfection of it gradually began to impress itself on me. There was a faint sense of light in each of the bits of grass. It wasn’t a revelation in any literal sense, and yet as I was looking through these grass stems, myself almost part of the grass, suddenly the thought came to me, So this is what you’re trying to do! What the grass does: it is effortlessly creating a beautiful and complex environment. And it isn’t just capable of it, but it is doing it, everywhere, and every day, and so easily. I was comforted, because the grass found it so easy. So there’s nothing for me to worry about at all. Even if I fail in my lifetime, it is so obvious. Surely people will understand it sooner or later. Alexander's 15 Universal Design Properties 01 Levels of Scale (a range of sizes) 02 Strong Centers 03 Boundaries 04 Alternating Repetition 05 Positive Space (no leftover bits) 06 Good Shape (e.g., well-proportioned fans, circles, squares) 07 Local Symmetries 08 Deep Interlock and Ambiguity 09 Contrast 10 Gradients (gradual changes in size, fine lines) 11 Roughness 12 Echoes 13 The Void 14 Simplicity and Inner Calm 15 Non-Separateness" Great stuff!