Introduction in an Abstract Fashion

Posted on by

Time Created: October 2006

There was a brief time I was experimenting with different 3D programs. I don’t recall what the name of the one used to create this was, alas.

This was inspired by one of those drawing inspiration lists that pop up every so often. This one had about 100 different words to illustrate, and the first one was “Introduction” I never did any of the others, and I didn’t do much else with this program either.

Still, it was fun to think in abstract shapes, to condense the idea of a father introducing his son to a young woman down to spheres and cones. I saved that list, so maybe I’ll work on some more of them when I’m short on ideas…

Let’s see, what was the next one on the list… Huh. “Love”. Not really my sort of topic. Maybe later, then…

  

Winter’s Fallen Guardians of the Dunes

Posted on by

Location Taken: Arcadia, Michigan
Time Taken: January 2011

The wind blows hard on the frozen beach.

It blows towards land while the sun shines, bringing the ice piling up onto the beach and scattering the snow into the trees.

It blows towards the water at night, dragging the snow back again.

This daily cycle shifts the sands and the things on it. The grasses keep the dunes in place, except for the places man has worn paths through the grass.

The fences keep the sand in place where man feels bad about the daily shifting.

Very little keeps the fences in place. They are driven deep into the sand, but sand is not an ideal foundation.

The winds pull and push the sand around, and the fences go with it.

In the summer, when the swimmers come to enjoy the beach, they get picked up again quickly.

In the winter, only the odd folk visit, for there is no swimming in icy waters.

The fences are fallen, waiting for summer to come and people to shift them once again to their former position.

They will wait a long time.

  

My Heart Bleeds for You – no wait, that’s a flower, not my heart.

Posted on by

Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: May 2010

I’m quite fond of Bleeding Hearts. The reason for their name should be obvious. Their flowers aren’t the standard design, but look like a heart that opens up at the bottom (hence the bleeding).

I really like flowers with non-standard designs. Bleeding Hearts, Pitcher Plants, even some of the odder ones like Rafflesia are just more appealing than the standard daisies and roses.

Maybe it’s just another manifestation of how peculiar my tastes are, and the way I don’t conform to standard opinion in most cases. Maybe it’s just that I’ve seen the standard designs too often in media and got bored with them long ago. And maybe it’s just that these are pretty and interesting and worth checking out.

  

Getting to the Bones of the Matter

Posted on by

Location Taken: Arcadia, Michigan
Time Taken: January 2011

One of the things I greatly wish more people did on a day to day basis is pay attention to the world around them. I see people get lost, lose things, miss far more than you’d ever expect just because they were caught up in their own doings and stopped looking around. I do it occasionally, I’m sure, but I do have a much stronger tendency to just poke around and notice things thanks to my twin loves of geography and art (the geography makes me pay attention to the world around me, the art makes me analyze it enough to notice things.) You probably don’t pay attention as much as you think.

I mean, when was the last time you looked at the ceiling in a store?

They’re fascinating, really. The architects know most people don’t bother looking up, as it’s not really part of the task at hand, so they don’t bother decorating them, or even covering up the utilitarian aspects. A few stores do cover the pipes and cameras and I-beams and lights and all the fun stuff, but most don’t. Seriously, just look up occasionally.

Admittedly, I am biased. I love seeing the nitty-gritty inside story of something. Like bones. Bones are fascinatingly complex. They’re both so similar and so different from the creature that once bore them, and putting together the puzzle is an occupation in itself. Paleontology, specifically. That’s a lot of what they do, after all, putting together bones seeking the story hidden within.

Even with more modern bones, they can bear mysteries in them. I have little idea what creature this bone was from, or why it ended up in the path to the snow-covered beach I was walking on. It’s a large vertebrae, so it probably used to be a deer or the like. There’s plenty in the area. But there were only a few vertebrae around, and no other bones in sight. The snow was light, so none were hidden in that, and the sand underneath was solid in the cold. And it was near the start of winter, just after the new year started, long before winter wears down the herds and prunes out the weak. Plus these few bones were on the older side, certainly not freshly white. Most likely a predator found them and carried them around to where I found them, but then, why would they carry multiple vertebrae to the same spot and not anything more?

And I would have missed them entirely if I wasn’t watching the ground at my feet, paying attention to where I was going. I’m not sure anyone else I was with even noticed them, despite them being right in the path. It’s not what they were there for, after all.

  

The Theater of the Ending Day

Posted on by

Location Taken: Cincinnati, Ohio
Time Taken: June 2007

I rarely go into big cities. They’re too crowded and complicated for me, and always a pain to drive in. I’ve also got little interest in the things that you find in such places. Festivals, concerts, sporting events, shopping, bar-hopping, high-end dining, these just don’t really appeal to me. About the only reasons I delve into the heart of a city is for museums and when other people ask me to join them (and, even rarer, I accept.)

This particular trip into Cincinnati was one of the latter category. A friend of my Mom is really into the Cincinnati theater scene and invited Mom to the yearly Fringe Festival. I tagged along, as I have a tendency to do.

Fringe Festivals are events showcasing plays that are on the fringe. This isn’t King Lear and Wicked, it’s much more experimental pieces, and frequently ones that really aren’t too family-friendly or focusing on a highly niche audience. A whole horde of the local small theaters join together to put on the plays, giving them a chance to be shown.

Thus, we spent that day going from theater to theater catching plays. It really wasn’t my thing, alas. I tend to prefer stories that are family friendly, and my niches weren’t covered at all. (We obviously need more plays about video games.) Still, it was an interesting experience.

And I got to see a city without being the one driving. That was different. (My mom hates city driving more than I do, so I usually do it for her.) The setting sun lit up the buildings quite nicely, almost making the city look appealing to me. Almost.