November Light
It is Solstice, our darkest day and yet my soul still lingers in November light. It was a month of renewed creative energy for me. The darkening monochromatic landscape … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Inspiration
Stitching on Spirit Island
This past week I was on Manitoulin Island to visit Judy Martin’s home with Penny Berens and Margi Hennen. Manitoulin is known as Spirit Island due to deep spiritual significance to the Indigenous People. What joy to be in this … Continue reading →
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Africa Nova
I’m just back from South Africa and I have so many fabulous textured images to share!This display was at a wonderful gallery shop called Africa Nova in Cape Town. Telephone wire baskets along with ceramics, beaded dolls and the traditional circular red hats worn by married Zulu women. African icons from Ethiopia and beaded giraffe from Zululand.
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San Rock Paintings
The San left their mark in these fascinating, vulnerable paintings. Priceless treasures, they are our earliest human art and speak of a cohesive culture connected to nature. Many of the paintings are fading due to lichens, weathering time and sometimes senseless vandalism. I found it profoundly moving.
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Bead and Basket Textures
African bead aprons and finely woven baskets. Kim Sacks Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Telephone Wire Basket
We saw this large telephone wire basket at the African Art Centre in Durban, South Africa. Vibrant colour and textur
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African Beaded Skirt
Detail of a beautifully textured Shangaan beaded fertility apron, Limpopo Province in South Africa.
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Indigo and Clay
Deeply textured hand built pots by a Zulu craftsman paired with indigo dyed cotton. Love being in South Africa.
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Textured Tuesdays
The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan. We got up at 4:30 am to get to the market and see the fresh fish ready for sale and distribution. it was full of pattern and texture. These are fresh octopus.
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Textured Tuesday
Whalebone vertebrae, many hundreds of years old. I found this at Red Bay Labrador at the earliest known Basque Settlement in North America. the Basque hunted whale and returned to Spain with the oil. There are 9 holes drilled in the centre of the vertebrae, perhaps made by researchers looking at the DNA of the whale, I don’t know.
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Textured Tuesday
I photographed this detail from a piece of handwoven raffia cloth in a shop in South Africa. Decorated with beads and cowrie shells. Some of the squares are dyed with indigo. It has a kind of pom-pom edging.
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Tuesday Textures
Cabbage field, Second Peninsula, Nova Scotia. This farm at the very end of the Peninsula is a sweet spot. I took this photo many summers ago when I spotted this field of crinkly cabbages, so like crushed velvet.
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Sketchbooks & Journals
Sketchbooks and journals are a dynamic part of the creative process. And judging by the new crop of books and web sites on journaling and creative sketchbooks, it’s obviously something that appeals to almost all of us in the creative … Continue reading →
