Yesterday I received a good lesson in perspective. Keeping things in perspective. And I wasn’t very graceful about it. For maybe two hours I took MANY MANY photos of green bask-owls–bowls. Futilely. And I initially posted about the frustration–the inability to capture “correct” greens, blues, yellows and oranges. I whined about it until I got sick of hearing myself whine. I gave explanations until I got sick of hearing those as well. Then I tried to explain why capturing “correct” was SO important. And what was a downhill trajectory totally bottomed out at that point.
I drew a line through all the text. Posted it. Came back a few minutes later and totally deleted everything except the baskets. Even though I was unable to capture the true qualities and shades of the green bowls. I had had enough. Enough already. And what I was left with was a heightened state of agitation floating on top of a series of thoughts–like “why in the world is this so important?”
I don’t know “why?” But I do know it was some form of insanity. Mild, but insane nevertheless. Simply put, I had lost perspective. Lost my focus, lost my center. So. Clearly there are lessons in every thing. Yesterday I thought I was learning how to capture correct color. Today I see I was really given an opportunity–another opportunity–to simply let go of how I wanted things to be–and accept how things really were. Enough said about that.
Still, I must be hanging onto it all, somehow, because I have the NEED to say–I didn’t get it–yesterday–I didn’t capture the true beauty of the color. What IS there, doesn’t do the bowls justice. At All. Now I’m finished.
following thread 
Yesterday, I had noticed the words, the line outs, then quietly, the photo of these amazing bask-owls. I was all ready to respond to the first post but decided to just sit quietly thinking of why things matter, things that may on the surface seem so inconsequential in the grand scheme of the worlds issues.Here is what I know:
The answer simply is that while there are times that we acknowledged and try to help right the overarching worldly wrongs, there are more often than not, the daily simple challenges of life that range in many directions and they take up a lot of our time and thoughts. These daily aspects or challenges, these situations that give us pause, that bother us, come because we constitute the focus of our endeavors on them , especially in our creative work. We give them everything and we want to show them in their best light, want to tell of them in in a way that conveys their meaning to us and hopefully to others, want them to matter universally. When we feel that we fall short, when the photos do not convey the depth of our color, our artistry, it is frustrating but it is not insane.
See joy in what we do, colors our world and we strive to share it and that is why, when it doesn’t come up to our standard, it is still ok because it is our openness, our willingness to show, our desire to share via image and word, that is the whole of it. What truly matters is how we have touched and reached out and connected and my dear Patricia, from your cloths to your bask -owls, you have done so and it matters and it is so meaningful to us all..
And I just want to add t hat when we are fortunate enough to acquire a work that has moved us and held it in our hand, placed it wherever our heart says it should be placed, noticed it as we go about our day, the experience of creator and receiver is full circle and it completes us.
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oh Marti. i do so appreciate what you say here. and it helps in some way. still there was a sense of “loss of equanimity” that in itself became an unnecessary stumbling block. that is what i thought of as loss of perspective. and it felt counterproductive.
i do so appreciate EVERY single letter of every single word that you post. here and elsewhere. and i will be thinking about this as i move through my day. sending you bountiful love.
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I too have been agitated by the frustration of not being able to capture the subtlety of colors with a camera and a computer. These days I realize that most everyone in this community of cloth creators totally understands this … we know that gray days and bright sunny days are both enemies, flattening and/or washing out colors, removing contrasts, and generally failing to show the wonderful textures that have been created with cloth and stitch. Likewise we understand how irritating it can be. We are working with imperfect media.
So post any and all of it … the good and the bad. Say how you feel … the good and the bad. We’re all here to see, to read, to empathize, to encourage, and to understand.
Best of all, we’re here to celebrate when it all goes incredibly right. Huzzah!
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hi Liz. your comment has helped me as well as Marti’s and so for this i say thank you. i was stumbling around with the dichotomy of like/dislike, good color/crappy color, accuracy/inaccuracy–and clearly attached to outcome. your comment reminds me that what we do, what we experience, even how things “are,” is neither one or the other. but both. and again, in what i was calling the “frustration of the moment,” i globbed onto the one and overlooked the other. and briefly forgot this important truth. many thanks for being here.
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If you are trying to capture color to be as close to possible as the original, try shooting either in natural light, north facing (open shade) or with studio lighting ( I use flash mono heads ). Incandescent or fluorescent lighting won’t provide realistic color on your work. Sometimes under these lighting conditions you can get the color closer by using a photo edit opting program. If you try the photo editing option it is helpful to have something white in the picture as it can help you to find “neutral” as you tweak color balances. When I shoot my paintings in the studio I have a white piece of paper just at the edge of the frame to use as a color balance guide and then I crop it out at the end. And one last thing, all screens show color differently unless they are all calibrated the same…….never ending frustrations. I hope some of these ideas might help.
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hey Deb. thank you so much for providing this technical information. in one of the images yesterday, i used the white of the easter lily to help determine color balance. and i do love this suggestion of placing something white in the image as a color guide. and yes, the different screens/different color issue is pretty overwhelming.
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my screen is going a bit nuts this morning and i wasn’t quite finished. just looked at your paintings–magnificent. beauty full. so beauty full. you’re truly surrounded by amazing gifts of nature–as we are all–but as one who is land-locked, to see the water is such a joy. thanks.
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(((Patricia))) when I needed good slides for a juried show last century I asked a friend who is a professional photographer to do the shoot, he brought along a tripod, lights & a white background. He has a brilliant eye & was obsessively meticulous but is also the most boring person on the planet so it was an extremely tedious afternoon. I got accepted into the show but have never bothered with a professional again. The work around is taking lots of photos with my point and shoot camera outside in indirect morning light (slightly overcast weather helps) it often takes three days with 20- 30 shots per day to get the pics “right” for gallery submissions.
A good example of great photography combined with brilliant 3D textile work is Margarita Sampson’s recent show at the Stanley Street Gallery
http://stanleystreetgallery.com.au/exhibition/infectious-desiresmargarita-sampson25th-feb-14th-march-2015/
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this is so funny to me–the thought of this ole guy being absolutely so “boring!” and you knotaw what? that’s exactly how i’m starting to feel — obsessing so much about color has become a total bore. loved Margarita –and amazing photos. thanks for the chuckle
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