The desert in bloom

Our vacation on the Colorado Plateau afforded several opportunities to use the macro setting on our cameras and since I tend to love using that to take close ups of flowers, here are some images of the desert flora:

Garden Trail, Arches National Park, Utah by Katrina Boles

Garden Trail, Arches National Park, Utah by Katrina Boles

 Garden Trail, Arches National Park, Utah by Katrina Boles

 Arches National Park, Utah by Katrina Boles

Arches National Park, Utah by Katrina Boles

 Cohab Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

Cohab Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

 Cohab Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

 Yellow Columbine on Riverside walk, Zion National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

Red Orchid on Riverside walk, Zion National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

Riverside walk, Zion National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

West Rim Trail, Zion National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

Cactus flower on West Rim Trail, Zion National Park, Utah, by Katrina Boles

Utah Landscapes

It seems fitting that I post some favorite photos from our vacation this past May since I've been slowly wading through them over the past couple of days. We'll start off with some favorite landscapes from Utah.

Atop a Fin at Arches National Park, by Katrina Boles

Double O Arch at Arches National Park, by Katrina Boles

Owachomo Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument, by Mike Boles

Capitol Reef National Park, by Katrina Boles

Sheltered Tree in a Cohab Canyon Slot Canyon at Capitol Reef National Park, by Mike Boles

First Hoodoo sighting at Bryce Canyon National Park, by Katrina Boles

Queen's Garden Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon, by Mike Boles

View from under Weeping Rock at Zion National Park, by Katrina Boles

Hiking to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park, by Mike Boles

Angel's Landing Trail at Zion National Park, by Mike Boles

View from Angel's Landing Descent at Zion National Park, by Mike Boles

As I continue to sort through the photos, I hope to post more favorites...rock formations, primitive art, flowers, sunrise/sets, as well as landscapes from Colorado and Arizona.

Flowers, oh my!

Well, I missed doing my blog yesterday because I was busy early in the day and then got a mind-blowing migraine in the evening. (Still have a painful headache but can at least operate now.) Since I spent my morning yesterday digging out the weeds and wishing my yard were prettier, it seems a good time for an ode to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Red Canna, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1923
University of Arizona Art Museum

image from: Human Flower Project

Black Iris, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1926

image from: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

B

Blue Flower, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918

image from: Artnet

Jimson Weed, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1932

image from: georgiaokeeffeart

For more info about the artist, visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum website.

Stop motion animation with paper

A guy I used to work with, Poy, showed me this stop motion animation his brother made. It's really quite beautiful:



That's all I have for today. I'd hoped to share some of my favorite vacation photos since I've been going through those these past few hours, but I've only made it through about 2 days worth of pictures today.

Stained glass or textile?

I think one of the reasons I'm really drawn to hand-dyed fabrics is how closely they tend to resemble stained glass. What if the two could be somehow fused into an idea? Dye a slightly transparent fabric and then cut it up and section it with black edging so it resembles glass? Would one go so far as to put it inside glass? Anyway, some lovely inspirations of stained glass:

"Fire Window" at Central DuPage Hospital, Chicago by Kessler Studios

"Ruah Window" at Central DuPage Hospital, Chicago by Kessler Studios

 St. Thomas More Newman Center, Missouri by Elizabeth Devereaux

Chateau de Notre Dame, New Orleans

 

Sainte Chapelle, Paris

Plastic - can't live with it, can't live without it

A while back I remember there were these commercials that for some reason were promoting plastic and how it makes things possible. The environmentalist in me shudders at plastic and yet it's unavoidable. It does make things possible. However, it also uses petroleum, a non-renewable resource, and it never breaks down in the environment. So what's to be done?

That is a question to which I have no answer. I've been trying to think up a way to use some of the plastics that I would normally throw away in my next series of art quilts about the environment and our natural parks. Anyway, I got onto this tangent today as I was looking over a handbag design competition by LuciteLux. There really are some stunning handbags made of this material.

For some reason...perhaps the plastic connection, this made me think of the 3D design class I took in college where we made an article of clothing out of nontraditional materials and it definitely did not have to be wearable. (Even at that time I was concerned about recycling because mine was a take on patchwork, where I took small bits of old ugly fabrics and stapled them together into a shirt.) One of my favorite pieces from the class was a dress made from walmart bags that the student had woven together. I loved the interesting things that the "fabric" did in the light and was amazed at how something so ugly that we all had in our apartments could be transformed into a dress. Unfortunately I don't have pictures, so I searched out what articles of clothing others might have made from plastic, and here are some interesting ones:

by cathy kasdan

by cathy kasdan

by Jamie K. McIntosh from Twisted Textiles 

 by Elaine O'Malley and Lisa Anne Fullerton for Fiji Water

 Finally, no it's not made from plastic, but from men's silk ties. I first saw a skirt made of ties when I was in college and have wanted to make one ever since:

 from Glamarita’s Etsy Shop

Also while I was looking I came across an artisan website I've never been to before: ArtFire. I saw these really cool wrist ruffles and think they're great. What an accessory!

by estylissimo

Now, back to where I originally started...what should my handbag design be??? Hmmm...

Humor

After the day I've had...mostly just fighting with Adobe Flash and being completely unsuccessful, I just need something that will make me laugh.

Well, I found The Onion's Greening the Iraq War on The Daily Green and it is just what I needed:


Right up there in wacky news...I found out last night that the Pyramid in Memphis, TN is going to become home to Bass Pro Shop. To quote Becky when we found out this news, "that sounds like an SNL sketch." Really, how bizarre is that. But I guess it's green...reusing building currently in disuse.

And, now for a more serious, but also really good video on the effects of the Iraq war:

created by GOODMagazine
I highly recommend watching more of their all-GFX videos, as they are really very interesting and well done.

Spiritual Design

After finding out about a contemporary miracle - that of Melanie Pritchard, wife of a friend of my brother's, who came back from the dead less than a month ago - I am finding myself interested in the spiritual stories of women. And it couldn't be better timing. John Henry Cardinal Newman will be beatified next month and to give the people of my church a message from the Cardinal, I've been commissioned to design an inspiring postcard. Below are some simple designs I did today and will present tomorrow:

The quotes, if you can't read them are:
"To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often."
"Faith is the result of the act of the will, following upon a conviction that to believe is a duty."
"I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: 'Go down again - I dwell among the people.'"
"Learn to do thy part and leave the rest to heaven."

Among other pretty things, here is a lovely video made entirely in AfterEffects:

Futurist from Tony Legolas on Vimeo.

A Sense of Place

In anticipation of one of my art meetings coming up tomorrow evening, I have been thinking about our challenge to come up with a concept for everyone in the group to use as a stimulus for a small piece of art. I went back through a bunch of Quilting Arts Magazines because they have readers challenges every so often that would speak to this challenge pretty quickly and easily. It wasn't a readers challenge that peaked my interest, rather a phrase used by the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) for their exhibit in 2007: "A Sense of Place" (QA Apr/May 08)

So, essentially, that's what I'll present to the group tomorrow. And my original idea for my sample to present to the group was going to use a discharge travel photo how-to from a more recent QA (Dec 09/Jan 10). I still want to try this technique, but for now, the "sense of place" has sent me on a National Geographic tangent.

I started off the evening seeking environmental inspiration and landed on an image of Thorncrown Chapel, a place I must definitely see someday:

by architect E. Fay Jones; Photo © Timothy Hursley

 

The following images are ones that I've had as desktop images on my computer from time to time, all from National Geographic:

 "Toad River Valley, Canada" Photograph by Michael Christopher Brown

 "Rock Fort, India" Photograph by David Lazar

"Sandbars, Australia" Photograph by Paul Chesley

And finally, we'll end with one I found today and of one of my favorite sites on vacation this year:

 "Owachomo Bridge at Night, Utah" Photograph by Jim Richardson

 Here's one of my images of Owachomo (taken from the other side):

 So many places to see, so little time.

Behance: A Site to Join?

There's something about working at a computer during the week that makes me not want to post a blog on the weekend. Never-the-less, today I found myself on websites I'd never been to, looking at marvelous graphic design. I started on designm.ag and was attracted to:

 

by Mike Campau at SeventhStreetStudio

by Mike Campau at SeventhStreetStudio

But these images led me to another site I'd never seen for creative professionals to post their work and get noticed! Hmmm, methinks I need to sign up. I wonder how much I could post of my on-the-job work since I don't personally own the copyright. Anyone know? More fascinating, impressive things were found on behance.net

"Resonate" by Si Scott

The only problem is that I can't embed any of the videos uploaded to the site, so you'll have to click on the link to check this one out:

"Aregak" in the portfolio of Lilit Hayrapetyan