Three spring clouds, Stroud Green Road

Abnegation

Up late today - the sun is high in the sky. I'm taking the day off - abnegating responsibility.

But I have a plan -
8.30 -make coffee, have breakfast, mooch around
10am - leave house for walk across Green Park and on to Tate Britain
11ish - meet friend, coffee and chat, see art, walk around (?boat to Tate Modern?)

(Poetry Thursday returns next week.)

Almost spring

The cold winds of the past wee while have been ... unpleasant. Today was definitely an improvement, weather-wise. After an afternoon indoors watching Freya asleep and awake - the big arm movements during sleep; the just-getting-focussed gaze - I had a lovely walk home, the long way round, through some of the grander back streets of Crouch End (note the almost-full moon) -

 and those luminous clouds will soon disappear behind trees-in-leaf -

All is not always bliss with new babies - already she doesn't seem to like being labelled "tiny dreamer." - and who could blame her? -

Rainbows in art, life, etc

You get sent a link to a website, and it takes you in many directions....

Interview: Artist Stretches Delicate Strands of Thread to Produce Awe-Inspiring Rainbows Indoors

Plexus no.24
 "when people encounter my work ... they just go to this childlike wonder space ... 
the other thing is ... how the insulation is going to activate a space"
(see more at mymodernmet.com/gabriel-dawe-thread-art/)

Scrolling through, I found the thoughts coming and going faster than I could catch them. For one thing, this use of thread is like stitching without using fabric: "they dazzle with reflected light". I like that this artist, Gabriel Dawe, is "challenging the constraints of masculinity and the patriarchy" by through "embroidery" and colour; he uses "hues to help subvert the world’s narrow view of gender and identity ".

Here are a few of the thoughts the photos of the work gave rise to, in no particular order. 

1. Thread installations of Chiharu Shiota, filling entire rooms (at Blain/Southern last year, and this one (from a Berlin show) with boats is gorgeous -  

Chiharu Shiota (via)

also Pae White, at South London Gallery 2013 - 

Pae White (via)

 ..........google "thread installation art" to see many images and other artists

2. Large airy outdoor sculptures, such as those by Janet Echelman - some years back there was one at the winter lights event, at Oxford Circus - 

Janet Echelman (via)

A different medium but the same "omg" effect on the viewer, the desire to see "more" of the work, in Dawe's case by walking around, for Echelman just waiting to see the changes

3. Interaction of colours in stitched work of ...?... about 20 years ago (not easy to find, it was the pre-digital era, but I'm sure it will simply appear, soon*)  and more recently Evelin Kasikov - 

Analogue-digital embroidery by Evelin Kasikov (via)

4. Barbara Hepworth's use of string in some sculptures like this one from the late 1930s -

Barbara Hepworth (via)

And Naum Gabo, this "translucent variation on a spheric theme" is from 1937, for instance -

(via)

5. Double rainbows and other atmospheric phenomena, which often occur because of factors unknown to the viewer, eg this one -

(via)

"Rainbows take many forms" - http://www.atoptics.co.uk/bows.htm 

6. Exhibition that included threads+dark room+lighting - Lygia Pape at Hauser & Wirth, 2016 -

(via)

7. The idea of the loom waiting to be woven upon, the warp stretched ... lots of metaphors there!

8. The single stretched thread - It can connect two points, and/or its length determines the frequency of the note sounded when it's plucked, and/or other physical phenomena (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/stretched-string) - that makes my brain hurt, so let's move on to consider the metaphysical question "how long is a piece of string"...

9. A few more questions ... (a) where are the shadows (b) how is the work best displayed (c) how does the site affect the work - and, a very practical question: what happens when it's taken down, is it binned and remade afresh next time 

10. Moire, and perceptual processes [my psychology degree contained a lot of info about perception, especially visual perception - no doubt research has moved on since the 60s! - something to research on a rainy day....]

11. Songs with rainbows in them ... "somewhere / under the rainbow ..." etc

12. Superstitions and folktales about rainbows - pots of gold, wot? But there's so much more .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_in_mythology

13. Can you see rainbows from space? Would it look like a circle? The conditions have to be just right, and full-circle rainbows are most often seen by pilots. Like this -

(via)

*when the name does eventually appear, or a photo of the work shows up, it will suddenly reappear, and probably several times - apparently this is called the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon: 

"The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards  ... (not to be confused with the recency illusion or selection bias). This illusion is sometimes referred to as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon." (from Wikipedia, cognitive biases article)

Skies of delight

Near-equinoctial sunrise

The recent good weather means that often when I go to the window, first thing in the morning, a photo needs to be taken ... but always the actual light can't really be caught on the camera.

Evening skies, too.

So lovely, and not always noticed.

Things found in trees

Old fruit and new buds -

 Bird boxes -

Blossoms, and bees -

 Last year's nest -

Sunlight -

Riot of colour

The terrace of the members' bar, Picturehouse Central, Panton Street.

From the same location, a view of Piccadilly Circus in a burst of unexpected afternoon sunshine -

 Across the street, beneath a cloud-catcher of a dome, three golden divers are perpetually about to launch themselves -

Snow day!

This morning, a quilted roof greeted me - and a clear sky at sunrise -

 The garden plants, some still maintaining autumnal blossom, were transformed -

During woodblock printing class this morning, at times the snow swirled thick and fast -

followed by quiet times and even a return of the blue skies -

During the sunny times, some stained glass lying around the classroom made for a wonderful sight -

Transport was in chaos. Oh dear. And Storm Emma on its way... we're not done with quixotic weather just yet.

Did I mention - it's cold? That easterly wind is flinging the polar air mass in our faces.

Poetry Thursday - John Clare and Yvonne Skargon

Where the gay river laughing as it goes
Plashes with easy wave its flaggy sides
And to the calm of heart in calmness shows
What pleasures there abides
To trace its sedgy banks, from trouble free:
Spots Solitude provides
To muse, and happy be.

- John Clare (1793-1864) - part of Summer Images - a long poem, containing ever so many word-images of Nature, busy being itself, in all its variety.
  The excerpt, and image, were found in this book -

 with woodcuts by Yvonne Skargon (1931-2010). Here are a couple more -