Thursday, August 07, 2008

infinite patterns


From the intricate swirls on our fingertips to the serated lines cut into the facade of a tall steepled cathedral, patterns create a sense of orderliness to our unruly world. Everywhere you look, you can see a pattern etched into creation. A steel framed bridge arching across the river. The striped summer awnings bringing welcome shade to a veranda. The worn varnished hardwood of an old staircase which holds the stories of the family who uses them day in and out. The plaid covering a wingback chair.........patterns perform sameness balance pleasing to the eye. The corrugated red roof on a barn. The pleats of a little girl's dress. Patterns act as the guide for a photographer, painter, writer, sculptor, architect, engineer, carpenter, dancer, musician, a dressmaker, a designer. Patterns impact every creation.



What intrigues me the most, however are the patterns of nature because they continue to evolve and redesign themselves through the ebb and flow of the elements. Look at the twilight sky. Its hues of blue cut by the thin streaked clouds, a little ochre of orange like a ribbon wrapped above the horizon. Watch the pebble thrown into the stillness of a pond. The ripples flow outward into an infinite calm wave until it folds back into the water. See the wind catch a field of unmowed hay. It waves to you, inviting you to learn its dance steps. Feel the waves of an incoming tide spray up onto the shore. It churns change as it digs up the sand and moves the bars with its brute strength. Focus on the morning glisten caught in a newly formed spider's web. The dewdrops seemingly hang in the air, held only by the finest threads. Look deep into the woods. The trees, with its vertical wrapping of bark, stretch up into the open air sending its branches out to weave and wave into another neighbouring tree.


The patterns of nature are never still. They continue to reinvent themselves, adding nuances to their lovely imperfections through the elements. Altered by light's brilliance, the shades shift the timbral tone turning it into a completely different schema, forcing our thirsty eyes to adjust their focus. Everywhere you turn, patterns exist as a melody for our senses, as a test of our awareness, as a means for us to merge into our surroundings, as an element of awakening that stretches our imagination beyond the mundane. Nature feeds our imagination which in turn motivates us to actively produce our individual artistry. It is a never ending show of art.

What is pleasing to me may not be pleasing for you. Colour, shape, texture, shading, angles, light absorptions and reflections and the design itself are received differently by you and me because our preferences and responses are inherently conceived in our uniquely produced patterns found in our uniquely designed DNA. I may react strongly to different hues of green, whereas you may find that colour repulsive. You may be attracted to a brighter amount of light, where I may be pulled in by the echoing gravity of shadedness. It all depends on our inherent tastes.


Consequently, we continue to strive for originality as well as semblance in all aspects of our lives because its not just a visual application. Far from it. There are no parameters to our using patterns with all of our senses. Sound too for example has a colour, shape and texture to it. The shading and light of a melody is revealed through the beat, tone, and notes. We seek it out with our touch too. Patterns enhance our feelings, stimulate our thinking and affect our actions all in how we perceive them. They can lure us in with their magical esthetics or push us away with their adversity. It all depends on how our senses respond. It all depends on what appeals to us.



Patterns is the topic for this week's thematic photography brought to you by my friend Carmi at Written Inc. For more designs, check out his site. you can click here, or reach him through the link on my sidebar anytime.

13 comments:

swilek said...

i so appreciate your pattern pics...beautiful..still haven't put mine up yet...getting to it!

Mojo said...

I went for something a little more "man-made" in my first effort this week, mainly because there wasn't a good representation of patterns in nature jumping out at me in my archives. But you're right, those are the most fascinating since the order in them isn't contrived by the hand of humankind. Hopefully I'll have the time later in the week to find some good samples.

Like yours! Nice job.
-Mojo

Barbara said...

So beautifully said, as well as photographed! I can read your post and look at those photos over and over. Thanks for sharing!

awareness said...

Hey swile67! How was your trip? Will drop by to see your photos too.

Mojo....What i love is how someone creative, like an architect seriously consider the environment around their structure as a way to incorporate the patterns into the structure. I also believe that much of our styles, designs and patterns are lifted right out of nature. Our pattern lessons come from God's creations.

Barb...thank you. I felt like I had run-on typing fingers...had much I wanted to say, but didn't want to take away from the photos too. It's a good topic. One, I hope to revisit again.

carmilevy said...

Consider me blown away.

This moved me in particular: "What is pleasing to me may not be pleasing for you."

Amen.

JP/deb said...

I love the ambiguity of nature's patterns ... exquisite! Sending you peace and love. xx, JP/deb

OldLady Of The Hills said...

You always write about such fascinating things My Dear.....PATTERNS....I LOVE the pictures...But then, I love looking at the details of things, as you know.....With many people and in many cases these things seem to be a natural extension of the creative process---not thought out or "trying" to be anything, but allowing one's own intuition to flow freely; one's own visions to take flight, so to speak....

Stephen Sondheim has a WONDERFUL line in a sing from "SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE"...(A Brilliant and hearfelt rendering of the passion and obsession of 'an artist')....The line is sung by the present day Artists Grandmother because of the artist is strggling with pleasing the Art Critics and in tryimg to do so, he has lost his way as an artist....The song is called "Move On"...and the particular line is:
"Anything you Do, Let it come from You, Then it will be New....Give Us More To See.
I think these are simple yet very VERY profound words. As another talented man said: "This above all, to thine own self be true....etc., etc., etc....Again, allowing the YOU that "IS" you, to freely express.....And than there are Martha Graham's words to Agnes DeMille.....BRILLIANT! And true.

ALL this is my way of saying if you do these things---allowing yourself to be yourself, it will ALL be there in your expression, whatever that might be.
And then, there ius no "striving" there is just creation....!

At least that is what I think and feel.

awareness said...

Carmi....thank you for the prompt. Thank God we all have our own tastes and interpretations of the beauty in the patterns and designs all around us. We'd be robotic if not.........sameness would prevail and imagination would come to a halt.

Deb....there is an ambiguity to nature's patterns. the very fact that they continue to change shape, shade and texture keeps us on our awakened toes.

Naomi...I love your thoughts here and find when i'm at a place where i can let go of expectations of how someone else is going to look, read or interpret my personal creations than I'm at my honest best. it's a vulnerable place isn't it sometimes because we are pleasers and we have a longing to be accepted. These two things can get in the way of the act of creating.

My daughter is in a theatre camp this week. Today she is performing a monologue from Alice in Wonderland in front of parents and friends and of course she's nervous about it......we talked this morning before she left about the fact that she is very comfortable with the words and the feeling behind the words......has received very positive feedback from her peers and the theatre coach. What she is self concious about is the movement which goes with the piece.....I tried to tell her that as much as she has fallen into the words, she has to find a way to fall into the movement so she becomes one with them...so that it is her natural self but within a role. Am I making sense?
She is learning to be in that flowy zone almost oblivious to the audience so she can shake off that awkward self conciousness.

i think this is the same for all creativity, no matter what the medium is. Go with who you are.

Robert said...

beautiful pics dana so artistic and intricate did you send a reply email by chance ?? just asking cuz i didn't see it and don't want it to have been missed last few posts have shown the tapestry of your writing skills keep em comin lovely lady!!

Unknown said...

your photos are spectacular and your words are magical.... what a stunning presentation.... wow!

i am a person of few words so when i read something like this it makes me wish it were not so....

i enjoyed

Rainbow dreams said...

lovely photos, nature is the best at patterns and at colour.. such diversity that never fails to please in some way.
Hope all went well in Alice

Under there... said...

Oooh, I love this. I absolutely love this post and the photos.

smarmoofus said...

Everybody has said it, but I want to echo it... the photos are brilliant, but the words are moreso! And Carmi focused on the same line I did: "What is pleasing to me may not be pleasing for you." Absolutely! But at the same time, we will probably all find the scenes striking if not a joy to look at. Good or bad, they'll be memorable.

That first and last photo... are they extreme close-ups of a fingerprint?

-smarmoofus