Fantasizing Fotos Not-a-Friday #2

I didn't expect to post an entry today. The official arrival of Spring and my good friend Demaris had other ideas.

Demaris sent me a fun Jacquie Lawson animated card showing a "Many-Bunnied plus Labrador Prima-Ballerina ballet" set to  "The Waltz of the Flowers".  I love the cards Demaris sends from that site! 

I also appreciate how Jacquie Lawson provides recipients with an easy way to respond.

Below is a jiggery-pokeried version of the spring landscape artwork used on today's free Jacquie Lawson thank you card.

Ambiguous pictures work best when it comes to stimulating our imaginations but structured images also work.  All we have to do is give our imaginations a nudge or two. For instance we can try asking ourselves a question beginning with one of the following,

Who? What? Why? When? Where? Or use any other prompt that appeals to you.

~~~~~

As always, remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on

before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing.

That would be weird.

~~~~~

I tried the reporter's friends: who, what, why, when, where, but not in that order. It was only partially successful.

Who?  (beats me)

What? (well, it's a house...)

Why? (Why what? Stop that! I already answered "what?". Well, sort of)

When? (Ooh! I know! Spring!)

Where?Hmm.. 

Likely in an agricultural region, though sometimes well-off suburbanites choose to build farmhouse-like houses. Not this house though, for at least two reasons: There's so garage and, so far as I can tell, no driveway. The path on the left is wide-ish but nowhere near wide enough for a car.

Speaking of the path, what is it made of? First thought: concrete old enough to allow a bunch of grass around each rectangle. Or maybe just the ground trodden flat and bare from a lot of use? On the other hand, look at how light the bare soil is! Is it really dry? If so, that seems out of sync with the healthy vegetation. Wait! Back up! Bare ground could look like this after just a couple weeks without rain. No need to imagine a drought! 

Enough "where"? I'd love to know geographically where but I'll let my subconscious work on it.

Backing up one question. 

When? Not recent--again based on the lack of a garage or a driveway. I'm going in circles --orbiting garages.

Wouldn't it be cool to see a bit more of what's in front of this picture! Except I don't need to. There's an actual road there, passing right to left, but it's not close. Drivers would be able to see the house.

Or, people in carriages? Yeah... No. Not that recently but the house is old enough to remember a time of horses and early automobiles. Look at the hint of English Tudor architectural detail under the eaves.

Maybe there's more of the Tudor design behind that huge green bush.  I don't think I like the bush! For one thing, it blocks my view of the front of the house so I'm left wondering about the Tudor design. Except it has to be there, doesn't it? There's a hint of it--to the right of the bush that intends to eat the front wall of the house.

That's all for now.

(By the way, someone needs to remove the oleander. It's pretty but--like ivy--it tends to do a number on structural integrity.  Oh, north England?)

Inspiration From Ambiguity

What sets our imaginations in motion?
As I've demonstrated here, a good many things can prompt us.

Ambiguous pictures can stimulate creativity. For examples of this, see the "Fantasizing Fotos Fridays" series threading through this blog. (More soon!)

A short phrase that's open to interpretation can propagate a unique interpretation from everyone who reads it. Check out the "Imagination-Exercising" series for past examples. If you haven't done so in the past, or even if you have, take a moment to envision scenarios for each of the previous "Imagination-Exercising" phrases.

Why? In some ways, we're never the same person twice. Additional experiences almost inevitably prompt us to respond differently to ambiguous stimuli each time we encounter them.  We grow, experience new things, learn from them, gain new insights from old experiences, make new mistakes. Our brains absorb all these events and many other forms of stimuli sometimes consciously but many more times subconsciously. 

Hence the surprised delight in sudden breakthroughs--in relationships, at work or even at the ice cream stand--when we suddenly "know" that we  w/a/n/t  need Cherry Garcia, not Chubby Hubby. (Not to say that we don't want the company of our spouses--chubby or otherwise.)

The ambiguous stimuli of a sound that we can't identify will pique our imaginations in the same way--preferably not an ambiguous sound coming from the living room in the middle of the night.

If you see a picture or come across an evocative or ambiguous phrase, please add it to the Comments. Even better, email it to me at ScrollChamberPress@gmail.com .  Naturally, you'll get credit if I use it here.

In the meantime, see what you think of the following "unstory" I shared on my Facebook page a few hours ago. I should have posted it here instead. Now I have.

~~~~~

Xfinity description of Criminal Minds rerun,

"...murders likely committed by an UnSub with an obsessive skin disorder..." 

Sample scenarios: 
1. the skin disorder obsesses so relentlessly about killing people that the person on whose body it is growing commits the murders without knowing why he is doing it. Or even -that- he is doing it. 

2. The skin disorder is disturbed by all the unnatural humans who don't have skin diseases When it can't let go the obsession, it attempts to bring nature back into balance by propagating itself on to other human hosts. Tragically the skin disease lacks the skill to do this successfully & ends up killing any clear-skinned human with which it makes contact. 

3A. The human host, driven to desperate measures by the 24/7 ravings of his skin disease, discovers he can distract the disease briefly by murdering humans. 

3B. In a fit of rage, the skin disease kills its host so that it can get back to its obsessive raving. It realizes too late that when it killed its host, it also committed suicide. 

3C. The Criminal Minds team arrives but fails to come up with a viable UnSub profile. The murders have stopped, so they head back to the plane. Team members are observed scratching themselves as they climb aboard.
No one thinks anything of it until the plane lands. Everyone aboard is dead, evidently slain by a fast-spreading skin infection.
Those investigating the deaths scratch their heads... in perplexity?


What other unlikely living thing or inanimate object might be obsessing over something, even as we speak? What would happen next?

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #10

Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on

before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing.

That would be weird.

~~~~~

My first thoughts, "But I want to see the rest!" I wish the photographer had taken a step back to catch more detail along the edges--particularly at the top and left. Even though the picture already blesses us with  wealth of detail before me.

I confess that I'm already overwhelmed with "input" and yet I crave even more--the better to envision where this inviting building is. Why was this built in what appears to be an unpopulated maybe even an isolated area? ("More input!" I demand, mimicking Number 5 in "Short Circuit".

I spent a lot of time absorbing the many details within the borders of the picture as it is, before I refocused on the larger objects and the sections of fairly uniform color. What overarching purpose blended the smaller details with their large neighbors--those patches of a thousand thriving grasses their virginal stems forever a stranger to sharp iron. Was I making more of them all than they deserved?

Beginning again (sorry!), here's what I saw 1st and 2nd and so on. And how my impression of the building and its surroundings altered once I began focusing on what I had rather than pining for more.

A. potting shack, but with no obviously water sources?

B. an old shed surrounded by wildflowers, fine grasses and subtly stained panels, crying out to be used as a playhouse.

C. a tranquil oasis unconsciously and therefore randomly "built" over many years from chairs, a table and some plants no longer wanted, others brought here from isolated patches between rocks or rescued from the ridged growths hemmed in my old tire tracks, from not quite enough paving stones leaning against a wall for no good reason, perhaps too many baked clay shingles, last dabs of paint from old paint buckets. And a secret within a secret--hidden under a moss-grown flagstone--telling the tale of what arrived first and why.
                                                 ~~~~~

The photograph's actual heading is below.
30 things to stop doing to yourself. #9.Stop trying to buy happiness. Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free– love, laughter and working on our passions.
http://www.lifebuzz.com/just-stop/
from a Pinterest board...

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #9

Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on

before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing.

That would be weird.

~~~~~

I'm embarrassed. I had the advantage of knowing the picture's title, "Perfect Vacuum"* and I still got it wrong. I'd plead my lack of physics-training if I hadn't seen a bunch of SF films, both imaginary & true accounts, where air is pulled into the vacuum of space, through a tiny hole in the ship's hull.

I assumed that the little girl was being pulled out of her bedroom window by, well, something. When I saw the books, especially the open book with its many pictures, I thought...
That she had been reading the book a moment earlier.
That one picture in the book had awakened her imagination.
And that inspired by it she imagined the barrier of her windows breaking, allowing her to enter a different world. A world brought into being by her own creative thoughts.

Just the kind of scenario I love!

Except for the vacuum. Still being very dim bulb and not yet thinking about the picture's title, I began wondering why the windows were breaking loose in such a strange fashion. That pigeon appears to be pressed to the glass of the left frame because it's being pulled as well.

Vacuum. Nuts.

Based on the direction in which the windows are flying, her room was the vacuum. Did that make it empty in a way other than lacking oxygen? She had to have been outside when the windows broke. Otherwise she wouldn't be flying across her very empty room.

Is she returning to her home after an adventure?

What next? Will the windows defy physics and reassemble themselves? Physics says no way--our imaginations answer why not? Once back in her room, will the little girl be back in a vacuum? That would be totally unsatisfactory. Her experiences, her dreams, anything she imagined has to be coming back with her--filling her thoughts and every corner of her once-familiar room as well.

~~~~~

How many of us thought about a vacuum, either to use it or ignore it as we fantasized about the foto? How many of us never thought about a vacuum at all? I wonder how much our stories vary  in FFF #9. I'm guessing more than usual. (Remember: you can leave comments)

*Picture title and its creator:
"Perfect Vacuum--Jeremy Geddes (craft in service of imagination)."

~~~~~

Craft in the Service of Imagination

Cool.

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #8

This Friday, I offer you --us-- two portraits of rather different people.

Feel free to work with either of them or both.

Before you begin, you might want to review parts 6, 9, 12 of "The How To Be An Explorer Of The World" (August 28 entry, near the end) and this past Wednesday's entry on "Interpreting What You See". Summaries of both may be found just below today's pictures.

@ Michael C Hayes

@ Joseph Dolderer

Summaries for August 28 and September 17 entries

This past Wednesday's entry was titled, "Interpreting What You See When Observing People".   A few points relevant to today’s FFF challenge follow, for those who "skipped school” on Wednesday.

I wrote, "Interpreting What You See describes techniques similar to those we've been practicing on Fantasizing Fotos Fridays...”

From the extract:  "Don't Be In A Hurry"; "Look Closely At Facial Expressions"; "Using your imagination to connect the dots is the next step."

Do you remember the “How to be an explorer of the world" list?

The 6^th suggestion on the list was, “Notice the stories going on around you.”

Followed literally, this bit of advice may or not be useful. If we're making only a conscious effort to see a pattern, we'll gather only surface information. Once we allow our imaginations freedom to create stories based loosely on our observations, our stories will be more creative i.e. unique imaginings rather than data captured on video.

The 9^th suggestion was “Incorporate Indeterminacy"

("the apparent necessary incompleteness in the description of a physical system")

...No matter how much you stare at a person, study a photograph, try to analyze a strange sound or scent, or otherwise seek to document --everything-- , you will inevitably miss something... For those of us who are strengthening our imaginations and developing our creativity the gaps in our observations are a gift.

The 12th was "Trace Things Back To Their Origins" 

One suggestion I offered for practicing #12 was,  Ever wonder why one elderly person smiles frequently while another frowns? If we don't know someone well enough to ask them about this, our imaginations can delve into a past that we've created so that we can find an answer that suits us.

(I decided to offer pictures of two people for today's FFF while I was writing this practice scenario.) 

~~~~~

Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing.
That would be weird.

~~~~~

Michael C Hayes portrait
I've been all over the imagination map when it comes to this man. 
When I chose the picture, I had the impression that he was a helmeted warrior from ages past.
Then the helmet reminded me of a fireman's helmet. I'm not sure why. It took some time to shake that idea. Time--and remembering that firemen's helmets typically have a light in the front and a long brim(?) in the back.

Back to ... well, nothing. The three ridges grabbed my attention next. Art Deco! But why would a man be wearing an art deco-styled helmet?
Would any period of ancient warriors wear a helmet that heavy? It really looks heavy! Conquistadore? Eh... Probably not. The helmet's the wrong shape. The more I look at the helmet, the heavier it gets.

I'm feeling guilty for studying the helmet and ignoring the man. I rather like his beard, I think because it's in a style that men have worn many times in history. Pseudo-history too. Didn't all the villains in Errol Flynn era movies wear a similar beard?
More wool-gathering! Back to his face. He looks strong, weathered(?) Old before his time... Rough work... A leader's experience.

Wait a minute! Where are his eyes?!? I see the bags under his eyes. Maybe the darkness above them are his eyes? The shadow from the helmet makes it hard to be sure.

All I'm sure of? I rather liked him at first. Now I'm wary. He's been through a lot. He's seen--and done--a lot. And as St Paul wrote, he doesn't suffer fools gladly.

Except Paul wrote about people who did suffer fools gladly. Who didn't...?

Wow! I'm way off track! I'm sticking with the tough, experienced leader. But, from who knows what period of history. Could be a fantasy world...*

~~~~~

Joseph Dolderer portrait

I'm out of time for now but I will get back to the young woman. I was sure of a couple of things as soon as I saw the picture. Something scared her recently. Maybe even traumatized her. She's in a safe place but she's afraid to trust its safety. Someone may be talking to her. She's trying to put up a brave front. It's working. And not. If the person talking to her can't read faces, she may keep up appearances. More likely not.

What's going on with her right arm? Is her right hand clutching her shoulder or something else? Or is part of her arm in a cast? The shape is odd, even allowing for the cloth draped over it. I suppose a cast might look strange if partially concealed.

I don't think the blue material is a coat. Not even a cloak. The pattern is very small and intricate. Maybe it's a bedspread? Something she snatched up as she was... Well, fleeing something No. Getting away just before she would have been discovered? But then, there's the maybe cast...

I hope she's safe and stays safe for a long time.

~~~~~

* Note to self. He'd be great in a Narenta novel. Sure that he's right with all that experience. And maybe he is. Or dead wrong, and following the lead of someone clever and manipulative. Okay, this is not good! I can't have yet another Narenta story premise murmuring, "Write me. Write me." Why does this guy have to be so mysterious in the intriguing sort of way? No! Do NOT come up with backstory!

Muse, I know you're here. If you want to help, help with something on which I'm already stalled! Where are ... Oops! Great! Probably pissed her off. Again.

Did you know when they leave in a huff like that, it feels like a black hole pulling all the prose out of your brain?

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #7

photo courtesy of Cass Witmitz


Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing. That would be weird.

~~~~~

Humid! The rain last evening brought it and it's not going away any time soon.

Drip. Running down from my bare shoulder. Drip. A big splot strikes my hair and trickles down my forehead. I blink and search the liquid with my fingers. Just wet. Phew! I thought that one was bird dew for sure! Another drop cold on the back of my neck. The willows must have decided I need watering.

Not hot, yet. It's still early and the fog is chilly. Better enjoy it while we can. This time of year, it will be almost unbearable once the fog burns off.

But that's not for a while. The little fishing wharf across the way is empty. Good fishing when it rains, even now with just fog.

Idly poking at the side of the ice chest with a bare toe, I listen for their signals along the length of the sound. The splash of a fish breaking the surface competes with the faint swoosh of hidden traffic up the far bank. The fish wins. I call out, "Hey, guys? You should have stayed right here."

A bell rings out over the water. No matter what they say, fog makes it hard to work out directions--but that's Sutter's boat. Grinning, I pull the ragged rope. Hidden somewhere up in the old willow, our bell answers Sutter's. 

~~~~~

By the way, Cass Witmitz offered her own interpretation,
"The lake held many secrets. Some its own. Some of others. And some from time itself."

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #6

Now back to Ambiguity's role in giving us the freedom to be creative. If little well-defined data is available no one including ourselves can say that our interpretations of an ambiguous photograph or painting is wrong.

As children, some of us had the time and freedom to lay down out in our yards and imagine what the drifting clouds above resembled. A lamb, a basketball, a big bow... I hope that no child ever told another that their imagination got it wrong. No two people, even young people will see ambiguous information in exactly the same way. 

Here's today's picture

title unknown @ Leszek Buinowski, Polish Surrealism artist

Some of you may think you've seen this before, say about three weeks ago as the featured artwork for Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #3.

Good memory.

However you aren't getting the same artwork twice. For comparison, see the thumbnail of FFF#3's artwork below. There are parallels between the two paintings: dense shadows surrounding a single source of bright light, thick forest, a minimum of textures, and finally two silhouetted human figures centered in the light.

In this small version of Buinowski's painting shown above, Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #6 may appear to have only one human figure. Look carefully to the right of the better-defined figure. Do you see the second figure nearly obscured by bright light rather than shadow?

In the same way, fragments of our environments may be obscured by strong light such as that produced by the sun, theatrical Klieg lights or directed lasers. People may not be able to find something for which they are looking because it is hidden in the shadows, but a sufficiently strong light source can obscure aspects of an object which might make it easier to spot. Strong glare renders an object at least as difficult to see as an object in shadow. Glare may limit how long we can search for an object or study it before looking away.

In strongly-contrasting light vs darkness, details of an object which is casting a shadow may tend to disappear except at the border between light and shadow.*  Put another way, the borders of a three-dimensional object become unnaturally sharp at the expense of the object losing its depth and detail. 

In Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #3  I wrote, "Silhouettes provide less information so they offer more latitude for our creativity."

I also suggested we imagine both people walking into the forest, walking out of the forest, or even passing one another as one person left and the other person arrived. 

FFF #3 (thumbnail)

~~~~~

This Friday's artwork gives us more information to work with than did the picture we worked with three weeks ago. If you wish, see if you can find something in our new picture--lacking in the previous picture--which helps stimulate your imagination in a new way.

                                                    title unknown @ Leszek Buinowski, Polish Surrealism artist

Yes, this is an exact duplicate of the picture near the top of the article, inserted a second time for our mutual convenience.

Past time to unleash your imagination! 

As always, Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on before looking at what I wrote.** No two people will imagine the same thing. That would be weird.

~~~~~

Eighteen weeks ago, I came up with a series of questions based on this painting, every question unanswerable. That was just fine! I didn't want answers to my questions! Actual answers would have revealed that some of the stories I was telling myself were wrong. Remember the children and the clouds?

**"Evocative painting!

"He's a surrealist? Really?

"I like the broken stone arch! It changes everything. Is it the only thing like it?

"Who built it? Why build it in the midst of a waterlogged forest?

"Wait. Which came first?

"Is the arch the last remnants of a ruin overtaken by forest, like Cair Paravel***?

"Maybe the arch was always a doorway to something NOT a building! But to what then?

"Which way are the silhouetted men walking? (Are they men?)

"Have they come because they know to where the arch leads?

"It leads somewhere??

"Are they leaving the forest after passing through the arch?

"Maybe the "arch" is a mirror & the men are behind me! Ick. Not sure I like that!  That would mean I have to turn around, my back to "the mirror" and watch them approach? 

"There's a mirror in MacDonald's "Lilith" which permits access to another world... Yeah. That doesn't help.

"Okay, so no mirror! How do you undo an imaginary thought? By not trying to?"

~~~~~

With what did your imagination gift you? You may want to compare your FFF#6 reactions to your FFF#3 reactions. If you choose to do so, you may temporarily want to ignore any reactions which apply to #6 but not #3, and or to FFF#3 but not to FFF#6. Or else focus on them. As always, the choice is yours.

I have a treat for you! Like you, I originally saw Leszel Buinowski's painting in the same-sized screen capture you did. Before I began writing this blog, I rummaged the internet looking for a larger version of his work. Found one!

This isn't necessarily good. All other things being equal, a larger version of the same picture will add details. (Oh, no! Not details!) Additional details may "contradict" your earlier imaginings! If they do--and if you don't like such rudeness--ignore the details! We're not performing a scientific experiment here or gathering information for a court case. 

~~~~~

I suggest ignoring the frame.

What do you think now? Did you come up with additional reactions? (I'm sorry. I haven't had a chance to immerse my imagination in the larger version yet)

* This depends on the angle of the light in relation to the object(s). Bright light striking a rough object at an oblique angle can accentuate surface detail.

*** C S Lewis, "Prince Caspian", The Chronicles of Narnia.

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #5

Last Friday became this Monday, thanks to things. You all know how things will do that so enough said?

                                                                                Unnamed at website  @ Amy Brener

Click to enlarge!

Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing. That would be weird.

Really weird this time! I blundered into this photograph (ouch!) somewhere on the web, undoubtedly while researching some subject for something I'm writing. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) 

If the photograph had a caption, it provided no title for the work or any other hint about what I was looking at. So I decided I was looking at something that was shiny... and what an interesting shape...

If we study an ambiguous picture or a three-dimenional shape long enough and if we remember we're not looking for the right answer*, our personal "Swiss Army Knife" will click into action. We never know what our imaginations will come up with until too late a scenario or even a micro-story starts forming.                        *Huh?

This is the first time I've ever studied a picture or an object and was gifted with ...  
Well, you'll see.                 

But first! What did you find?

~~~~~

We straggle to a stop within the last sheltering trees and study the cliffside blocking our way.
The slanted crease we thought a passageway is lichen and plants none of us recognize.

What now?

Slivers of winter sun peek down through high branches and wander over our barrier.

First one, then another of us cries out, 

Look! 

There! 

Did you see? 

We rush toward the fugitive sparkle.

A keyhole?

Impossible!

Why here?

Does it matter? We have no key.

Wait! Look through it!

... And see what? I have no idea.

Halfway into my dialogue scraps dangling in a "no plot" vacuum, I only knew that I was writing about, "The Mica Keyhole".

What happens next? I doubt I'll ever know. What matters is I can see this scene.

~~~~~

I had to check references before I could post this entry. Fortunately, my browser's "history" file came to the rescue. I glanced through the original website and then chased down some links but found very little detail with regard to Amy Brener's work.  To the best of my knowledge Amy Brener hasn't given names to her individual sculptures, but she has provided some interesting analogies? analogues?

When Eric Saunders of Arts & Science Journal  interviewed Ms. Brener, she described her works like this, “Some sculptures may be markers for an unknown border, while others hint at vehicular function. Some surfaces are ordered into compositions that allude to touch-screen platforms, energy cells and the digital logic of a different reality."

"Some sculptures may be markers for an unknown border"

Which of her many works did Ms Brener see as "a marker for an unknown border"? The article doesn't say. Perhaps it was the one pictured at the top of the entry, or the one below or one of the others shown at Alice Occleppo's blog?

Crafted by Amy Brener

Photographs at Totalinspiration.blogspot.com  Blogger=Alice Occleppo

Amy Brener

"These latest sculptures by New York-based artist Amy Brener are something magical. Made of a combination of materials like resin, pigment, and glass (Brener describes these as “totemic structures…of an imagined future,”) these objects combine natural and artificial aesthetics to create something familiar yet strangely distant from a what we know.

As the artist describes:

“Some sculptures may be markers for an unknown border, while others hint at vehicular function. Some surfaces are ordered into compositions that allude to touch-screen platforms, energy cells and the digital logic of a different reality. Other surfaces are left to chance: to crystallize, crack under pressure and weather with time. Common sculpture materials such as resin and concrete shed their associations and morph into geological forms. I enforce approximations of natural processes onto my sculptures. Notions of sedimentation, erosion and fossilization come into play.”

See more of Brener’s work at her website here. And read more at her MoMA Studio Visit Page here.

- Erin Saunders

Unnamed at website

Sherry Thompson • 17 weeks ago (Pinterest)

(Artwork by Amy Brener)

Photos found on totalinspiration.blogspot.com  (Blogger=Alice Occleppo)

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #4

Pinned from magicalnaturetour.tumblr.com

Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing. That would be weird.

Curious. Why is this slender tree protecting a moonlight egg?

Or is the tree hatching from it? When the tree matures, in a century or a hundred centuries, will it produce a host of new moons as its fruits?  

Notice the swirls of light around the tree? Do they echo light shifting about inside the egg? Or are they evidence of creatures flitting about, disturbing the air?

Tiny fairies? Bitsy beings battling the tree for possession of the egg? Is the tree a protector, a hatchling or is it a captor?

And the bright moonlight egg--Is it in fact our moon? Could it be a "New Moon" not in our common daily parlance, reduced to a mark on a calendar, but a new moon struggling to reach its proper place in the heavens?

I suspect the artist had something specific in mind when he painted this. Maybe it's "actually" cover artwork or a screen capture from a game. If so, I apologize for choosing something totally unambiguous to anyone who recognized its source.

But... Nothing has only one meaning or only one purpose. The fruits of your imagination are as true as the mundane role for which this painting was created. And we have the freedom to create as many scenarios as we wish from whatever raw materials we choose. 

The photo for next week inspired a few lines of dialogue in a scene from a story that doesn't exist.  :-D

Until then, happy creating!

Friday, Again?

I should save this for next Friday's Fantasizing Fotos...but I didn't want to.

What do you make of this picture?

For those new to Fantasizing Fotos Fridays, here are the essential parts of my wordy introduction from the first entry:

"In my opinion, every human being has at least one "vulnerability"* in our personalities. I'm one of the "auto-fantasizer" bunch. Actually, I believe that most people are without realizing it.  "...someone who looks through a shop window at people talking and can't resist theorizing about what they're discussing. Maybe there's nothing going on but that hardly matters! Give us a few minutes, and there will be!
*  "Vulnerability"? I wrote that? Hah! Make that super cool innate hobby!

"As a fantasy author, I use my creativity to write stories ... but I’m fascinated by photos & paintings. Ambiguous pix stimulate our imaginations. We wonder, What’s she thinking? or Why would anyone make that? or Why does that tree attract me/make me feel uneasy? When we make up answers, that’s our imaginations making up stories.

"I intend to post a picture here every Friday.I hope you will enjoy looking at the pictures and that you'll take a couple of minutes to offer your reactions of whatever kind. No two people will imagine the same thing. That would be way weird! Please offer your thoughts in the comments."


Back to this entry. What do you see in the picture above?


Hold that thought!

~~~~~

The second picture may or may not help you with the first one.


I saw the picture just below first, and followed its link to Vimeo and the picture above.

Seeing them in that order--the second as part of a video with an explanation under it--

destroyed the ambiguity and the fun of theorizing what I was looking at.

Now, what do you think?

Here's more about the second photograph:


Wind Reactive Ink Alters Clothing Color Based on Contact with the Air
"...London-based artist Lauren Bowker and her material exploration studio THE UNSEEN have developed a form of ink that’s reactive to the different fluctuations in the wind as well as our own body...

"...Air’s nano compounds, inks, and dyes are capable of sensing up to seven stimuli: heat, UV, pollution, moisture, chemicals, friction, and sound. Each element has a different color-altering effect..."

I found the entire article fascinating, in the "What will they think of next?" way and in the "I don't want to know what it costs!" way. I suspect these garments are very pricy even for couture. 

The first photo was a capture from a video at the Vimeo site which demonstrates how the fluctuations in color excited by minute variations in the air altered the appearance of the garment. I tried to catch the fluctuations when they were at their most metallic since this already reminded me of armor.
(Does it resemble Japanese samurai armor or is that just me?  . . .   "It's just you!!!")

Thanks as much to the garment's shape  as its texture, the second photograph seemed like a bird's body merged with a woman's head. Yes, surreal but also kind of cool in a fantasy world shape-shifting character way. Hmm. What sort of plot would she need?

What did you think of the photos?

With thanks to:
Lauren Bowker and her material exploration studio THE UNSEEN
My Modern Met    and    Vimeo

If you know of a site that features ambiguous artwork or photographs, 

please let me know. (Nothing offensive)

Thanks!

Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #2

Today is the second of our Fantasizing Fotos Fridays. I'm posting two Fotos in celebration!  (First FFF blog entry may be found here)  

Your thoughts?

I don't think it's cheating to quote Roger Zelazny for my reaction. His words from "Sign of the Unicorn" fit what I felt when I saw this painting. It better be a painting! I'd be totally weirded out if this were a photograph!   ;-P

I love trees. I can stand mesmerized staring up the trunk of a tree until... Well, until I'm interrupted. The most beautiful tree I've ever seen and touched was a huge copper beech which eventually morphed into the venerable and sentient Raril Tree in "Earthbow" (Narenta Tumults #2).

This tree certainly isn't like that copper beech, though I'm reluctant to say it is the Raril's antithesis... 

The split trunk troubles me. Am I looking at just one tree? Are there two trees looking back at me, or is each one facing its own mirrored world?

What would happen if I pass this tree/these trees? Perhaps nothing at first. The two worlds may mimic each other most closely near their shared border. But suppose I walk as far as the copse beyond, of necessity with my back to the tree/trees?

What then?

"And have the sky be different..."?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This photograph has a long caption at its original site. The details provided are "real" of course in that each part of the description can be verified in the real world.

But what about your own imaginative theory with regard to this picture or any other painting or picture? Whatever you just imagined may have had little connection to the reality of the temporary artistic installation described below.

Does that matter? Not if you fantasized something that satisfies you--that feels "just so"* If you did, your Foto Fantasy for this photograph is "true" in the sense that well-written faerie tales and fantasy fiction are true. Your interpretation may even feel true to others. Don't be afraid to share it!

* Kipling, Rudyard. "Just So Stories"

Suspended Books Magically Fill Swiss Tunnel

Posted by Pinar on May 17, 2012 at 9:00am  

Romainmôtier is a small Swiss village that borders France. It is known for its modest population and picturesque town whose architecture is reminiscent of the Roman Empire. Like a small European village straight out of a movie, Romainmôtier holds a charming annual used book fair that takes place at the town church, which is rich with Romanesque architecture. In 2005, Swiss artist Jan Reymond began constructing elaborate installations each year, made of the old, unsold books as a last hurrah for the soon-to-be discarded objects.

Many of Reymond's book installations mimic the church and quaint town's round arches and stained glass fixtures that are common to the design of the era it echoes. The artist constructs surreal architectural landscapes that would make anyone do a double-take. They fill the arched doorways and restructure the spaces they inhabit without altering the aesthetic appeal. His installation called Rosace takes a wide and high-ceiling passageway and fills it with his suspended books, leaving a rounded pathway of its own for passersby to cross through. Additionally, there is even a stained glass window imitation on the arch made of books and discarded microfilms.

more at site:
www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/jan-reymond-rosace-book-sculpture-installations