Drawn by a giant
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Drawn by a giant

The constantly changing perspective of Alice in Wonderland delights me. First she is tiny and the world is huge. All of a sudden she grows immense and everything around her has shrunk. Her image has stuck with me as I take pictures, and it sometimes creates dizzying shifts of perspective. As I viewed this desert…

What if time is fluid?
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What if time is fluid?

Even with parts missing where the light shines through, the inherent beauty and grace of these ancient ollas, or water jars, is unforgettable. They are a reminder of our past as a human species. Our yesterday. But they could be part of our future as well. A new physics theory asserts that time may be…

An eye for rust
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An eye for rust

As an aficionado of texture, when I came upon this old shack, I was in seventh heaven. Consider that great rusty barrel, the rain-stained wood, the stovepipe hanging at an angle, that old window missing one pane, the tattered, rusting side-panels. It was perfect! And then I discovered why is was perfect. It’s not real. This sheep…

The direction of light
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The direction of light

We are used to looking straight ahead as we gaze into the distance. But sometimes it is useful to look up. Here, a shaded walkway is transformed into a beautiful design of latticework that creates a dual pattern: looking up, looking down. Light that speaks! An artist’s chiaroscuro dream. Painting is poetry that is seen…

Luminous reflections
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Luminous reflections

Who says shadows need to be hum-drum. Or even dark, for that matter. I discovered these reflections in an old building, where glass tiles threw a shifting pattern of light reflections on a dark brick wall. Their shimmering pattern of light delighted me! When we get locked into looking at an object in one way,…

Tic-tac-toe, free-spirit style
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Tic-tac-toe, free-spirit style

This is one determined, retired school bus, pulling that old pickup along behind. It’s almost as though the decorations of new paint on the bus counterbalance the lack of paint on the truck. I can see in my mind’s eye the fun it must have been to inscribe all of those circles. Now I wish I…

The reality of art
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The reality of art

The Phoenix Art Museum has a wonderful wing devoted to installation art, modern art, post-modern art. Imagine my surprise when I viewed this picture, looked for the artist’s name, and discovered it wasn’t “art” at all, but rather a shadowed window into the museum loggia. Great fun!  There’s a saying among prospectors. Go out looking…

A complement of opposites
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A complement of opposites

Would the smooth pot shine as brightly without the dark roughness of the bench? Would the bench sit so solidly without the weight of the pot? Each needs the other to complete the whole, Yin and Yang. Perfectly complementing each other, perfectly balanced in their asymmetry. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what…

Snow in Zion National Park
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Snow in Zion National Park

Ansel Adams used to hoist his huge large-format camera onto the roof of his “woody” station wagon to get the exact shot that he wanted. He was working with plates, rather than film, which made getting just the right shot so important. He planned ahead. I’m no Ansel Adams. Call me an impulse photographer. Yet,…

Split color wheel with analogous hues
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Split color wheel with analogous hues

I was delighted to discover this tableau! Can you see the color wheel? Green, blue, lavender, and then a whirl of the wheel over to the yellow-gold side. Just perfect. My former art teachers would love it. I did, too. I can’t understand it when people say they don’t like a particular color. How on…