Looking Around

2024 is my year of exploring and learning. It’s also a time for revisiting some of my early ideas. One of the lessons in a basic photography class is to look up, look down, and look all around as you’re making photographs. This is one exercise used to develop an artist’s observational skills and I always loved it. I continue to look all around as I walk in nature, in the neighborhood, or around town with an intention to observe and be inspired by what’s around me. In the last few years I’ve been looking down a lot. I’m four months into my year and I’m embracing the joy and calm these “exercises in seeing” give me.

Example of some my iPhone photos of "Looking Down."

As I drove through my neighborhood, I was inspired by the gestural tar lines used to repair the asphalt, so one morning I got out of the car and started photographing the street—framing the lines to create lyrical, gestural compositions.

 

A few of my Tar Lines

Once these tar-gestures were printed on fabric I started having fun exploring how to enhance them by adding color, stitch and collage. Here are a few process photos and you’ll be seeing more of my progress in the next few months.

 

Tar Lines collage

 

Sampler testing out stitching on the tar lines,
including french knots, free-motion machine stitching,
hand stitching, and machine couching.