Really, It's Not What You Think

Aren't the colors gorgeous? Wouldn't this make a great summer shawl? But really, it's not what you think it is. Take a guess!

When I started at UCSB as an art student, one of the first classes I signed up for was beginning photography. On the first day, the teacher handed out a list of subjects that he considered trite and overdone. Babies, children in costumes, the elderly, gravestones, pets, landscapes, street scenes with people, street scenes without people, the homeless, junkies, food, kissing, clouds, broken crockery, architectural details, self portraits, people laughing, people crying, people looking directly into the camera, people looking off into the middle distance...I wish I still had the list. I spent about a week in the class before realizing that I didn't want to be a practicing artist. I didn't stick around for my first critique. Photographing the cliche is as close as I get to art anymore. But you know what? I like taking pictures of clouds, and flowers, and my pets, and my knitting. That's what makes me happy.

How you like me now, Professor? It's a closeup of my cat looking off into the middle distance, musing about homeless junkies kissing over a plate of chili fries in front of a Corinthian colonnade, the ground around them littered with the shards of ceramic cow creamers and several pages of an Ann Geddes calendar, while an ancient woman holding a small child wearing a clown suit looks up at the gathering clouds and cries. My cat's prone to these types of artistic reveries. He has layers, you know. If you look very closely, you can see my hands and the Sony reflected in his eye, a kind of self portrait. It sort of reminds me of the mirror at the back of Jan Van Eyck's 'Arnolfini Wedding'.

More knitting content soon. I'm so close to finishing Bristow that I can hardly stand it. I'm half a sleeve and the seaming away from being done. I'd be further along if I spent more time knitting and less time photographing my cat.