pattern study
4:59 pm
a study of light, textures, patterns…
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by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena she sees shells
1:50 pm
like an explorer of new lands
with a new eye, a new lens
finding exciting textures
to inspire her inner printmaker
by Marja-Leena sensuous rocks
10:03 pm
Still sorting through photos of our little Gabriola vacation, I’m enjoying revisiting the excitement of many discoveries. Each beach we visited had amazing rock formations, with some similarities in their rough weathered hole-y textures, common also on Hornby Island, but with some differences as well. Who would have thought rock can be also be sensuous and almost silky looking, like the folds of human flesh? The marble sculptures of Michelangelo and Bernini come to mind, with Nature as sculptor. And look at those colours! These shown here are on the beach below Berry Point Road at the point where the historic Entrance Island Lighthouse can be seen, the sight of which for me became greatly eclipsed by these amazing rocks.
by Marja-Leena the cave
6:55 pm
These images were photographed near the camellias, in the same woodland garden corner of our backyard. They are traces of a huge multi-trunked maple tree (we have some giants on the west coast) that had to be cut down some 15 years ago because of rot and concern that it might come down on our house in a windstorm.
As long as we’ve lived here, the trunk’s base has had a hollow or small ‘cave’ under the roots on one side where they spread upwards and over a tiny hill. Big enough for a raccoon though I’ve never seen evidence of a nest, it continues to intrigue and stoke my imagination. I keep checking on it as the trunk ever so very slowly rots away. I love the textures! I think this may be the first time I’ve actually taken photos of it for posterity though it’s permanently in my mental image bank.
by Marja-Leena another hand print
9:46 am
While Elisa was having her metalwork lesson with Richard, I explored outside his barn/workshop/studio with camera in hand. Amazing what visual treasures can be found in what seems like a junkyard of old cars, farm equipment, snowblowers and assorted machine parts. For Richard, these are treasures in parts to recycle and put to new uses like Elisa’s frame but also something he made for me that I will tell you about later after we’ve installed it and taken photos.
My favourite image found and photographed amongst the fascinating rusty shapes and textures has to be this hand print! How long ago did some worker with oily hands leave his mark here? Was it intentional or accidental? For me, who has long been fascinated by hands in ancient rock art, and I’ve written many a blog post about it, this is astonishingly evocative and rich in synchronicity.
Added June 18th: Richard has commented below with a bit of history of the snowblower upon which sits the handprint, so I thought I would add the photo of the chute, below. Can you see that handprint?
by Marja-Leena reading & sleeping
4:37 pm
I’m taking it easy this week nursing a cold. With tissues and tea beside me, I am really enjoying the guilty pleasure of more reading time with a timely receipt of a library book I’d placed on hold: P.D. James’ Death Comes to Pemberley. More than half way through and loving it, the only one of this grand dame’s books I’ve ever read. A dear friend is a keen fan of James so I’d given her a copy of this for her birthday last year. As a Jane Austen fan, it was high time to read this for myself and what a pleasure!
As you know, I love textures and stone, and this scan I once did of marble seems just right today, an illustration of the condition of my brain cells this week?
by Marja-Leena Urban Imprints
11:36 am
Friend and fellow-artist Olga Campbell has an exhibition up at the Havana Gallery. If you are in the Vancouver area I recommend a visit to see her always exciting work. I am sorry to have missed the opening but look forward to seeing it myself very soon.
From the archives, about some of Olga’s past shows plus her book:
Whispers Across Time
Triumph of the Human Spirit
Graffiti Alphabet, the book
ADDED Monday, March 26th, 2012: We went to see this exhibition this afternoon – it is wonderful! I love the sculptures of feet and hands and some heads. The prints on canvas look like paintings, my favourite is ‘Luminescence’, with a circle and lovely textures and colours.
by Marja-Leena Beaty Biodiversity Museum – 3
4:00 pm
Moving along in the Beaty to look at the specimens in the glazed display cases, still in the Atrium and below the Blue Whale, I was immediately enthralled by the gorgeous skulls of many creatures. I’m sorry I don’t have the proper names for the specimens to give you here as I tended to be more attracted by their diversity and the beauty of their textures, shapes and colours in what I chose to photograph than to make this a scientific record. It was too time-consuming and complicated for me to make a textual record of every image.
In fact my husband said when he saw me eagerly pull out the camera again, “Now I’ll never get you out of here!” I think we were both reminded of our long ago visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta where I went so camera happy, especially over the fossils. That amazing place was the source of many photos (pre-digital), some of which ended up in my printworks.
Maybe some details from this Beaty experience will also become part of future work too while they sit in my image library waiting for that right moment of inspiration and connection. In the meantime, they have provided inspiration in continuing thoughts about biodiversity and loss, as well as great blogging material.
I might have taken far more images but was often frustrated by the challenges of too many reflections on the glass fronts or tops, especially in the areas away from the Atrium. However, in the top photo, I was intrigued by a happy reflection of the Blue Whale’s tail and the trees outside, so chose not to crop them out. More to come – are you getting bored yet?
by Marja-Leena 
by Marja-Leena fossil hunting 2
4:41 pm
More photos from that long ago visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta. Unlike most of the photos I’d taken there, two here captured some information – the third photo shows a nothosaur, and the last one a part of a bobastrania. I will have to look them up.
For me, the shapes, lines and textures of these fossils, most fossils, are visually very entrancing and intriguing. The knowledge that these are the remains of very ancient living creatures captured forever in rock touches something in my soul and makes me feel very small.
Added a few hours later: Evidence of earliest animals found in Newfoundland – a fascinating discovery in an already amazing fossil site! There is also a mention of BC’s Burgess Shale fossil site. If I recall correctly the Newfoundland site was featured in one of the episodes of the Geologic Journey series shown on CBC.