Tuesday early afternoon

Thinking about my practice of borrowing and sometimes cropping other people's images.

This time it is a row of buildings I have refashioned. Here is one section of one building after I have had my way with it:

Florian Afflechbach

excerpt from Praca de Luis de Camoes

pencil drawing with water colour

Such lovely patterns and faint contrasts. And thoughtfully muted colors. On its own, separated as it is from its original structure and neighborhood, it exhibits a solid and strong presence.

As you know, I like to borrow beautiful images like this one to think and write about. I borrow them because they are so beautiful. And sometimes I crop them. Thankfully, the artists have given me permission to work over their representations of beauty. They tell me they enjoy my meandering words about their restructured drawings.

And so here is what I am thinking about all of this:

I like to play around with images. To consider possible ways of re-shaping them in a manner to suit my thinking at a particular time. I like to figure out a new ordering of meanings for the composition. One that furthers along my own ideas about beauty.

And too, these cropping endeavors of mine provide blessed time for me to crop away at my own thoughts, to re-envison and re-consider things. Hopefully, to move things around so I can find ways to lighten up my worries and give weight to my joys. It's like a bit of tidying up. And as you know, I like things to be tidy.

And then, I get to push together the two when I write about the image and the thoughts that have come to mind. Conjoined, the two share a place for further study and enjoyment.

another excerpt from the same drawing of Praca de Luis de Cameos