Athena Dreams

"Now Where Was I?" and other new year thoughts

Thoughts:

things not quite done,
other things not nearly done,
some things merely contemplated,
and so many others, not yet conjured

all these things parade through my mind at the end of the year.

The quiet lull of cold nights and warm fires, talk, and laughter, friends and family gathering, toasting, planning, wishing and remembering. It's that time of year to plan for things to come, things to finish, things to leave behind and things which we do not even know of yet.

In the department of jewels:

2 new sources of inspiration. I made so many pearl pieces for christmas presents this year, and found myself remembering how much I love these little opalescent objects. Now, if I can only be brave enough to try a new wire wrapping style like Nina's. So free, so beautiful, so elegant, something to strive for.

In the department of colour and paints:

Some playing with watercolour pencils occurred this week. Such a wonderful medium, surprising and changeable and a pure source of un-ending inspiration.

On my Design Contemplation list is:

Fabric Design Courses, which includes dishware and ever so much more... hmmm could be a nice transition from the graphic design work...

And in the department of Knits:
Some Colour Convenes with: Dale, and Starmore, and Poetry.

My Tudor Roses has not even languished, it has not even been begun. Between decisions on colour and materials, it was stalled before it began. And, of course, in the meanwhile, I have changed my thinking... from the Kate to the Mary to the Anne.... my big sticking point with Kate is substituting the pink out of the colour mix, and I have not found the right substitutes yet.

I am thinking that I might go back to the Anne, as I can get a revised palette for that one together, and the Kate will wait for my moment of inspiration.

And then there is my Poetry moment:

or two:

and a Dale to finish:

and another to start:

And then there are the "other" Norwegians:

How can you not love that...

So it's looking like my new year will be full of colour, and probably a few more socks:

I got this little lovely, and will be hoping to try some of the harder patterns. A girl needs to move on from the ribbed sock at some point.

THEN, there are all the other knits in progress that need to be finished or ripped, but that list will be dealt with in the privacy of my own studio...

I wish everyone a beautiful new year, full of creativity, and inspiration and love and joy, and all things that make you feel happy to be alive...

One of my favorite winter poems, and I am off to finish tidying the house before the new year arrives:

The Garden

Late green day.
here's happiness with its edge of frost.
Winter's in.

The sky thins out.
The world tightens, like a walnut.
I can count most things.

The plum trees are taut on their hill,
the mornings bitten off, like a twig.
The earth will give and give.

–Nina Bogin

Happy New Year... thank you for this year of inspiration and thoughts and words and sharing of your work, and your lives and your creativity...

Indigo

indigo n 1 a : a blue vat dye obtained from plants (as indigo plants) b : the principalcoloring matter of natural indigo usu. synthesized as a blue powder witha coppery luster c : any of several blue vat dyes derived rom or closely related to indigo 2 : a variable colour averaging a dark greyish blue 3 : INDIGO PLANT -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

"Indigo" is a word like "ultramarine" – it refers to where the colour historically comes from, rather than what the substance actually is. So, just as ultramarine is a translation of the Italian for "from beyond the seas," indigo is derived from the Greek term meaning "from India." - Colour: A Natural History of the Palette

A fugitive, medium to dark blue originally obtained from the woad plant but largely replaced by Asian Indigo, also called Indian Blue, which has roughly thirty times the amount of the actual dyeing substance indicum. Until the discovery of an analine blue dye in 1896, indigo was the only blue dye available for wide use. Synthetic indigo, which fades as easily as the natural version, is now used for blue jeans. -Living Colours

"The magic of indigo is that the blue colour only appears after the object being dyed (whether it is a textile or an arm - as in Celtic warriors) is taken out of the pot, and meets the air again." - Colour: A Natural History of the Palette

Indigo is associated with the higher mind or the soul, and is related to spiritual fulfillment. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Indigo has always felt like a mysterious colour to me. Not quite blue, not quite black, and yet kind of green too. Though blue jeans were originally called indigo they are more blue than the indigo I think of in the colour spectrum.

GREEN

green n 1 : a colour whose hue is somewhat less yellow than that of growing fresh grass or of the emerald or is that of the part of the spectrum lying between blue and yellow 2 : something of a green colour 3 green vegetayion as a pl leafy parts of plants for use as decoration b pl leafy herbs (as spinach, dandelions, Swiss chard) that are boiled or steamed as a vegetable 4 : a grassy plain or plot: as a : a common or park in the center of a town or village b : Putting Green -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

A primary of light but not of pigments, green is also a psychological primary in that it is seen as a basic hue, along with red, yellow and blue. Green is associated with growth, youth and fertility, as in the Green Man of pre-Christian myth. -Living Colours

Symbolic of the life of the sensations, green also stands for nature - not only growth but decay. Linked also with jealousy, it is an ambivalent colour. A positive link is with Tir Nan Og, the Celtic isle of the blessed, to which the soul migrated through the fog of death. -The Secret Language of Symbols

The colour of the plant kingdom, awakening springtime, it is also the colour of water, life and freshness. It mediates between the hell fire of red and the blue of heaven. As the colour of the annual renewal of nature, green is the colour of hope, long life and immortality.

In China green is assoicated with lightning and thunder, wood and the yin principle. In Islam, green is the colour of material and spiritual salvation, wisdom and the Prophets. -Herder Dictionary of Symbols

Set midway between the inaccessible absolutes of the blue of Heaven and the red of Hell, green, with its middling quality, mediates between heat and cold and high and low. It is a comforting, refreshing, human colour. After Winter strips bare and freezes the Earth which supports human beings, convincing them of their lonliness and vulnerability, Spring comes to clothe the Earth once more in green, bringing hope and making it again the nurse of the human race. Green is warm. The coming of Spring is heralded by the thawing of the ice and falling of rain. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Of all the colours in the spectrum, green offers the widest array of choices. Blue-greens represent the best qualities of the two "mother" colours - blue and green, always elcit pleasant responses. Bright greens are associated with grass ... Emerald greens are elegant ... Deep greens are seen as stately tall pines and associated with refreshing scents ... Deep greens are also associated with money and prestige... Yellow greens are best accepted in a gardening/floral motif ... Vivid yellow-green tones are most often associated with nausea and illness ... Chartreuse is an excellent attention getter ... -Communicating with Colour

Green retains a strange and complex character derived from its twin polarity - the green of the bud and of decay, life and death. Green is the image of the depths and of Fate. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

YELLOW

yellow n 1 a: a colour whose hue resembles that of ripe lemons or sunflowers or is that of the portion of the spectrum lying between green and orange b : a pigment or dye that colours yellow 2 : something yellow or marked by a yellow colour: as a : a person having yellow or light brown skin b : the yolk of an egg 3 pl : JAUNDICE 4 pl : any of several plant diseases casued esp. by viruses and marked by yellowing of the foliage and stunting -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Yellow, though not as difficult as orange is for me, is still one of those colours that remains a mystery. I like it from afar. I like it in the garden. I like the yellow light just before sunset.

Like red, yellow is a colour with ambiguous symbolic connotations. Long before identified with the Sun god and often used as a substitute for gold, it came to signify warmth and life. -Living Colours

In China, yellow was contrasted to black but was also its complement; the close connection between black and yellow corresponds to the manifold relationships of the Yang (yellow) and the Yin (black). Yellow arises out of black as the earth arises out of the primal waters. -Herder Dictionary of Symbols

In every society, yellow is equated with the splendor and heat of the sun. Yellow emulates sunshine, light and warmth. It is a colour that is identified with imagination and enlightenment, glowing with the intesity of sunlight itself. -Communicating with Colour

Yellow is the hottest, the most expansive and the most burning of all colours in its intensity, violence and almost strident shrillness; or else it is as broad and as dazzling as a flow of molten metal... always overflowing the limits within which one tries to confine it. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Since golden yellow is part of the divine essence, on Earth it became the attribute of the power of princes, kings and emporers and proclaimed the divine source of that power. The green bays of human hope were covered with the gold of divine power and the green palms of Christ's earthly sojourn were replaced by a golden halo when he returned to his father. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Yellow is gold, light, and the sun. In Islam golden yellow represents wisdom and good advice, while pale yellow is deceit and betrayal. In Egypt yellow is the colour of envy and disgrace. -The Illustrated Book of Signs and Symbols

As the colour of autumn, yellow is considered to be the colour of ripeness or maturity. -Herder Dictionary of Symbols

ORANGE

Orange has always been a difficult colour for me. I shy away from it in all ways: clothing, cars (that's another story), dishes, sheets, and on and on.

But colour fascinates me: how we dress with colours, how we gravitate to certain colour familes, how colour affects our moods, how we are drawn to some and not others, how we interact with it.

I did a series of shadow boxes a few years ago, each dealing with one colour of the spectrum, and all it's symbolism - ancient and modern - and also how each colour personally affected me. It took me a year of research and sketching and writing and so forth to put the series together. Revelation the orange one, I struggled with the most, and still I think I need to do it again, as I didn't fully 'get there'.

I still, and hopefully will always, wander through each of my days spending here and there moments looking at the colours that pass by me, turning to look at others closely, wondering at pairings of colour, and smiling at others.

So. Orange.

orange n [ME, fr. MF, fr. OProv auranja, fr. Per narang] 1 a: a globose berry with a reddish yellow rind and a sweet edible pulp b any of various rather small evergreen trees (genus Citrus) with ovate inifoliolate leaves, hard yellow wood, fragrant white flowers, and fruits that are oranges 2 : any of several trees or fruits resembling the orange 3 : any of a group of colours that lie midway between red and yellow in hue and are of medium lightness and moderate to high saturation -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Orange is midway between yellow and red and therefore is the most actinic colour. [Actinic = radiant energy] Lying between celestial gold and chthonian red, the primary symbolism of the colour is that of the point of balance between the spirit and the libido. However, this balance tends to be upset in one direction or the other, so that orange may become the revelation of divine love or the emblem of lust. -Dictionary of Symbols

Temperature-wise orange is seen as the hottest of all colours. It is a high arousal colour invariable associated with autumn's burnished foliage or the radiant shadings of sunset - glowing and vital.
In its most vivid intensities, it is perceived as a colour that shouldn't be taken too seriously; a dramatic exclamation point generally preferred by the extroverted personality. -Communicating with Colour

As a fruit with pips the orange is a symbol of fertility and has a very positive meaning in dreams: to be given one in your hand means that you will acquire 'the perfect fruit of love, full of sunshine; just as if it had been picked fresh from the tree of life in all its glory.' The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols

Like red, orange symbolizes flames, but also luxury and splendor. In Japan and China it is equated with love and happiness. Young Buddhist initiates wear the saffron robes of Buddhist monks to indicate that they have taken vows of humility and renunciation. -The Illustrated Book of Signs and Symbols

Orange is seen as playful, gregarious, happy and childlike - children between the ages of three to six have a predilection for it, as do adolescents or anyone who got arrested in that stage of their development. -Communicating with Colour

RED

red n 1: a colour whose hue resembles that of blood or of the ruby or is that of the long-wave extreme of the visible spectrum 2: one that is of a red or reddish color; esp: an animal with a reddish coat 3a: a pigment or dye that colors reed b: a shade or tint of red 4a: one who advocated the violent overthrow of an existing social or political order b cap : Communist 5 [fr. the bookkeeping practice of entering debit items in red ink]: the condition of showing a loss -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Visually, the most prominent colour with a complex symbolic history ranging from being the colours of a Cardinal's robes (the blood of Christ) to a traditional colour for the devil (flames of hell). In the 20th century red is associated with heat, energy and activity. -Living Colors

In antiquity, there was a belief that red protected one from danger. In Egypt, red was regarded as a symbol of evil and destruction. In the Middle Ages, executioners wore red robes. In alchemy, red is regarded as the colour of the Philosopher's Stone, the stone considered to carry the sign of the light of the sun.

Bright Red = male, diurnal, strength

Dark Red = nocturnal, female, secrets, mystery of life, the colour of fire which burns within the individual and the earth, the womb, the work of ripening

Red = the colour of the soul, of the libido and of the heart

Red stands for love, first and foremost, but at the same time, it's the colour of war and battle. It also signifies revolution, socialism, communism. -The Herder Dictionary of Symbols

Red registers more quickly than other colours - particularly in the dark. We use the colour red in communications: stop, fire truck, danger. -Symbols Around Us

Collage/Shadow Box Work

So I think I am slowly, slowly, slowly getting the hang of setting up this blog site. I work on a computer just about everyday but find I am continually and more often than not, technologically challenged. It just took me about an hour to figure out how to get a Link on to my Typelists.... ah well.

So onward and forward and all that.... I have done a lot of collage and found object assemblage work, but have not been doing much actual work on any of the ideas I have sketched or that are still laying around in vrious places in my head.

I did this series of 4 pieces called Elements (air, water, fire, earth) a few years ago, and want to expand the idea/source into something larger and more detailed, more refined, more something. I did them all in shadow boxes...

Here is Earth. There is a contained-ness to it that I want to break. It feels safe all tied up and put in the box, so to speak, but I want to break out of the edges, maybe still have the edges there, but break them down some how.