Composition in Blue and Sienna
© 2003

My obsession with working abstractly has probably been fed by two things over the years: one – working with the quilt medium, which, if done with traditional patterns, involves working largely with geometric shapes, and two – if I can be honest here – the fact that I’m not too great at drawing or painting realistically. All that notwithstanding, however, I find I much prefer to look at abstract art rather than realistically painted scenes. But I’ll leave the whys and wherefores of that preference for a later date.

My real point here is that once you get into the habit of seeing, you realize that abstract compositions are all around you, until finally you get to the point where you can’t not see them. The above photo was taken at a construction site several years ago. Unfortunately, that was long before I had any ideas of writing a blog, and I was not in the habit of taking detailed notes about what I was photographing. So I’m not totally sure what this was – maybe the side of a vehicle or a container of some sort. I was making pictures of things that I thought might turn into compositions or possibly become elements for photomontage work. I have not done any Photoshopping on this image other than cropping it into a square composition.

I would like to think of some kind of a creative name for my series of similar images and possibly publish them as limited edition prints. But what would be a good name? “Found art”? “Discoveries”? “Serendipity”? Hmmm … keep thinking …

I’m not alone in my taste for what makes a great image. Check out these great photos by the very talented Jeanne Williamson. Amazing shades of blue!