milestones
February 05, 2024
•
12 Comments
This week was a milestone, of sorts, for Fred. He completed Rug # 400, which means that, to date, he has woven 468 pieces since he began learning to weave at Tierra Wools in the summer of 2003. Obviously, the class work stuck and he never looked back. I'll talk more about 400 in a moment, but first, I need to talk about Rug # 399.
Woven of 100%...
Read the Full Post »
eyes and colors
January 28, 2024
•
9 Comments
This week had me wishing, once again, that I had taken physics in high school and college. It seems everything with which people deal on a daily basis involves three subjects that many students tend to avoid in school - math, chemistry, and physics. Particularly in photography, all these subjects come into play. Today's subject, once again, has to...
Read the Full Post »
humble yet essential
January 21, 2024
•
7 Comments
I would be hard-pressed to find someone staring at the onions in a grocery store. Unlike shoppers gazing at the cheese cases as if they were at the Guggenheim taking in a Monet or van Gogh, people just grab the humble onion, and lob it into their basket or cart, not giving it another thought. Not me. I look deeply at the onions, as if part of my so...
Read the Full Post »
aged roses and new snow
January 15, 2024
•
1 Comment
We have been lucky this week. Snow has fallen during the night and throughout the day on several occasions. Almost any location in the Southwestern United States can use moisture in whatever form it presents itself. This time, it happened to be snow rather than rain, either in a powder skiers dream of, or wet and solid, worthy of an igloo or snowma...
Read the Full Post »
of plaids and tartans
January 07, 2024
•
4 Comments
Perhaps it is because a blanket of grey skies has hung over us for more days than is normal in the sunny Land of Enchantment, leaving us feeling very Scottish. Or it could be due to a text message asking about what would be an appropriate tartan to wear. Or due to a recent gift of a wool muffler made of the official New Mexico tartan. Regardless, t...
Read the Full Post »
The New Year
December 31, 2023
•
3 Comments
The New York Times online had a wonderful feature yesterday titled "Your Best Advice for 2023". Many of us make lists - both mental and written - of things we are going to do in the new year. Statistics may prove that some of those goals fall by the wayside as early as February, while quite a few people are serious about trying to achieve specific...
Read the Full Post »
Christmas 2023
December 25, 2023
•
5 Comments
A bright blue sky is greeting us this Christmas morning, as crows and ravens circle the sky to the accompaniment of "The Bells of Dublin" by the Chieftains. Ice remains on the landscape after a most welcome warm rain fell on Saturday, followed by graupel and snow. The chill will be with us for several days but the brightness of the day will not be...
Read the Full Post »
all about the light
December 18, 2023
•
1 Comment
In photography, light (or lack thereof) is everything. Humans and all animals recognize, on some level, the effect of light on their lives and behavior. It must have been horrifying for our early ancestors when the daylight disappeared. Did they wonder whether it would return, and if so, when? It was probably a relatively short period of time befor...
Read the Full Post »
left over right and under, right over left and under
December 10, 2023
•
5 Comments
The words in today's blog title were the ones we were always taught in Girl Scouts, as far as tying a square knot is concerned. It is the same knot that Fred uses to produce the Damascus edge on select rugs. But first, here is an image of Rug 397 in progress on the loom.
To secure the ends of the weaving, he ties 366 knots on the top and bot...
Read the Full Post »
shutter work 101
December 04, 2023
•
6 Comments
Nature gifted us heavy, wet snow last week. You could have built an igloo with it. It was the first really substantial snow in several years and something in which neighborhood dogs were reveling. I, on the other hand, was out with my camera for a personal workshop in shutter speeds. And the snow continued to fall for roughly four hours during the...
Read the Full Post »
lovely leftovers
November 26, 2023
•
5 Comments
Many people worldwide celebrated the holiday of Thanksgiving on Thursday, and, no doubt, in a variety of ways. Most probably involved food, friends, and family. Even if the groaning board did not contain turkey and dressing, there was likely an assortment of leftovers. How lovely they are! Due to the fact that I see the world in terms of capturing...
Read the Full Post »
Thanksgiving rush
November 20, 2023
•
3 Comments
You could feel the rush on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Locals in need of specific goodies for the traditional holidays meals, people with license plates from different states having dazed and confused looks on their faces, and that unidentifiable feel of urgency to get things done. It was obvious that the Thanksgiving rush was on and what bett...
Read the Full Post »
not letting go just yet
November 12, 2023
•
3 Comments
After a week with a taste of winter, our part of the world has been given a reprieve, and stunning autumn days have returned. Mind you, the.05/inch of moisture that fell in the form of snow was not quite enough to deeply dampen the land, but it did give the plants and trees that still have leaves some much deserved moisture. Thankfully, autumn is n...
Read the Full Post »
coasting in black and white
November 05, 2023
•
7 Comments
A call from the archivist at the Santa Fe Institute where I photographed scientists from 1995 to 1997 tested my organizational and memory skills this week. It was excellent to look at the hundreds of photographs I made with film using both 35mm and 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 cameras, developed into negatives, and made into contact sheets and prints was a great...
Read the Full Post »
the mad curator strikes again
October 29, 2023
•
4 Comments
Given the events of the past couple of weeks in the Middle East and the United States, and in political arenas here and abroad, I did what is probably typical of artists and journalists who are not covering "the main stories". They ponder, wonder what is right, and then continue with their art or writing, despite horrible events and conditions and...
Read the Full Post »
© Daryl A. Black