My kind of beautiful

One of the things I have been doing recently is being more deliberate about finding out what is beautiful to me. I want to spend today collecting together some of these things, and think about what it is that I find attractive about them.

Simple clear shapes

I saw this on pinterest and
couldn't find the source

31-3_Kesseler_new3.jpg

Turns out I only like these when there's some interesting texture or repetition.

Messy complexity

https://www.waysofenlichenment.net/lichens/

https://littlebangtheory.wordpress.com/
2007/10/21/im-lichen-it-a-lot/

I find that I haven't pinned as many of these as I thought. Perhaps I like structure more than I thought!

Irregular repeating patterns 

http://exercicedestyle.tumblr.com/
image/101661125662

Another pinterest with no origin image

While these patterns are attractive in themselves, for me there's something about how nature plays with them which makes them even more appealing.

https://dkphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/
Microscopic-Plant-Cells/
G00005l.MbuYRzEQ/C0000oyPxKwu0APU

 

http://libguides.mhs.vic.edu.au/
patterns/patternsnature

https://imgur.com/gallery/xEiEDi0
fractal red cabbage appeals to head rather than instinct

jNVcVKH.jpg
fun rather than beautiful

The difference between beautiful and interesting in other ways seems to be whether the image appeals to my head (eg cabbage fractals) or my sense of humour (all those round octopus suckers) or a sexual sensation, or something I would describe as a feeling of fullness in the middle of my chest. I mean my heart. 



Certainly there are more of these ones than any other. 
These are all nature photos because that's the pinterest board I am working off. 
Perhaps another day I could look at other boards!

Hide/protect

http://whimsicalhomeandgarden.com/seeds/

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/44/
df/0f/44df0fef8ffb2172bb42f3eea25a4584.jpg

The inner reality peeking through almost despite the cover, or simply visible.

These seeds hold meaning for me in that they make me think of the self in various ways.
As if the seed were a metaphor for beingness (which I suppose it is in a real way too).
I can imagine making many more small approximately spherical unique objects with this metaphor in mind.

The inside of this one is less mysterious and witheld,
putting the emphasis on the fragility of the cover.

Looking for these images I have noticed also that sometimes the attraction is the way an image triggers my awe - generally at the absurdly powerful yet delicate forces that it must have taken to get there. But this one is also beautiful in its own right as an irregular repeating pattern.

660c30c35c96590fc7a4075153b55d3d.jpg
sensory hairs on the antenna of an ant

And some are pretty, rather than beautiful.

http://www.fungiphoto.com/CTLG/pages/
0483-02.html?&cuid=2341d073a8d35dabf0006b257f425485

https://stylowi.pl/6679049

And then there are branches against the sky, which can be beautiful in a bleak way, or serve as structural contrast to emphasise the colours of the sky.

my photo of branches on nottingham university campus

More images in these categories on my pinterest board nature stuff

Sketchbook work for 'So you think you know me? - 3'

This jacket is the third in my series 'So you think you know me?' which  items of outerwear which express both how a person is seen, and how they feel inside. This one is for someone who is ESTJ in Myers Briggs, 'the supervisor' who I have dressed as a security guard. My initial thoughts about how to express this steady reliable type were like this:

It seems to me that this type, more than most, would have a rather conventional appearance initially, with recognisable allegiances and clear black and white. Since I love Alexander McQueen clothes there are some of his military style clothes here, but in the end I went for a more conventional police type uniform on the outside. 

And this was some of my exploring to help with the insignia designs.



The way it works is that the outside is how the person appears to others, and the lining is how the person experiences themselves.  For this one the inside was more difficult to visualise. The person who inspired it is often under a lot of time pressure, and described feeling 'inner turmoil'. My sketchbook research for this included these pages:

Initially I had several ideas about how to express this time pressure, and tried out running stick men and something like the turmoil pictures on the left, perhaps making three-dimensional swirls.

This process taught me something about using these techniques, and also that they was not going to give me the effect I was looking for. The running stick men were not really warm enough to relate to, and as you can see in the photos above running in our culture is sometimes associated with success or athleticism. I wanted the lining to feel physically intense with a pattern that indicated that it could be hellish. Which brought me to flames and clocks/ stopwatches.  

These images from google image search had the intensity and confusion that I was looking for. 

I did some sketchbook work and came up with this design for the back lining. During this process I realised that rug hooking would give me the texture I wanted for this part of the jacket. 

The circles are for the clock faces which still needed design work.