Thursday Challenge: Red -

"Red"
photo collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... when in doubt, wear red ..."
- Bill Blass

Shadows and shade -

"Ghosts of Christmas Passed"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... above the cloud with its shadow
is the star with its light;
above all things reverence itself ..."
- Pythagoras

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

"Begin Again"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... if one dream should fall
and break into a thousand pieces,
never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up
and begin again ..."
- Flavia Weedn

Thursday Challenge: Communication -

"Communication 2011"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... the trouble with talking too fast is
you may say something you haven't thought of yet ..."
- Ann Landers

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2011

"Soft, Fluffy Clouds in Hard Water"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... all of us have a place in history; mine is clouds ..."
- Richard Brautigan

Thursday Challenge: Orange -

"Orange"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -
"... I cannot pretend to be impartial about colors;
I rejoice with the brilliant ones and
and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns ..."
- Sir Winston Churchill

Thursday Challenge: Family -

"Pictures of Leighlund in Poppa's Studio"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... happiness is having a loving, caring,
close-knit family in another city ..."
- George Burns

Erosion Bundle Project Reveal -

"Erosion Cube - Final Reveal"

digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

Here's the final result of "Erosion Cube", my addition to Kris Henderson's "The Erosion Bundle Project". As promised, I finally plugged in the blender containing the remnants of the cube and chopped everything up. Since a blender is not exactly a papermaking beater, lots of chunks and globs were left behind and made an especially thick slurry of paper pulp. The pulp was poured straight into a 5-gallon plastic tub filled with about a gallon of tap water and stirred vigorously. I made my own mold & deckle from an old food container (the omelet that came home from the diner in it was delicious and never made it into the paper) adding a screen in between from an old mesh bag that once contained onions. These three parts, held together with two spring-lever paper clips, were dipped into the stirred pulp. After lifting the screen - thickly covered with fine paper pulp along with chunks, lumps, thread and string - the clips were removed, frame & deckle taken apart and the screen was turned over onto a layer of fabric. The pulpy mass was covered with a paper towel and kneaded by hand to flatten, remove excess water (there was a lot) and to free the screen. After the session was completed, the wet sheets were placed in direct sunlight and allowed to air dry - about 4 or 5 hours. No, I didn't use felts or a press or a rolling pin or an iron or anything too fancy and I must admit that I'm completely satisfied with the results. For a photomontage of some of the steps described go to No Matter What Shape - The Archive.

Thursday Challenge: Curved -

"Curved"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... and the teeny, tiny spider weaved
a hanger for his spring coat ..."
- Unknown

Thursday Challenge: Wooden -

"Wooden"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... proclaiming the message
day after day after day,
the delivery was wooden,
ever unchanged, by rote ..."
- Unknown

Thursday Challenge: Wet -

"The Papermaker's Beater"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

This is my old papermaking blender filled with water and the remains of "Erosion Cube". Kris Henderson's "Erosion Bundle Project" is now in it's final stage which means, for my part in her project, making a piece of paper from what's left. Stay tuned.

Thursday Challenge: Soft -

"Soft"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... music, when soft voices die,
vibrates in the memory;
odors, when sweet violets sicken,
live within the sense they quicken ..."
- Mary Bysshe Shelley

Another Erosion Bundle Update -

"Erosion Cube, April 3rd 2011"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

Another month has passed for my Erosion Cube in Kris Henderson's The Erosion Bundle Project and quite a bit has happened since March 1st. Lots of compression of the interior stuffing has occurred and appears to be weather related rather than the result of nesting mother birds. Some damage to the cube has also taken place and you can see some of the bars hanging on, quite literally, by the threads that were used to tie much of it together in the event that there was glue failure, harsh weather, collisions or hard landings. Next step is tossing whatever remains into the boiling pot at the end of the month ... stay tuned.

Thursday Challenge: Metal -

"Metal Security Door"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... there are things known
and there are things unknown,
and in between are
the doors of perception ..."
- Aldous Huxley

Thursday Challenge: Cars -

"Cars"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... the human brain is like a railroad freight car,
guaranteed to have a certain capacity
but often running empty ..."
- Unknown

Erosion Bundle Update -

"Erosion Cube, March 1st 2011"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

It hasn't quite been a month since I installed my piece for Kris Henderson's The Erosion Bundle Project. The weather here has been quite brutal. One weekend we were inundated with high winds blowing and howling in gusts between 45 & 60mph. February managed an accumulation of 26" of snow on top of the 130" already received. I suppose I don't really need to say much about that considering the little roof of snow that can be seen sitting atop my cube. At least it's still there and taking all things in stride. I'll post an update in early April before removing it at the end of that month for the next step in this process: I'll be boiling the cube to make a dye before beating it into pulp for a papermaking session. Stay tuned.

Happy Valentine's Day -

"Be Mine"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... love is the only gold ..."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Thursday Challenge: Red -

"Erosion Cube (With Red Threads)"

digital photographs by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

Kris Henderson has moved forward with The Erosion Bundle Project, a continuation of Seth Apter's marvelous Desintegration Collaboration Project. I'm a little bit late, having just found out about it via New Zealand's sweetheart, "Lucky Dip" Lisa, but was finally able to get my own piece hung outside yesterday. I spent a bit of time building the 3" X 3" "Erosion Cube" and when the end of the project arrives, a small documentation booklet will likely appear. If you haven't seen my documentation of Seth's "Disintegration Collaboration Project documentation, "From the Proverbial Ashes", you can still get it for FREE here. Anyway, for full info and a peek at what others are doing with Kris's next step, click on The Erosion Bundle Project link above.

Thursday Challenge: Crafts -

"Tapestry"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry ..."
- Richard P. Feynman

Thursday Challenge: Creativity -

"Creativity"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... the creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box ..."
- Henri Cartier Bresson