Fourth of July Playtime

I guess those of my fellow bloggers who visit fairly frequently will have noted that I've been changing the format and look of my blog quite a bit lately.  Whether I'm just finicky or suffer from attention deficit -- well, I guess I just like to tinker.  However, that's the trouble with digital manipulations -- one can always fiddle, tweaking here, undoing there . . .

But now that Blogger is offering these new templates, I just had to play some more.  I also wanted to create a banner that would signify what I am about (or at least like to think) -- maps and navigations, travelers and mariners -- that's what we are in life, aren't we?

We physically move usually at least once or twice in our life, probably more.  We travel in growth from infant to child to adult.  We attempt to map out our lives in our plans and daydreams.  And our bodies begin to resemble maps with the delicate criss-crossing of lines and wrinkles, scars and such, like tiny routes that travel back and forth, around and about.

In our art and creativity, more and constant navigating goes on, attempting to explore and conquer our fears, new methods, perhaps materials and concepts.  Our eyes traverse the canvas, the paper, the page; we scan the landscape with our photographic "eyes," like ancient mariners watching intently for signs of life.  If we write, our pens or pencils move across the page, marching or lurching, backtracking and carving out thoughts and images on the page.

So, today, in order to stay cool against the 90+ heat outside, I sat in my studio/workspace and played with scans of pages in old books, textures, texts, a copy of a Raphael that I did a few months back and a series of old maps I had also scanned a few weeks ago.

I think my work (play) is done.  I think I like this look, the theme and my new banner.  I will leave it be -- for now!   :-)