Monday, July 21, 2008
Obsessed with Pattern
I am obsessed with pattern. I see it everywhere. I can't stop myself from seeing patterns. And what's more, I don't want to stop.
Nature is easy to spot for patterns. She is rife with pattern. She is obsessed as I am.
But the human environment is full of it, too--often in contrast to the fluid lines found in Nature. I can't help it. I love the geometry and symmetry of the built environment, too.
And then there are the places where the two meet, the human hand interacting with Nature, exposing more unexpected, alluring pattern.
I see knitting patterns in all of them. For now, I am struck by the obvious circular shawl inspiration here. Don't be surprised if you see a circular shawl turning up in one of my future designs.
If you want to open up to seeing more pattern in your life, try this experiment:
Take your camera for a short walk. And it can truly be short. (All of the photos in this post were taken early one spring morning as I walked along a single block of the Halifax Waterfront. And I'm showing you only a very small sampling of what I found that day.)
Open your eyes to everything around you. And I mean, everything. Look up, look down, look all around. Look without pre-judgment. Look at things as they are.
And photograph them. Take lots of photos--easy to do with a digital camera--from lots of angles.
Photograph the sky, noting the patterns formed by clouds. Photograph the ground, noticing the pattern of leaves strewn about. Photograph windows, and doors, and groups of children in a playground, and the haphazard confusion of a tangled garden.
No need to hunt for Beauty. Just look.
