Timna helped me think of black and white things and pictures I might want to interpret pieces of. She suggested Edward Weston, and pointed me to the stunning nautilus shell. I used an edge of it yesterday, and the center of it today. 

I had thought I wanted to interpret entire images in (more or less overlapping) circles, and then attach them together to make an interrupted version of the original. But I am less sure of that idea. Maybe I just need to experiment with how to get layers of black and white and gray together. 

After the snowstorm Thursday, all the world outside was shades of gray and white, and rain-soaked black. The snow was still stuck to everything; tree branches and telephone wires and fences and ponies. It was very beautiful. And made me want to make circles of it. 

I am tickled pink! 

March starts later tonight…

I was thinking about March already, and how it is going to be black and white and shades of gray, and I remembered that for years when I thought of rods and cones, the light sensing organs in the retina of an eye, I imagined the rods to be black and white. Which is foolish because they see in monochrome, not necessarily black and white. They are not the colors they sense. And cartainly the cones are not the colors they are sensitive to. But there you are, brains are funny places. 

We are having a (relatively) late season snow storm, and it has already dropped as much snow as the last three storms. We are snugged up for the night. I love how quiet snowstorms are. 

Branching is basic. Fundamental, even.

Trees branch. Rivers do the reverse of branch, with tributaries coming into the main stream, until they get to a delta and branch out into distributaries across a nearly level surface. Veins and capilliaries branch and deliver oxygen to tissues, then regroup to return depleted blood to the lungs. 

I know, I'm counting again! Just think of it in The Count's voice: "Three, three leetle felty spirals, ah, ah, ah ah" (and a crash of thunder in the background). Here you can see   him count many things, including three (three)  leetle pigs. 

I couldn't think how to apply thread, so I left it alone. It looks naked to me, but pretty. 

a double spiral, or a double helix, or a two armed spiral galaxy

I would like to give all of the February circles away. Some have been requested, some have been given already. If you'd like one, drop me a note or leave a comment. 

Spiraling to find a center? When I ride, the horse and I will spiral from a large circle into a smaller circle, and then leg yield out again. This helps the horse place her hind legs more under her, and carry herself better.

To me though, this piece feels more like spiraling towards the center, the point of balance. It is a kind of seeking thing, the precise reverse of what a scenting hound does; spiraling out from the last known location of the target, and seeking a scent.