black and white

new book – Wheesht – by Kate Davies

I have followed her blog for several years

https://kddandco.com

starting before her life changed drastically when she had a stroke at age 36

she had been an academic writer and lecturer – her writing reflects that background

I admire her courage and technical skill and her beautiful way with words

but she has re-invented herself and now designs wonderful knitting patterns

and also has started a company designing and selling a line of wool yarns

the first line in the book is – This is a book about enabling creative making.

 I ordered it from Scotland – and in these challenging times it arrived amazingly quickly

 each of the 12 chapters features an example of how one person meets the creative challenge

telling the stories of local Scottish celebrities and also well known artists

Frida Kahlo, Ella Fritzgerald, Alice Coltrane and Hokusai

and each ends with a creative assignment – something to make, write and/or knit

so where am I going with this??

one of the creative assignments is to take a black and white photograph every day for a week

of course I took dozens!

  it has changed how I see forever – I will continue

suddenly I am acutely aware of how colour affects our understanding of everything around us

that traffic light is red

so is the fire hydrant

and the Canadian flag

this transparency has hung in my dining room window for several years and now looks completely different

for someone who has been strongly influenced by colour in my creative work for many years this is stunning

a new way of seeing

I’ll be moving on to another creative challenge – will let you know how that works out

time for a walk, camera in hand

and by the way wheesht means  ” to pause, to step back, to listen, to be silent” and as they say in Scotland, to haud your wheesht.