112 - Lost beginnings

112 - Lost beginnings
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

We came back from the 'away' part of our vacation with a fair few pictures for processing, but first we went to visit the family in the country where I discovered this tractor in their sandpit.

In between taking some shots in a sand pit I was reading the first few chapters of a nineteenth century children's novel, a classic if you like, that today's children have to read here in Poland. In fact, they read so much eighteenth to early twentieth century poetry and novels they later have problems valuing modern writing.

Where does this leave the modern author? With a much reduced market, sadly. Mention this in public and you are likely to be savaged by the vocal public with a Pavlovian induced respect for the the nineteenth century.

Childhood can be a treasure, but like the past it is a place forever locked away. Much as I might want to play with this tractor in the sand, I have responsibilities here, today, which cannot be ignored. I just wish people realized that this is also important for writing.

111 - Pensive Trevor

111 - Pensive Trevor
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This is the last image I did before going on vacation. The light coming in thru the blind was just too tempting to be ignored, and it seemed another good opportunity to play with the pixels.

I noticed here that the technique softens hard edges while at the same time blurring the colours together. Playing with the contrast does something similar with the colours but instead hardens the edges. However, increasing the contrast before the blending helps give the bright colours I like, and then I can take away the flaked, jagged edges.

I am still working on the use of borders, this one was quickly fabricated to apparently continue the image beyond its actual borders, but at the same time helping it to blend into its actual surroundings.

110 - Ania Blues

110 - Ania Blues
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I decided for this image to return to the wipe technique. It seemed appropriate as again I had a poorly lit image.

One of the funny things is that if you have a surface with a shine to it this method reduces that shine - as shine seems to be related to the amount of mixed different pieces of light. This is not so much of a problem for my images so far as the loss of distracting details seems to underline more what something is than the actual object. So much of what we see is stuff which blends together - trees in a wood, cars on the street, people in a bar. It can be a shock to zoom in on parts of this image and to realize just how much work the mind does in blending - because here, unlike reality, there is no ever-increasing detail layers.

This is a bar in one of the many cellars in the old town of Lublin, this one especially dark but with rather good sofas.

109- Dissolve

109- Dissolve
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This image has been surprisingly popular. For me it was both an experiment in texture and an example of what happens when you attempt to model society's moires rather than caring for what is needed.

I used to think it was just the toil of life that wore our bodies out, now I realize many other things can as well. For example, my psoriasis and arthritus ages my body while for others living the life of a model member of society gently erases their minds.

108 - God is Light

108 - God is Light
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

Many people believe that their god lives in specific buildings or objects, rather than suffusing the very environment. I do not believe that we can trap gods in bricks and mortar, paint, carved wood or worked metal - just as I do not believe in being only able to invoke the past by living lives that are some replica of past lives. As a result I do not have to live to feel guilty passing from the traditional to the modern, or vice versa, everything is human expression.

A big block for my local religion is the reliance on rote - the same old images, the same old words, and no potential for much to be added to the sum. I am looking for some fresh images, ones which speak to people like me rather than having to live with those that speak to other people.

107 -Memories

107 -Memories
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

Not being able to participate in a former era is no reason why we cannot attempt to recreate it. That's recreate, not replace our current reality with a former reality. Imagine remembering a food that you used to have when you were a child, we might decide to recreate it in our kitchen, sell it even. It is not the original, but we can refresh that part of our mind which recorded the flavors.

There is nothing wrong in this, but there would be a problem if we began to pressurize other people into having this dish simply because that would make them more real by engaging in a 'tradition'.

You are not more real, more genuine by replicating a past activity, you are simply at risk of becoming an overbearing tyrant sapping the will of other people to engage in activities which might be more appropriate to the current and future realities.

I enjoyed producing two images in one that took their inspiration from two eras that my wife lived through. I too, of course.

106 - Style Power

106 - Style Power
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I just love strong colours, and the use of high contrast to filter out unwanted data. Some people love to fill their homes with bits and pieces, swaths of material and intricately moulded furniture, often to make their surroundings 'homey' or 'comfortable', or even 'traditional'.

Let's take each of these in turn:

Homey. Does surrounding oneself with an excess of blurred print, line and carving make a place more like home? Is this like the fluff on the inside of a nest? Or, is this an image of a country life idealized in books? I do not mind people finding homey in these surroundings, I object to the snooty way they put down any other kind of homey. When I look around the world I see homey in all kinds of situations, many of them having no relation to a North European chintz dream. Our flat is quite minimal, we feel fully relaxed and at home - and the issue of having high-maintenance flounces and carvings does not exist. We rarely have to iron, and as a result we can find the repose in reading a book that others find working over the ironing board. Homey for me is my wife dozing off in the evening under a blanket and a cat on our reclining sofa in front of the television with a book beside her.

Comfortable. Comfort something solely detected by the skin, or do the eyes and ears also play a part. Perhaps we can define homey as comfort for the eye, and assume we are going to be considering the skin here? How many square yards or metres of padded surface do I and my family and friends need? A larger sofa might make our room more crowded or push us to buying a larger property, neither of which appeals as crowded is less homey and more space means more money and time invested in something we do not really need. Comfortable should not interfere with homey, they must compromise somewhere.

Traditional. If we all organized a huge baby swop with other couples around the world for each new-born child, one would find that, for example, a Polish-born baby brought up in the Amazon region would have no Polish but all Amazonian ideals - whatever they might be. Traditional is our local take on what is possible, largely absorbed as children. In terms of homey and comfortable in the home, traditional is impossible to achieve because the society and technology have changed - we can only seek to replicate a part, often only on a visual level. We have to make a choice between the potentially worn antique and the new replica, neither of which are 'true' as in being the actual conditions that occurred, say, 150 years ago Since tradition is a replica of the random place our family lived in when we were born, what locks us into continuing it?

Anyway this image has no chintz, it has no sop for a tradition that requires the total image area to include whatever information was present on the scene. This is an image intended to allow you mind to fill in the missing chintz - your chintz, not my chintz or the chintz of that person who lives on the other side of town or just across the road or around the other side of the planet. Your chintz.