Here is an excerpt from the creative box set I discussed yesterday, Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm-Watt......
Stretching Your Vision
Today is my Birthday. My Usual Routine used to involve riding my bike along the coast, watching the surfers maneuver around the seals in the early-morning hours. Now, my once permanent, flip-flop tan line has faded into my gray existence in the Midwest. I haven't seen a pedicure in over a year and can't think of one thing to be happy about.
In staying true to the whole using-what-you-have theme, I tried to come up with something that would heal my lonesome, birthday heart.
I decided to do a "compare and contrast" page in my journal. Using photographs from both my old and new worlds, I would seek comparisons-alikes and not-alikes. It has stretched the way I look at a cornfield or the eternal line across the horizon.
In the thick of winter , what can you draw from barren? What can you draw from wide-open spaces drenched in gray, as opposed to blue skies and ocean sprays?
By stretching my vision, I could suddenly see common lines in the wide-open ocean glass and the never ending richness of the soil.
The noise of a telephone pole vs. the piercing simplicity of an icicle. Diversity vs. simplicity.
Go out on your bicycle and play this game. Look for common form, lines, similar colors and textures that contrast. Force yourself to change the way you look at a regular horizontal line or the height of a telephone pole. It's all very black and white.
