Perennial Love Light: The Very Cherry Edition

Sometimes Just Pink © Catherine Rutgers 2013“Some day when we’re dreaming, deep in love, not a lot to say, then we will remember things we said today.” The Beatles. Things We Said Today. It took me three days to remember the tune and the lyrics. I kept thinking of “don’t have much to say”—which kept sliding into “I see my Marianne walking away.” Wrong song. Wrong band.

But I knew there was something tasty hovering at the edges of my memory, and early yesterday evening, and oh what a lovely feeling, the bit that had been pestering, pestering me was resolved. I sang it to myself, I sat down and typed the line up, then searched, and found that I hadn’t misremembered a thing. Such a beautiful song. Kind of like gently placing crabapple, cherry blossoms, fresh pine over my entire face, until everything is caressed away but the leaves, the petals, the soft, soft fruit-to-be.

The first image shown here was the last one created for the very cherry series and the only photo taken indoors; yet it seems to fit in this floral procession. The crabapples and cherries live close to my home and do, in fact, bend down near the sidewalks so I can reach up and hold them gently. The pine trees, too, are low enough to touch, and their portrait was taken from that slightly dizzying angle.

Gratitude to all for gracing my life and a fierce wish that my transformations do them justice, even communicate similar impressions of delicious, delightful immersion. If you’re viewing this on a tiny screen, and somewhere you still have a desktop, flatscreen, big-screen connected to the net: take a minute to switch. Then open up each image in a new window and let it fill the screen. This way, you may come closer to their full potential. They won’t have any scent, but they still may be sensational.

Sprig of Blue © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Baroque Perspective © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Cherry Oh Cherry Oh © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Soul of the Fruit © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Solar Flair © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Central Curve © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Splendid Decay © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Whispering Sphere © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Tender Attitude © Catherine Rutgers 201301 Sometimes Just Pink, 02 Sprig of Blue, 03 Baroque Perspective,
04 Cherry Oh Cherry Oh, 05 Soul of the Fruit, 06 Solar Flair, 07 Central Curve,
08 Splendid Decay, 09 Whispering Sphere, 10 Tender Attitude
Images and text by Catherine Rutgers © 2013

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Elastic Bridge

Digital Signature © Catherine Rutgers 2013 The Elastic Bridge begins with solidity, real things, captured and transformed in artistic experiments with technology. Translating our physical territory to a space made of light, these images were created from my original artwork: mixed-media construction, photography, collage, painting, and high-resolution scans.

A cicada’s body, found on 21st-century grass, becomes a prehistoric fossil or futuristic hieroglyph. A profusion of violets, once growing in a lush spring lawn, drip and drench in an abstract apparition. An installation built to be photographed – amberlith, masking tape, paper, and glass – enters the camera, allowing neighborhood trees to peek through the wall.

One beauty of the digital medium is that it’s elastic, eminently adaptable to the platform of presentation. Each with its own revelations to savor. These images were created for the SGDA digital-display specifications (1360 x 768 pixels/96 ppi). And they can be good-quality smaller-size prints.

This is the link between future and past. A time-traveling interface (inner face) that transports a three-dimensional world to the universe behind the glass. I am the bridge, and these are my paving stones, inviting the viewer to journey into fresh discoveries.

Proposal for the Soho Gallery for Digital Art, April 2013. Here are eight of the ten images, as Will of the Wisp was just posted, and I think there might be a full post about Rock the House (aka The Fabulous Underachievers).

Gemstoned Cicada © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Glow Worm © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Insanely Violet Dimensions © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Star Power © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Beautiful Dreamer © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Zoomed to the Max © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Grid Grab Yellow © Catherine Rutgers 2013 Echo Echo Bridge © Catherine Rutgers 2013
P.S. One day, I came across a comment from one of the (generally truly helpful) WordPress people who said something like “don’t post on the weekends because we have better things to do.” Actually, this blog (and, oh, how I wish there were another word for it) is always among the very best things I do, and the timing is what it is. Love, Cat

 Images and text © Catherine Rutgers 2013

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Will O’ the Wisp

Brand new image, trying out a few new tweaks, e.g., color space and file info. Let us see how the swamp lights roll …

Will of the Wisp © Catherine Rutgers 2013Image by Catherine Rutgers © 2013

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Raw

Like That © Catherine Rutgers 2013I spiral. I rarely attack anything from top to bottom. I might start at the top, but something else along the way grabs my attention. And I often figure out the conclusion before I do the middle.

Once a week, I shut the computer down overnight. Then clean the glistening  screen and swab the keyboard with alcohol on Q-tips. Then I turn it back on.

Sometimes I wait even longer.

Sometimes I keep things in case of unlikely contingencies. Sometimes those contingencies come to pass.

On Friday night, I saw the meteor. It was green and orange. Everything will always be perfect. Nothing will ever be finished. Ciao for now, Cat

Pattern Up © Catherine Rutgers 2013B-Baby Baby Baby © Catherine Rutgers 2013Like a Poet © Catherine Rutgers 2013Standard Gamma © Catherine Rutgers 2013River Running Soul Deep © Catherine Rutgers 2013If You Didn't Know What It Was How Can You Know What It Is © Catherine Rutgers 2013Raggedy Edge © Catherine Rutgers 2013Point of Return © Catherine Rutgers 2013
Images and text by Catherine Rutgers  © 2013

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Color Studies

Open Color © Catherine Rutgers 2013Lately I’ve been feeling funny, like my tongue has got the cat. Lately I’ve been feeling more than nostalgic, traveling back and forth through history while simultaneously re-creating every little thing. And I must say, it has been thrilling but tiring. Or tiring but thrilling. Or … Lost. Utterly lost in a spiral of responsibility, doubt, media glut, indecision, existential anxiety. You name it. I’m in the throes of it.

But. Sometimes there’s only one thing to do. Return to the field of color, simply to play and work for the sake of it. Simply to take respite in something controllable, to face myriad choices, and yet, take a step, perhaps many steps, and then see what might happen from here.

Radial Jewel © Catherine Rutgers 2013Heat of the Desert © Catherine Rutgers 2013Image One Forty-Four © Catherine Rutgers 2013Some of This Is Closer to Real © Catherine Rutgers 2013Color BKG © Catherine Rutgers 2013Peaceful Greens © Catherine Rutgers 2013Lavender Curve © Catherine Rutgers 2013Print Version Three © Catherine Rutgers 2013Depth Charge © Catherine Rutgers 2013Hue One Sixty © Catherine Rutgers 2013Almost Lost It © Catherine Rutgers 2013Mysterious Reprieve © Catherine Rutgers 2013Image One Six Three © Catherine Rutgers 2013Ghostly Flicker © Catherine Rutgers 2013

Catherine Rutgers © 2013

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