CatRutgers4Art

Funkia!

Posted on July 15, 2013 by CatRutgers4Art

Here’s to the readers of CatRutgers4art! You all inspire me, you really do, e.g., Karen D, who brings memory and gardening together in a comment that sent me out to collect and photograph the leaves below: “My mother called them funkia, and it was years before I knew other people called them hostas. I love them and had what seemed like thousands of them at my little cottage in Highland. I remember my hands aching after cutting the stems off after the flowers bloomed. Ciao bella!”

They are beautiful, and they love to grow and grow and grow. Here are other things I know about the funkia: they like the shade; I have seven varieties, and all the leaves and flowers look different and they blossom at different times; if you cut the flower stalks after they fade, some of them will bloom a second time; the leaves are spectacular and great for flower arrangements; when they get too big, which they will, you can separate the plants and share them with your friends. And they, like all the growing creatures that grace our environment, can be transformed into “art.” Love, Cat

Posted in Revelations | Tagged gardening, green, hostas | Leave a comment

And, Now, a Bit of Green

Posted on July 9, 2013 by CatRutgers4Art

Let us harken back to the early days of the 2013 growing season, long before the riotous appearance of purple and orange and pink and yellow and red that currently, i.e., early July, festoons the gardens at Buckingham Road. Presented here, one newly emerging hosta, a plant that has many, many varieties, all named after the Austrian botanist Nicolaus Host and described as “any of a genus (Hosta) of Asian perennial herbaceous plants of the lily family with densely growing basal leaves and tall racemes of white or violet flowers – called also funkia, plantain lily.” Funkia, I didn’t know that! What a wonderful name. Thank you, as always, Merriam-Webster’s.

The hosta definition is from the 11th edition of
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary © 2005.
The photo is by Catherine Rutgers © 2013.

Posted in Snapped | Tagged gardening, green, hostas | 6 Comments

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Posted on June 28, 2013 by CatRutgers4Art

Think Sly and the Family Stone. Think warm and rainy and sunny at the same time. But don’t think too much. Love, Cat

P.S. Just one pic here. Clouds from the sunset on June 26, 2009. See you in July!

Posted in Snapped | Tagged favorite photos, sunset, urban sky | 4 Comments

Ova (Part One)

Posted on May 23, 2013 by CatRutgers4Art

In the beginning, there is an egg. You, me, and a bajillion other fascinating creatures start with this. Wonderfully weird. These two are from neighborhood chickens and were refrigerated in a ruby-red bowl for more than a year because I loved their shape and color. Companion items—tiny pinecones, a red-plastic game chip, a peach-pink light bulb, coal-black styrofoam—were nestled in a bowl on my kitchen table. Tenderly balanced for their scanning session, and boldly transmuted in their close-ups, I now present an even dozen on the mysteries of origins and outcomes.

Posted in Revelations | Tagged digital art, eggs, high-resolution scans | 4 Comments

Perennial Love Light: The Very Cherry Edition

Posted on May 1, 2013 by CatRutgers4Art

“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.

01 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