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It was going to be blue. But I am yellow. Not as in cowardly, but as in sunflower.
Except I may also be cerulean, or azure. Lapis or ultramarine. Any of the deep whimsey that paints itself into the corner of bluedom. And really, it was the sky.
Yesterday so gray and dim, all the wetness half way soaked into ground. The river two feet higher, brown mud swirled, our beach by the swimming hole swamped and in a day or two, if the clear holds, it will be back. All the water having swept debris towards the lake.
Today, the air was almost crisp. Fresh, the humidity rained into puddles. If I got to choose only one word, it would be glorious... a striking beauty or splendor that evokes feelings of delighted admiration (wonderful, marvelous, magnificent, superb, sublime, spectacular, lovely, fine, delightful)... sublime. Another one I could steal.
How can the dome of nothingness over our heads bring such primal joy? Release, positivity?
Alfred Steiglitz did this series of Equivalents in the 1920's and early 30's, black and white photographs of the sky. They were both abstract and representational, perhaps of something more than what floats above, came to equal deeply personal resonances. Here is a great esoteric essay written by Minor White on the series. If you want to just see his images, type in "Steiglitz Equivalents" into your google browser and hit images and you can see how differently each one resonates.
So in a mini Steiglitz homage, I took pictures of the sky in all it's magnificence. The clouds so brilliantly white. No one could be blue on a day like today. Here are a few minutes of my abstract happiness:
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The last one almost makes me dizzy. I could have flipped it in the editing program but that is sometimes how it feels, lying on your back, looking up.
Since this is turning out to be a photo blog today, one more piece of sky.
As in the limit.
Joe sent me this link, the British Library's free collection on Flickr Commons. It is free for anyone to download and use, however they choose, over a million images. So many possibilities...
Those are just things that struck my fancy but there are letters, landscapes, photographs... a half a day could be spent scrolling.
I think of my cousin Erin, the beautiful designs she does, always looking for fresh source materials. Every artist should know about this... a whole catalog of clipart that is ours for the taking.
After yesterday, today came out of the clear blue. I am just going to float.
sky
[skī/]
noun
1. the region of the atmosphere and outer space seen from the earth; the clouds or the upper air; "hundreds of stars shining in the sky"
synonyms: upper atmosphere; heavens, firmament, blue, (wide) blue yonder, welkin, azure, empyrean
2. literary heaven or firmament; appearing as a great arch or vault.
3. heavenly power; supernal or celestial heaven: "look to the sky for help."
4. the climate: "the sunny skies of Italy."
5. Obsolete. a cloud.
verb
1. to raise, throw, or hit aloft, in the air
2. hang (a picture) very high on a wall, especially in an exhibition, above the line of vision.
Origin
Middle English 1175-1225: from Old Norse ský ‘cloud.’ cognate with OldEnglish scēo cloud. The verb dates from the early 19th century.
