What I saw, what I made

I get this all the time. "What the heck are you shooting?" "Why did you take that picture?" "What are you gonna do with that?"

And I completely understand. Here's my thought process.

We were poking around a boatyard/dump/repair facility in Anacortes, Washington and I saw a weathered wall with grungy stuff running down it, with scrapes and scratches and bits of paint.

Adrenaline rush!

I knew there was something there that I could use later, but I didn't know why or what. I just knew it was important.

Click.

My first go-round with the elements in that top picture turned into this vivid blue and red picture that could easily have been an old metal sign, perhaps a graphic element on the side of a weathered fishing boat. To create it, I took my original photo and simply added more lines, some color, and part of something else that I don't remember now.

Colorful grunginess. That's why I like the second photo. It's almost an oxymoron.

I came across the top photo again another day and wondered what else I could do. I copied it, flipped it, put in a bit of color here and there, and added the two yellowish vertical elements on the left.

I felt the arrow had to be pointing toward something, so I added a photo I'd taken of some rivets in Oregon.

But then the bottom right seemed empty to me, so I added a photo of some lettering I shot on the side of a Willys Jeep on the Oregon coast. Done!

And now you know why I get up so early in the morning.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.

What I saw, what I made, what I sold

I sold a large print (48"x32") the other day to a buyer in Canada. And the subject matter was strange. So was the composition. And even though I truly love the image, I was rather surprised that it sold.

Here you see a photograph of the entire sign. That’s not the one that sold.

Below it is a photograph of part of the sign. And this is the composition the buyer chose.

Are you interested in the thought process? Well, as I was driving along I saw an old run-down, abandoned motel. But the coolest part (for me) was the sign, rising high in the sky. So that’s what I concentrated on.

But why did I make the image I did? The one that the buyer chose? Because I “collect” photographs of arrows. Whenever I’m out and about, I’m attuned to arrows in one form or another. You can find them in graffiti, on signs, on billboards, sides of buildings, on doors, ships, and airplanes.

And because I’m subconsciously always aware of arrows, they encourage me to create some often quite weird compositions. And that’s what this is. I couldn’t isolate the arrows by themselves very easily, but I could isolate one, sort of. The bottom parts of the letters “E” and “L” echo the shape of the arrow and everything just sort of goes together.

A bonus, too, is that I always notice the color red. So for me, combining the bold white shapes of the arrow and the letters, on a brilliant red background, was sheer joy.

But it all probably would not have happened if I didn’t have a predilection for arrows. And this one became just one more in my quiver.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.