Unintentional art . . . corrugated metal

"Unintentional art" generally refers to anything that was created with no real artistry in mind, something functional, ordinary, accidental, but, from the standpoint of an artist looking at it, is amazingly, accidentally artistic. I find this sort of thing all the time and take exceptional delight in it.

Here's an example. While walking down a street in Kyoto, I came upon an old rusty metal wall. Most people wouldn't take a second look. Except me.

There's so much to love about this little scene. The weathered metal, the wavy corrugations that give the metal depth, the gorgeous color of the rust, the complementary colors of blue and orange, the mysterious door with no handle, no doorknob, the soft light which creates a lovely glow.

Teaching photographers to see is a huge challenge for an instructor. I've always said, "You can't shoot it if you don't see it." Awareness is everything. So this bit of unintentional art, accidental art, commonplace materials, if you are aware, jumps out and just begs to be photographed. Or painted. Or simply admired. A wonderful gift to those who really look.

©2019 Carol Leigh

WHAT-IFFING: Unnatural Colors

In July, I was thinking about complementary colors and began playing around with a picture I have of a green palm frond I photographed in Florida.

Off the top of my head, I don't recall how I turned it into this -- I would have to bring up that file and look at all the layers and see what the sequence was, and since I'm having computer problems at the moment, that's not in the cards.

Even though these are ridiculous colors for a palm frond, I really liked the vibrancy, the combo of purple and yellow, and the overall simplicity of the picture.

It looked good as a full-frame horizontal image, and when I squarified it, it looked good that way, too.

So here they are. Two formats and an example of what just playing around can do for you.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

2017-02-02

This 2 is part of a series of 10 that I did for Fine Art America, each number a different color, with a different background, and then I made a sweeping line of colored dots at the bottom that, to me, makes the number look like it's floating in water.

Hence the title for the series: "Numerical Flotation Devices."

Have any of them sold? No more than one, if that. Ah, well. One keeps trying . . .

Here's a link to the gallery of 10.

©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.