Get Your Art Eyes On

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I catch myself thinking drab thoughts.

turn ugly to beautiful

A cigarette butt converses with a dried leaf
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

I am in a drab place. I must trudge across an underground carpark and it is eternal.

Trudge This Way
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

It is the Sahara desert and I am weary. Where’s the camel when you need it? Oh. That’d be the fully functioning car I just parked. I forget to be grateful for the privileged first world life I lead. Facebook friends post photos of exotic meals in exotic spas in exotic forests near exotic mountains. I am in a carpark.

There’s a feather if you look
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

I snap

myself out of rolling tedium.

What about tapping my own wisdom? I remember my statement and my blog: Art is Everywhere (if you quiet your mind to see it)

Does this look maybe like a little island to you?
What do you see?
It’s a stumpy lump of concrete with smatterings of dried leaf.
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

Here’s a challenge.

I will set about finding beauty

amidst ugliness.

I direct my attention to seeking beauty. If not beauty, then at least an interesting line or texture or surface. I bring mindfulness and kindfulness to the situation. It’s rather wabi-sabi, this approach.

mundane loveliness

Pull back the green curtain to reveal…a label
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

I Get My Art Eyes On.

My trusty old phone helps me out with taking photos of grubby, pockmarked, littered, cracked corners of the carpark. I am happy. I’ve shifted my mood and perspective.

fire hydrant graffitti art

Piece de Resistance –
Firegard Mandala
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

I recommend Getting Your Art Eyes On.

Swain beauty in ugliness

Finding Beauty in Pigeon Poo. Now THERE’S a challenge. Might it possibly look like a starry night over an odd planet? If you squint your eyes and really try hard to revision the disgusting view?
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

What’s an aesthetically displeasing environment you sometimes visit?

Can you find pockets

of loveliness, quirkiness or intrigue

by simply setting an intention to see them?

sticker graffitti

Firegard Mandala 2
Sally Swain
Get Your Art Eyes On

 

24 thoughts on “Get Your Art Eyes On”

          • Sally, I do love the writing process, and, in conjunction with the blog posts I have found alot of fun in taking photos again. I used to like photography when I was younger and traveled more, but, I started taking the camera to the Park where I walk everyday. I think it has enhanced the blog, just like your pictures do, so people can see what I am seeing on my walks. I actually have a Word document in my computer filled with ideas and tidbits from my walking that I can draw from down the line, but I usually write about things that happened that day. Today, I was at the Park and it was a beautiful sunshiny day. I took a picture of my shadow – very long shadow, but I am 5’9″ tall, so that’s pretty tall. I always write about the squirrels in the Park coming to greet me, and dancing around my feet til they get peanuts. So today, I took a second picture and it was my shadow and my little furry friend’s shadow. I will use it the next time it is sunny and call it “Me and My Shadow” … I’d do it today, but on Tuesdays I usually do “Tuesday Musings” and it is “half-written in my head already” 🙂 I hope the pictures turns out. And, I’m no photographer, but sometimes I’m lucky, like the squirrel in yesterday’s post … up close and personal. I worried when I started the blog five years ago that I would run out of things to say, but I haven’t yet, though I am sure some people say to themselves “oh not Linda writing about squirrels again!”

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            • Thanks Sally – I love going there every day – it is peaceful, a woodsy park with a Creek running through right in the middle of the City. There are squirrels, ducks, geese and all their noises and antics … it sets the tone for my day. 🙂

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            • Lovely. We sure need these green spaces in the city. There’s a large park in Sydney that I’ve heard described as the Green Lung of the inner west. I’m picturing ducks, geese and squirrels all getting about their activity.

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            • Our city is small (Lincoln Park, Michigan) and to me it is exciting to just escape to that Park which is 3/4s of a mile from my house to the Park … a little nature nook and the sounds of the ducks and geese and their raucous calls and squirrels dashing about, coming over to get peanuts, just makes my day. It’s a shame you don’t have squirrels, though they are mischievous as well – they chew telephone cables, dig holes in flower beds and in lawns to hide their nuts … and they get into attics. But that said, they are lovable once they trust you. 🙂

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            • We have possums! At night. Maybe some similarities to squirrels. Lovable, fluffy, cute and adored by many. A great big nuisance as well e.g. thumping on roof, peeing everywhere, eating up trees and destroying them! We have squawky amazing colourful native birds such as rainbow lorikeets, even near the city.
              Lovely to hear about different urban vistas.

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            • Yes, I enjoy that part of the blogging and hearing other people’s environments … makes it interesting. We have possums, but not too many of them.

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            • Sally, I follow a woman’s blog – she lives in Australia and I’m not sure where, but I just looked at her “About” page and she mentions at one time moving to Australia, southeast of Melbourne. She has a son who died three years ago of testicular cancer and she sends a poem to him every day – very sad and she is right now awaiting a possible cancer diagnosis after tests were taken – she’s already had a melanoma. At any rate, Melanie and I often chat it up and compare weather. Today’s blog post shows some residual snow from yesterday, but her post from 02/28 shows a whole lot of snow. Here is her link so you can see the past two days:
              https://alienblob.com/

              We had 60 degrees yesterday, and it started to rain overnight and it morphed into snow – some parts (northern suburbs) will see up to 9 inches of snow. I live in the southern suburbs and we are getting anywhere from 2-5 inches of snow! No trip to the Park for awhile at this rate – they do not plow or brush off the perimeter path that runs through the Park and the ice and snow are horrible. Another blogger I follow who lives in northern Michigan, was walking to her mailbox at the end of the property, fell on some snow-covered ice and went down hard on her hand/wrist – had to have three pins put in as broke it severely in three places. This has been a bad Winter for us – I sure will be glad to see the Spring … not that the calendar date means it will be nicer as I was born on April 14th and had many snowfalls on my birthday.

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            • Thank you, Linda. I wish you well…and your blog pals in different places too. I can’t believe it snowed near Melbourne! I was out of Oz for 10 days. Got back to Sydney Saturday and it was extraordinarily hot. Ah life. Weather. Loss. Love. Art.

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            • I was very surprised when she posted those pictures – they were beautiful, usually they are mostly pics of the sun, sky and beach … all a beautiful blue color. It is snowing like crazy right now and Winter storm watch in effect until tomorrow morning at 4:00 a.m. Always something!

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  2. Wow Sally! I love this! And I looooove the pigeon poo starry night! Ha! It TOTALLY looks like that! And the Firegard Mandala made me chuckle too! Gorgeous! Thanks for bringing such joy and lightness and reminding me to get my art eyes on! Love Sally M xoxx

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    • Great to hear from you, SallyM. Pigeon poo starry night yes! I’ve just been blessed to visit the north island of NZ, where the local pigeons are quite gorgeous…and goofy too…they apparently get drunk on berries and totter about.

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      • Ohh, SallyM. I’ve just learned that those NZ pigeons – kereru – that get berry-drunk and totter about can sometimes be injured. The drunkenness is not so funny now. Sending thoughts care for those beautiful birds. And pardon my laughter.

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  3. Love the artistic ability to find value and beauty anywhere…I thought the Island could have been a fossilised nest of the rare extinct “concretina”, bird with a fresh nest laid in it by an opportunistic Indian Minor ha ha

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  4. I love this – and I fully agree! I really believe that we do find what we look for and if we look for beauty and art and interesting textures or arrangements of colour and line and everything else, we will find it. You’ve inspired me to go out and find cool stuff to photograph while I’m doing my usual stuff! Something else to look forward to adding to my weekend.

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