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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Question of Perspective...

I've participated in a few really different art challenges this month, and they made me ponder perspective.

A friend sent me this great article with 47 things you should know about yourself. It's fantastic - you should take the time to read each of them. One of them dealt with what is called the "canonical perspective" that people draw objects with. If you ask people to draw a coffee cup, nearly everyone will draw them from this angle:
I repeated this experiment with my friends Yvonne and Chriss at our stampy dinner last week, and they drew the cups this way too. But this isn't the way you normally see your coffee cup. You rarely have your chin on the table when you are looking at your cup - you're normally above it. And yet our brains picture this canonical perspective instead.

So when the Austin Fiber Artists challenge group issued a challenge to create a piece of art with an aerial view, I picked an aerial view of a cup. A teacup, to be exact. The only other requirement was that it include some sort of fiber. I made a cup of my favorite Wild Sweet Orange tea on a saucer, on a doily, on a blue table.

I just mixed acrylic paints to get the right blue on a small canvas. The doily is from MFT. The saucer I cut with my Big Shot Circle Die, and I edged that and the handle with a Pentel Sunburst Gold pen. The tea is Peach Parfait ink, applied directly to the cardstock, and then covered with Crystal Effects.


I stuck the teabag string into the Crystal effects while it was wet to attach it. That's what tea really looks like from my perspective.

Speaking of perspective - here's something that will make you think, from our family in Minot, ND.


On Mon at 4pm we got the 48 hr. official evacuation notice from our home.  With a call to my brother, at 4:45pm, we began to plan evacuating our home on Tuesday morning. Four pickups, one flat bed trailer and one extended horse trailer arrived at our home at 6 am and began moving all our 34 years of belongings.  Two trips to Glenburn,  (23 miles north of Minot) with each vehicle we called it a day for our movers.  Our evacuation time was cut to noon on Wednesday. With one more trip on Wednesday morning, with the 4 vehicles,  by 10:30 AM, we headed out of town before Minot's north exit was cut off from the valley.
 
We are tired, sore, and still moving on God knows what, but we are safe.
 
Took a little break on Saturday from all the chaos in town and stayed in the country.  That helped. Sunday after the crest, we went in town on back roads where cars have a hard time getting through.  The devastation is so much I can't even express it.  We still do not know how far the water got up in our house. I'm sure to the third floor and maybe the eaves.  Last night. I looked at some photos on Facebook in our part of town and all you can see is rooftops.  Couldn't sleep.  Today I spent all day calling FEMA, deferring payments, etc. Tomorrow will be the same.

 Here are some photos from a fellow stamper from Minot of her home and neighborhood in Minot. I can't even imagine.

If you had less than 48 hours to try to salvage everything you've ever owned, what would that do to your perspective?

Please keep these people in Minot in your prayers. 

If you want to help, you can text Minot to 80888 to donate $10.



10 comments:

  1. I come to visit for your funny stuff, for your creations, and your observations. And I love that I'm leaving today with some real food for thought. Thank you, Lydia.

    On a lighter note, your teacup made me roaput. It's perfect!

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  2. Your teacup is outstanding and your ND news is heartbreaking. Talk about perspective...I'm trying to imagine traveling room to room while a house is under water...eerie. I wish your family better days ahead.

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  3. LUV the teacup ... your creativity is truly amazing!

    My heart is full of tears and prayers for everyone in Minot and the surrounding areas. Thanks for the personal "up close" viewpoint from your family.

    (((hugs)))
    Bev

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  4. I was all HAPPY and WOW and SHE IS SO SMART and then you hit me and knocked me down. I audibly gasped at those photos.

    No, I cannot imagine what those people are going through. I even sat here and thought about it for a while. (You know, sometimes a teeny tiny condo does have its advantages. ;/ )

    Thank you for your perspective, and my heart goes out to your family and everyone else in Minot.

    tabilixl - a tablet form of medicine, aka: elixr

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  5. Great perspective, insightful writing. Thank you for both.

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  6. Wow. Fascinating link and amazing teacup. Followed up by heartbreaking photos and information on "real life" stuff for people. I knew that I was not the only one that couldn't really multi-task. I don't know an anti spam word by mictos is what is up for me to type in....which spell check wants to change to micros. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Thank you for your thought-provoking blog entry on perspective and, well, perspective. We were involved in the Agnes flood in NE PA and left our home on June 23, 1972. Thoughts of that time come rushing back each time I see another community flooded, and Minot's situation looks very ominous. Everyone please support whatever charity you prefer at whatever level you can; those people will need moral support and sustenance for some time; recovery lasts for a long while. We're still finding flood mud in new places after 39 years.

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  8. hard to imagine what i'd do. a lifetime of archives, faced with certain destruction, and 48 hours to decide what is really meaningful? Food for thought. And I like the teacup as well. perspective.

    "iders" if they can't decide whether they're "insiders" or and "outsiders", they're just "iders"

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  9. I enjoy your blog; it's full of honest and amusing chatter as well as your creative talent. My heart goes out to you, your family and neighbors during this challenging time. It can't be a coincidence that you were pondering the "perspective" of things - because life is how you perceive it to be and the existence of challenges depends on your perspective.

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