Under the lovely leadership of Curiosity Global founder Karen Ward, I joined a world-wide group in devoting two weeks to using our curious eyes to find versions of her various daily themes. Each day we’d follow her prompt and capture it with #mycuriouseyes. It was a fortnight of snapshots and deep thoughts, a time to reflect on what we see, how we see, why we see, who we are…
In the end, it was a reminder: if we look for things, we’re much more likely to find them!
Click any picture for captions and a slide show.
Day 1 #color
I can’t keep my eyes off these cheerful Clementines. They look to me like a holiday cross-over, something between tiny pumpkins and the tangerines we stick in the toes of our Christmas stockings…
Day 2 #shape
I thought about organic shapes and the influence of wind and water (of which we had plenty today). I thought about the built environment. I thought about how I move through space of any shape. In the end, it was my own soggy feet on the geometry of my kitchen floor that summed it all up for me. As the polls close here in Virginia, the prayer-like shape seems apt…
Day 3 #texture
I started out focused on the tactile and visual pleasures of texture, but was soon absorbed by its functional appeal as well. In the studio I’m typically fixated on sound, but today my gaze went past the microphone to the fabulous, acoustically-designed wall.
Day 4 #light
A day filled with appreciating light, mostly diffuse and reflected, on this dim day. But there was nothing indistinct about the view from my living room floor as I lay there doing my PT! Love my Art Deco fixture.
Day 5 #movement
On a windy day when *everything* seemed to be moving, it was the “perpetual motion machines” of water and the slanting light of a setting sun that really caught my curious eye.
Day 6 #freestyle I went into today’s theme with the transformative power of attention in mind and spent some time really looking at the overlooked, under-appreciated micro-climates of #color, #light, #shape and #texture around me. The theory goes: if you pay enough attention, anything becomes interesting. Hypothesis supported.
Day 7 #freestyle
On a day that is devoted to duty (housework and a board retreat), I used my time with the vacuum to consider that most wonderful #freestyle question: “How might we…?”
Day 8 #depth
Today’s theme felt like an amalgam of many others — #color, #shape, #texture, #light. I found depth inseparable from height and focal point, a function of context. The rich interplay of color and darkness, smoothness and etching on this old tray from an uncle who died this summer gave expression to other depths: of history, relationship, gratitude and grief.
Day 9 #humor This was a challenging day (hacked email, no heat, late guest, packed schedule), so I really appreciated being reminded to look for the smiles—- like when I hurried past the studio and was reminded how not soundproof things are around here. I actually loved hearing the live band as a backdrop to my day, even if I shouldn’t have been hearing them! If you look closely you can see the guitarist at work. Good tunes!
Day 10 #irony
It struck me as ironic that my window was keeping this little guy *in*
Day 11 #self
Good Morning! Years ago an executive coach challenged me to design my perfect morning as a way of getting at some questions I had about my work. The insights, and challenge, have stayed with me. This is a picture of what makes for my good mornings: eating right, drinking right, exercise, morning pages, family, my favorite old rocking chair by a window with lovely light —- and, represented by Kermit there over my shoulder, exchanging smiles and morning greetings with strangers, first thing.
Day 12 #joy
I will continue to keep my curious, joyful eyes open today, but the moment I walked out into THIS, I couldn’t wait…“Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all – that is my religion.” ~John Burroughs
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