Sunday, January 20, 2013

Do You See What I See?

looking vs Seeing


How much time do you spend looking versus seeing? 

Looking is passive – seeing is active. How many of you after spending several minutes or even several hours with someone can answer this question? 

What color were their eyes?

Unless there is something that creates a striking contrast, most people will never remember eye color.

I wonder how much of life we are missing because we have turned into passive lookers rather than active see-ers? I am taking up a challenge this year to become more of an active see-er rather than a passive looker. I expect it to filter its way into much of my life, but I am making it a monthly artistic challenge and writing about it for the online publication I work for, GeaugaNews.com, where you will find my full article. 

Below is my office-craft-laundry-bedroom. It is about 10' x 15'. 


This is the linoleum floor.


Here is a close up of one of the squares.....what do you see?


Here's what I saw.



I made a pencil rubbing, 


cut them out and added the second pencil rubbing.


I cut out appliques from cotton fabrics and placed them on a cream polka dot background that has fleece lining underneath.


I stitched the cats on, 



and placed the third tiny cat where I wanted him,


then traced around him with my fine point brown marker and used acrylic paint for details.


I added clouds



and a cotton back with another striped cat like the front one,


quilted around the clouds and small cat then added the road for perspective with some random stitching.


After sewing the back and front together, I now have a lovely pillow for my Catcalls shop! Click on the picture if you are interested in purchasing it or any other of the handmade cat-themed items in my shop! 


TADA!



What do YOU see that others only look at?





3 comments:

  1. That is so cool!!! I love how you follow your eyes all the way to production...GREAT!! :-]

    ReplyDelete
  2. You make a very good point. The difference is that you took the time to follow through on what you saw!! : )
    ~Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's very lovely, Patty !

    May I ask what you were doing staring at the floor for so long ?
    rotfl. ha ha ha. are you busted ? ha ha ha.

    LOVE the pillow :)
    xo
    Nicole

    ReplyDelete