Negative space reversal

OK, now I'm really feeling crazy.  First there's the expresso which didn't make anything but water.  Did I do it right?  How could the grinds be there, the switch on, and there's clear water in the container?  Well, try pouring the water through the machine, Barb.  Duh.

Will the car keys be in the freezer next week? 

I've been wondering why everything is so hard to do these days.

Then I noticed the first time I looked a picture, I had figure ground reversed completely.  The shape looked kind of like one thing, and had something over it.  And then a few minutes later I looked again, and the convexity of it had changed to concavity.

It's not exactly figure/ground reversal.  It's changing an object that comes toward you in the middle to one that recedes away in the middle.  Nothing made sense before, and now it does.

Did the person who posted the picture change it somehow?  No, not likely.  Just my brain.

Our dear visual connection to our brains.  On some TV show there was the comment that since our brains are wired to take the upside down images from our eyes and make sense that they are right side up...if we wore lenses to change them back so our eyes actually saw things right side up, it would take 3 days for our brains to adjust.

I didn't need 3 days to switch from concave to convex.  But it may tell you why I'm fascinated with this imagery.

Negative space

This was the gardenia bush a week ago, just pushing out blooms to beat the band.  And lots of buds promising more to come.

I would put the pot in the sunshine in the mornings, then leave it on the coffee table, it's small enough, for the rest of the day and night.

When it is done blooming, I hope to repot it.  But don't want to shock it at this point.  No buds have fallen off (yet).  And no more leaves are yellowing and falling off since I brought it inside out of 90 degree sunshine.  (It was on the southeastern porch of my house ever since frosts stopped)

I've been cutting off blooms for 2 weeks at least...and took about 12 to the TailGate last weekened.  Wore one to church for 2 Sundays.  Put a pot of them at the studio for a few days...but there's a fierce air conditioner fan which blasted them to browness quickly.  Anyway, this is almost all of the buds having opened.  There may be a dozen still to come.  I think maybe I should fertilize this lady, who has been blooming so profusely for me.

Sorry I can't do scratch and sniff for you.  Walking through my house is really something else!

Profile of a vase with negative space.  I have gotten back to this finally.  Making concave surfaces within the exerior walls of a vase.

It's fun to try to take a picture of this little leaning but interesting piece.

And though my initial reaction to the glaze is that it's flawed, I've come to enjoy the crackle of the HR Satin over a layer of Fish Sauce Slip.

And even the funky way it leans and sways.

Even though it was another test of how the Satin and cobalt slip combine, and has that drip about to fall out of the concave portion...I've grown to enjoy looking at it.  However, when I glance across the room at it, it does look rather sad.

Did I mention it was made out of brownstone clay?  Thus the Fish Sauce White Slip.

So it's not going to be for sale, but go to my "body of work."  That means I'll have to dust it for years probably.  (If you know me, I never dust.)

Tomorrow I'll show you some bowls, some in speckled brownstone that go to a stacking set, some that had a glaze accident.  If you're a potter you know about those!