Lens Artist Challenge #397: Texture
This week Anne is inspiring us with this challenge:
How do we make our two-dimensional medium feel like three-dimensions? Texture, however, gives us the visual quality of a surface — how rough, smooth, gritty, or soft it appears in a two-dimensional image. Show us your images where texture plays an integral part.
Texture is sensual. It is tactile. It begs you to reach out and touch or stroke. When I’m hiking, that describes me to a tee. Any gnarled, rough, grooved, pitted, lumpy surface calls to me, and I cannot resist. I hope my images convey at least a degree of my fascination with and connection to, these subjects.
Touch comes before sight, before speech.
It is the first language and the last,
and it always tells the truth.⭑
This is an historic Indigenous Signal Tree, used as a way finder and a location for leaving and collecting messages in its hollow trunk. This beauty is a bent White Oak at Maidstone Conservation Area here in Essex County — a star attraction in this tract of our Carolinian Forest. You can see that the bark has been worn off and the wood rubbed smooth on the message cavity by all the hands that touched it over the years. Still, the base bark remains, deeply furrowed and rough. It was irresistible to me!
These Lake Ontario rock formations, found along the south shore of Presqu’ile Provincial Park, are limestone, and are Ordovician-aged (second period of the Paleozoic era) – meaning they’re about 450 million years old. During the late spring, summer and early autumn, they are below water. This was a favourite swimming spot for me but, to get to the deeper water, I had to cross this stone “table” which is incredibly rough (despite all the waves). What this texture meant to me was, Pam! You need your water shoes!
Close to our home is the new Gordie Howe International Bridge (linking Windsor and Detroit). Travellers and truckers alike are eagerly anticipating its opening because it will feed directly onto Highway 401, the main route east to Toronto and then across the province to Quebec. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed visiting the site to shoot its development and, on one of those occasions, we came across some dried mud where they’re constructing the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway (joining the bridge to the 401). I touched it very gently for fear I’d break it, but it was very firm and neither cracked nor crumbled under my touch. At the time (and, truthfully, still), I thought it was pretty funky!
When I was young, and we were out walking in the woods, if we ever came across a flat-topped toadstool, Dad would tell me it was a faerie dining table. I, of course, believed him! To this day, whenever I find one, I imagine the faeries gathering for dinner around their “table”. This gem was prettily marked with raised white “daubs” which were irresistible and yes, I did (softly) touch them.
Garter Snakes are as daft as they come. Once the warm sunshine hits roads, out they come, basking, sleeping, dreaming until, whomp! A car runs them over. Whenever I see one I try to scare it off the road but, if I’m unsuccessful, I’m not loathe to pick him up and relocate him to the shoulder. The fascinating thing about their skin is that it seems to be constantly contracting and expanding, which makes for an unusual sensation if you’re holding one. Happy to report, this chap survived (at least as long as I was there).
I love cows. I’m mad about them. I think they’re truly lovely, gentle creatures. Their coats are a veritable mosaic of textures, none feeling like any of the others. The hair on their foreheads is very smooth and soft. The tufts on their crowns, whilst appearing soft and wispy, are actually quite coarse. The softest and silkiest are their switches (the long, very soft hair at the ends of their tails). I always giggle if, when I’m up-close, they flick their tails (to shoo a fly, perhaps) and the switch touches and tickles me. See? I love cows!
This is my friend’s “vintage” Massey Ferguson – specifically its radiator. Just look at its texture! It begs you to touch it, and I did. ‘Though its “ribs” are quite firm, the mesh is surprisingly soft and pliable. Her name is “Sally”, she is still in working order, and I felt very lucky to “meet” her because she is just like one Cam’s dad had for years on his farm, and which Cam grew up driving. History – both Doug’s and Cam’s – and for me a remarkable texture to explore with my lens.
One of my favourite places to go shooting was Cowanville Auto Wreckers, on a very quiet country lane, just north of Newcastle, ON. The owner was extremely kind to me and very accommodating. I think he was a wee bit chuffed that I chose to go there and always seemed quite delighted when I shared a selection of the images I’d taken. My favourite shots were of engine blocks (either in, or removed from, the vehicles), but a close second was broken glass. This one, “Eighteen Circles” always intrigued me because several of the broken “webs” were raised, not sunken. Yes, I did touch it and yes, it did draw blood.
In its floral stage, the Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) looks a lot like a Thistle, indeed most folks mistakenly believe that’s what they are. Whereas Thistles are in the Aster (Asteraceae) family, Teasels are in the Honeysuckle (Caprifoliaceae) family. After their purple flowers have faded, they produce a spikey, very attractive cone. Back in pioneer days, these seed pods were used to card wool – after washing freshly shorn wool, carding was the process of untangling the fibres and removing any remaining “debris” ready for spinning. Nowadays, these beauties are collected as highly textured and prized additions to dried floral arrangements. And yes! They are exactly as sharp and prickly and unforgiving as they look!
Righto! Now that you’re all bored to tears, I’ll end – I love textures and could go on and on and on and on….
Huge thanks to Anne for creating such a wonderful challenge. I hope you’ll please visit her site to enjoy her fabulous images (just wait ’til you see her amazing header shot!), and read her narrative – you’ll not be disappointed, promise:
Lens Artist Challenge #397: Texture
‘Til next time, y’all…
Leave a Reply