Sprigged & Spotted

Tag: essay

  • Tools and Trade Offs: Keeping Artificial Intelligence in its Proper Place [Creating without AI]

    Tools and Trade Offs: Keeping Artificial Intelligence in its Proper Place [Creating without AI]

    Artificial intelligence is NOT used to write this blog.

    Valuing the Process

    Sometimes a thing worth doing… is worth doing the slow, handmade way. This blog is one of those things. I do not use any chatbots or other AI tools to formulate ideas or craft my sentences. Such shortcuts would completely miss the point.

    This blog demonstrates a track record of valuing slow creative endeavors.

    I run on lots of coffee (usually the drip kind with a little half & half and sugar) and the wonder of discovery. Throughout my life, I have reveled in creative work that takes time and thoughtfulness. Although this website shares just a tiny taste of my lifetime of projects, several examples of my deliberative, attentive endeavors (and writing about them) currently exist as blog posts as on this very platform:

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  • Grinning Pumpkins: Why Jack-O’-Lanterns are the best part of Halloween

    Grinning Pumpkins: Why Jack-O’-Lanterns are the best part of Halloween

    Jack O’Lanterns might be my favorite part of the American tradition of Halloween. Perhaps this is because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth or love of the horror genre, but I genuinely enjoy carving pumpkins and seeing my neighbors’ creations. Walking down a neighborhood street, following clumps of Trick-or-Treaters, and seeing the flickering faces of orange orbs adorning doorsteps and pathways makes the effort worthwhile.

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  • Advent of Photography: Portraits for the Rest of Us

    Advent of Photography: Portraits for the Rest of Us

    What if you had no photos of anyone you’ve ever known?

    Lately, I have been browsing various museums and historical society websites in search of portraits from the earliest age of photography. Whether they are daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, or albumen, they captivate me.

    The names of so many of the sitters have been lost to time, but their images persist. Their bones or ashes have long been returned to dust, yet these were the first so-called common people with the ability to preserve a version of their corporeal form.

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  • The Open Window: A Timeless Pleasure of Oncoming Spring

    The Open Window: A Timeless Pleasure of Oncoming Spring

    Isn’t it a pleasure to open your windows on a gently warm Spring day and welcome in the breeze?

    Where I now live, in central North Carolina, we experience four fully-fledged seasons. Winters are mild, summers are muggy. And, like most, I’m grateful for climate-controlled spaces during the most extreme temperature swings of the year. But, each year, I savor that sweet spot right before the annual explosion of pollen turns the whole landscape yellow. Mild, short-sleeve-worthy days haven’t yet given way to the sweaty, sweltering ones.

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  • A life of layers: the Lens of Material Culture

    A life of layers: the Lens of Material Culture

    Some bits of material culture come and go. Others stick with us for centuries.

    I am fascinated by what stays and what goes. How do our objects, our clothing, our pastimes reflect our present and our past?

    These are questions I want to explore here.

    I hope you join me for the journey.

    Draped linen fabric image