the cassandra pages

Snowscapes of home

The landscape of central New York State, where I grew up, is unmistakable to anyone who has lived there, and when there's snow on the ground it accentuates the forms of the land. I took some pictures from the car when we were visiting my father back in January, and recently made some drawings in pen-and-ink with a light wash added at the end.

The bare, mostly-deciduous trees, the gently rolling hills, the snowy fields, the fences and weeds sticking up through the snow, the fallen branches and isolated farm buildings and roads all contribute to the particular feeling of these rural landscapes that begin somewhere near Canajoharie and stretch past Utica to the east and west, and continue down to the south toward Binghamton.

Better seen from Rt 20 than from the Thruway, it's a pastoral patchwork of small farms, creeks, swamps, and woods that changes with every dip or turn in the road, and has a particular beauty I've never encountered anywhere else. It got imprinted on me at an early age, and will always say "home."

Two Still Lives

View full screen for best effect.

In the past couple of weeks, I've been trying out some semi-professional video editing programs, and learning to use their various features. I finally settled on Filmora9 for the time being; it has all the features I've wanted, with a good interface and help menus, and a not-too-steep learning curve.

One of the things I've wanted to do is to create videos using still images, either combined with actual video footage, or not, that have "camera motion" added in the editing process -- the so-called "Ken Burns effect" which actually entails a whole set of decisions involving different motions, transitions, durations, and edits. Here's my first publishable effort -- and obviously it doesn't have a sound track, that's another whole area to learn about. (Dave Bonta, I'm thinking of you and your moving poems, and all the work that's gone into them over the years.)

Video creation and editing are a lot of fun, and the perfect, picky sort of work that I like. This is something I've wanted to do for years. It should be a help for Phoenicia, for my own artwork, and for various organizations I'm involved with. The second project I've been working on is a five-minute loop of photographs J. took at the Montreal Climate March this past fall, which he'll be showing at the cathedral during Nuit Blanche on February 29, and I'll see if I can post that here after the event.

Goodbye, Mini

The life of one of our dearest feline friends is ending today. The Mini has lived with Ed and Martine for fifteen years, so we've known him almost as long as we've known them. They were two of our first friends in Montreal -- we met through our blogs even before we moved up here, and have stayed close ever since. Our shared love of cats is one of the things we have in common, and we've both taken care of each other's cats during vacations. I always liked to watch and to draw Mini, who is totally black, muscular and male, and thus totally different from our small three-colored Manon. When we have dinner at Ed and Martine's place, Mini usually hangs around and seems to recognize us, and he often gets up in one of the chairs and "sits" with us during the meal, his little face peering over the edge of the table as if he's another person with his own place. He's just a great cat, with a big personality.

But he's been sick for a while now, and the time had come for his humans to make the hard but kindest decision. His life will end at home, he'll be at peace, and we will start the process of missing him, and remembering him. My heart goes out to Ed and Martine today.

 

The Life of Flowers

 

In these days when everything human beings are doing seems so screwed up, here's something truly beautiful, both in the animation artwork and the miracle of what it's showing. Enjoy.