Patterns and Process

This was my final view of St. Augustine as the sun rose this morning on another lovely Florida day. We packed the car and headed for Amelia Island, where we'll stay the next five days and then fly home on Wednesday. It's grey and rainy today with possible thunderstorms in the forecast for tonight, but after three days of sunshine and beach walking, we need a quiet day.
During these days walking along the shore, my artist eye has been zeroing in on the visual feast. It seems that each day I've been here I've become more aware of the patterns everywhere I look.

The action of the water on the sand leaves patterns of stones, shells and small sticks behind as the tides shift. While some are hypnotically beautiful and complete within themselves, others inspire me to translate them into my own medium. Sticks and stones washed up by high tide suddenly seem to form scriptlike patterns, as if the planet itself is leaving messages in the sand and it is up to me to find the key to translating the unfamiliar language. I begin considering how to translate these types of marks and patterns to textiles with paint, dye and threadwork.

We spent yesterday morning at Anastasia State Park and as I walked, watching the waves hitting the shore and then recede, I began to notice shapes in the foam when it broke apart. While the shapes initially reminded me of map formations, I also began to see them forming calligraphic symbols before washing apart. Secret messages?! I got a huge smile on my face and began to take pictures. Even my husband is starting to walk around and point out anything that has a calligraphic look to it!

More notes to come. It's a bit hard to stay focused on writing when all my little antennae are waving around gathering so many ideas and images. I've spent enough time this afternoon tapping away on this keyboard. We're all settled into our room on Amelia Island so it's time to take a walk down and check out a new beach!