Airspace: Words, objects and breath
Buttons as portals to memory and meaning
Buttons: Usually disk-like pieces of solid material having holes or a shank to which it is sewed to one side of an article of clothing and used to fasten or close the garment by passing through a hole or loop in the other side.1
Buttonology: The Practice of Collecting Buttons.2
Self-Portrait: A depiction of an artist created by themselves.
Play: Engage in activities for fun or enjoyment.3
Negative Space (sometimes called ‘air space’): In art and design, the empty space around and between the subject of an image.4
Kaleidoscopic: Marked by a variety of usually vivid colors.5
Clutter: To fill or scatter with disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness.6
What is the balance of light, space, air and color you seek? Sometimes a kaleidoscopic view is what a person craves; Other times, it’s something calming and monochromatic.
Rest: repose, sleep, peace of mind or spirit.
As often happens, my rest involves some kind of motion, like taking a dress on a photo shoot, and stillness, like breathing into and taking time with each image I create.
Gratitude.
More play…and wonder.
Photographing Buttons.
Sewing Buttons.
Thinking about Buttons.
How many buttons did all those women around the hem of this dress sew?7
And what does hold me/us together…and keep me/us connected, especially when overwhelm sets in?
For me:
Step one: Go outside and get some fresh air (thanks to my mother for that intervention).
Step two: Do what I love (thanks to my grandmother for encouraging me ‘always follow your interests).8
Step three: Keep showing up (thanks to decades of living).
Step four: Find joy in some small delightful micro-moment…like when the sun casts just the right light on a group of wood, leather and woven buttons..and then goes behind a cloud, enabling calming even light.
If you have any button stories of your own, please share them here.9
Thank you, as always, for sharing your time and this space with me.
With gratitude for you being you (and Lilly being Lilly),
Lyn
It’s still brown here in Vermont…bulbs are just barely coming out of the soil.
Who knew this week’s compost, with those purple carrot stubs, would look so good with that purple thread and silk button and match book?
From: https://www.britannica.com/topic/button-clothing-accessory ; And did you know that there is a National Button Society? Check out their website!
Vintage Button Collecting is a thing. This definition was at the top of a Google search, but is described in more depth at Honest Estate Sales.
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/play - - There are many more definitions of play, especially in relation to child development and literacy, but this is the simplest.
There’s lots more about Negative Space on Wikipedia…and in all kinds of articles about art. I am really curious about how to create more ‘breathing room’ not just in my photography, but in my life as well.
There are different ways to describe kaleidoscopic - - The definition about color comes from Merriam-Webster and is how I think of the word, but others talk about things being in motion, as one experiences when looking through and turning an actual kaleidoscope: Containing a lot of different parts that are always changing (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary).
This definition of Clutter is from Merriam-Webster again. I am interested that it doesn’t talk about how some clutter can fill a space with color and delight; Other clutter can take up the air-space in a room, making it hard to breath.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot with my own photography…my palette had tended toward the kaleidoscopic…filling a frame with color, texture, etc as with my three main bodies of work: Meandering Mold; Compost: Muse & Metaphor; 370 N. Plainfield Road: An Intimate Portrait (of a landfill).
Check out my post in March about the names on this dress: Boundaries & Women’s History.
In addition to being a photographer, I love to make things with my hands. The tactile experience of sewing buttons, mending clothes and embroidery fills me with joy. I notice when I haven’t been making something with my hands…I’m more restless…and I realize that when I’m not making something, I’m having way too much screen time.
I am endlessly surprised by what I notice, or don’t notice, like each of these blocky brown invitations are also called Buttons in the drop-down menu for Substack. Too funny. I’d never really thought about that until today!
Ack! Your beautiful and creative photos have made my regrets about donating a similar stash of buttons soar!! I loved the photo with threads pulling up like shoots out of frame and the buttons seeming to me like the earth 🩷
I have tins of buttons. Some inherited from previous generations, some purchased from antique stores in an insatiable quest for mother of pearl. It was worth it to buy a tin of miscellaneous buttons on the change that some (or many!) would turn out to be something other than plastic.
My favorite button story though is from a summer decades ago when I was on an archaeological dig on the west coast of Peru. I was heading for a rock, preparing to sit down for a break, and I tripped over something in the sand. When I scuffed away the top layer with my boot toe, it turned out to be -- a button! A button made of tightly rolled wool cloth stitched to a scrap of the same cloth. Why is this exciting? Because to the best of current knowledge, buttons and buttonholes did not exist in that area before Europeans arrived. But the cloth was not a European product. Merging of technologies! Cool!