"Undulous Leaf Leather"

It is an odd time of year for leaves to fall out of trees. This leaf seems to have been on the edge of dropping for months, which gave it time to dry into a leathery solid sort of reminder of life with a strong undulating form. While I was sitting on  a bench thinking, it landed solidly on my shoulder and slid making a skittering sound to rest on my seat. Every quarter or half an hour another leaf fell solidly in the small sitting area I was spending time in, but the tree above me still held on to a large number of its leaves. Many of those leaves half green and half browning gold holding onto life in a confused state. The tree never got cold enough to make a decisive drop of leaves, so the leaves hang on until they just can't. Until new leaf buds are already forming. 

"All the Cracks and Broken Bits"

On a campus that has the air of being expensively well kept, in LA where so many things aren't that old and certainly don't have the elegant patina of centuries of wear, it can be surprisingly humble and real to find signs of something beautiful showing its age and developing character. And, of course, my aesthetic sensibilities are always drawn towards patterning and how that can be broken down or convey meaning, so the bricks' regular pattern divided by cream grout and slabs of concrete then broken down by notches of freed grout and dark lined cracks running throughout draws me in and gets me thinking broadly. I hope you can find a trail of thoughts in this too.

"Light Infused Pear Blossoms"

Many pear trees are blooming white halos around the UCLA campus right now.

In this image I am interested in the comparison of two different sorts of gradients. The brick building with it's light striping at the base that gradually moves upward to other light architectural details until there is more of the darker valued brick and the light shining through the pear tree creating an almost solid white glow on the right and slowly allowing our eyes to pick up on the green foliage around the blossoms as they move away from the light. 

"Fig's Embrace"

I couldn't help but want to be drawn in by these roots, to be supported, almost in a hug. I found my thoughts exploring animism today (after wandering among statues and gazing at controlled nature for several hours of the day), even before sitting amongst these roots in the cool afternoon with the moist ocean air creating a vague impression of fog.