Mixed Bag: Pattern, Travel, and John Cage

Tivoli building, Copenhagen; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2013

My husband and I recently returned from San Francisco, where we walked eight hours a day up and down the steep hills, ate delicious dim sum, and perused the numerous independent bookstores. Airports, plane rides and evenings in our hotel room gave me plenty of time in neutral spaces (no computer, no household tasks, no studio, no phone calls) to think and read. Travel is ideal for entertaining new perspectives.

It's that time of year where I think about the big picture and I've been thinking about patterns: both of the flat-pattern repeat and the behavioural/thought varieties. I see some art work on the horizon that will address both varieties, although I don't know how at this point. Being away gave me time to engage in some fuzzy thinking: a starting point for new ventures.

Tivoli building detail, Copenhagen; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2013

At City Lights Books I found five John Cage books and bought two. It was difficult to leave with only two, but it was the beginning of the day and books are heavy to carry up and down hills for hours at a time. My interest in the thinking and work of John Cage has intensified.

The photos of the Tivoli building are from our trip to Copenhagen last year. I love the lacy pattern.