swans on film
summertime and i'm feeling...... fine
hello junebugs :) this months bird is the double-crested cormorant. unlike many other waterbirdss, cormorant feathers are not waterproof. having feathers that can get drenched helps them dive deeper and faster after fish, and cut down on buoyancy. it also means that after a dive, they dry their feathers before taking flight. i drew the double-crested cormorant in this sun basking pose, elegantly showing off their wings.
june has been a difficult month for me. i’m in the midst of a major growing pains era that has left me overwhelmed with difficult feelings, and with little energy to put into things that i can show you on this newsletter. that being said, i have managed to do some knitting and photography this summer that i’d like to show off :)
i split the stripey romper i made a couple months ago into a two-piece! rompers just do not make sense to wear in my life, and now that it’s split into a cropped tank-top and shorts, i know i’m going to get a lot more wear out of it. i winged the process but it turned out to be a really simple adjustment that consisted of 1. putting in two stitch holding threads on either side of the row where i wanted it split 2. attacking with scissors 3. picking up stitches to add ribbing on the top and a folded hem with an elastic band on the shorts.
i also knit this vest in like 6 days which is a new record. i impulse purchased this beautiful springtimey cotton & silk blend noro yarn and i think just watching the colors change was motivation enough to work on it so fast. i’m very pleased with how it turned out, and i definitely will be using the pattern again (its free!) to make vests with colorwork designs.
i also learned how to double-knit for a local art swap event, but i, being a fool, didn’t take one single picture of either of the tapestries i finished, so please imagine two small tapestries with dancing keith haring figures on them. please clap.
in may, i took a film camera out on a little bike ride around the lake with the hopes of seeing baby birds on the water, and the lake blessed me with mute swan cygnets and a small family of mallard ducks! i’m completely clueless to how to take “good” film photographs and was really just having fun pointing and clicking the button, but i recently got my developed film back and i’m actually really pleased with how imperfect they are. some photos turned out good, but most of them are over-exposed, burnt, misaligned, or just static.
i find that the variability of my kind of bad film photographs make a better parallel to the quality of memories, where the reality you experienced is misremembered, fragmented, blurry, or covered by your thumb (metaphorically) but parts of the reality are there, surrounded by a haze of color and the stories you continuously tell yourself about what happened. digital photos are great for “accurately” capturing reality, but i realize i don’t always want accuracy when i’m taking photos to help remember something. i biked around the lake and saw mother swans sitting on their nests, and ducklings swimming, and i was excited to capture their image, not thinking about what the results would look like. i’m excited to take my last film roll out, and take pictures of whatever i find worth taking pictures of just for the sake of it.
i hope you all are finding pleasant ways to spend your summer! if all fails, looking at a small animal outside will always beat sitting alone in your room, i can guarantee it :-) in no particular order, here are all the lovely little things that have brought me joy this month: pierogis, functional AC, With Every Heartbeat by Robyn, going to the beach on the hottest day all year, waffle cones, buttons, dying clothes purple, Taskmaster, pesto pasta, the Perfect Person Podcast, and trumpeter swans. goodbye for now! ~
i hope you enjoyed reading this installment of my newsletter! if you have thoughts to share/questions to ask/fun facts to tell me about, please reach out to me by replying to this email, or messaging me on any of my social media linked on my website at augustcampbellart.com - thank you!