Strange reflections - optical oddities

Occasionally in some unexpected spot, some skewed individual like myself is right smack in the way because they have stopped to take a photo. Usually the camera is pointed a some unsuitable subject like a car fender, a puddle or a hubcap or the edge of a window.

Quite often it is nothing, nothing as in something that is reflected in something else. The odd squiggles in the photo to the left are  not a contortionist zebra. They are Venetian blinds reflected in the plastic cover of library book which is propped open on a flat surface. From most angles you can't see anything. I guess there are wrinkles in the plastic that are bending the reflection.

Or take the photo on the right, which was taken at the Freight Street Gallery. There appears to be an angry woman hovering in the frame.  Nope it's NOT a ghost. (No proof for ghosts, just a lot of  human imaginings....)  It's a reflection of a painting that is on another wall, quite far away from this nice sunset painting. It's not directly across from it, but on wall that forms an L with the wall where this paining hangs. I really don't understand the optical mechanism by which it is reflected here but -  like I said, optical oddities.

PAINTING: Tulips by Alexander Couard

This lovely little watercolor painting is by an artist named Alexander Perot Couard. When my parents got married in 1949 Mr. Couard himself gave them this painting as a wedding gift. Mr. Couard and one Miss Burgoyne lived a few houses down the road from my grandparents. When my mother and my Aunt Florence were young children in pigtails, he came to the  house  and took photos of them to reference for various paintings he was working on. (They still have the photos...)

One of the interesting things about this work is that it is all about reflection, It features cut tulips with a oval mirror behind them, which reflects partially opened French doors, and the landscape beyond.

This beautiful work has been on display in my parents house all of my life. I have been looking at this painting for almost 60 years. It may be why I paint.

NOTE: This painting was photographed with a phone through the glass in the frame. 

Visual Metaphor: the Appearance of Seeing Beyond

This mirror hangs over a booth at a Brookfield diner called Rickyl's, and reflects the ceiling far behind the viewer.

At first glance the strange shape of its gilded paper mache frame makes it difficut to read its spacial position, and it's easy to see it as some sureal portal into another room rather than what it is - a simple, flat mirror.

Rickyl's is tucked away at the four corners area, behind Roccos. They offer great granola pancakes

--- Mar Walker