I've come to the end of my Japanese Moleskine journal.
It has been quite an adventure
keeping this visual diary.


I look back and see it is more
the journey of my crazy but wonderful mind.
I've been pondering on the wonder of light
and colour and sight lately.

My dear neighbour Pete The Jazz Man, aged 79,
was telling me about his old friend who has become colour blind.
"So" said I. "He now sees the world as it really is."
Really is, without light, that is.
A world of shades of grey.

'Colour is the suffering of  Light' 
                                                   Melissa Green.

The fact that colour is light reflected into my eye and transmitted to my brain
astonishes me.
The fact that colour is not intrinsic to an object,
'things' are not 'made' of colour, astonishes me.
The fact that when dye or paint is applied to a canvas, it is the surface that is changed
that reflects a different light. 
Now you have probably understood all this for simply ages.
I am a slow learner.
Well, I've known about it. I was a teacher. I've explored light with children many times.
Somehow though, I'm only just beginning to understand.
Our world isn't quite as I thought it was!

All these ponderings land in my visual journal.
I feel like I've made a break through with colour that just may influence my art.
Paints terrified me. I gave up. My strong point was design I was told.
I took to black and white. Pen and paper, as you'll know if you've been following this blog.
Hundreds of black and white doodles, but I've kept thinking about colour.

Now, I've come to the end of the line in this journal..
but.. 

behind the last page is the beginning of the return journey.
Backwards I will go on my arty adventure.
I will keep on pondering about light and colour.
Who knows what might happen.

PS.. the sweet little bird I clipped from a magazine is instantly recognisable
as a Don Binney bird.  Don Binney is one of my favourite NZ artists.
Indigenous NZ birds in flight are his signature icon.