Hill Digital Quilt Project
November 1- December 31, 2012

Old Growth

Autumnal Equinox

Florist Window

Shadow Can

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First three panels

Quilt in Progress

Last set of candidates

Shadow Tree

Hill's Kitchen Tools

Alley View

Night Dogwoods

Dog Walking

Cast Iron fence

Spring, Eastern Market

Snowmageddon

Java Chair

Frager's Aisle 9

Fire Horn

Gate Shadow at the Hill Center

Shadow gate

Small Potatoes

Shakespeare's Floor

Old Firefighter

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Hill Digital Quilt collaborative project

I like viewers to have a say in some of my artistic decisions, to be the force of evolution as an active part of the creative process.  So a very big "Thank you" to all the participating viewers who chose the winning photos from the dozens of candidates. These winners were transformed into the final panels, then printed, framed and installed in the Quilt Matrix located at the Hill Center on Capitol Hill.

Of course the project took longer to finish than anticipated, but I am very pleased by both the process and the outcome. It was quite interesting to see which images gathered the most votes - not always the ones I would have expected. My favorite transformed panel was always the one I had just finished, so the final few panels are my final favorites.

This project was also a prototype for future collaborative art projects. I've been working with the concept of evolution for many years now, how images can morph into other images, or start whole families with generations and siblings and cousins. In the past I always had to provide the forces that transformed the images, as well as determine which would survive to the next generation. With the internet, the survival-of-the-fittest decisions can be crowd-sourced, providing a more natural force to work with. This project proved the concept to be viable.

So again, many thanks to you all. I have many ideas for future projects, and hope you will participate again.

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Hill Rag Matrix

Of the 21 quilt panels, one broke away a few weeks back, and generated it's own digital quilt, which was an exploration of the distortion tools in the iColorama App.

See more about it here:click!

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Finished Panels

Original

Detail

Iron Fence

Iron Fence

Nearly all of the front yards on the Hill are surrounded by cast iron fences, and this is one of the finest motifs. I caught this one during the "Blue Hour", that time of evening when the sky has started to darken to a deep intense blue, but there is still enough light to see the forms and a bit of color.

Original

Detail

Florist Window

Florist Window, 11th Street

Surroundings, a marvelous florist enterprise that faces Lincoln Park, has a small glass add-on entrance. The windows of the original building in the lower left are reflecting trees from the park, and there are more tree reflections on the outside glass. Between the reflections are orchids and an arch for climbing things, proving a lovely selection of shapes and colors to work with. The original is a very small file, taken with the first version of Paper Camera, so the challenge here was to size it up considerably as I transformed it.

Original

Detail

Kitchen Tools

Kitchen Tools
D Street

Racks of shiny new kitchen tools at Hill"s Kitchen provided the starting point for this artwork. The original photo was taken with the Camera360 App, so it was a very small file that needed to be sized up a great deal. I really liked the original texture I had to work with, so I  took great pains to maintain it throughout the processes.

Original

Detail

Old Firefighter

Old Firefighter
8th Street SE

There are several of these wonderfully encrusted old fire hydrants scattered about in the neighborhood. I'll like to do a series on them. 

This one posed several interesting technical challenges:

Click here for production notes.

Original

Detail

Dog Walking

Dog Walking
Quintessential Sight

The neighborhood parks are gathering places for every manner of dog and their people.

Original

Detail

Fire Truck Horn

Fire Truck Horn
8th Street

There is a busy fire station on 8th St just a block away from the Old Naval Hospital. I've often seen the big shiny engines peel out and race off, sirens wailing and lights flashing.

One time, though, there was what seemed to be an old classic engine parked in the alley next to the station. It was still big and red and shiny, but rounded, simpler, less festooned. It had wonderful old-fashioned silver horns like trumpets on each side, which reflected the sky, the fenders, passers-by, the street and bits of themselves.

I used six different layers plus a few special effects to produce the final piece. To see them, click here.

Original

Detail

Java Chair

Java Chair
7th & North Carolina

These distinctive chairs cast equally distinctive shadows on the brick patterned ground,  providing strong shapes of light and dark, plus some nice theme-and-variation aspects.  There were seven layers used in the painting process.


Click here to see the step-by-step demo.

Original

Detail

Night Dogwoods

Night Dogwoods
Quintessential Sight

In the spring, the flowering trees put on their display around the clock.

Original

Detail

Aisle Nine

Aisle Nine
Frager's Hardware,
Pennsylvania Ave.

Frager's Hardware is a friendly old-fashioned store that has everything. It  has been a local institution since 1920, and has steadily grown to occupy several adjacent buildings in a sort of rabbit warren way. There are things up these stairs and down those, in this add-on and that out building, in the back and around the corner. The main parts still consist of several rooms with old wooden floors and narrow aisles all chock-a-block floor to ceiling with wares. Each aisle has a white square painted on it with a big red number. These are all worn down, some almost completely.

Original

Detail

Shaekespeare's Floor

Shakespeare's Floor
Folger Library
3rd and
East Capitol Street

One of the nicest aspects of the Capitol Hill neighborhood is the easy walk to some of the world's finest cultural institutions. The Folger Library houses a spectacular collection of Shakespeare's works and other period references, as well as a wonderful version of the Globe theater and some of the most beautiful spaces in the city. This engaging face resides on the floor of the exhibition hall.

Original

Detail

Gate Shadow at the Hill Center

Gate Shadow,
Hill Center
9th and
Pennsylvania Ave.

The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital is surrounded by a handsome old cast iron fence. Historically significant, it has been beautifully restored. This interesting shadow was cast by the gate leading to the old Carriage House and shows, upside down, some of the fence's main motifs.

Original

Detail

Old Growth

Old Growth
Quintessential Sight

Much of the Capitol Hill neighborhood was built around the turn of the last century, and there are many very old, very big trees. It is not an unusual sight to see a mighty oak that has slowly engulfed the iron fence it was once next to, or has overtaken the curb or sidewalk.

Original

Detail

Autumnal Equinox, East Capitol & 9th

Autumnal Equinox 2012
Sunrise
East Capitol Street toward Lincoln park

I like to  get up before dawn on the Equinox, and walk to the far end of Lincoln Park where there is a clear view of East Capitol Street. Just like at Stonehenge, the sun rises directly down the middle. This Atumnal Equinox, however, I got my shot by standing in the middle of East Capitol looking towards the park, with the US Capitol behind me. The sun obligingly made a nice showy halo coming through the trees. Then I had to dash, because it was already rush hour, and traffic waits for no one.

original

Detail

Alley View

Alley View
Capitol Hill

Nearly every block has an alley, which presents a completely differrent side of the neighborhood than the brick rows of Victorian townhouses one sees from the front. The alleys are often where the neighbors acrually meet each other.

Original

Detail

Shadow Can

Shadow Can
Pennsylvania Avenue

In the bright sunlight, these trash cans make their own shadow halos, giving them a devine aspect. If cleanliness is next to godliness, trash cans do indeed do God's work. The gold bricks are a nice touch, too. After all, even the Yellow Brick Road would need trash cans.

Original

Detail

Snowmaggedon!

Snowmaggedon!
Massachusetts Avenue at
Lincoln Park
One of the most delightful things (to me) about Washington is that the entire area shuts down for the smallest bits of snow. Other, more winter hardened ares of the country scoff at us, but secretly we like it. After Snowmaggedon, we got to stay home and play for days, and wander the winter wonderland streets free of cars.

I was especially pleased with the Detail version, click on it to see.

Original

Detail

Small Potatoes, Eastern Market

Small Potatoes
Eastern Market

The weekend trip to Eastern Market to stock up
on fresh produce is a neighborhood ritual for many. This inspiration came from a
bin of many-colored small pototoes, all tumbled around each other

Original

Detail

Spring Inside Eastern Market

Spring Inside Eastern Market

These beauties were in a very tall vase on a high stand at the flower vendor's. I like the up-view, the way the hanging light looks like the sun, and the neat ceiling slats where there "should" be a sky.

Click the image for a Larger version.

Original

Detail

Branch Shadow

Branch Shadow

There's something about the pattern of shadows on the underlying grid structure of bricks that delights me. Two entirely different elements that together are much more interesting. This is a very common occurance in a neighborhood of brick walks and trees, but no less beautiful for it's being everywhere.

Original

Detail

Rag Box

Rag Box
9th & D St SE

These distribution boxes are scattered throughout the Capitol Hill area, and are a very distinctive color. The  sample magazine was nicely askew, and the cover had a marvelous painting of a fancy lady with square shoulders and great colors.

Click the image for larger view.

Original

Detail

Cast Iron Gate, Massachusetts Ave

Gate Ajar
Massachusetts Avenue

This is an often seen design for the gates around the neighborhood. The cast iron fences are historically meaningful, and tie the blocks together visually as well as keep out dogs and, (originally,) stray pigs and other livestock.