texture.....

i have been thinking about the texture of things ever since jane and i went to the legion of honor last tuesday to see
the cartier exhibit. ( the following blog link has a really nice overview of the show )

http://widespreadlife.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/cartier-legion-of-honor

while i'm thinking about texture, just now, i realize that i am running a strand of my hair over my lips. i have done this
for as long as i can remember...it's something to do while i'm thinking. it's very textural in a way, and it makes me wonder about the nature of texture. texture is a sense. it's a touch. a visceral feeling...but texture can be perceived visually with as much accuracy and sensitivity as with touch....

ahhh...cartier...

if you have never seen 1,000 diamonds, clustered together in a filigree tiara....well, i'm sure that you can imagine it anyway...
it is the texture of ice and sky and light magnified, multiplied and fractured.....

as i walked through this exhibit, i asked myself; if one diamond, one bit of platinum filigree is enough to be beautiful, why pile it up? why contextualize something already too exquisite, in a way that reduces it's singular value by multiplication?
texture.
to create a tapestry. a landscape, a forest, a creature, skin, feathers, fur, scales, ripples, rainbows, effervescence, bubbles, quills, silk, petals......slippery, sparkly, rough......to describe all of the things of life. with a vocabulary of gems....