Welcome to the first post in our blog series “What Inspires Us”. We find, for us at least, there is a direct correlation between inspiration and sustained personal & artistic momentum. We love learning about what inspires people, be they artists, lawyers, moms or farmers and discovering new inspirations through them.
-Life: We’re into it-
When we are spending long days in the studio printing we like to make big playlists of our favorite podcasts and music, to help us get into the zone.
At home we like to keep a variety of materials and projects in rotation that we can relax with while also feeling inspired. For a while we were into the Planet Earth series and Blue Planet. We watched every episode, some more than once, and if we could include copies of these series in every order we ship we totally would, in a heartbeat. They are amazing.
And in this same light our new favorite is the new Discovery series Life. Like it’s predecessors the series is a collection of nature films from all over the world. What sets this series apart, aside from the narration by Oprah Winfrey instead of David Attenborough, is that they were able to film at speeds close to 200 frames per second as well as capture elaborate time lapse videos that condense days and weeks into seconds. They filmed activities of plants and animals that no one has ever filmed before. In that particular way the entire project is groundbreaking and an elegant example of the amazing times we currently live in.
We do feel that the Life series doesn’t dive as deep into some subjects as we would have hoped, they reuse some of the footage from Planet Earth & Blue Planet and some of the editing is a bit wack at times, but the quality of the footage makes up for any and all shortcomings. The whole series is produced and marketed a bit like an action movie which is an interesting new direction for nature programs but we’re happy if it helps get people interested and educated about the environment.
Because of this series we’ve seen things in slow motion that no one has ever been able to see before! Not just lizards running on water but the slow and elegant movement of the lizard’s toes and the way they splash of the water’s surface with every scaly step. They got incredible shots of the thick, slimy tongue of a chameleons capturing a praying mantis by it’s head and pulling it back into it’s mouth like a slingshot. We watched an African bullfrog interrupt two mating bullfrogs to fight the opposing male. My personal favorite so far has been the insect that shortly after hatching gulps in bubbles of air in order to inflates his head and eyeballs like balloons. The intense and alien struggle of beautiful life.
This week after watching the episode on “Plants” I walked out in our garden and just marveled at the intricate struggle between the morning glories and moon flowers growing up the wall. Their thin arms twirled tightly around each other, forming thick knots of potential victory. Sometimes I try to gently separate the vines, placing them on individual holds where they can travel towards the sunlight without strangling each other quite so much. I am the referee. They are the heavyweight boxers. And in the end the deer came and practically decimated the vines and so the cycle of Life continues.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, Oprah included, that series looks amazing. These nature documentaries can go into the deepest places, and are, indeed, inspirational. I guess, though, there kind of an extension of sitting out in the woods quietly. Sure, we don’t end up seeing exotic reptiles in Virginia, nor can my eyes slow down the flaps of a hummingbird’s wings. But whenever I encounter a deer in the wild, oh yeah, there is something overwhelming and inspirational about that.
By the way, while I can’t find any chatter about it online (yet), has anyone noticed that there seem to be way more fireflies this summer in the mid-Atlantic?
Yes, way more fireflies. The twilight hours are alight, which is great to see. Firefly populations in general are disappearing, but we had a ton of water this winter, maybe that helped them out. Bat populations have also been disappearing in alarming amounts all over the Mid-Atlantic due to some type of fungus, maybe there are less of them to eat the lightning bugs… don’t know, but there are definitely more this year.
It’s so nice to spend a Summer night out among them. In fact just the other night I was out watching them over the field in front of our place. Groups of them were flashing in conjunction with each other and the overall pattern from group to group across the field was mesmerizing. It was like watching a symphony.
I’m totally into the “this is how cool plants are” videos. I love watching the little seeds grow into giant plants, in super fast speed.
Tristan, any chance there could be a firefly t-shirt design??
I wish there was some glow-in-the-dark ink that wasn’t totally toxic… Maybe we can mix some yellow, green and white together to make one of those colors that LOOKS like it glows (but doesn’t really). I like the firefly idea Natalie.. got any poems that might feature the little critters?