Diamonds in the Rough

OK, so after I had spent four hours viewing those amazing embroideries in very low light, I walked out in the sunshine and headed toward Central Park to meet up with Jim and Jack. It felt like the first warm day in New York in some time and the park was teeming with people who were getting outside in the sunshine.

One of the exquisite things about Central Park is it's contrast to it's city surroundings. It's a green space, sure, in the midst of a huge city but it's also got a lot of topography -- lakes and ponds and lots of different elevations because of the rocks that run throughout it.

The rocks are striking. And when the green of Spring has not yet arrived, you notice the rock a lot more. You may not realize this but the rock within Central Park was home to a significant glacier that began to dye about 18,000 years ago.


This glacier carved much of the city and surrounding Long Island, even parts of New Jersey. You can still see evidence of glacial features that are unmodified all over the rocks in Central Park. If my rambling about how cool this is is even the least bit interesting to you, then you must read The Very Cold Case of the Glacier from September 2005 in the New York Times.


It made me wonder how difficult it would be to embroider a rock. In fact, my Japanese embroidery teacher once embroidered a rock with a japanese pine tree by the moon. It was exquisite but imagine how hard it is to get the texture and the play of light and dark.

Anyway, as I was walking along there were lots of interesting things to discover but the overall color of the park was kind of brownish gray.


Which reminded me of the embroideries I had just been seeing. From a glance, the embroideries appeared brown and gray and dull.

Until you get up close. This piece really was interesting because it was the only piece in the exhibit stitched in wool using the tent stitch. But there were little bits of silk satin stitch used throughout the piece which shimmered in the low light and gave the piece brilliance.


I took the liberty of adding the sparkle so you could understand the effect.

I felt the same way about Central Park. Largely, a brownish gray canvas. Until you got up close.


And the signs of Spring were everywhere...even on the rocks.


And did you notice the turtles sunning themselves on the rock in the foreground of the lake picture?


Jim said that they weren't sunning themselves but that it was a turtle orgy. I think the Spring air was affecting him too. *wink

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the sweet ending to our beautiful day.