The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an “open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives,” has for many years been making it easy for people to connect to nature through nature writing and illustration. Its “first stream,” currently at 122,281 images, has been carefully curated, and includes searchable galleries and albums divided by book title or subject, such as “Exotic botany illustrated,” “The Birds of Australia v.1,” and “Bats!” Its “second stream,” consisting of over 2 million images, is a massive grab-bag of photos, illlustrations from nature, advertisements, and imaginative renderings.

This digital library offers potential for chance discovery through “the aimless wandering that often leads to serendipitously sublime experiences.” The image archives “offer expansive views of humanity’s encounter with the natural world, not only through statistics and academic jargon, but through the artistic recording of wonder, scientific curiosity, and deep appreciation.” Many of the images allow “zooming in” to carefully observe details of the artists’ illustrative processes.

Enjoy! (source)

— George Gordon Byron, aka Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

View photographic images by and of Ronald Shakespear, my southern compañero, here.

(-: original image source unknown)

Shenzhen, China

One of 2014’s highlights for me was to participate in The Look of Silk, (The First Session of Cross Strait Silk Culture and Creativity Forum and International Silk Creative Design Expo) sponsored by China Tong Yuan Co., Ltd., Shenzhen China Silk Park, and the Taiwan Cultural and Creative Industry Association.

As one of “eight internationally renowned designers” I was invited to design a pattern for silk scarves, participate in the 5-day event in Shenzhen, and to give a keynote address. A design team from Taiwan was commissioned to develop 80 different silk products using our designs, “creating a systematically multicultural design integrating multiple aspects.”

The Look of Silk plans to “keep alive the spirit of traditional Chinese culture and the international role played by silk in the past, while creating a brand image and market orientation for Chinese silk” by means of innovative creative activities.

I recently received images from the organizers of my silk design applied to various products (from bed linens to ties, cushions, padded laptop cases, and other fashion accessories). Shown above is a small sampling… my original design was in oranges and reds, but the product design team decided to also iterate it in blue and green.

Click on the image below or here for a larger view of my silk pattern design (135mm x 135mm) entitled Occidental Habitué. Details of the design can be viewed at my original blog post, here. 

Occidental Habitué

Thousands of icons, images, and visual impressions cross our consciousness daily, weaving rich cultural narratives and imbuing meaningful memories. As travellers, émigrés, and nomads in a shrinking world we wrap ourselves in layers of sensuous, intertwined experience.

My concept involves the creation of an intentionally layered, quirky, and semi-random collage, providing unexpected juxtapositions that draw in the viewer and then reward curiosity with serendipitous surprises of simultaneity. Ancient meets modern, complex collides with simple, small bests large.

Luminous color acts as a background for layered, multidirectional, copyright-free imagery from earlier eras — visual ephemera, linear diagrams, Victorian etchings, old prints, ornaments, printers’ spot illustrations, ad cuts, and clip art — from ancient cave paintings to art deco elements, from flora and fauna to whimsical human inventions.

As if floating above this nuanced visual composition, a repeating directional diamond pattern of contemporary symbols and info-graphic icons (from The Noun Project, an online “visual language” resource of icons created by a global community) lends added dimension, with icons varying in color in a top-to-bottom gradation, complementary to the hue of the background.

A symbol of the globe glows in the fabric’s center.

© 2014 Robert L. Peters

Seattle, USA

Project Thirty-Three celebrates “vintage record jackets that convey their message with only simple shapes and typography… a personal collection and shrine to circles and dots, squares and rectangles, and triangles, and the designers that make these shapes come to life on album covers.”

Father’s Day.

On this day, it seems that “society” has deemed it appropriate to single out and honour the fathers among us. I like that. I think these fine men often go without the recognition due them (not all of them, mind you, some are truly bastards and without a doubt deserve nothing less than to be ignored and forgotten as soon as possible).

I was very lucky, in a way. Although I was never able to experience “being” a father myself, I had the benefit of a truly fine father, and I am eternally thankful for this fact. My father was loving (though strict), patient (to a point), and he was undoubtedly the most “consistent” person I have ever known.

Thanks Dad!

The photo above is of my pacifist Dad, John Jacob Peters, working as a lumberjack in a labour camp in British Columbia, Canada, in 1943… performing alternative service as a Conscientious Objector.

It takes a while to get like this… apparently I’m a sexegenarian now. (-:

Shenzhen, China

I’m happy to be participating in The Look of Silk, (The First Session of Cross Strait Silk Culture and Creativity Forum and International Silk Creative Design Expo) sponsored by China Tong Yuan Co., Ltd., Shenzhen China Silk Park, and the Taiwan Cultural and Creative Industry Association.

The Look of Silk plans to “keep alive the spirit of traditional Chinese culture and the international role played by silk in the past, while creating a brand image and market orientation for Chinese silk” by means of innovative creative activities.

As one of “eight internationally renowned designers” I was invited to design a pattern for silk scarves, participate in the 5-day event in Shenzhen, and to give a keynote address earlier today. The title of my silk pattern design (135mm x 135mm) is Occidental Habitué. A design team from Taiwan has developed 80 different silk products using our designs, “creating a systematically multicultural design integrating multiple aspects.”

My design is shown above (click here for a larger view)…

Occidental Habitué

Thousands of icons, images, and visual impressions cross our consciousness daily, weaving rich cultural narratives and imbuing meaningful memories. As travellers, émigrés, and nomads in a shrinking world we wrap ourselves in layers of sensuous, intertwined experience.

My concept involves the creation of an intentionally layered, quirky, and semi-random collage, providing unexpected juxtapositions that draw in the viewer and then reward curiosity with serendipitous surprises of simultaneity. Ancient meets modern, complex collides with simple, small bests large.

Luminous color acts as a background for layered, multidirectional, copyright-free imagery from earlier eras — visual ephemera, linear diagrams, Victorian etchings, old prints, ornaments, printers’ spot illustrations, ad cuts, and clip art — from ancient cave paintings to art deco elements, from flora and fauna to whimsical human inventions.

As if floating above this nuanced visual composition, a repeating directional diamond pattern of contemporary symbols and info-graphic icons (from The Noun Project, an online “visual language” resource of icons created by a global community) lends added dimension, with icons varying in color in a top-to-bottom gradation, complementary to the hue of the background.

A symbol of the globe glows in the fabric’s center.

© 2014 Robert L. Peters

At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art… (source)