The upcoming holiday reminds me of my fascination with spider webs and their delicate patterns and amazing architectural structures. While I’m not exactly excited about the trees surrounding my house providing a rather large safe haven for a freakishly large breed of these leggy creatures, I’m constantly reminded of their amazing spinning abilities and acrobatics. Of course, I’m not the only one fascinated with their creations. Argentinian artist and architect, Tomás Saraceno, has created a stunning piece based on the art of web spinning called 14 Billions made entirely of black rope.

From Stockholm’s Bonniers konsthall, “In collaboration with spider researchers and astrophysicists, Tomás Saraceno has spent several years developing the 400 cubic metre installation that is exhibited at Bonniers Konsthall. An enormous model of the poisonous spider the Black Widow’s web, the point of departure for the new work is how scientists use images of spiders’ webs to describe the origin and structure of the universe. The gigantic spider’s web, especially made for the main gallery of Bonniers Konsthall, consists of elastic black rope which will span floor to ceiling.”

Water can make interesting patterns all on it’s own…swirling, flowing, splashing and falling. I recently came across a fountain and was fascinated not by the pattern of the water within the fountain spray or the ripples in the pool but rather colors and shapes in the pool where the water hit water. I later found myself pawing through imagery online, continuing the fascinating with the shapes of water hitting water. I came across this image shown here that captures the moment of fascination I had earlier.

On my way to and from work each day I have the pleasure of walking past an art gallery. Sometimes I linger and stare at the art inside, taking in all the colors, shapes, patterns and textures, getting a bit of inspiration for the day. Now they have some paintings up from a particular artist that I always enjoy, Z.Z. Wei.

A Chinese-born artist, Wei traveled to the northwest and found himself in awe of the beauty within the region. The landscapes he creates bring out this emotion, like a dream world stretching out in front of you with the perspective slightly skewed and the heavily saturated. I find his paintings captivating…the light and shadows, the colors. Some of the scenes take me back to my childhood, growing up on a rural farm in the hills where I often spent hours daydreaming about the awe-inspiring world around me or going on car rides with my grandpa as he told me tales or drove the long curving road around the lake that always signalled the beginning of summer. The work of Z.Z. Wei turns my childhood inspiration into a visual display.

images via Z.Z. Wei, Artnet, Atticgallery