I was thinking about design and the idea of what makes an object really something special. It's somewhat obvious that some people are more critical when examining objects than others, but it's always surprising to me to hear someone complement a piece of furniture that I look at crookedly because of its poor workmanship or strange proportions. Does art or design really play an important role in our lives as a source of enrichment, or are we as a society so choked with cheap chipboard crap that any solid-wood piece of furniture automatically becomes worthy of esteem...sometimes it seems that way to me, but maybe I'm not generous enough to the idea of subjectivity and personal taste.
I don't claim to be a great photographer, but when I take a picture I put effort into its composition. I turn on a light, I make sure I walk the extra ten feet so the power lines aren't in the shot, I adjust my film speed, waste a few frames, check to see if things are centered, turn the object around to get the best angle. Composition is something I think a lot of people who don't actively "create" don't worry about, or maybe they just don't understand it. For me composition is the hardest part of furniture building, but that's not to say that the skill needed in construction is something I've mastered, just that composition is really hard.
Here's a table I drew up while thinking about the way that a bear lumbers along a path in the woods. All the legs should be tapered, but really what I was trying to convey with this sketch is a sense of motion...
