fencrest studio

I wrote the below in November. Today (February 27), I have re-read my last sentence below, and had to think about it, because it doesn’t make much sense at first glance, or even at a second glance, though when I wrote this below, I did (and I can) see the similarity between the French and Russian words, but today I would not call them “very similar”, just somewhat similar – perhaps similar. I will do some clarifying/revision to the below text this winter/spring 2025, or, perhaps I should just say in 2025, as this is fun, and I’ve studied quite a few languages, but the history of languages, and the visual components of languages, were not areas of my graduate school field of study.

Pictographs and Language Similarities – November 2024

Words in most languages probably have some pictographic elements to them, or one can pretend that they do, whether or not they ever did.  For example, the word “hill”, begins with an h – a letter with a hump and a line – the line maybe reaches as high as a mountain might, but the hump of the h, only about half the size of the line.  The other three lines (ill), well, paths, streams running downhill through ravines, tree trunks.  True or not true, intentional or never so intended, one can remember the word “hill” through pictographs.

I’ve been studying Russian, and such thinking can be helpful for learning words with Russian also.  For example, some animal words are fun to think about this way.  Should I draw it out, or just let the reader who has not yet done so at some point in life figure it out, as it is fun to do.

It is also fun to connect languages together, whether derived from each other or not.

Rabbit is particularly fun – don’t read what follows if you prefer to figure it out yourself, if you have not yet.

Putting the two together, pictographs, and finding English and Russian similarities, start with the word for hares, Зайцев, or hare, заяц.  The word заяц rather looks like “Hare, or anyway, going down the rabbit hole and looking back up, maybe eaRH.  (Rabbits – кролик).  The word Rabbit – bb, two ears perhaps, bunny, nn, again, two ears, кролик – KK – like two rolly, poly rabbits, two ears each sticking up.  Зайцев – a rabbit ZIps (z) along and HIDES (pronounced, haIdz).  Taking the z from zips, and the aIdz sounds from hides, one is very close to З аиц.

Fun, right?  Languages are fun.
By the way,  кролик in French is lapin – also very similar. 

Author: Sarah K. Sniffen – Sarah has a B.A. in French from Wellesley College (and the Université d’Aix-Marseille), has studied Finnish (and a little Swedish), and French, in Finland, some Spanish in France, and a little Italian at Michigan State.  Her current studies in Russian are somewhat scattered – she started and continues from time to time with The Real Russian Club with Daria Molchanova, such as with her book for beginners From Zero to Fluency Workbook, and with the book Beginner’s Russian with Interactive Online Workbook by Kudyma, Miller, and Kagan.  Sarah also studies with some apps (Duolingo), and various videos, and other books.

“Intorecipes.com” is one project made over the last few years to have a place to explore visually and through writing, plants, plant and animal communities, and food.
https://intorecipes.com/

Here is my first site, simplified, much not there. It includes a hyperlink to the .net website.
http://fencreststudio.com

For art made by Sarah in paint, pencil, charcoal, watercolor, glass, and other media or mixed media please see the links in the navigation bar above, and under the “with” – ( “animals, humans”, “water”, “rainbows”, and “plants, earth, rocks” ).

Possible changes that have occurred in documentation from works to the photographs of the works:

1. cropping: The majority of the photographs of the drawings and paintings are cropped to a little ways beyond the work’s edges or someplace in the surrounds of the work. If cropped down into the work, that is written in a caption.

2. color changes/alteration: The color might not be absolutely exact from original to the photograph (due to camera, lighting, surroundings, photographer). Having said that, there are a few that have been further altered/photoshopped with additional changes/layers, and that is written into the captions – for example, there are two photographs of people paintings (one is my own self portrait), that have been worked on further with color added digitally onto the digital image in photoshop.

3. leveled: Some of the photographs of two-dimensional works were taken with a camera mounted to a tripod, and the works set level on a wall, and they did not need straightening in any direction. However, some works have been set on the wall without a level, or even placed on the floor, a ladder next to them, camera in hand (no tripod), and for the latter, when the photographs are being prepared, are usually re-angled within the plane they reside most in (such as the plane of the wall), until the bottom edges of both work and photograph of work are co-linear, or seem justified. Some might have a very slightly altered perspective, but that has been left as photographed.

Any questions, please see “About” for how to contact me.
Thanks,
Sarah

There is no art for sale at the moment. Thank you.

About 25 years ago, or probably 30,  someone told me they were studying packaging design.  Packaging design? Over the years, I’ve realized the great importance of this profession ecologically and the potential of it sculpturally and visually.

I’ve not much more to say about it, as I am not a package designer.  A thought about yogurt though:
Fruit is about perfectly packaged.
Gifts are sometimes beautifully packaged.
Small yogurt containers are like a cross between fruit and a gift, a peal-able and colorful fruit-sized repurpose-able dairy present (though large containers of yogurt have handy lids and more servings).
That might not be very remarkable, however, life is, in part because of the accumulation of great and known yet also the almost unnoticed details, unremarkable that can become extraordinary.
Accumulation of weathered sands, of oxygen-giving algaes, of steps,
of hand-shakes, of root matrices.
Yogurt cups do not stack up to those earth builders no matter if stacked and recycled (but they have import).
Palm-sized yogurt containing containers are a treat,
containing  goodness for all meals.

sks

Here is a sketch that reminds me of this poem. The sketch was done many years ago in a workshop with S. Wolf at the Little Church Theatre, NH.

Recent works from the past few months are mostly written.  The latest is called Sarsens (see poems).