Do you enjoy the Olympics? I love watching the figure skating events– such grace, creativity, strength, flexibility, power, emotion, and beauty. As I am watching these skaters compete, I find my eye being drawn to the designs the blades of their skates leave on the ice as they twirl, glide and leap. Of course, only occasionally could I actually see the designs on the ice as they skated, but I was imagining what it would look like if you could have an arial view above the skaters and draw a line tracing their paths across the ice. What kind of design would you have? What would the ice look like if their skate program was being performed on clean, shiny ice where no one else had skated?

I googled the phrase “skate marks on ice” and found some images of ice with good skate lines. Here is one I especially liked (from This International Life).

I also found this creative art work on Etsy by Alli Coate:

Perhaps as you watch the Olympics you too are inspired by the artistry of the movement, dance, and music. What inspires you?

I thought it would be fun to pull out some pictures of one of the last times I’ve been on ice skates about a dozen years ago. We cleared a section of my in-laws’ lake for our skating rink in northern Wisconsin. Such fun!

Photographer must have missed my triple jump. Ha!