Today was not a good day for photos. In fact, by noon, I was so upset with my computer that I couldn't stand to look at it to work on anything more. I had also by that point in the day had enough other things go wrong that I decided that working with photo chemicals was way more hazardous than usual. I did manage to get a few new pottery pieces thrown, one of which might end up being the piece a friend commissioned, but we'll see how it dries. 

This doesn't mean that I didn't think about this project though. Actually, I thought about it quite a bit, and decided that I was going about it a bit too one-sided.

The overall idea of this project is the combination of analog and digital. I do feel like that is coming through in the work – through the processes I use,  and the fact that in the end, the show will incorporate digital prints and traditional silver prints as well (possibly some polaroids and/or emulsion transfers…I'm not ruling anything out at this point). What I feel is too one sided is the dialog. 

Most of the dialog I have been writing lately is either from a character that lives in the digital world, or from another character who is talking about the character in the digital world. I have not written a lot about the analog world, or about a happy medium between the two. Today, I started thinking about why that might be. My best guess, is that right now, I am fascinated by the digital world. I have connected with so many new friends, and re-connected with so many old friends, found many inspiring people, and gotten great feedback about my work online. There are even family members that I have connected with a bit more because it is easy here. I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I do realize though, that it has been quite awhile since I have gone without the internet for an extended period of time. In fact, the last time was probably when our power was out for a week, and even then, I could still go online when I was at work. So, I'm going to do an expirament for my project.

Coming up in about a week-and-a-half I have a weekend long trip planned with some girlfriends. We are staying in a cabin, hiking, and just hanging out in general. I have no idea if we will have internet at the cabin, and I decided that for that weekend, it won't matter. From Friday morning, to Monday morning, I will not be online. I am hoping that this will allow me to hear the voice of my character living in the analog world a bit more, and make things a little less one-sided. Yes, I will still have my cell phone with me, and yes, I will still have my ipod for music and in case the book I might read a bit of that weekend happens to be on there. I am not giving up digital conveniences completely, just the internet. Ironically, I have already decided that I will be leaving my digital camera at home for this weekend trip. I already have a ton of pictures of Duluth, so I am bringing only a few rolls of film, but many packs of Polaroids. I haven't taken any Polaroids up there yet, and I think this trip will be a great time to do it. 

 

Sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves how to listen. 

~Peace~

Today, my goal was to just keep working.

There are a lot of expectations and deadlines that are coming up right now, and I wanted a day to just chip away at as many as possible. I never get as much done as I want to, but I always seem to think things will go faster than they really do.

I did accomplish quite a bit though.

All of my negatives are scanned in. 

Zain's pictures are done and a link has been sent to his mom :) 

Zain is the little, cutie-pie son of a very sweet friend and her cool husband. 'Little Guy' as I will always call him, made a very dramatic entrance into the world, but he seems to be settling in now. I was very happy to get to take photos of him, and I hope to keep it up as he grows!

I finished about 15 prints (out of the 130 I need!) for a project that is due towards the end of October. It will be part of a publication being put together by Minnesota Center for Book Arts and I am working hard to be a part of it! The publication will go along with their exhibit None of the Above that is in their galleries now. If you can, you really need to see it. It is great!

I also scanned in for you two photos I took on Saturday with my new camera. I got a ND filter for over the lens, so the exposures come out right during the day time.

They are not at all the best photos I've taken, but I'm getting the hang of this medium. It is challenging in different ways than film. I really like it!

Until tomorrow…

~Peace~

Some of you may already know this…

Today my new camera arrived in the mail!

It isn't new, really, but it is new to me. All of it's quirks and idiosyncrasies are yet to be discovered. It has many secrets, for now.

I think we will get along well.

 

~Peace~

Some days you need to just take a walk, let yourself get lost, even if you are getting lost in your own backyard. 

That is what I did today. I found places I didn't know were there. I cleared my head a bit. Of course, I took pictures.

There is more film to be developed soon, but here are the polaroids I took today. All of them were taken using my Hasselblad 501c/m using a Polaroid back, and my favorite Silk 125i film from Polapremium.

Some days you just have to take a walk.

 

~Peace~

I've felt a bit scattered today. Not really a bad scattered, just where I don't feel very deep or profound, and I can't quite focus on anything for too long. I have been working on photos for at least a couple of hours though today, and while I have no idea where these are going, this is what interested me today. Who knows where they will show up next.

From last winter when I took a little photo walk around Uptown with my Holga. I was experimenting with not completely advancing the film to the next frame.

Sometime last fall I believe, in the Como Park Conservatory flower garden.

Just a few weeks ago, when I finally found Hidden Falls again.

 

The next 3 are more that I took at the State Fair the week before it opened. These were very odd parade floats that were parked across the street from the fair grounds.

 

Life is a b-movie

It's stupid and it's strange

It's a directionless story

and the dialogue is lame

but in the he said she said

sometimes there's some poetry

if you turn your back long enough

and let it happen naturally

 

~Peace~

Fairs and festivals look so different when they are empty of people. They can have a very lonely, empty, feeling. Filled with anticipation, but at the same time kind of creepy.

It is something you don't see when you are walking around the fair when it is open and filled with food and people.

I took these images at the Minnesota State Fair the weekend before it opened as I was picking up my artwork after judging at the Fine Arts building.

They were all taken with a Holga, a cheap plastic medium format camera that is awesome.

The last is my very favorite.

~Peace~ 

I spent a lot of time this weekend getting work ready for Art @ Rice Creek at Banfill and getting work ready to hang up at Blaine City Hall that I didn't have much time left for new artwork.

I did have a great time at Art @ Rice Creek though! Many people came to say hi, which was wonderful, and if you were one of those people, thank you! I am so very happy that I not only sold some pottery for my dad and I, but that I also sold two prints of my newer work! It always makes me happy to think that someone likes what I am doing that much! I also had the wonderful pleasure of meeting in person Rachel Flentje, the Exhibition Director at Bloomington Art Center. I have talked to her a few times through email and snail mail about the specifics of my project and show, but this is the first time I got to meet her in person, and was a very nice surprise yesterday!

Everything made for a great weekend, but did cut back on creative time.

I did take these two polaroids, which I am very happy with. They are of my summer car, right after I dropped it off at my mom and dad's house, to stay there until we figure out some battery issues and other crazy things.

 

It is a 1976 Volkswagen Beetle painted to look like a firefly, and named Serenity after the Firefly show which I love.

I am very excited about the Polaroids! There are only a few I have taken with this camera that I have been super excited about. These are two of them!

More coming this week.

 

~Peace~

Today was a day I was mostly just searching for inspiration. Not that I have to go very far to find it.  Working on a project like this can be very draining at times, and you need little things to rejuvenate you and give you new ideas to work into what you are doing.  

There have been many inspirations for this project from the start.  

One major source has been books by William Gibson. Being a Cyberpunk author, his fiction deals a lot with the worlds I am imagining in the text of my project. The digital world that exists along side the real world, but is also completely seperate. 

Currently, I am re-reading Idoru one of my favorite books by him, and one that deals a lot with living between the digital and the analog world. I am enjoying reading it for the second time right now, because I feel like it is giving me perspective in my writing again. Making me think about what I want to describe to the viewers of my work. It is also simply relaxing to read an enjoyable book again. A good example of what I am getting out of this book is in this paragraph describing Chia (a teenage girl) in her digital bedroom that she created for herself:

'Chia looked around, feeling disappointed. Things weren't quite the right size, somehow, or maybe she should've used those fractal packets that messed it all up a little, put dust in the corners and smudges around the light switch. Zona Rosa swore by them. When she was home, Chia liked it that the construct was cleaner than her room ever was. Now it made her homesick; made her miss the real thing.' (found in chapter 4 of the book)

I also had a very interesting discussion with my husband tonight about some matters of art history, specifically the Dadaist, Surrealist, and the Modernist movements and bits about certain artists. It was quite fun, I haven't had an art history discussion like that for awhile, and it was fun pulling out things I had learned from the classes that, at the time, seemed to take so much studying for.

One last little source of inspiration has been getting quite a few rolls of color negatives developed at National Camera. Amongst the many rolls of film, was one roll of night pictures I took at the state fair. I am very excited about them, and am hoping to be able to work with them a bit very very soon. Here is a little teaser:

Fireworks just before we left to go home!

An in-camera double exposure of the many lights and food vendors at the fair.

Both were taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m using Fuji color slide film, 100 asa.

More of those to come soon!

Enjoy the weekend!

~Peace~

Today happened to be perhaps the most productive day I have had in a long time. It feels like it has been such a long time since I have been able to work this much on my artwork. 

I spent many hours printing images that will be displayed at Blaine City Hall starting on Monday. 

I also worked on a few new images.

First is one that I started awhile ago, but it never seemed quite right. I was working with it a bit again today, and I think it is much closer now.

Japan Lights 

Created with 3 photos taken in Japan. Two images taken with a Mamiya C330 using color film, and one taken with a Canon 40D digital SLR.

 

I also created two new compilation images today. I am not positive that either one are finished, but like I have said before, this is all part of the process. 

Here they are!

The Sign Says No Trespassing

Created using 3 images – one taken with a Holga camera using black and white film, and two taken with a Hasselblad 501c/m camera using a Polaroid back and peel apart film.

Where You Walk

Created with 4 images, one taken with a Hasselblad 501c/m using black and white film, one taken with a Holga using black and white film, and two taken with a Hasselblad 501c/m using a Polaroid back and peel apart film.

 

It was a good day.

~Peace~

"Stand tall sweet lady,

you are far stronger than you know"

My mom gave me a card sometime during my teenage years that said that on the front. I used to have it hanging above my bed. Now I have it hanging above my computer, where I spend most of my time when I am working on projects like this at home. It is something I have to remember, and I look at it often. 

Somedays the ideas don't come easy. Somedays things just don't flow right. Somedays the best you can do is walk away from it for the night, and get a fresh start (after a cup of coffee!) in the morning.

~Peace~