Jes Lee

2016 goals and photos

I have no resolutions this year, except to keep up what I figured out best last year.

I have goals though.

  1. Yesterday I started a new photo 365 (366 technically) project. This one using my FIL’s old Nikon F20 camera, with my cell phone for back up and documentation. Once I get the first roll developed, I will begin posting both images here.
  2. To post more often here.
  3. To put together the best series of images I can for my show at Banfill this summer. Basically, to do my best.
  4. To read/listen to 52 books this year. I love reading, I always have. It is so easy to let that go when there are other things to be done. Last year I started listening to audio books during my commute to work. Between the books I listen to, and those I read, this should be a reasonable goal.

Once again John and I were fortunate enough to start this year in a different county, visiting friends again in Okinawa, Japan. Today, I am slowly inching my way towards completing developing all the film I took over our week-long visit, and the task of scanning all of those images into my computer. It isn’t a bad way to spend a frigid cold day! I will slowly be sharing these photos here as well as my normal social media haunts, as I get them sorted through and edited.

Oh, but what I would trade to be back there.

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Summers that are everything

I have not been letting my days of my break from work slip by unnoticed. Each day I have been steadily working towards two goals: getting the rooms in our house painted (I hit the halfway point last week!) and most importantly, creating new artwork. I have slowly been creating and editing new compilation images using some of the photos I took during our trip to Okinawa last winter.

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This image is one of about 6 new pieces I have been working with. Everything is still a work-in-progress. Some of these images end up on my Instagram account if I feel like they are close to being complete.

Last week I had the idea to pick up some screen printing equipment. Thanks to a conversation over beers and dinner with a very awesome, smart friend, I heard of a technique I had not thought of (this happens quite often when I am around certain friends). I started playing with it, and have been pleasantly surprised with the results.

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I am able to create colored backgrounds, and then ink jet print images over them.

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It needs a lot of tweaking, and many new decisions to be made on colors, and color density, and how it works with each image, but I am thrilled that it worked!! I’m excited to keep experimenting with this throughout the summer.

Last week I was thinking about how many of the images I take don’t get printed, don’t end up in any compilation images, and basically aren’t seen by anyone but me. After recently teaching a class on creating a one-sheet book, I decided to play with that medium, and created this little book.

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This one was so much fun to make, and I plan on making many more. I see them more as ‘zines’ than fine-books. Zines are something I have wanted to make for quite a while, but was struggling with an idea for. I think these making these simple little books will help with that craving.

Each day I have off of my day job, I try to savor. I know all too well that the summer can go by in an instant. So far, it has felt like a wonderful, long break, and I still have many days left to come. I have already done more creating that I ever hoped to, and I have no intention to stop.

May you all enjoy the summer and warm weather as much as you can, whether you are working or not!

Life is what happens

and blah blah blah….however you choose to finish that sentence.

Well! May was a whirlwind! I took flower photos with my uncle out somewhere in Wisconsin, finished work for the summer, did Art-a-Whirl, helped my family take care of my grandma, got our yard work started and finished (for now), and finally spent some time working on my book. Most of these items will have their own little blog post devoted to them over the next couple of weeks.

For now I’m still taking a little time to catch my breath.

Last weekend was Memorial Day. John and I decided to take ourselves on a little ride, he on the motorcycle, me on my scooter. I didn’t get photos taken with anything other than my cell phone…something I am definitely going to work on changing this summer. But the ride was fun, and relaxing, we missed the rain, and made it home despite John’s headlight deciding to not work. The scenery was lovely, the roads mostly empty, and I think I finally felt myself relax just a little then.

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Onward to summer!

My images for Made Here are up!

It actually happened! My work for the Made Here MN installation is up! If you are near 10th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis, check out the old National Camera building (930 Hennepin Ave). My images are on the 10th Ave side of the building! There will be more installations going up very soon by some other amazing artists, so keep checking back.

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My images were printed by a local company called Color Space. They were so great to work with! I never print my images this large, and I almost always print everything myself. But I am so happy with how these prints turned out! I’m planning on having Color Space print more for me in the future. Maybe nothing quite this big though…I don’t find myself with four windows to fill up very often!

This truly has been an amazing spring with the opportunities I have been given.

The reception for Made Here is on June 3rd, from 6-9pm.

In between now and then is Art-a-Whirl! I hope a few of you will have a chance to find me there! I will have prints of all four of the images I have up in my Made Here exhibit, including this brand new one titled Escapes! This is truly the most site-specific piece I have made, and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

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I will have my new Mississippi book at Art-a-Whirl as well, though I may not have enough copies completed to actually have it for sale. I will be doing a little demo of how I’m binding it throughout the weekend though, so stop by!

Hopefully, now that I am actually getting caught up on deadlines, I will get back into blogging a bit more as well!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Today

The last of the mind-numbing editing is done for my Made Here work. Next step is more test printing, and sending the images on their way to the printer. I’m excited to see how the prints turn out. This will be the largest I have ever had anything printed!

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5 new boxes of pottery were priced, and packaged, ready for Craftstravaganza in a couple of weeks.

And I have already packed my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow’s early work day. I am celebrating every minor accomplishment this morning!

John has been amazing at getting the house ready for weekend guests. I don’t know what I would do without him! I managed to get just a little more laundry done. Somehow, everything around here that needs to happen, does.

I will make it to yoga today as well. Possibly, one of the kindest things I will do for myself today.

I hope you find something kind to do for yourself as well.

 

One can’t survive on photos alone

I used to be a very stressed out and high-strung person. I still can be at times. But this is something that I promised John I would work on, and he is one of the first people to say I have gotten better over the last couple of years.

Sure, a lot of it is attitude. Training my brain to let go of the things I can’t control, the changes I can’t stop, and taking one thing at a time. To let go of things that aren’t working, which sometimes has included certain people as well. That last one hasn’t been easy.

I have been changing my diet in small ways. I have stopped critiquing my body. I have stopped listening to people telling me what I should do, unless I have asked for their opinion.

I keep creating, because I have to, and because I want to. I have changed my definition of creating.

I go to yoga and I meditate as many days as I can, and every day I remind myself that I know how to breathe.

I am noticing more. And stopping to notice more often.

I am forgiving more. Trying to. Sometimes this takes more time than I would like it to.

Am I perfect at all of this? Hell no. Are there still times when I get super stressed out and un-wrapped and need to be reminded of these things? Sure. But I am trying. And it is helping me. It is making a difference.

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Back to my little book for a minute

Along with all the Made Here things I am working on, I am still trying to get more of my ‘Mississippi’ books finished to have out at Art-a-Whirl. For the longest time I have had issues with the instant photos I am using for the covers.

They just weren’t turning out like I hoped they would. And that was bothering me. On the two books I have completed of this edition, the covers were not permanently attached. I kept hoping that someday soon I would get better photos from my Instant Lab, or figure out what I had to do to make them look better.

But this weekend, while waiting for a really large Photoshop file to finish saving, I did a bit of digging. I learned that someone wrote a book on adjusting photos specifically for printing with the Instant Lab, which is exactly how I am creating the cover images of this book. I read through it pretty quickly, and started trying the techniques he talked about in the book.

The photos are coming out so much better now! I’m quite pleased with the results!

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Everything worth prepping for

This weekend I have been in crazy-get-it-done mode. The contents of my studio are encroaching on our tv-room space, and there is a definite blanket-nest and butt-print where I have been parked on the couch with my laptop working for hours on end.

It was a good weekend! John and I did manage to get out for a walk last night, now that he is finally feeling better. But the rest of the time we sat together, watched movies, and I worked.

I am not only working on the images for Made Here. That is just the first of many deadlines! Saturday, May 9th, from 10am-5pm is Craftstravaganza! Dad and Kiddo Pottery will have a booth there, with many new glaze colors and pretty new things you can use in your home. I have helped my dad as much as I can with creating and glazing, and soon to be pricing and wrapping up new things.

May 15th, 16th, and 17th is Art-a-Whirl. I think this is my favorite weekend of the year, and I know I have mentioned it a million times already. I’m super lucky that the 15th happens to be my last day at work and that I can leave and head to Art-a-Whirl and begin my summer vacation. I plan to have new images created just for that weekend.

I’m sure there will be even more coming in June and July. Or maybe it will be quiet, with a few more calm days in there.

And just now as I am typing this, I received a text message from my uncle, that spring flowers will be popping up soon in this place he knows of, and I am invited to tag a long with my camera. One more thing worth prepping for…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to working on artwork for Made Here! This image might make the cut for my four window spaces. I haven’t quite decided yet…

Reflections

10 minutes at a time

There are some technical details of what I am working on for Made Here that haven’t been exactly easy.

Such as how my film scanner is not playing super nice at letting me scan negatives in at a higher resolution than what I normally do. Specifically the black and white negatives, when scanned in on Grayscale mode. Scanned in on color negative mode, they work fine. I have not yet learned why.

10 minutes at a time, re-scanning the black and white images I took last weekend.

10 minutes at a time editing and color correcting, bringing them back to black and white.

10 minutes at a time with all the other things that have taken place over the last couple of days (including dropping a shampoo bottle on my toe…)

10 minutes at a time has worked out pretty well!

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