I give.
Due to the holidays I am putting in many extra hours at work, and spending many extra hours trying to help family. It's getting to be a wee bit too much for me. So, I'm taking a break from blogging for the next few days, possibly the rest of this week. I'll still hopefully be working on my art work, but I'm unsure how much time I'll have for that.
I promise a nice, long, picture filled post on Monday.
Until then,
Happy Holidays, Happy Winter Solstice, and Happy end of December.
~Peace~
Yesterday, for a little while, the sun was out, the air felt the warmest it has in weeks, and we had some free time between activities.
I wanted to be outside for a bit. So I packed up my favorite cameras, and we headed out. J driving, me looking for places to stop and photograph. Sometimes I walked for awhile, stopping every few feet, and he followed in the car.
Today I developed the film from that walk and a few other photo days. It was nice being back in my darkroom, chemicals and all.
Here are just a few photos from that walk. There are many more to come.
Photo walks help my attitude. Alot.
Until tomorrow,
~Peace~
I have nothing to blog about today.
It is not because I purposely didn't do any work towards my project today. It is not because I didn't want to. It is because today, after working, helping a friend, packing up unsold items from one last holiday sale, and dealing with a car spending the day at the mechanics, my entire day was gone.
So, for the first time since I started blogging about my project 5 days a week, here is the first day I truly have nothing to give you.
It really upsets me, but there isn't much I can do.
The most artistic thing I did today was read PolaPremium's latest newsletter, and wish for a brief bit that Minnesota was much closer to New York and I could have been at the Impossible Project Party at the International Center for Photography tonight.
Until Monday,
~Peace~
Today was an awesome photo day.
I started photographing the exhibit at MCBA: New Work by the MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Mentorship Artists. It is always so inspiring and fun for me to be there, photograph the great work in their galleries, and be with all of the fun people that work and help out there. While I was there I bought a pound of Kozo fiber, to get myself started on the papermaking portion I have added to my project. Jeff, one of the great guys that works at MCBA kindly suggested that I use their papermaking wet studios there sometime to make it a little easier on myself. I suggest to many artist friends to use the facilities at the local art centers. It helps the art centers survive, and gives you great space to work. So, why don't I use those facilities? Why do I always try to do everything in my little tiny studio? Why don't I get out more and work with other artists? I'm really not that anti-social. Really, my only reason is that I honestly usually do my laundry and other little things like that while I am over at my studio. To go work somewhere else, I would have to give that up. I do think I will give that up for a day though to work on this. It will be easier, and easier to clean up after.
It was actually not frigid outside today, so after photographing the galleries, I walked along by the Mill City Ruins and the Stone Arch Bridge with my Mamiya for just a bit. It was so nice to just wander around with a camera again. I really miss that when the temps get so cold and you can't go outside. I tweeted earlier that it is amazing how theraputic it can be to have one camera and one roll of film and have time to put them to use. It did wonders for my mood today.
Tonight John and I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for their free Third Thursday night. The music was good, the 'Art Carts' were fun, and the Louvre exhibit was pretty cool.
It has been a while since I have had a day that seemed like that much fun while still being productive.
I hope this continues!
Until tomorrow,
~Peace~
From how late this blog is being posted, a few things are obvious:
1. The whole idea of going to bed early didn't last for long.
2. I should probably not drink an espresso drink after 5pm.
3. I have not yet succeeded in getting myself adjusted to a schedule of being creative/working on artwork during the day instead of at night.
I'm still working on setting up the papermaking parts, and will hopefully have more to report on that next week.
In the meantime, I have been making notes; visual notes as well as written notes.
I gave myself a break today, and spent some time just listening to music and writing. While I did fail a bit at ignoring some of the social media I am addicted to, the time was successful! I still have the feeling that what I wrote was crap – as most first drafts honestly are – I did actually manage to focus on writing and getting some ideas out. Then, in going back over some of those ideas tonight, I took a few pictures – blue polaroids this time.
Keep in mind that these are 'notes' to me. The writing isn't finished, the photos aren't the best, but to me all of this makes sense as a bit of a break through, and hopefully an end to the 'creative block' I've had the last couple of days where everything just felt stuck in my head.
There were rumors of her existance
the girl who left Real World for Digital.
Supposedly she said it was for the best before plugging in forever.
Some say she gave up her freedom that day.
i think she just found a different kind of freedom.
She wanders through here much like the rumors do.
The fortress of firewalls didn't stop him.
They are just like the plastic kid-gates back in Real World.
Given enough time, and enough of a running start, any kid and dog can manage to get through them.
She felt observed and uneasy.
She didn't at all want to be associated with that generation – those who paricipated in the worship of sub-zero refridgerators and iconic images of past events.
'Flash bulb moments' they called them.
It was all consumed media now.
Out-modded technology that had no where to go.
Replaced by online eye candy.
It was an uncertain age.
Two groups colliding.
Trying to find common ground.
The instant translation process compelled all of us to dream, but sometimes that wasn't enough to overcome the massive media gap of the digital visual boom.
Realtime was giving way to a future with instant recall.
Many things are important for me to remember:
1. Hasselblads are awesome at giving you sharp, high quality images. That doesn't mean that all images taken with one have to be sharp.
2. Everything is a start. Everything is something.
3. Layers can be made in the camera, and are just as cool as ones put together on the computer.
Tomorrow I plan on hanging out at some of the museums. We'll see what strikes me then.
Until tomorrow,
~Peace~
Thinking a lot today. Most of my thoughts are very scattered though.
I'm remembering a lot about Japan. In my spare time (I don't think I really have any of that!) I have been organizing a book of photos from our trip.
We are planning another trip – this one to Hawaii at the end of January – and I think that is adding to my scattered feelings.
Mountain rest stop in Japan.
The city skyline view you could see as you were walking up to Osaka Castle.
Osaka Castle
I feel right now like I am at a point where I'm not sure I am working on the right things for my project, or focusing in the right areas. It is a hard feeling to have, and it fills my mind with a lot of questions that no one can really answer.
I have plans to focus on writing more tomorrow, and work on making more test prints on Thursday.
Hopefully that will help.
Until tomorrow,
~Peace~
Today I started my Monday like I have so many other weeks. Coffee, a little bit of internet time, and getting ready to tackle that huge to-do list.
Today, it was a little hard getting to that to-do list. It took me awhile to realize why. It finally dawned on me that the huge to-do list, wasn't so huge today. For the first time in weeks, I didn't have things that needed to be ready for a drop off the next day. For the first time there weren't deadlines looming over me. Well, there is still that deadline for my show, and that is a pretty huge deadline, but it isn't something you tackle in one day. (I have also reached a point that requires more thinking than doing, but that is perhaps something for a different blog post)
So instead of framing, gluing, labeling, and making inventory lists, I spent the day writing, doing some research, and finishing up an image I promised @jeffreywith2fs for his Great Polaroid Giveaway project. This felt a lot more like playing than working!
It is so cold here, even the snow ninja is protesting for the return of Spring! Taken with my Canon Rebel XT this afternoon, on my snowy deck.
Yes, it's cheesy!
It was a wonderfully enjoyable day!
Until tomorrow,
~Peace~
Here are scans of the two images I printed on the kozo paper I made.
You'll recognize the photos from one of my recent blog posts. Both of the images are from our trip to Japan.
I didn't do anything special to the paper. This is paper that I made in a Japanese paper making class. It is made with a fiber called Kozo, which comes from a Mullberry bush. There is no sizing in the paper, and nothing coating it to accept the ink differently. This paper was made, dried, and then shoved into my printer.
I am considering making more of this paper to make more prints on. I can make the paper quite a bit whiter (it involves a longer cleaning process).
Many things to think about.
Until Monday
~Peace~
Today was a day of experimenting. Thankfully, many were successful, which always helps my motivation, and my mood.
My granny started me on collecting Russian dolls when I was young. My collection is not huge, but it is well loved. I have recently been thinking about how analog dolls are, particularly russian dolls, how simple they are. I have wanted to photograph them for about a week now, and finally today I found a perfect patch of sunshine where I could work on them.
The last one is my very favorite. The last two were shot on Fade to Black polaroid film, which, just like the name implies, continues to develop and fades to black over the next 24 hours until it is completely black unless you intervene with the developing process. These scans were from the first 1/2 hour after the photos were taken. Expect to see these again soon in somewhat altered states!
I also experimented a bit with printing today. This past weekend I took a Japanese paper making class at MCBA. Today, I took one sheet of the paper that I made, and without any preperation, ran it through my printer to see how well I could print on it. I was surprised! It printed very well! This of course opens up many possibilities in my mind – such as buying kozo fibers to make into paper to print the images for this show on. It is a possibility. I am working on figuring out the logistics, and my time line, but it hasn't been ruled out yet.
I will post scans of that tomorrow.
Until then,
~Peace~
I have been working on our Japan photo book a lot today. While doing this I find a lot of images that I think could be used as stand-alone images in my project.
I came across these tonight. They were all taken with my Canon 40D (which I have decided on selling, and am ironically missing just a bit right now).
I'm not quite sure yet how I would present these images. Obviously I've played with the toning in Photoshop and Lightroom, and not that I think there is anything wrong with it. I've been contemplating keeping things simple for the show though: compilation images in color, stand alone images in black and white.
I used to watch her write. I watched how she formed each letter.
Handwriting is so analog.
Handwriting carries part of the person's spirit with it. The person had to touch the paper to write what they did. Their presence is embedded there.
Is there a digital equivalent?
Will loved ones someday look through our tweets, our facebook posts, and our flickr accounts to once again feel our presence, the same way we now hang onto and re-read cards, notes, letters, journals, and hold on to anything actually touched by those who have already gone?
Until tomorrow.
~Peace~