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The very last drop-off for the very last Holiday sale was made today. 

Please go to visit Dabble and all of the other awesome Johnson Street Merchants on Thursday (December 10th) from 6-9 pm. Many of the shops will be having treats and special deals. It is fun! My work will be on display at Dabble. 

The snow is here. I'm actually very excited to start taking some snow photos tomorrow. This will be the first winter I have been shooting Polaroids. I'm anxious to see how they turn out.

That is all I have for today. 

Until tomorrow,

~Peace~ 

Over the weekend I got to take this amazing paper making class with Jana Pullman at MCBA. 

I tried paper making once before while working on my BFA degree at the U of M. I did manage to make some paper in that class, but they were all thick, very cottony, mostly uneven, and not something I ever had any inclining to use. Plus, the class made me sick, and I ended up dropping out before even reaching the mid term. 

I had talked to Jana once before about my experience while taking another class of hers, and she encouraged me to try again. I decided this class would be a nice break from the work I have been doing. 

It was amazing. The paper I made was the right thickness (most of the time!) it is strong, and amazing. My brain has been whirling all day thinking of ways to add this into my photo work. I promise to take better photos of the sheets soon.

Today, I spent the day finishing work to take to Dabble for their Holiday shopping day on Thursday. I also managed to make proofs of all the image possibilities for my show. So far there are 36 in all, though I know there will be a fair number of those that will be edited out. It does make me feel a bit better though – I am well on my way, and I feel I have even clearer direction to work in now. 

I also, of course, messed with a couple of my images again today while I was working on printing them. 

They are getting close, as it is getting harder to tell what exactly I changed. Just trust me, they are better ;)

Until tomorrow

~Peace~

Apparently some comments are not appearing on my blog. I'm not sure why, and we are working on fixing that. Please don't think I'm moderating any of you! I only delete spam! Honest!

Now that that is out of the way, on to artwork.

I started working on this compilation yesterday. It is a work-in-progress that I hope to finish up by Monday so it can be added to the inventory at Dabble for their holiday sale.

I haven't come up with a title yet. So far, the working title is Gold Medal. 

Thank you to all who have visited the holiday art sales so far! Hopefully for all of us it is a successful year. 

This weekend I am taking a Japanese papermaking class at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. I really have no idea what to expect from this class, but I am excited to take it. It is being taught by Jana Pullman, one of my favorite book arts instructors. I took papermaking in college (though not Japanese style) and enjoyed it. I have wanted to get back into it a bit more and be able to some how work it into my photography. We will see where it takes me. No matter what, it will be a fun weekend. 

Until Monday,

~Peace~

Some compilation images come together really easy. Sometimes, I will be in a zone where I can see exactly how everything should fit together, and know exactly what I have to do to each layer to bring everything together. 

Other images take me quite a few tries.

This is the third time I have posted a version of this image. I think this is finally it. We'll see how it prints!

Until tomorrow

~Peace~

I'm realizing this is kind-of a hard season. There isn't any pretty snow yet, and it gets dark really early. Somedays, you just need a little boost! Today, I found myself remembering August. 

All taken with a Pentax K1000. It is a fun little camera to always have around with you. Much easier to fit in a purse than a medium format camera tends to be…though that doesn't stop me. I've been carrying my Mamiya in my purse most of the week.

Until tomorrow,

~Peace~

Today was the last of the holiday sale drop offs.

I tried getting a few other things done today, but I didn't accomplish much. I'm honestly pretty fried right now. I'm hoping some sleep will cure that, and I'll be back to the normal artwork this week still. I have plans! 

I actually did write for a bit today, which was nice and very needed. Sorry, I didn't write anything that I am at all ready to share here. It needs a bit more editing before that. My brain is going in a couple different directions right now, including hand writing and russian dolls, and I need a bit of time to flush it out. It is coming though.

Part of my day involved showing my dad the space my show will be in come September 2010. It was awesome being able to show him, but once again, pretty overwhelming seeing the size of the space again. I am in awe that they trust me to fill up that much space with my visual ramblings. It is a big deal. I'm honored, and scared. I know this is part of the process though, and I'm dealing with it!

I'm hoping for a photo shoot this weekend if the light is nice and the temps aren't below zero or something. I have ideas of things I want to photograph. I'd like to have the time to play with it a bit.

I found this photo in my folder today and was drawn to it. Not every photo has to be perfect. Sometimes it tells more of a story if it isn't.

It was taken with my Holga camera – which is a cheap medium format camera made almost entirely of plastic. It is a pretty amazing little thing.

Until tomorrow 

~Peace~

5 images framed, labeled, and inventoried + 6 canvas prints stretched, labeled, and inventoried + 29 cards and enveloped packaged, labeled, and inventoried + lots of pottery labeled, wrapped, and inventoried = all of the work I have done this weekend for the upcoming holiday sales. Just a little bit more to finish up this week. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm starting to finally believe it isn't just an oncoming train.

I did also manage a couple of polaroids this weekend.

The Uptown theater in Uptown (of course) where John and I were doing a bit of shopping on Saturday. I love the lights on old theater buildings. I tried to get a polaroid of the marquee, but it didn't come out very well. They were showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight with a shadow cast by the name of Transvestite Soup. There was a time in my life when I thought that movie was always shown with a shadow cast. I can't imagine seeing it any other way.

I found this building while driving around with John Sunday (we were looking for Makawber Books). The image is a bit dark, but otherwise I really love this photo. It is quite a bit of what I am looking for to add to my show. Not every image in my show will be a compilation image. There will be others that are just straight images, mostly black and white prints, but I would really like to add some polaroids as well. This one has potential.

Bed time.

More work tomorrow.

Until then,

~Peace~

Today I printed, trimmed, and framed 5 photos to go on sale at the Bloomington Holiday Sale. Tomorrow and Sunday will be for stretching and coating canvas prints for Banfill's holiday sale and for Dabble's last Holiday shopping day. Somewhere in there, there will also be a trip to Wet-Paint to get more enveloped for the blank greeting cards I have packaged up as well. It will be great if even a little bit of all of this sells. I'm also looking into options for an online shop, and hoping to get going on that a bit more next week after all the sale drop offs happen.

For now, I'm starting up my printer to work on the next batch of prints, and going to bed. 

Until Monday,

~Peace~

Today was a wonderful day.

I don't have much to show for it art-wise, but I think that is just fine considering it is Thanksgiving and I had a chance to spend time with my family, drink lots of coffee, and eat great food.

It is nice to take some time off and just be thankful for all the awesome people in my life. I'm grateful for my family and friends – close by and online and grateful that I have their support! I am lucky to know a lot of amazing people!

I emptied the kiln with dad this afternoon. Almost everything came out! There are a few pieces that need to be fired again, but we came out with 54 things ready to sell. We also managed to get everything priced for the Holiday sales that start next week. 

Tomorrow is a day off from working at the restaurant, and a day to finish prints, framing, and inventory lists. 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Until tomorrow

~Peace~

In honor of Thanksgiving and the tradition of eating as much as you can and more:

The baby giraffe at the Como Zoo liking (and biting) his feed box. Taken with a Polaroid Sx-70 camera using 779 film.

Until tomorrow 

~Peace~