Ringing in 2012

Wishing one and all a happy new year...hope it brings shiny interesting sounds into all our lives.

Portfolio Postscript, 2011, Part I

In the weeds is the title that came to me here. It's a weird shot that might work. Creating the series (now called The Recollection) I've been messing up the foreground a little. My photos can be a tad too tidy. This image was made the day Hurricane Irene blew into town. Lots of wind and excitement. The long weeds waved and moved like currents in water.

The Portfolio Review in New Orleans ran round the clock from Friday morning until late Sunday afternoon. There's a lot to digest. The event felt BIG and WHIRLLY and included everything from an accidental karmic trip to the haute fashion show at the Ogden Museum to gumbo to a book art lecture to the main event - images.

Three quick lists -- what I got, what I didn't get, and what got that I didn't expect to get.

Got: subjective and confusing readings of my work. One liked this, the other that. Underneath the subjective stuff, I got that my work is divided into two expressions - more crisply focused documentary work and surreal dreamscapes. I am revising. I plan to lean hard into the dreamscapes.

Didn't Get: Clarity, contracts, fame, a mentor or a clear signal that pushing the work is worth so much hoo-hah. The outer world -- it can mess up these inner creations.

Got that I Didn't Expect to Get: A deadline extension. A patron in Pensacola, Florida. Several very talented and cool friends. And a look inside a woman's mouth to see the word LAUGH tattooed along her lower gum. She folded down her lip, unfurling her message that made us both laugh.

Final thought: be serious about the work, but don't take things too seriously. Laugh.

Two for Tuesday: Cutie Booty

Two nameless beauties arrived at the house and met for the first time. They totally bonded when they discovered that just that day, just that morning in fact, they'd each found a vintage belt in a relative's closet.

The colorful, slightly Latin belt on the left, came from a grandma's stash. The one on the right, a western leather classic with name, came from a dad's holdovers.

Not all women will turn around and let you shoot their booty, but this twosome supports me through and through, and, let's be real -- they have nothing to hide front or back!!

The Vision x Two

Watch out, ladies and gentleman, here comes the IT woman.
She's coasting down the cobblestone on a bike freshly painted green. Flowers flopping out of the basket. Boots up for anything. A pair of reading glasses, wrapped around her black fur collar, dangling with the unlikely elegance of a necklace.

The woman is aging with her groove still in tact. This is my dream too. I just love having her as a model, a mirror, a muse.

At the time I took the photograph, I didn't expect to see my inner dream realized. All I was hoping for was a classic Dutch bike rider gliding down one of Amsterdam's classic bridges. I'd waited at the base of the bridge, waiting for car traffic to clear and a biker to show up.

The sculpture on the left isn't anything I noticed at the time. But once I did, I fell in love with the man with the wooly mustache named Multatuli. The name is Indonesian and fun to say (try).

I thought, maybe, like the lady on the bike, this man who appeared in the frame might also have something to teach me. I googled him. Turns out, Multatuli was a wit, a poet, and a visionary. Here's a quote that kind of says it all: There is only one evil, one crime, one sin: lack of heart.  

Two for Tuesday: Thing One & Thing Two

Here's a twosome that stopped me in my tracks while window shopping at an outdoor mall in Holland last week. I mean, really. Those blondish white Afros so big and puffy they shade the mannequins' eyes. The irritated lips. All that scrawling text with no spaces and no easy way to comprehend what's being written across their wiry, athletic bodies.

They reminded me of a 21st century, tricked out version of the dynamic duo from Dr. Seuss, Thing One and Thing Two.  

Ho, Ho, Ho in Dutch

So here's a seriously jolly scene from Amsterdam. Mister Ho Ho Ho himself standing by hunks of cheese, legs apart, smiling out the window at the passersby such as yours truly. Check out the quality of his shirt - that weave and lace hemline- and his silky beard.

More images and stories from my time away in The Netherlands, a country that sounds like a novel.

Tricky Move

Had to share this cool moment teaching at Forest Park Elementary School.

This was the beginning of a move in which the ball rolled from hand to hand with a sweep around the shoulders along the way. Very cool. And just about as cool....a fourth grade student made this photograph.

Love the chance to teach and see what happens. 

Here She Goes

Heading to my first portfolio review in less than 72 hours.
Taking off, but not quite there.
Maybe I'm projecting slightly, but there's an anticipation in the shoulders here suggesting that what's expected could go either way.
I can relate to the frozen inhaled breath.
There's no sure thing, but giving into hope seems a good way to look ahead.

Here's to The Recollection.

Two for Tuesday: Boa Love

Thanksgiving day my special friend Hermione and her family came visiting. At some point I began digging in the dress ups and found some festive holiday ware. We are a twosome lost in the glam and tickle of feathers, feeling ever so fluffy and delicious. Girls will be girls, you know.

The Details

Thinking and rethinking and revising and revisiting. It's a wonderful process of discovery. You pick the place, get there, unpack your bags, walk the sidewalks, hike the trails, smell the smells, eat the food, and then discover what's underneath the first impression.

This image is a piece plucked from an edit. It may work. Not sure about that, but I do like the leg and the elbow and the left right wave of fabric.

Francis Ford Coppola said a writer should write without editorial consideration. Don't even look at the words for 30 days, he said. Just drive the highway headlights on, no rearview in sight. Write and wait. I'm extrapolating here, embellishing a tad. But still, good advice. Coppola also said something I agreed with so much, I grabbed a pen to scribble it down: "Rewriting is just the middle name of writing."

Thanks to Blake and Ronnie for today and the moment that led to this discovery.

Two for Tuesday: Lean on Me

This father and son twosome has a comfort level I want to breathe into me. I want to inhale that easy closeness, that restful love.

It looks like this pair has taken a break by the side of the road a hundred million times and always ended up this way: father leaning onto the handlebars, son leaning onto his father's warm back with arms, face, belly and smile.

Am I crazy or does it look like the boy is smiling with all parts of his body, even his ears?

I will close by sending love to my son on his birthday. From afar, I celebrate the affection that seems to run through him as naturally as air. Sweet boys are a gift to all.

Behind the Curtain, Part Two

Another version of the curtain shot. There's something Shakespearean in this three part play that moves left to right, from beginning to middle to end.

In the story about my maternity dress, I conclude rather sweetly after an otherwise bawdy, unsentimental remembrance of pregnancy and one Out of Africa regrettable linen smock. The words came as a surprise when I wrote them, but they seemed exactly right when I read them.

My current body is no longer that body, but the dress contains the shape of my life's most surprising and satisfying creations. My children. This pleated maternity dress is a curtain that opened the stage to my blessings, my daughter and my son.

Behind the Curtain, Part One

Okay, so here's a lovely black and white with an appealing wholeness, an organized looseness, a sequence of folding fabrics moving across the horizon in thirds, moving like a woman's pregnancy.

The deep black contrast wrapping her shape feels like a force to me. On this day, at this moment, I'm in love with the portrait. It's neat and natural and full of shapes.

Obsessing

It's obsession time with this series of photographs. I am getting completely lost in deciding which image is the strongest, most compelling, inviting and suggestive and not too literal as to shut down the horizon of imagination. Even that last sentence with its check-listy sound reveals the depths of my excessive expectations.

Could be a good thing.

In a two weeks, a bunch of "experts" will be looking over this collection of photographs. I'm heading to my first portfolio review. Going to let these items from the closet step outside into the world. Going to see what others see. Going to need a strong center.   

Thanks, once again, to the ever delightful and growing Jamie L. for helping with my revision and believing in the project. Her son doesn't yet know how amazing his mom is. He's one lucky guy!

Two for Tuesday: Hitting the Road

 

Thanksgiving is on the mind this week, and I'm feeling mighty grateful. And, yes, I'm grateful for twosomes, duality, pairs, couples, and all things twinned. Spotting this hilarious duo pulled over on the LA highway is a moment that fills my simple little heart with gratitude. 

The helmets, the glasses, the muscles, the opened mouth, the eyes trained on the road in front, that leftward stare.  For looking so serious, this twosome is comedy on wheels. 

Hope you all have a good holiday and remember: keep your eye on the road - you might find something surprising and wondrous.

Loving Damask

I missed this little moment shuffling through the images.  Glad I took a second look.

Here's a quote that's floating through me lately.  It's from novelist Colm Toibin.

"It seems that the essential impulse in working at all is to rehaunt your own house, or to allow what haunts you to have a voice, to chart what is deeply private and etched on the soul, and find form and structure for it."  

Two for Tuesday: Sharing the Road

On this balmy, weirdly, delightfully warm Tuesday in November, I took a long walk with a friend I hadn't seen in quite a while. We caught up, exercised, and took a short detour to stand under the Ginko tree on Runnymeade Road, which exploded with yellow leaves about three days ago. When you look up at that masterpiece of a tree, you see its intricate geometry, the patterning of its branches. It's a little Asian art in North Carolina.

But what am I going on about that for? It's Two for Tuesday. 

I suppose it was walking with a friend that made me select this image today. I spotted these boys, about fifteen or sixteen years old, as they strolled at a leisurely pace at a national park this summer, not a car in sight.  I walked a few paces behind.

My guess -- this twosome was probably unaware that they are wearing a uniform of friendship -- red tee shirt, black athletic shorts, flip flops.

Almost a Nun

Except for one big thing, I could have been a nun in this outfit. The white pastoral collar, Sister Peter Pan.  

Thanks to the game and playful Jamie L. She's just too good sitting in her perch at the top of the yellow slide, anticipating, about to begin down a chute leading to the world of children.

The world of children.

So happy that I slipped into that world.

Cinema

What can I say other than this: I feel a French film coming on.

Two for Tuesday: Looking Together

Like this twosome, I found the graphic sculpture to be a piece of art both absorbing and beautiful. The bubbly glass, the spinning circles, that delicious yellowy copper nucleus with the face inside. There was a lot to see. But then, after a spell, I found this silhouetted couple looking at the art just as intriguing as the work itself.

Several photographers, including North Carolinian John Rosenthal, have created series based on people looking at art in museums. I suppose all art is predicated on the third dimension - the viewer - and to see the art interacting with that force brings it to life in a new way.

Deep in the Woods

Went to the bamboo fields this rainy Friday afternoon to conclude part two of my happy collaboration with Mizz L S maybe A for Ava.

Love this place, always have. Bamboo is a delicate beast, hollow and lean, the material used in making scaffolds, which, if you think about it a second, is a piece of equipment with no room for error.

Anyway, there's a lot to say about this shot, but for now just two things: it's always great to end work on a high note. There's a reason writers are advised to stop their day at the desk in the middle of a strong paragraph.

And, two, when we started photographing, I considered the fallen shoots something to avoid. I thought they made the forest less inviting since they crossed a bit chaotically. But the diagonal cut of this jungle is what invites us directly into the journey.

Okay, I lied.  I have one more thing to say: the dress is a kiss blown into the air.

Plus/Minus

The plus is that I met and married Mark, a man I loved then and love even more richly and completely today.
The minus is that the wedding dress I borrowed from my mother became a veil of conflict draped over me. It took me my surprise then. It still does.

I read in Twyla Tharp's fantastic manual for being an artist, The Creative Habit, the following thought that made me feel a little less nuts for diving so deeply into my past.   "...the real secret of creativity is to go back and remember."

Many thanks to the divine Ms. L. and the subtle and fine R.W.  

Two for Tuesday: Supplies

This pair of mugs stuffed full of paint brushes looks like an inviting twosome. Together they seem to be happy dancers waiting for the music to start. I also like how the windowpane reflects the bristles and how those bristles blend in with the trees in the background.

When no one is looking, I've been known to run an unused paintbrush along my face. This may sound a tad strange to a guy, but for us ladies, it's not unlike applying a little blush along the cheekbones. I don't know about you, but adding that "touch" of color always feels good to me.

The Present Is a Screen

I've been thinking about time all the time lately.
The blur of time. The bleed and blush of memories, the fade and focus, the porousness of time.
This image, which is just what I saw no fancy computer layering or pyrotechnics, sums up way time appears as I'm wrestling around with the past dresses in my closet. I'm making new images in the now using the prism of the then. 

This week I discovered the remarkable South African photographer, Jo Ractliff.  Love what she says  about photography and time.

 "It's like the present is a screen for something else, and that's what I'm trying to get in my pictures."

"I think documentary photography is not simply the freezing of a time of an event, but rather has the quality of being unceasingly involved with the totality of a time stretching endlessly and forever."

Two for Tuesday: Gotta Light

Smokers huddled outside committing a societal sin together brings people close together on a lot of levels. Renegades are often closely bonded. This twosome seems to be in a race to light the man's cigarette first. He's striking a match and she's coming in with a smile and a flick of her lighter. I love this moment I came across outside Tatt Datt, a catchy sounding tattoo store in Melbourne, a city I pine for every time I dig into my photo archives.

A small detail you can't quite see -- the man is wearing an AC/DC tee shirt, a group that's a BIG deal in Australia. I'm not an expert on Australian music, but I think AC/DC and Olivia Newton-John are the only musicians to cross the oceans to climb the pop charts.

Wench Time, Part Two

I promised y'all another look at the wench dress, so here we go. I could blather on about the ribbons, the buttons, the basic sexless look, but instead I'll include a short excerpt from the story:

I stood there, a twenty-two year old, newly minted college graduate, swallowed up and safe in my dress that, from his distance, probably appeared like a swatch of Andrew Wyeth's hilly Maine landscape, a patch of Wyeth's late November grass.

        

 

The Finale

At the end of nearly every photo session last week, my collaborator, Lindsay, and I ended up playing around with the props.  Here's the rose toss, the final act in the high school graduation portrait. The shadow on the pillar pulls me in and I love the stretch of her feet and hands. Maybe it's because I was there, but this image seems to say, the end, the finale. 

Two for Tuesday

Sometimes a classic posed portrait is a sweet thing. I was wandering downtown when I spotted this twosome, this mother and son leaving Sunday evening services at Goler Memorial AME Zion Church. I got my nerve up and asked if I could make their picture. It's always a push to invade people's privacy, but I was taken with them.

For one thing, they looked so good and, more importantly, they had a cheerful feeling about them, each with their church bulletin rolled up in their hand. It turned out it was a special day, a birthday, and I just can't now remember who was celebrating. Seems they both were.

Strange But Familiar

Here's a cast off image from an interesting experience at a country club. That may sound like an oxymoron, an improbability, but let's keep our minds opened, shall we? 

Confession: I grew up belonging to two country clubs. It's not something I discuss or really think about much anymore. My parents joined a club for golf, which was essentially their club, and another club with tennis and salt water swimming where we the kids ran feral and free.

No wonder summer was my favorite season.  I had a place to play without parents and fake paper money to order up food and drinks. Standing on the wet and sandy concrete floor by the snack bar feels as immediate as typing on this keyboard today.

Back to the image, though. This is from the dress story entitled My Father's 150th Birthday, which takes place at a country club. The figure off in the distance describes how strange but familiar a country club felt.

Thanks to the kind staff at O.T. C.C. for opening their doors to us.

It's So Embarrassing

Some dresses are just so embarrassing you don't even want your face to show.  Case in point is this green mistake I wore a long time ago when, of all things, I found my true love.  Go figure. 

Getting Dressed

Something about zipping up a dress has always seemed like a beautiful thing. Unzipping is also a promising in its own way.

Thanks to J for allowing me into her space.  Love the light there.
And thanks to L for bringing a light touch to every moment.

More to come...

Wench Time

There's a lot of possibilities...that's pretty clear. This is from the wench work dress story, which was an over the top fashion no-no if ever there was one.

L & I had a ton of fun making this set come true. First day working together after a day of prep.

We hid, ducked our heads in the front seat of the car, eluded cars and trucks, and then, finally, came face to face with a woman in control who kindly accepted our idea of just another five minutes.

The mindful trespass for the comedic dejection is so worth it.  Funnier ones to come.....

Outwitting Calamities

Here's a shot from the window display I created this weekend at Associated Artists in Winston-Salem. I had a blast making it, working within a confined, proscribed, three dimensional space. I used some recent photographs as the starting point and then began building a set using props and materials from both portraits. Glass bottles, white cloth, twinkling lights and small mirrored squares from a disco ball.

Then I went a little nuts with a series of 6 images picked at random and printed 3 x 2 or 2 x 3. I hung those from ribbons that ran from hooks installed in the ceiling in a manner best described as willy nilly.

There's a great quote I came across this week from the self-portrait photographer, Arno Rafael Minkkinen. His words speak to my love of inviting chaos into frame.

To outwit the calamities, I have learned to formulate a partnership with spontaneity. Allowing limitations to become idea generators instead of idea killers means opening oneself up to creative solutions we might ordinarily never have known nor anticipated.

Hanging Together

These two cherries were the only decorative thing left in a corner diner that had closed its doors and cleared out the furniture months earlier. The place looked sad in that declared bankruptcy sort of way.

But, still, with the late afternoon sun pouring in the window, there was something bittersweet about the dusty paper fruit hanging from the water stained ceiling panel.

They looked like they would make it. They were tied together, touching side to side, above the fray, unperturbed by lost fortunes.

The Beginning

I came across an old favorite the other day - the Venetian laundry lady. Love her and the way she looks to be a white rectangle on the laundry line of hanging shadows. 

What struck me seeing this image after such a long time is how it represents where I've gone as a photographer. Before I even understood what I was after, this moment and place and person represented the images that interest me most. There's the setting, the repetitive pattern, the dress, the timelessness, the gesture, the story, the everyday mystery.

The woman leaned into that window talking to her friend (I only assume to know) for at least 30 minutes. I stood taking pictures until I ran out of film at which time I ran to the nearest drug store, purchased another roll, ran back to the laundry line, and there she remained, leaning, her elbows on the windowsill, her left foot pressed against her right calf, her head shaded by the awning. 

You Crack Me Up

Here's a portrait of explosive happiness.  I didn't take the photograph -- one of the very talented fourth graders I've been working with did. The student photographer worked with Una, the exuberant girl on the left. Una wanted her self-portrait to describe her love of friendship and so she picked Zoe, one of her many good friends, to join in the frame.

I don't know what you think, but to me friendship never looked so fun. Such hilarity and closeness. And doesn't this portrait contain its own soundtrack.  

And doesn't it so perfectly demonstrate what the great Ernst Haas once said about color photography: artists are not making color photographs, they make photographs about color. 

Welcome Home, Mister Barry White

Got some serious Barry White action going in the house last night. Felt good to hit that groove and remember how it feels to dance on and on, to move and just let it spin.

And, once again, friends and butterflies, it's that third time that's turning in the good stuff.

There's something about threes - triptych and trilogy, three act plays and third time is the charm belief systems. It's as easy to see as one, two, three.

Thanks to the dancing Mizz A and to lights man extraordinaire Mistah M

On the Way

Now that the ABES auction is over, I can post this picture made to support a wonderful school where I've been lucky enough to work since 2004.

It was a warm and windy August afternoon when a small group of collaborators got to work. When I say work, though, that sounds too stiff and serious for the easy flow of what happened. We took to the streets with a theme, a dress, a balloon, a lovely girl ready to walk the walk and then a little magic took over. The beauty and confidence of R.M.'s steps, her feet and especially that left hand, pulls me in again and again. 

Thanks to whoever ended up buying this piece. Appreciate your support!

Two for Tuesday

Going to the barber sets up a natural twosome - stylist and customer. I found these fellows at a classic looking shop in Melbourne during an early evening stroll last spring. These guys who look a little bit alike were kind enough to let me in on their appointment. The old time feel of the space (check out the phone on the wall), the barber's hunch and his pouty concentration amuse me. 

Take Three

Revision is about my favorite part of writing, but as a photographer I've resisted it because that form is twinned so often with the instant, the snapshot, the captured moment. But what I'm making now are images that seem to demand at least three go rounds.

Today's take three of the funeral dress seems to have landed in the sweet spot, finally, after a wonderful process of figuring out what I was trying to do, and say. 

The only doctoring post production involved cropping and a little blurring out where the security system stuck to the wall like a wound.

Two for Tuesday

Labor Day has come and gone, but this fabulous pair of white sandals had to make it into the waning days of summer images. The look is fetching. And, holy mother of god, check out the tear-shaped cutout in the wedge -- that's what prompted me to ask this lovely young lady walking down the street to pause long enough for me to bend down low and make a photo.

Personally, I can't walk in heels, but women who can do capture my attention. Of course, I wouldn't mind being three inches taller, but that won't happen in this lifetime.

Hope you're steps are high and happy ones, everyone.  Enjoy.

High School Graduation

Working like mad over here. Pulling together a bundle of elements and making a serious dose of possibilities. I'm lost in it. This shoot involved three people, 24 balloons, 24 plastic eggs, countless quarters and dimes, and secrets a plenty I can't reveal.    

Lift off has begun.

A line from the high school graduation story:  "Freedom stood on the other side of ceremony and I could not wait to wave adios." 

Does this look like waving adios? 

Artsy Thoughts

It's been a productive and emotionally whirling week. Here's a discarded draft of a photograph I'm working on in my series. The momentum behind my project is building like the movement of the skirt of this dress. Locations, props, people, dots - it's all combining with energy that gives me hope.

But why this blog title?  Well. I just have to say how much I loathe the word "artsy." It's an adjective that makes me go eeewww, makes me cringe. Lately I've been described as artsy, and I know it's been done with affection, but it rattles my cage. Is it because I hear that echo, that rhyme...artsy fartsy? Maybe. Or maybe it's just sounds diminutive, dismissive, maybe a little too cutesy. 

Two for Tuesday

I can't say what these two ladies decided before they began their walk together, but they make a lovely twosome, uniformed and united.

Small white dog - check.
Black capri workout pants - check.
White sneakers - check.
Sweatshirt with zipper wrapped around the waist - check.
Ponytail - check.

Still Life

A still life is a classic practice for working artists. It's a good exercise in seeing.

This summer my life has been marked by a stillness of a certain quality I've not know. It became at times so quiet that every little object and sound came into focus.

One day I washed a bunch of pears and put them onto a wooden plate my friend Dennis made and let the late afternoon sunshine do the rest. Quiet and still can be beautiful.

Two for Tuesday

Oystercatchers are birds with great legs and such nicely matched beaks and eyeliner. Talk about coordinated pairings. They seem to understand the power of accent colors when putting together an outfit.

The whole time I watched this twosome, they never strayed more than two inches from each other. Living by the vast ocean, it's got to feel less daunting to think you've got a buddy by your side.

Read, Aim, Shoot

Excited to begin the shooting - that act can energize any plot line.

Not sure what look I'm going for exactly, but the experimenting is going to be an all options on the table affair. I'm planning to make a mess.

Summer Frig

Maybe I was hungry, but when I opened the frig the other day it made me so happy to see the contents. Summer is the best eating season and it seemed to appear on every shelf. Tomatoes, peaches, grapes, squash. I also love the beverages here - a full container of milk, a six pack, seltzer, tonic, lots of juices.

I always love the frig shots in movies, especially when they shoot the person looking in. I don't have the fancy equipment for such things, but imagine a cheerful face on the other side, studying what to pull out, having a tough time deciding with so many great options.

Two for Tuesday

It's late August and back to school fever is in the air. The yellow buses are rumbling on the roads and students are settling into their brand new year, including my daughter who begins her doctoral program today. (Good luck, Missy Miss!)

This handsome twosome pictured here is from Bali. Each morning during my short visit there last spring, I'd walk three buildings down from my hotel to the local elementary school. I loved watching the comings and goings of parents and children during morning drop off. It was an unrehearsed ritual of the everyday - not your typical tourist show and tell.

The red school uniforms are jazzier than the drab American equivalent of khaki pants and polo shirts. But that sharing between friends - it looks the same, the same as anywhere. It's a recognizable moment shared across the globe.

Look, look at what I hold in my hand. Check this thing out.

Streaky Skies

Pin stripes at a diagonal appeared late in the afternoon when most people had headed back home. So glad I stayed. I remember learning in documentary photography classes that many good photographs appear when the event is (supposedly) over. To linger can bring dividends.