Number Three Tuesday

There's so much back and forth and symmetry here you'd think I dressed and sat these two beautiful women down myself and instructed the waves to fold into a double arch. But no. Everything lined up.

I love these women, wet and happy in their shirts, sarongs, and hats just talking, going on the way women do. The woman's lifted hand and the listening woman's outstretched legs seems to say all you need to know about friendship and intimacy. And their reflection is like a sweet sauce poured on top.

Paint it Red

Festive times call for festive colors, don't you think? This is a summer beckoning, a red of wet lollipop and the green of summertime suburban holiday weekend. Nice.

Some fun was had in these quarters, hope the same can be said of where you've been this Memorial Day.

Number Two Tuesday

It's that time of the week again. Two for Tuesdays. Here's a couple that have sat side by side for decades.

Time Travel

Happy graduation to everyone out there finishing up. It's been one celebration after the next around here with more to come. This blurry image of space and land and sky seems about how events are striking my inner clock that, bless its heart, tries to keep time. Things feel beautifully rich and slightly weird.

Just how it is that my son is graduating from college remains a mystery. Whooooosh. Whoooosh, and more whoooosh. Can you make out the train track stretching from the pace?

But enough with my metaphors that inevitably rear their rhapsodic heads at times like these. Here are the metaphors that came to Rainer Maria Rilke when he wrote:

Whoever Grasps

Whoever grasps the thousand contradictions of his life,

pulls them together into a single image, that man, joyful

and thankful, drives the rioters out of the palace,

becomes celebratory in a different way, and you are the guest

whom he receives on the quiet evenings.

You are the second person in his solitude,

the tranquil hub of his talking with himself;

and every circle he draws around you

lifts him out of time on those compass legs.

Playing Around

You can go far, far away and be right at home when you see young boys monkeying around together. What you have right here are two adorable Balinese boys at the Spring Water Temple on a high Hindu holiday.

Two for Tuesdays

Here's Sarah and Rachel, two friends who share the same address, the same class at school, same department, same graduation date, and same desire to do anything but film after finishing up their film degrees. I really like these girls. I especially like the way they are such good friends to each other.

I also like the way their feet are in this shot when, technically, they probably shouldn't be.

So this is my plan - Tuesdays I will feature twosomes. I've been developing a series based on that idea and have some fun images to share about two-ness. The local Classic Rock station always does something called Two for Tuesdays, so my idea is a direct rip off.

Moving Along

Here's a good friend. I think that shows up inside this image that has the look and feel of anywhere, anytime USA. Wonder if that seems true to you. Anyway....

Sarah was a friend of a friend who became my friend about two years ago on a snowy day when all the schools closed down and we shared a cup of hot chocolate.

She's about eleven minutes from graduation. Sarah will be moving on, moving away from Winston-Salem, heading into her life without the parameters of school. First stop - an internship as the photographer in residence at Brevard Music Center.

Nice work, honey bun. Nicely done. Look forward to seeing what you see up there.

Look Down

Sometimes I remind my son to look up.

Did you look up at the sky today, I'd write him, hoping that the young man who attends college in a big city and, who, like all of us, has his eyes on a screen a lot, will move his vision from low to high, from below to above, if only for a few seconds.

Well, this image reminded me that it's also good to look down.

I was visiting a gallery where local artists were invited in to paint from time to time. The finished canvases were great and plentiful, piled up on the floor like stacks of Oriental carpets, but the floor held my attention. And I just love that little bit of text, splintered from packing tape.

Something to Talk About

Here's my obsession, or one of them anyway. This lady. She slays me.

I walked past this woman leaning against the phone booth on a Saturday morning in Darwin, Australia several weeks ago. I slowed to a halt, taking in the details. The umbrella, the legs, those heels, and the way she held the phone to her head.

Casually, I pulled out the camera and enjoyed sleuthfully capturing this perfectly composed image that seems right out of a movie set. You know, that moment in the film when a character sneaks in a call. It's a plot point, but it's pretty, and enough to get from point A to point B.

I understand this alone might not be such a wow for you.

But there was also this: that woman stood talking on the phone for more than two hours. Two hours! The public phone booth - a thing of the past in the global mobile universe - became her home. She hung up her umbrella, leaned against the metal countertop, and pretty soon the glass openings looked like windows in her house.

Seeing her initially, I felt enchanted. Seeing her still there on my walk back from lunch, I felt much more than enchantment; I felt intrigued by this engaged and elegant woman dressed a short plaid skirt that reminded me of 1970s Catholic school uniforms. Who was she talking to? And what were they talking about at such length?

Stairway to Heaven

Steps and staircases are suggestive invitations, and here the walk up appears especially interesting. Are we going to the sky or blocked out by the metal picket fence? Nothing is clear but ambiguity. On the one hand, it says come on up, and on the other, it says, why bother.

I decided to include this now since I've been dipping back into some classic black and white material lately. It reminds me of the man who attended my artist talk in Connecticut this past September. He was a freakishly tan man of about 65. He wore shorts and white bucks and reminded me of Larry David. After my PowerPoint lecture, he was the first to raise his hand. "Your black and white work seems profound, but the color work is just ordinary."

Not knowing whether to be complimented or insulted, I smiled, or hope I did, and moved on to the next hand-raiser, a homeless man in the way back who, an administrator told me earlier, always came to eat the snacks and drink the lemonade. "How'd you get time off to come to Connecticut," he asked.

I thought about explaining the grant/fellowship process, but decided to laugh instead. Isn't it always the better option?

Up and Down

Thought I'd keep with the Margaret Bourke-White theme a little longer here. The classic black and white industrial line-based shadow play.

Of course, I can't help putting myself here. Seeing how the up and down moods I'm feeling since coming home are presented in this staircase.

Surprise Surprise

Taking a photograph through an iron grid seemed like a very Margaret Bourke-White idea. She captured graphic urban life better than anyone.

I was pretty surprised when I saw this image show up with such a lovely silhouette of the people on the bus. When I studied with Cig Harvey she always talked about the fairies that can work with you when you're in the groove. The fairies showed up that day, and, as always, I had nothing to do with it.

Going In

Crossing the threshold is a moment of transition. This is where I am right now, walking back into my life, and while it's fun, welcoming, and pretty entertaining, it's also a bit daunting. I mean, really, what about the size of that mouth, the look in those two eyes?

The man with the hat below the ferris wheel is Mark, my husband, who just loved wearing his Australian hat as we traveled that great country. I can't say I ever even once saw any Australian men wearing one of those hats. But, still, somehow seeing him wearing that hat tickled me, and I think visually it adds something important to this image of entry.