For Janine

My friend Janine says that Andy Goldsworthy is the artist that matters as she thinks about her life now, now that cancer is nesting in several places on her beautiful 45 year old body. Life can get serious super quickly.

Goldsworthy's sculpture is made with the earth's elements. The material reflects beauty and its eventual destruction, its inevitable demise. Collectors cannot buy a Goldsworthy. They are meant to disappear over time. Some take months, others decades, maybe more.

This week Janine wrote. "We humans have no idea of anything really...best is to live in the moment." 

She also told me how children have it right; they're fearless, able to be thrilled by rain, crickets, grass, eager to splash through a puddle, ready to run through the water, getting wet and loving it.

I made this grass and cinderblock landscape for Janine this afternoon.

Two for Tuesday: The Opposite of Pro Football

Action shots aren't my forte but they are exciting. Feet in mid air. Time snapped into a fraction of a second. Motion stopped cold in its tracks.

This week's twosome features my near and dear, my daughter and son. I took this shot during our traditional Thanksgiving football game, which is loose and messy and full of ridiculous plays like whatever this one is.

I mean, seriously, can you figure out what these two are up to because I can't, and I was there. Marissa is reaching for an unretrievable ball with one hand while Tyler's spinning out in some elevated contortion that leaves me scratching my head, confused about what exactly he's reacting to here. (Footnote: the sunlight on his hair is pretty wonderful, though not a part of most sports commentary, I realize.)

Anyway, at one point during the game, I took a pretty good tumble when I ingloriously tripped over my own two feet. I went splat into the dirt, wrecked my jeans and ended up with a skinned elbow that brought me back to childhood and made me oddly proud.

Defining Memory

Oliver Wendell Holmes defined photography as a mirror with a memory. This photograph speaks to me of that definition - the Thanksgiving table a few hours before we ate looks like the place where the past begins to slide out of the present.

The low light created a shaky focus and an unintended blur that seems to capture where Thanksgiving now resides in me, four days after gathering for a delicious meal. It's a yummy impressionistic memory of a really fun day and evening.

Two for Tuesday: Done Walking

It's good I live in a relatively small city because I've been known to slam on my brakes from time to time, like when I spotted this twosome so neatly stashed by the side of the road, for example. This pair of gorgeous black cowboys boots just stood by the curb looking like they were waiting for something, or someone.

Usually when you spot a shoe on the road it's a singular thing, the lone remnant suggesting debauchery or heartache or violence or all three. But this trim and tidy cinematic pair of Harley Davidson boots emitted a feeling of elegant mystery.

It could be the beginning of a long story, or it could be end of one...

 

Part of a Dream

I've been using the word thrilled a lot lately. It's thrilling. I'm thrilled. What a thrill. Thrill, thrill, thrill. Part of it is how, right now, I don't know how, all these connections are coming together. I've wanted to make a portrait just like this one for a good year and a half or more, and finally all the forces slid into place and, voila, here's that dream of a dream realized.

I will be returning to this idea again...and I am thrilled (there it is again) just thinking about our second shoot. It's going to be fun revising, playing around with the parts, knowing a bit more about the workings and pitfalls.

Many thanks to the supportive and talented collective: Anna, Anne, John, and Lauren. Peace.

Two for Tuesday: WTP

Right now my world is awash with children and that makes me happy and keeps me learning.  This pair of beaming writers and photographers is showing off their completed projects created during my residency at the Arts Based Elementary School.  In their hands are the self-portraits they created as part of the project, My Inside Outside Self.

As we stapled and taped and polished their portraits, we chatted casually, enjoying a rare and well-earned moment of down time together. Jadyn with the rainbow stripes taught me that WTP means where's the party. And Kharin, with the black and white stripes, said possibly the funniest line I'd ever heard while teaching.

Kharin was proud of all her writing, amazed because she'd never written this much before. As a teacher my heart swooned a little. I asked her why she thought she was able to write such a long piece.

"Because I'm really self-centered," she said, smiling, "and that's all we had to write about."

Anyone who wants to come see all 57 dazzling fourth grade artists from ABES is invited to attend their performance and opening reception tomorrow night - Wednesday November 14 - at 7 pm at SECCA in Winston-Salem.  The work is stunning, surprising and rich and, at times, hilarious.

The Final Copy

The final draft takes a lot of concentration and my hat goes off to the fourth grade students at ABES who worked so diligently and with such humming intensity to create their self-portraits. The writing is mind boggling good, funny and profound, inventive and perceptive.

Come see their show at SECCA - it's up on display beginning November 9th. The students will perform Wednesday night, November 14 at 7:00, with a reception to follow.