mfa + boston
I believe art is like exercise and diet - once you stop moving, the old habits surface and in too short of a time, all the forward progress retreats at an alarmingly fast rate.
I believe art is like exercise and diet - once you stop moving, the old habits surface and in too short of a time, all the forward progress retreats at an alarmingly fast rate. It's much easier to grasp this in terms of dance or athletics for without daily stretching, the muscles tighten and the drive to push past a known limit dissolves. It's a metaphor I see with photographing. While sometimes the spaces in between can offer rest and inspiring insights, too much time away often leaves me unable to be present for I'm more eager to find something spectacular rather than enjoying the moment. While all this surfaced during a visit into Boston to see the Class Distinctions exhibit at the MFA, this time, I was willing to stand in the undertow of with compassion and rejoice in the moments that appeared.
hope | mfa, 2016
the art lesson | mfa boston, 2016
digital jukebox, conversation with imaginary friend | boston, 2016
projects & series - 2014
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
And so it has been. A year and a time when I felt/feel almost dizzy with the series of work ... some I've been at for some time like American Summer and the Little Witches; others which emerged this past year - Fair & Farms, Portraits and a welcome return to birds and trees (and clouds) ... a different kind of Avalon.
I also continued to work with organizations and causes I support and give to ... Creating Community and Drums for Funds were two from this past year. And then whenever I can ... I photograph in public. Not always successfully or willingly or without trepidation, but the more I do, the more I grow; the easier it is to go.
set of threes
three weeks ago i took this picture filled with the gifts of summer - the heat in the air tinged with the scent of the sea. the stretch of days laid out before. a time that clears the system in ways that's as simple and uncomplicated as the wonderment and joy children find in water sprinklers. but then it all shifted into a series of annoying pokes that gurgled and sputtered before erupting into a wild and unconstrained blow.
boston common | july, 2014
as i'm prone to a mercurial persuasion, i can fall into a hole of shadow mirrors ... that of sadness and futility, of complaints (all i don't have & don't get to do), of a longing to be like others who's lives are illuminated into a blissfully artful arrangement with ample opportunities to create and be inspired with beautiful soulful children.
it's a dangerous place to slide for complaints and comparisons are like a rip tide holding me hostage while tearing my being into shreds.
yet it is precisely at times like these that i discover what i'm made of.
it's easy to be inspired and create and go further when life is uncomplicated, when i'm surrounded by beautiful people, when my needs of health, income, and stability are met. but when life cracks at the seams and begins to fall apart, times when ideas are evasive and opportunities dry up that my mind can get tangled.
in talking to a close friend who's in a similar paradigm, i was asked to consider the micro mirroring the macro. that the world has gone mad and in ways, my connection to it is showing up the way it is.
i was also asked what i'm not noticing ... what opportunity this presents.
so i'll leave it at that for now, three weeks later.
ignite - june
i've been keeping track of the photographs selected and shown within this group so far, and at midway, i think perhaps i've begun to get a little understanding of what i'm showing month to month. i've kind of lost my steam for the group shares and find the only way i can maintain enthusiasm and inspiration is to understand what i'm doing at the onset. that way, each month seems to add to a collection of the whole. so with this group, i started out rather flat and directionless. the first picture of the year in january of two views in a cafe sort of set the tone; but as i wasn't clear on that direction, february's now looks kind of odd. i think maybe in march i started to get clearer and since then, april and may begin to make sense. which brings me to june and this.
US District Court | Boston, 2014
this photograph was taken as a test shot during a client session in boston at the courthouse. (client is an attorney and i was commissioned to photograph portraits, headshots and documentary images for a website we're developing for her). the idea here was to photograph her coming out of the courthouse - thus, my test.
what i didn't plan on were the three men (presumably attorneys) who were beginning to exit at the moment i set my test shot. being that i was already there and in place, i photographed them as they exited.
while i love everything about the story here - the three poses, the expression of the man on the left along with the connection of those in the middle and right - the exposure was incorrect. in fact it was seriously over exposed. a hard image to photograph (high noon, clear, cloudless bright early summer day). so while i almost didn't show it for those reasons, it fits with the series i seem to have going.
with that & my long winded outline....i will send you onto one who's creativity and imagination is as beautiful as her name: January Skye, Melbourne Photographer.
ignite ~ april
on a day when shooting street was not the means but turns out the end, in accompanied three teenagers to the cincinnati aquarium. we'd spent the last parts of the day outside the complex in newport ky and the unfolding scenes were captivating to say the least. the light was right and the setting was interesting in terms of compositions and shapes. and tho i felt ok with a few i'd taken, it was on the way to the parking garage when i turned and saw this. or rather, what i first saw was the man in overalls which i imagined as a farmer on a cell phone. and then i saw the man above...in just the right place.
two men in newport ky | 2014
next in our small but creative group is Roxanne Bappe | Imaging Rox | Central Iowa Photographer.
ignite - march
on a day that was freezing & cold & snowing (and in truth, another day of a very long winter) it felt good to be out in boston despite it all. with each gust of wind, each drift of snow, i smiled thinking maybe just maybe this would be the last day of the year for that (though sadly it wasn't). regardless, as i took time out to assess, the downside of that was not photographing as often as i have been. and it felt good to simply look around and discover....
woman smoking | boston, 2014
snow & sailboats
month two with a collective called ignite - a creative discovery of art & the first photograph in a new website. one that feels like a snow-globe you'd shake in your hand. yet one that has been very real for those of us who live in new england. this is what we've seen on more days than not. but what gives me hope here is that sailboat in the window as we are but one full moon away from the official turn into the season of spring.
snow, books & boy | salem, ma 2014
to see the rest of the photographs, i invite you onward...to one who amazes me with her concepts: Susan Gietka, Susan Grace Photography, Hammonton NJ, Fine Art Photography.
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