Prints

I sent a Cd of files off to be printed. I feel like a kid waiting for my sea monkeys to come. If you don't understand that reference then you are too young.

I'll update when I get the proofs.

Jacob Carter

Democratic books #27 Jacob Carter

Muse-ings posted on the photographs of Jacob Carter and I knew I was familiar with his work. I remembered that he has a "book", The Fabric of Cities, available through Democratic Books. If you haven't been there, you should go have a thorough look around. They make absolutely wonderful additions to one's collection of printed photography. I printed Carter's book last summer while taking a bookmaking class as an exercise in formatting, but chose his, specifically, for the enigmatic work.

One off

I need a break from getting files ready to send to print. This is a picture of our Christmas miracle. We went to the beach over the holidays (which given the January we have had seems like 3 months ago) and went for a walk early Christmas morning to poke around in the pools left by a very low, full moon tide. In one of the pools I saw this gentleman swimming. He was gorgeous. It is my first real, live seahorse. We rescued it, took the picture and set him loose in the gulf. I like to think we saved him from the fate of most stranded creatures at low tide.

Love and war

For $44 you can have a message of love spray painted on the West Bank Wall and they will send you photographs of your graffiti. I have no way of knowing how reliable this link is, but this is non-violent protest at its' best. You'll be sharing space with Banksy. My only question is will you then be targeted for surveillance... for funding a terrorist organization?

Mashup

What do you get when you blend an Amy Stein rant with a Brian Ulrich project? Thrift Geddes! Anyone else want to go out and find a mashup?

Learning in public

The excellent new blog Sellout posted the other day on a subject that is near and dear to my heart right now. Interesting paradigm the art world has created.

The Sartorialist

Michelle Jank, Paris Scott Schuman

Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist has a show opening tonight at the Danziger Projects in New York. I have subscribed to The Sartorialist for a long time always thinking of it as a guilty pleasure. In point of fact I have learned a good deal from Scott's approach to street portraits. I applaud his unfailing ability to find individualists. I admire his skill at capturing that defiance.

"Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity."

CoCo Chanel

On non-violence

A Colorado lawmaker kicked a Rocky Mountain News photographer for taking his picture during the daily opening prayer. You can read the story here and see video here. You can say the story caught my attention.

The project that I am working on involves a Christian paint ball park. When I read about it I was drawn to the concept of trying to visually capture the, in my mind at least, contradiction. Weapons of any kind, competition, vanquishing are all outside my understanding of Christianity. When I took a few prints to a critique a few weeks ago one of the participants asked why I hadn't photographed the players being lead in prayer at the start of the day. I had given it a lot of thought. First, I couldn't think of a way to make a still photo (as opposed to video) that would in any way communicate prayer. It isn't as if they were kneeling, bowing, prostrating themselves. An image of an individual or group with their eyes closed titled Prayer didn't work for me. Second, and this was the deal breaker. It just didn't feel right. I was welcomed and had been allowed full access to make pictures. I didn't feel that I could intrude on their intimate moment regardless of my personal convictions.

I am not a photojournalist. It is not my job to get news. I have the luxury to shoot if and what I want. I just find it interesting to have the Colorado story come up as I am sorting my thoughts about my own experience. Now I wonder if I had tried to get a picture, would I have been kicked?

In the Making

Photo - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel kicked off a new web feature this morning. In the Making is a multi-media offering created under the auspices of art critic Mary Louise Schumacher who invited artists to make short videos "about how and why they work". I was pleased when she invited my friend Sonja Thomsen to participate. Three other visual artists are included in the inaugural group. katie e. martin, Jill Sebastian, and Jason Yi.

Kudos to Mary Louise and the Journal Sentinel for realizing that the news media can have an exciting resource on the web.

Cosmin Bumbut

Cosmin Bumbut

Issue 17 of Blueeyes Magazine is up and features essays by Lisa Wiltse, Kelly Shimoda and Romanian photographer Cosmin Bumbut.

"Cosmin Bumbut’s work sits on the fence between the old world and the new. As one frame meets the next, the viewer is at once reminded of Josef Koudelka and Luc Delahaye."

Well worthwhile.

Direction

I have made progress this week with the project I am finishing for the MARN Mentor/Mentee program. I need to submit an Artist's Statement (for some reason,even though I am a verbal person, just typing those words fills me with dread. Do I hear an Amen?) by the 29th of this month for the catalog and it would be a good thing to have something to say. In order to do that I have to hone in on a direction. As I have worked with editing, sequence and scale over the past few weeks I have come upon a small fork in the path. It has led me to make new work to add to the group and has taken on a new outlook. I'm not sure when you know that you are headed in the right direction, but even though this brings an unexpected aspect to the work, it feels right.

There is joy

in the Packer Nation today.

100% pure Wisconsin cheese.

Visual Trophies

The December 24 & 31, 2007 issue of The New Yorker had a book review by John Updike on the catalogue that has been published in conjunction with the exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, The Art of the American Snapshot 1888-1978.

"A little halo of photographic illumination, in other words, accompanies us in our traversal of the decades, and any aesthetic or sociological values that the photographs possess are incidental. With a poignancy peculiar to photographic images, the past is captured while its obliteration is strongly implied."

It is an interesting read, as much commentary as critique.

This was the Winter Fiction issue and coincidentally includes a piece by Lore Segal, The Arbus Factor. I am disappointed I can't provide a link (it is not included in their free archive) because it is a lovely piece. If you are able to get your hands on a copy, the spare one page bit of prose might make you smile.

(Once again, I apologize for being unable to take Blogger's wonky line spacing in hand.)

Update: The National Gallery has an interactive slide show here. I understand the design concept of making this sort of thing interactive, but am I the only one who finds these a little awkward?

Take that you Mac weenies

Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

Bill Gates can be funny too!

I'm not complaining

Patio Rorschach 2008

Thank you Mr. Bush. It is January. Here in southern Wisconsin we have not seen the ground since the first week of December. Over the weekend we had a major meltdown. This afternoon for the first time in my memory the tornado sirens sounded three times...in January. My husband's last 3 patients called to cancel, they were in their basements at work and not able to leave. Global climate change? Science schmience.

That's what friends are for

Thursday night I took prints to a critique. Let's just say it was less than the supportive, enlightening experience one hopes for. I left with more of a feeling of having people pick over your things at a rummage sale, which is another reason I never have them.

Friday my friend brought me a birthday gift. Why my Photographs are Good by Jim Stone, a One Picture Book from Nazraeli Press. The timing couldn't have been better. I think I will sleep with it under my pillow.

Thank you, thank you Sonja.

Beauty as an acceptable aesthetic criterion

Morning Traffic, Midtown, Manhattan 2000 Michael Kenna

Gallery Hopper is back (taunting those of us not in or near New York) with a January Gallery crawl. I appreciate the opportunity for a virtual crawl.

Robert Mann Gallery is showing 39 pieces of new work by Michael Kenna. The site carries a review by William Meyers of The New York Sun that begins, "Michael Kenna takes beautiful photographs; this is not meant pejoratively. " I love that. I also love that none of the pieces is greater than 9.25 inches on the longest side. Small beautiful photographs? What a rebel.

Go Around Twice

This bit of delightful street art is through Wooster Collective. I am hoping to bring the "go around twice" attitude to 2008. Perhaps you'd like to join me? I can think of worse resolutions.

Happy New Year!