Auld Lang Syne

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
on Old long syne.
On Old long syne my Jo,
in Old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
on Old long syne.

My Heart is ravisht with delight,
when thee I think upon;
All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,
and speedily is gone;
The bright resemblance of thy Face,
so fills this, Heart of mine;
That Force nor Fate can me displease,
for Old long syne.

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,
when from thee I am gone;
will not thy presence yield relief,
to this sad Heart of mine.
Why doth thy presence me defeat,
with excellence divine?
Especially when I reflect
on Old long syne.

May you all have a healthy and prosperous new year!

Favorites

Hi friends, I just thought I'd share a few of my favorites from the past week. Enjoy!

Machine

While visiting my parents, my dad, who is retired, showed me his latest project. He likes to fix up old, vintage tractors. Oliver tractors, to be specific. I really like looking at the inner workings of a machine, a real machine with parts that make sense and work together, and don't require a computer hook-up to diagnose problems. To see more pictures from my dad's shop, go here.

Winter in Vermont

Hi folks, I hope you've all had a magical Christmas with family, or friends, or both. I'm back from  a truly beautiful Christmas with my family in the Northeast Kingdom, and in case you haven't heard, they've gotten a little snow. But Vermonters are used to it, which is why you'll find their pantries well-stocked and shovels ready. While it makes driving a challenge, it has a nice way of slowing everyone down a little and sheds a peaceful calm over everything.

I have a lot of neat things to share over the next few days; among them a new collaborative blogging project that you'll hear more about later and that I hope inspires you!

Stay warm!

Shchedryk

In America, we know this song as 'Carol of The Bells,' which is sung as a Christmas song, but it was originally a pre-christian Ukranian folk song sung on New Year's Eve on the Julian calendar (January 13th) and was known to have magical properties.

In 1921, it was adapted as a Christmas Carol, and was played at Carnegie Hall with the new English lyrics.

According to the original lyrics, it is about a swallow that flies into a house and sings about the bounty of the coming year.

If you'd like to hear an edgier, more contemporary version with really nice cinematography, go here.

May your holidays have the warmth of friends and family, and your new year be filled with bounty!

102310 Holiday Shoot in B&W

Today was my first day of vacation, spent drinking too much coffee, and having a splendid holiday lunch with some designer friends in the Short North. Oh, and followed up with a serving of Jeni's Bangkok Peanut ice cream (should I have had the Wildberry Lavender instead? Oh, decisions!).

Today is also the day the 102310 Project group is uploading their ten B&W pictures to Facebook, and I have to confess, as I sit here scrolling through the early entries; I am one rich girl. More than once, I've muttered under my breath, "I wish I'd taken that one." Happy envy is, I think, the sign of true appreciation. Once again, my own entries lacked the sort of planning I wish I'd put into the project, but I can still sit back and look at the collective contributions as they continue to come in ... and nod. This is collaboration at its best.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Annie Lennox

It's nice when some old favorites come out with some new music reviving some old holiday classics. I remember singing this when my sisters and I went carolling in our neighborhood on Christmas Eve. Yes, I'm that old ... happy weekend, everyone!

102310 Holiday Shoot

My friends in the Facebook 102310 Group are gearing up for another shoot, this time it will be the holidays in black & white. We're pretty excited to see what will come out of it, as we have people from all across the country, each with very different styles. I'll share what I get out of the day, but meanwhile perhaps you'll enjoy a few shots I took last year. Oh, and I really want this book. Can someone tell Santa I've been super- good this year?

Cognitive Dissonance

I was thinking today of a Rilke poem from his Sonnets to Orpheus;
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.

Winter has indeed come to Central Ohio with a rather fierce grip. We adjust our daily patterns to include layers, and moving the alarm clock up so we can chip away at our cars and allow for a longer drive time. And we try not to fantasize too much about those summer nights on the back patio ... they'll be back, and we'll welcome them with open arms.

Cantara - Dead Can Dance

It was the mid-nineties when my friend Leann and I drove to a small high school auditorium in Cleveland to see DCD. It seemed an odd juxtaposition to us at the time; such an incredible band playing in such an obscure place. But they were full of of such anomalies. I remember being transfixed by how Lisa Girard would remain almost motionless while singing amidst such a swirl of sound. I believe their music was found in the 'world music' section of the store, but that always seemed a trifle inadequate. Not only does their music elude a specific country, it eludes time. If Homer's Iliad needed a soundtrack, this would be it. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships, looked strikingly familiar ...



Happy weekend, friends!

10 Things to Do in December

As I look back on 2010, it was filled with all sorts of highs and lows, but it's certainly helped me focus on the important things. Hence, my list of things I want to do in December:

1. Celebrate.
2. Spend some quality time with my sisters and friends.
3. Sing Christmas carols with Pink Martini.
4. Wrap my gifts with Pantone's Color of the Year 2011.
5. Wander aimlessly. With my camera.
6. Shoot for the 102310 Holidays in B&W project.
7. Give more to the Kidney Foundation.
8. Finish Proust's Swann's Way.
9. Look into that ballet class I promised myself when I finished with classes.
10. Gear up for mysterious developments in 2011.

What are you doing this month?

Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

I just learned this week that my final photography class was my FINAL class for me to graduate. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, but I couldn't have accidentally chosen a more perfect final class. The instructor was the kind of person who inspires and moves others to great achievement. On the first day of class she asked what we had all hoped to gleen from the class, and without revealing my answer, she has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. So this post is dedicated to her; she's inspired me to such great heights.

"Everything looks perfect from far away." But wouldn't you rather see something beautiful instead?

Flawed Beauty

Tonight was my last art photography class where we revealed our final assignment; the summation of our experience of the class. If you've seen the Louis Malle film Vanya on 42nd Street, it was much like the final scene, (if you haven't seen it, rent it now!), where all the actors at the end of rehearsal come to realize they've had a profound experience and they depart, one by one, as the characters they depicted reluctantly slip from their faces and bodies. There is something special that happens when a diverse group of strangers get together, share ideas, learn, and come to some of the same conclusions of what constitutes beauty. The shot I've posted is a picture that, a year ago, I would have deleted immediately, failing to see anything beautiful in it. My friend, Kathie, said the same thing about her cover image on the Blurb book she created. Stunning, isn't it?

The trick now? To carry these ideas forward.

Scenes from the Weekend

Aside from Thanksgiving (which was divine), I had a pretty low-key weekend as I wrap up work on my photography class.  I learned much and am trying to fold it into my understanding of art. One thing that has changed is that I've become more of a flaneur. A flaneur is a person who simply wanders around as a detached observer, not with a specific purpose, but just to experience what comes. I walked through my neighborhood, noticing the strangest details, and subtle changes from one day, week and month to the next, and watching the patterns of life. If you have ever made a point of taking lots of pictures when you travel, you understand the importance of photography's role in capturing the experience itself, not just a beautiful picture. What if you could capture that feeling of freedom you experience when travelling and draw from it in your daily life?

Winter Eyes

It takes my eyes a while to adjust to the new season. Mother Nature has put on a more sombre dress, but not less beautiful. Winter's stark beauty has yet to be completely fulfilled; we need a layer of snow.

As my husband and I were putting our back yard to sleep for the winter, I speculated about how, as a child, I could spend hours in the cold, wearing my snow suit and insulated snow boots, sliding down a hill and climbing back up for another run until it was too dark to see. Today, standing there in my Converse high-tops and not feeling my feet, that seemed a lifetime ago.

This looks like a nice winter home for a mouse, don't you think?

No Surprises - Radiohead

How about some gentle music to counter the Black Friday frenzy around you? This fits for me; I bought a new car today because I pretty much drove my old one into the ground. It started giving me surprises, which I don't like from a car.  I've heard Radiohead described as the new Lennon & McCarthy. What do you think?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my final project for my art photography class. It has been a labor of love and, I think, an appropriate response to the eve of Thanksgiving. My life, and my work, is an homage to gratitude. I express my gratitude through images. Not just one day out of the year; gratitude is a habit that rewards us daily. It gives us both humility and strength. And I must say, I am grateful for my friends and family who support, encourage, challenge and inspire me continually. I am grateful for my health, which I know can be taken from me in the blink of an eye. I am grateful for this strange and wonderful world I was born into, which I sometimes forget exactly how to celebrate.  



And I am grateful for you, my friends, for coming back here again and again, offering me words of kindness and appreciation.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

The BBC's Top 100 Books

Perhaps you've seen your friends posting this on Faceook, but the BBC has created a list of the 100 most popular books, voted by the reading public. The BBC surmised that most people will only have read about six of them. On Facebook, the idea is to bold the titles you have read, and italicize the titles you have started but not finished. I found the list interesting and surprising - and missing a great number of important works. The criteria, as I have mentioned, is most popular as determined by the reading public, not the most important in terms of literary history as determined by scholars. Still, I found the list deficient and needed to tag onto the end a few of my own that I feel have contributed to the canon of great literature and influenced the literary conversation. Have you read more than six? What would you add? Or subtract?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (thrice)
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (twice)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (twice)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (twice)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (twice)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (twice)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (twice)
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (twice)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Other important books, according to me:
1 Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
2 The Moon and Sixpence - Somerset Maugham
3 The Golden Bowl - Henry James
4 Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
5 The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
6 Howard's End - EM Forster
7 Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen
8 Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
9 Nana - Emile Zola
10 The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
11 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
12 Still Life - AS Byatt
13 A la recherche du temps perdu - Marcel Proust 
14 The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James

Chicago

I'm just back from a glorious week in Chicago and must say, in spite of all the wonderful food and fashion, am glad to be home. I stayed at a hotel on the corner of Michigan and Huron which is a prime location for shopping -- if you're not beset with a horrid cold. The most money that I spent was at Walgreen's on cold medicine. No new Tory Burch ballet flats or a ridiculous Ferragamo bag for me. But with a whirlwind schedule of meetings and dining out ... I had a lovely dinner at Quartino, which, if you live in Columbus you would be interested to learn that Cameron Mitchell lifted the concept for his restaurant Marcella's. Imitation is the best form of flattery, no?

I also only took about three pictures, literally, which is a shame. Luckily for me, one dinner event was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art where I got to see some pretty sublime art. One funny thing I overheard while there, "Columbus? This must be a real culture shock for you." Exciting, yes, but culture shock? You know, things have improved tremendously around here since we got electricity and indoor plumbing, oh, about a hundred years ago. But I love a town with a champagne bar, don't you?

Louise - Shannon Wright

Have you ever felt like the lead character in the movie Run, Lola, Run? That was me today, but in a good way; lots of photography, wrapping up the week, getting ready to go out of town, and lunch at The Happy Greek with new work friends. I'll choose a crazy, fun day over one of idleness any day!



Louise is one of my favorite names. I used to have a Louise Brooks hairstyle (I kind of miss it, now that I think of it). I give "Louise" as a middle name to coworkers as a gesture of fondness. They seem to understand.

Happy weekend!

Deconstructivism

  

Hi friends, I hope you're having a delightful week. As you can see, I've been working on my art photography. I had to create a sort of deconstructivism piece from an image that I had pushed aside, something I didn't feel too precious about. I chose this watery image (top) of leaves because while it isn't perfectly in focus, I loved the colors. We were invited to do anything we wanted with the image; I tried pulling it into ArtRage to make a painting from it (middle) (If you've never played with ArtRage before, go to the website and download a 30 day trial. You'll be hooked!) . But that didn't take the picture far enough for me, so I thought I would play with layering the two images, juxtaposing the first with the second, and then working the top layer to reveal the painted one underneath. Then I put  apiece of tape on it and splattered it with paint. What would Monet think?

Chew After Meal

I had a lot to get done this weekend, and I did, actually. (I haven't solved my car problem yet.) But when my husband said to me this morning, "Grab you camera." I was ready to put my list aside. We needed an adventure on a small scale, so we drove to Utica and Roscoe, Ohio. Now, if you've ever been, you might agree with me that they could be renamed Charming, Ohio. They are. They love their history and their architecture. Just be warned that any shop you walk into, you will be expected to engage in a conversation impossible to extract yourself from for at least thirty minutes. Fair warning. But worth the trip anyway.

Aside: you think I shot these pictures in HDR, right? Nope. I fully intended to, but I shot them in RAW, my new best photography friend.

Happy Daylight Savings!

If you want to see more pictures from this adventure, please go here.

Freddie Good Time - Jane Lui

Here's a perfect song to float into the weekend with. I've got a packed weekend ahead; the most exciting part is preparing my final photography project. That, and trying to decide what to do about an ailing car I'm reluctant to replace (I hate spending money on cars!). How will you enjoy the weekend?

Epiphany

I vividly remember leaving my first oil painting class in Boston years ago. With my my box of paints and brushes in one hand and a big sketch book in the other, I walked with new eyes. The world seemed transformed to me, into a giant canvas. Everything waited patiently to be immortalized into a vision in oil paint; sharp here, soft and blurred there, colorful, dull, straight lines, alluring curves. It was a sort of visual epiphany.

Not so long ago, I started taking photography classes obediently enough, just taking another technical class because the ones I required were once again discontinued. I had a modest little point & shoot which was acceptable for the class. I wasn't interested in creating art, not with a camera at least. Painting was my expression of line and color.

Little did I realize I would soon be feverishly re-looking up photographers I had long been familiar with to study their styles anew. And researching new photographers that had a unique way of describing this strange, wonderful world we live in. Seeing the world for every nuance it had to offer, and yes, wanting to make art. With a camera.

A true artist is not restricted to a single medium. She uses all the tools available to her to convey thoughts, ideas and experiences to others. The need to communicate these experiences is essentially human.

What are your thoughts?

November is ...

So, I completely flunked 'October is Purple', didn't I? Ah well, perhaps it isn't so purple after all. That doesn't stop me from having a few ideas for November. I've decided to take my qeue from Brian and post more (but not strictly) black & white photos throughout the month of November. That should be easily achieved. This could inspire me to try out the analog SLR camera my brother-in-law so kindly gave me. It will be interesting to see how well I can work with one kind of film at a time, and since I don't have access to a dark room, how well I can let go of the post-processing manipulation I'm accustomed to. I also intend to do much more cooking in November. There's something about the cooler air, and exchanging my summer wardrobe for my winter wardrobe that compells me to want to put on an apron, turn on some Rosemary Clooney, and start cooking.

What will your November be like?

Toy

My photo assignment this week was to take a favorite childhood toy and photograph it in a displaced manner.

First of all, I didn't have a lot of childhood toys to begin with. I don't say this with any regret; I spent most of my childhood outside playing in the woods behind the house, which was my own big, private playground. I liked playing outside. And I don't recall the few toys I did have with any passionate fondness.

I certainly didn't save any toys from my childhood, so I had to figure something out. I went to the thrift store, certain I would find something that spoke to me and was somehow in keeping with the assignment. And that's when I found her. I've never owned a porcelain doll, and considering this is Halloween, she takes on a real spookiness. I photographed her outside in the dried leaves, I propped her up on the window sill, even situated her in a tree. No matter where I put her, she seemed to be witness to some horrid crime. I have to wonder ... whose doll was she? And what did she see?

I think she does conjure some childhood emotions. Like fear, to name one.

If you want to see the other shots of her, please go here.

The XX - Crystalised

In Columbus, we always have Begger's Night on any night but Halloween. No one seems to know when this started and why this persists, but it does. Last night I gave candy to a Satanic Mechanic, a murdered Catholic school girl, a very young vampire, and many storm troopers. Just when you though that creative, hand-made costumes had gone by the way-side ...

When I was little, stores didn't really sell Halloween costumes, so you had to make them from scratch. I can recall being Pippy Long-Stockings, a Gypsy, an Indian Princess, and some kind of robot made with cardboard boxes and lots of aluminum foil. I applaud those diligent parents who have fun with their children, dressing them in outlandish outfits for one night in the year!

Happy Halloween, friends!



I like the layers in this music, don't you?

Solitude

I was agonizing over this week's photo assignment of defining my 'muse' when I serendipitously received an article in the mail from my dear friend Leann. The article was a speech given by writer William Deresiewicz to West Point graduates on solitude and leadership. I read it and reread it with interest. You could have easily exchanged the word 'leadership' for 'creativity' and, there it was, I had my muse.

I thought about solitude and its role in creativity. Mind you, I like people. I like talking and laughing with them and sharing ideas. But one needs solitude to create; time to digest and contemplate the day, the world around you, and define one's own relationship to it all.

The assignment required that I not only photograph with this muse in mind, but write a poem about, or to, the muse. I took photos from my weekend project (102310) and converted them all to infrared images, which always appealed to me because of this otherworldly quality it brings to images.

My project:

And my poem.

To Solitude


I was alone when

You sat next to me so quietly

I hardly noticed you approach.

Taking my senses into your pale hands

You walked with me

Silently, pointing to little things

We noticed in unison.

We allowed things to go unsaid;

The smell of coffee at the breakfast table;

A snail’s glistening trail;

The silver laughter of children playing;

The worn gilding on old leather books; and

A gentle breeze rustling the midnight trees.

We spent our days getting drunk

On the music of crickets and cicadas

And the rapid drumming of rain on the roof.

You guarded the door against intruders

While I inspected the filigree of frost on a window pane

Where time was distilled into this single moment.

102310 Project

I mentioned that I started a group in Facebook called 102310. My goal was to invite photographers, professional and amateur, to take one day and do what they love best; take pictures. I originally hoped that I could find ten photographers, as the 101010 project did, to take ten pictures and share them. The results exceeded my goals as some friends invited other friends and the project became 31 members strong. I had no special awards to offer, nor have a figured out a way (yet) to create a single photo album where these pictures can be gathered as a group and viewed together. But I built it and they came.

My own experience in taking these ten pictures didn't come off entirely as planned, but that aligned with my idea that I wanted not to go to some special extreme to capture something extraordinary. Rather, I wanted to find the special images one sees in an ordinary day. Nonetheless, my husband and I made our way to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival in hopes of seeing something new.  Along with the rest of Central Ohio. I didn't get to my caffeine fix soon enough in the day and a headache had taken possession of my head. After sitting in traffic for an hour and a half, inching along, one of thousands of cars with no hopes for a parking space in a small town, we decided to abort the mission. On our way home, we stopped at Rennick's family farm. I took a few shots and we returned home where I completed my project.

I am delighted at the passion with which other photographers have approached this completely random project. As the other members continue to post their results, I see such a variety of images from across the country. Some place emphasis on color and texture, while others have chosen to shoot favorite places or loved ones. All of the images speak about the photographer's special perspective of the world they live in.

Here are a few of mine.

Paper Planes - M.I.A

I've had a few rare pleasures this week; I went to Origo Branding's 'A Vampire Night' party. They certainly know how to throw a Halloween party with dry ice and drinks with scary names! And I had lunch with my husband today (a work day!) at Café Istanbul with his best friend Chris. I must say, a complimentary almond yogurt desert is a perfect way to end the week.

And tomorrow is the big 102310 Project. I started with the modest hope that I could find 10 photographers interested in joining me in spending October 23rd taking pictures and sharing them, but was surprised at the pleasant response of others wanting to join. We currently have 22 photographers, perhaps we'll find the 23rd before midnight. I look forward to sharing the results from Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Vermont, and yes, Columbus, Ohio.



Happy weekend, everyone!

Muse

Gustav Flaubert once confessed that he kept a drawer full of rotting apples to inspire his writing. Leo Tolstoy kept the leather glove of a loved one. I'm sure history is littered with such strange inspirations from artists, writers, poets and musicians looking to keep their creative juices flowing.

My assignment this week is to read up on the muses of Greek mythology, think about what or whom inspires me, and shoot it. How do you decide when your senses pull you in so many directions?

On another topic, if you haven't heard of the 101010 project, check it out. The idea; ten photographers from around the world, ten pictures, one day. I was so inspired that I started my own group on Facebook. Since 101010 has passed us by, I made it 102310. If you're interested in joining, please let me know. I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with!

Photography into Art

Hi, friends. Perhaps you recall a few weeks ago I had a photo assignment to go out into the world and furtively photograph unsuspecting strangers? Well, the next week's assignment was to use those images (or just one) and take it a step further to create a mixed-media art piece of some kind. There were a few things I knew instantly; I wanted to use gold leaf (I could just cover everything with gold leaf. Couldn't you?). And I wanted to use the moth photos that I'd taken this summer. I went step further and decided to turn my subject into an author, printing the wings onto a page I'd ripped from a book I was willing to sacrifice (George Steiner's Bluebeard's Castle, to be exact.).  And this is what I came up with. This was my third iteration of this assignment. The first one I covered with an epoxy, which darkened and smeared everything; the epoxy settled on the gold leaf in an unflattering mass of globs and bubbles. The second, I thought I'd have our autheroress walking around on a vintage street map of Paris, which was busy beyond belief. This was my final piece. I think I'll explore the works of Joseph Cornell for inspiration on my final project in this class.

Negative

I love looking at negatives, a thing that has virtually disappeared with the dawn of digital cameras. I always thought they stood alone as an artistic gesture. The images in reverse of how we normally understand things still tell a story and challenge our perspective. There is something ghostlike about them, evocative of something firmly rooted in the past.

Heartbeats - The Knife

Dear, dear Friday, it's so good to see you again. Here's some music for you ...

Sunday at the Park of Roses

My dear old neighbor Ted sent me an email the other day. There was concern. "People," he said, "have invaded your photostream. Who are they, and what do they have to do with rusted hinges and voluptuous tomatoes?" almost suggesting that I've been hanging with the wrong crowd, which is entirely possible.

I realized I had to recuperate my reputation pretty quickly, and while there are no voluptuous tomatoes here, I hope that a few shots from my walk on Sunday at the Park of Roses will do for now.

Oh, and here's some broken glass and a rusty handle thrown in for good measure.

Lynda DePompei Design

So, I'm ready to tell you about one of the secrets I've been keeping from you. A few weeks ago, a designer friend and I got together and spent the whole day shooting her magnificent garments. To say this woman is talented would be a serious understatement ... she created my wedding gown (no small feat) from a picture I gave her, and to be honest, I credit her for how I looked on my special day. Don't get any ideas, though; I was quite lucky. She rarely does wedding gowns, but she'd be happy to dress the mother-of-the-bride. Or dress you for your next social event. Or, for that matter, round out your fall wardrobe with some one-of-a-kind jackets that will make you the envy of the office.

And now she's blogging! Here's a sneak peek of what you'll see on her blog. Now, go to her blog (http://lyndadepompeidesign.blogspot.com/) and start following her. And be her friend on Facebook. And send her an email about something special you have in mind for yourself! You simply won't regret it. Carry on.

Animal - Neon Trees

Here we go again ... I've had this song bouncing around in my head this week. Everybody gets something different from a song and from a band. I was surprised when I saw what the musicians looked like. I guess I didn't expect the classic punk look. Can I have that military jacket the female singer is wearing?



Thank you, Nicole, for finding the owners of this song!

What's Going on Here?

So. I was walking around the neighborhood, taking a break from getting caught up (I'm SO behind in everything!), when I saw this. On one hand, you know what the creative intent was. I've painted on glass before. It's a curious thing, painting backwards. It must have hung above the mantle, or near the door, don't you think?

I'm working on a creative project of my own; transforming last week's furtive street shots into an art piece. It's rather involved, I'll admit, but I'm almost done. And I'm rather excited about it, if I can say that ... just a hint: everyone should have wings. Visit again soon and I'll give you some music to listen to and reveal my little art piece.

October is Purple

I'm a bit reticent to admit it's already October. I've not yet committed to putting away my summer things. I realize I'm behind a bit, but I've decided that October is purple. Or plum. Or eggplant. I don't know how much purple I'll be able to deliver as I really don't see that much of it around me.

You have to realize, I come to assigning a color to each month by a very scientific method. I give a numerological value to each letter in the spelling of the month (a=1, b=2, etc.), and then add up the numbers. I then multiply that by the number the month falls under (October=10). I use the Gregorian calendar, though we all know that the Julian calendar had it right giving about five days to August. I then refer to the Pantone color chart to determine that month's color. Pantone 780C (I prefer coated over uncoated).

Okay, so I lied. Everybody knows that Pantone 780C doesn't exist.

Have you seen some nice purples lately?

The Panera Project

I mentioned the other day that I had to go out and sit in one place for one hour and just shoot, right? Well, I don't particularly enjoy shooting people. For one thing, they tend to move around a lot, so getting your subject in focus is a bit of a challenge. They also don't like it when the person holding the camera is a total stranger. That being said, you can find some interesting people if you just hang out at a café with the camera on the table. This may help me get over my squeamishness in shooting people.

While my instructor cautions against lamenting the 'missed shot,' I still regret that I didn't capture the young girl wearing elf ears, and the cheerleader in high heels.

As we were leaving, I whispered to my husband, "Watch out, there's a chick in that window taking pictures of people's butts."