Creeping Along

I finally finished the post processing and editing this weekend of a series I am calling Omniscient Oaks. Now I just need to write my statement for the series...  It is a project shot in Orlando that I started on a foggy day in November 2009.  I stopped in Orlando on our Christmas travels in 2010 specifically to take more photos and I came out with a few good ones from that stop.  At the moment I have 24 photos but I think I still need to do a final edit.  Why is it so hard for me to come up with more than 12-18 photographs for a series?  Perhaps I am not a prolific enough shooter.  In any case here is one that will certainly make the final cut.  I hope to finish my new website sometime this month and once that is up the whole series will be posted there.

Amazement

I am continually amazed by my children.  I am amazed by the mess that such small creatures can create.  I am amazed by the noise and chaos that surrounds them.  I am amazed by how little time I have to do the things I used to take for granted like showering, cooking, thinking, talking to my husband.  But most of all I am amazed by how much I love them.  I couldn't conceive of loving anyone as much as I love Rowan, but somehow my heart expanded to allow just as much love for Connor. 

Smiles from the Subtle Mind

I love how newborn babies smile and laugh in their sleep.  I caught the tail end of one of Connor's smiles the other day.  As I watch him smile long before he knows how to in his waking mind I am reminded of a Buddhist teaching on the levels of mind. 

Buddhists teach there are three levels of mind or consciousness: gross, subtle and very subtle.  The gross mind is our waking mind; it is tied to and influenced by the body.  It experiences the senses as well as delusions such as anger and attachment.  The gross mind dissolves into the subtle mind when we die and its memories are not carried from life to life.  The subtle mind serves as a conduit from the senses to the very subtle mind.  The very subtle mind is the clear light of mind; it is a blissful mind free of delusions.  Through meditation we can tap into the very subtle mind and it is through this mind that enlightenment will ultimately be obtained.  It is also believed that our gross mind dissolves into the very subtle mind when we sleep.  It makes me happy to think that Connor, even though he doesn't know how to smile when awake, experiences the bliss of the clear light of mind while he sleeps.   

Between Green Walls Again

I have a series of photos I started long ago in our house in VA when I painted our bedroom walls a bright avocado green.  Last week my mother in law came to visit and painted almost our entire house for me (Thx!).  Rowan has a teal room again, the kitchen is a blue gray which really brightens up the space and our bedroom has returned to a slightly different, more muted green.  I am so excited to be able to continue this  series.  I guess it will sort of be a new chapter in the series- this chapter has Rowan in it and another character on the way.  Here are a few photos I took this weekend:

Community

I was very excited to find The Light Factory a few months back; it is an amazing resource bringing contemporary photography to Charlotte, offering classes and to my delight the Sunday Salon.  I attended my first salon yesterday and it is a great group of people interested in the art making aspects of photography.  Too often groups of photographers focus on gear and getting the perfect shot, it was very exciting and refreshing to meet with a group to discuss ideas and art.  I look forward to making the monthly meetings in the future.  This month we discussed the nude in photography in conjunction with the current show Body and Soul.  Towards the end Sally Mann came up and there were varying opinions of her methods and her work.  I had something to add but I just could not formulate the thoughts while at the meeting- there were certain words used in this interview on NPR about her most recent body of work that struck me but I couldn't remember them.  I came home and listened to the interview again.

I personally find Sally Mann's work, particularly of her children, to be beautiful and intriguing but I think that it is tainted by her methods.  In watching an Art 21 interview with her I started to see something that disturbed me in how she worked- that instead of collaborating with her children, her work came at their expense.  I also ask the people closest to me for help with my work and I remember telling my husband as we watched it that if I ever crossed that line I wanted to know because I never want to exploit my loved ones.  In the interview Melissa Block says that Mann thinks "a good picture often comes at the expense of the sitter.  Exploitation is at the root of it." This quote really struck me because I think it is exactly what I object to in her methods.  To knowingly and willingly bring exploitation into the mother-child relationship for the sake of one's art is I think disturbing and sadistic. In her newer work of her husband while that element of exploitation might still be there, at least he seems to be a willing participant in the process.

I sometimes miss the constant learning, thinking and being exposed to new ideas that comes with school.  In my year and a half as a stay at home mom I haven't had much opportunity to explore new ideas (aside from exploring patience at a whole new level).  The discussion at the Sunday Salon got my mind cranking and my creative motor purring.  I am hopeful that I will find in Charlotte those little pockets of community that are so very important for personal growth- a spiritual community, a creative community, a community of mothers.

A New Year and a New Project

"What about last year's portrait project?" you say.  Well, amidst the relocation, the many moves (3 to be exact) and terrible first trimester of pregnancy I have still managed to come out with close to my 100 Portraits.  I obviously will not have completed them all in 2010 but I am OK with that.  I am currently up to #87.  So, 13 more to go.  To see the portraits visit my flickr set: 100 Portraits Project.  Here is #87:

So, while my 2010 project isn't quite complete I am moving on to another project for 2011.  It is ambitious and may extend beyond the year, but I am going to put what creative time and energy I have this year into it.  I am going to attempt to illustrate a novel with photographs.  I have been reading in search of a book that speaks to me for some time now and I believe I found it.  The novel is Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson.  It is a beautifully written book like none other I have read.  Images were whirling through my mind as I read it.  I have several ideas to start with and hope I will find the time to shoot and share soon. 

Over the next year I also hope to find a way to finish a series I started in Orlando and tried to wrap up the shooting for on my journey through Orlando over the holidays.  I think I am going to call it Omniscient Oaks.  I still have some processing and editing work to do but as long as that goes well I should have all the photographs I need.  I would also love to find a way to print them myself, but we will have to see what I can manage.  Here is a new one from that series taken over the holidays:

Well, Happy New Year and hope to blog a little more this year:)

A Little Push

My inlaws came to visit us in our new home in Charlotte, NC this week.  We took a trip to the new Mint Museum in uptown which was fun because my mother in law entertained Rowan and I could actually look at the artwork and absorb.  The trip got my creative juices flowing.  It has been many many months since I have had the time, mental space or even the desire to work on something creative.  I had to dig deep but I found some photos I had taken in the spring using a projector and branches from the yard.  Originally  I had been taking the photos to use in logo and website designs but upon returning to them I thought the simple compositions were quite interesting.  Once we find a house here and truly unpack I am sure that old projector will surface again.  And if I am not swamped with renovating and raising two kids I just might play around with this idea some more.
 

 

My original motivation for the photos was for use in designing a new website which is still in progress...well maybe more accurately on hold.