black and white

This past weekend I remembered how much fun it is to just tool around with the camera and take black and white photos. Most of them aren't keepers, but I got a chance to relax and just play with shades. I always seem to see an improvement in my sketching after exercising a bit with BW. It tunes me back in to the shades of the world, helps block out the colors and the confusion. It's also fun to do when the hot afternoon light bleaches out colors, but renders shadows sharp and dramatic. I was bracketing the photos, playing around with some boundaries, and for some reason I just like all the overexposed images much better, particularly of the beach rocks below. Trippy.

Here comes the rain again....

Today the dog and I headed out for a walk in a local wildlife reserve. I had an inspiring moment and thought I'd take some pictures of a salt marsh I'd like to do some paintings of. Besides, it was sunny out, something which hadn't happened in many a day. Then these clouds came. At first I looked at them and, in total denial of reality, I said to the dog "I think they'll pass just north of us, let's go!" In fact, the movement I witnessed seems to have been some kind of clockwise spin, because as we entered the woods, the heavens opened up, and lo, did it pour rain down upon us!

And yet, I didn't turn around and head back to the car. Instead, I kept walking, even though the rain was so heavy I couldn't see; the water poured down my face in thick rivulets and steam rose off my clothing as the cold rain hit my warm flesh. Instead of cursing the fact that its rained every bloody day for weeks on end, usually just as I was about to go out and do something fun, I accepted the rain. The pup was already a few steps ahead of me in this, and was happily frolicking in the mud along the path. I didn't get my pictures of the salt marsh, but I did get a few wild, wind-whipped moments of storm--much better, I think.

long summer, short on words...

I've spent the summer navigating the murky waters of both my creative self and the San Diego coast. These Leopard Sharks proved easier to find than creative inspiration this past month or so, but I have been newly motivated by the brief change in scenery and the onslaught of new sights and sounds...the month of August is mine to play with, and my projects include work for the upcoming school year, a creative writing piece and a series of sketches and photographs of local underwater life...

arts and crafts

I've been absorbed in an interesting project this week- a friend gave me this beautiful stained glass wind chime for my birthday, but every time I looked at it, the row of thin copper chimes seemed misplaced- too orderly for a wildflower, I think. So I got hold of some copper sheets and made these tiny leaves that hang off a twisted wire stem. When the wind catches them they flutter like aspen leaves- a visual wind chime that I think more closely captures the spirit of the original piece.

I don't adapt well to change sometimes...

Especially when it means one of my favorite places on the web is shutting down...Endicott Studio, founded by writer and Editor Terri Windling, is(was?) a group of artists and writers devoted to study of Myth and Art in modern society. They will no longer be publishing the Journal of Mythic Arts, and will also be shutting down their blog. I'm so sad, since they are one of my favorite places to find new artists and writers- I've highlighted some of them here...they will be missed, and hopefully the individual members of the JoMA will be maintaining a web presence of their own...

The painting is by Terri Windling and is of Frejya, Norse goddess of love...the image is from her website at http://windling.typepad.com/

Check out the JoMA archives at http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/

i need sunglasses for my camera

Notes to Self:

1) Remember to actually pack your camera in your backpack when you are going to be somewhere that you might want to take pictures. This will dramatically increase your trips to pictures ratio and give you something other than words to post on your blog.

2) When you do actually have your camera and are trying to use it while you are wearing sunglasses and are marvelling at the beautiful way the blue of the islands on the horizon blends and fades into the brown of the shore, you should remember that those are the colors in the land of Chilis, and not the actual real world around you.

That is all.

The end is nigh

but in a good way....

I'm almost done with my finals-just a paper and an exam between me and sweet freedom. I'm actually pretty excited about the paper, because it's a prelude to a project I'm planning on working on this summer. My grandmother's aunt was a wonderful diary keeper, and I have diaries that cover about 60 years of her life, from the late 1800s on, every single day...an impressive accomplishment, and one that absolutely fascinates me. They are fragile leather bound books often smaller than an index card with a page a day...her tiny spider writing is faded and wispy, sometimes it's hard to make out the words. Sometimes I wish there was more room per page, so she could have written more than a hint of what happened in her day.

I know there is a book in there somewhere...my job this summer is to make the fist step towards finding out what that story is, and how I want to progress with it. I feel energized thinking about this project, and can't wait to finish up my loose ends to get on with the next big thing...

it's finals week

and I feel like this...

(these were once my favorite pajamas..until one winter when they fell out of the laundry basket and landed in the parking lot of my old apartment building, where they were run over by my neighbor approximately 5000 times. I wondered at their disappearance for months...then the spring thaw came and this is the horror that awaited me)

Can't buy me artistic vision

I came across this article "Five Gadgets that Make You Seem Artistic" http://tech.msn.com/howto/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=6914217&icid=tg6914217&GT1=40000
on MSN, and found myself alternating between feeling highly irritated with and completely ambivalent about the human species. While the article was written slightly tongue-in-cheek, the underlying attitude, that you can purchase the right expensive pieces of equipment and "become" an artist, rubbed me the wrong way. There's nothing wrong with using gadgets like this to release your inner creative self. Not everyone feels like they are ready to draw or paint, and in my opinion, creative expression comes in many forms. BUT, how many people won't get the snarky undertone and will instead buy into the idea that they can purchase creativity? Aren't things like this the first step (or perhaps the 100th) towards a society where even creative expression is bland, cookie cutter, and meaningless?

Why do we think we can just buy something and magically transform ourselves into someone else? Nothing good can come of this...

Raining, again...must be spring

The rain is coming down in thick gray sheets this morning, and I've exchanged moving things around in the garden for sitting inside with a book and the cat. I have a stack of books waiting for me next week when the semester ends, and big plans for doing some nature journaling and plein air painting in the nearby salt marshes.

This spotted turtle picture is by David Carroll, naturalist/illustrator and recent recipient of a MacArthur genius grant, http://www.davidmcarroll.com/david.htm . I have a print by him of a spotted salamander on my study walls, and as it rains today I keep thinking of all the little creatures about to try and cross the road as part of some perilous rite of passage. When it rains near my parents' house the little red efts come out in droves, to get to the other side where, I suppose, the grass is always greener and the ponds have tastier weeds. Isn't that the way of it?