This summer has been a loooooong creative dry spell. Wild and wonderful West Virginia just did not inspire me the way New Mexico does. I knew it was going to be ok – the same thing had happened when we moved to Albuquerque six years ago. I was cemetery-obsessed then and the dry, dusty brown cemeteries of NM did absolutely nothing for me. It took me about a year to fall in love with them – and I fell HARD! The beautiful, soulful statues, the unique decorations that appeared around holiday times, the elaborate metalwork on the fences and gates. Aaaah, just thinking about it makes me happy. And the rest of New Mexico grew on me also – it is truly a magical space – I don’t think anyone can live there and not be inspired by it’s rugged beauty and uniquely mashed up culture.
So, I’ve waited – stayed away from my camera – allowing my inner eye to slumber – knowing it would awaken in due course. And awaken it has. Fall is here and it’s amazing! I’ve been on several hikes around the Huntington Museum of Art this past week. And gone on nature walks with the kids – collecting leaves and sticks and images.
The leaves on the trees are so bright and vibrant – and the leaves that have fallen make such a decaydent (my own made up word) crunchy yet spongy mottled carpet. I have this urge to record the sound of me crunching through the leaves!
And I’ve been playing with a new lens – it’s actually a vintage lens from an overhead projector. It makes everything so…altered. It’s like being drunk or high – not that I would know anything about the kind of feeling 
. The light is brighter, the shadows are shadowier, and everything bends with the shape of the lens. Sooooooo lovely and cool – no Photoshop needed – crazy cool images SOOC. And I’ve been playing with having no lens at all on the camera – very bokeh-y color-saturated images – nothing is identifiable – it’s all just color and light. So heavenly.
And layering these images with some of my glass negatives has given me a whole new lease on my creative life. Heaven!
Moist trees — beautiful subtle light. I love our harsh beauty out here — but when I see or go to those moist tree-lined parts of the country — even my skin goes ahhh — as if my whole body is drinking in the moisture.
I know what you mean – I forgot what it felt like for my skin and hair drink up that moisture. My hair in particular is so much happier here in WV!