This is a little series I’ve been working on for a bit. These original photos are vintage family snapshots that a fellow artist gave me to “play” with. The one above was created today. See the netting in it? That is from the inside of a huge manmade pumpkin that lives at our local botanic garden. I used other images from the same day I took the pumpkin – a flower, a jellyfish, and light reflected on water in an aquarium. All cobbled together to create what you see. One of my little “tests” for myself is to only use imagery from a particular day. It makes the images more meaningful to me and is a nice constraint – otherwise I’d be combing my 20,000+ images obsessively.
I worked on this one last week, I just added an adjustment layer today to make it fit – colorwise with the image above. Below is the original version of it.
My story for this one is that the person viewing the people on the yacht just woke up and is looking though some tree branches and their vision is a little hazy – hence the golden light and green accents.
This is actually the first image I worked on from this series. I added the same adjustment layer to get the same tones.
I participated in a year-long project with nine other artists that culminated into the 9×9x9 show that deputed on 9/9/09. We also did an 8×8x8 project last year to celebrate 8/8/08. An interested concept that worked out really well. Enjoy the video!
This artist’s work is amazing – and I’m not even a car person! I love that she has completely fixated on one object – and then torn it apart, reconfigured it, used parts from it, etched, carved, and arranged it in so many ways. Obsession at it’s best!! Go to her website to see more!
They closed the street that is the main drag of our neighborhood (it just happens to be old Route 66 – how cool is it to live a couple blocks off Route 66?) and had a Performing Arts Festival. We had lots of performing arts groups out tabling – some I knew and some I didn’t. And had a stage set up and a long list of performers. We got there early, grabbed some gelato and settled into our seats. It was a great evening – and then we went home to watch West Virgina beat Colorado – Gooooooooo Mountaineers!
My little family indulges me a lot – one weekend at the beginning of summer I decided I needed to get out of town – where to go? Taos of course! We checked out the Harwood Museum – a small gem of a museum – and they let you take photographs!
The children dutifully posing – they were more interested in the art though
Katie loves to touch everything – that girl is a challenge. We spend much of our time staring each other down. I usually win.
The white room with white paintings and white light shining down from above. I could have stayed here all day. Just laid right down on the floor and soaked up all that bright, white silence. Twas not to be though.
I’d almost forgotten about this quick little roadtrip – discovered the photos while I was looking for some other images.
I need to get back to Taos – it feeds the hippie part of my soul.
We went on a quick impromptu roadtrip today – headed west on I-40 and then detoured onto old Route 66 at Laguna pueblo. I love old 66 – I wanted to get a pic of me laying in the middle of the road – but Chris nixed that idea – maybe next time. I didn’t take too many photos – was more taking it all in and finding places that I want to shoot later. One of the cooler things we found was a railcar graveyard. Here’s my favorite pic of the day.
So, got a new job – it starts on Monday – doing the same old, same old at a sign shop. I’m still looking for other work as my ideal would be something part-time so I can focus my attention on other parts of my life (family and art, specifically).
Speaking of art – my gallery – The Wooden Cow Gallery and Art Space – was just named the Best Gallery in The Alibi’s “Best in Burque” edition. How cool is that?? And we just opened six months ago?? We Rock!
We had our first Friday opening yesterday. One of my friends, Maggie Tomei, was our featured artists. Maggie’s work is amazing and I’m so glad that our gallery was able to provide a forum for her to present her work. The theme for our show this month is Waste Not – all works have to utilize some sort of found, recycled, repurposed, etc. o.bjects. It was our most submitted for show so far – and we juried in 15 artists! All with very cool work.
Small story from the opening:
One of the theme show artists introduced me to her dad, noting that he is a photographer who has his work in galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe (ie. fancy, expensive, international galleries). And HE shook off that introduction and proceeded to tell me how pleased he was that we had given her the opportunity to show her work, how amazing her work is. He was sooooo proud of her – they took so many pictures of her and her work last night.That is why I am a gallery owner – I love helping artists get their work out there to the public – and I love watching people interact with and be touched by the work we show.
I also attended the opening at Chroma Studios Gallery – I have my encaustic work there – and it was their one year anniversary celebration! Paula Manning-Lewis and her husband Aaron Lewis own it – and they are a dynamic duo – she is a painter and he is a musician/singer/songwriter. Paula was just featured on KOAT discussing opening a small business during these economic times and she was dead-on with everything she said.
Both openings were well-attended and people were buying! It just goes to show if you have good work there’s always a buyer for it.
I also stopped in at Matrix Fine Art and finished paying for a print I’ve had on layaway there – it’s now hanging in my home and I love it even more! And I got to see their new show featuring the work of Stacy Hawkinson – his work is fun and vibrant – and he’s a really cool guy.
Spent a couple of hours editing photos today – and realizing as much as I love them – no one else will probably ever want them. Why am I doomed to being attracted to death and dark and decay? Those things don’t generally sell – flowers and kittens and sunsets – those sell. Strange images from places where people died horrific deaths – not so much. And yet, damnit – I LOVE LOVE LOVE these images – want to cover my walls with them – turn them into wallpaper so I can feel like I can walk straight into them – straight down the rabbit-hole.
If you just went by my recent photography you might think I’m having a nervous breakdown. I’m not – my life is in flux though – and I definitely think that’s what showing up in these recent images. Cheaper than therapy!
My little family indulges me a lot – one weekend at the beginning of summer I decided I needed to get out of town – where to go? Taos of course! We checked out the Harwood Museum – a small gem of a museum – and they let you take photographs!
Katie loves to touch everything – that girl is a challenge. We spend much of our time staring each other down. I usually win.
The white room with white paintings and white light shining down from above. I could have stayed here all day. Just laid right down on the floor and soaked up all that bright, white silence. Twas not to be though.
