Public Journal

Well I guess today my blog really did become my public journal. I have enjoyed people's blogs of their travels, as a form of public journal, but I'm not sure what I think about one's inner process going public. In this context it is a means for me to communicate with my professors, and it has also been therapeutic after the storm of my TYPE fiascos. I reccommend you start this series of entries from the one titled: TYPE assignment/ RANT to take the journey with me as it unfolded!

UN-EDITED

What I like about these two last photos of the DOT series, is that I did not mess with them at all in photo shop. I didn't really do much to many of them, but I love that I could capture the warmth of the indoor light just as I experienced it. I like the immediacy of this one. Feels like she is right here with us.

Muse Communion

This is my favorite one of the series. It draws me in to a quiet contemplative place -the place where we are in communion with our muse...the place I long to spend more time in. I also think the lighting worked, and it is close in enough that it doesn't have distractions.

Art Studio and Drawing Board

I included this one, not because I think it is a particularly good photo, but because it is the best one I got of Dot's studio...and there is something about one's own art studio that I dream of. I would have liked not to have the drawing board so overexposed, and perhaps I will see if I can tinker with it more in photo shop.

LOOKING BACK...

I like the directional feel of this photo, and ofcourse the fire red of the leaves. I notice in general that I am biased towards color in any photo. Not that it always needs to be vibrant, but I have an aesthetic about color, and if I don't particularly care for the colors, even if it is great composition, I would rather see it in black and white.

IN THE AUTUMN OF LIFE

Face Worth A Thousand Words!

I fell in love with Dot's face over 25 years ago. I loved all her wrinkles. I loves all the raw expressiveness. I loved the authenticity of her being that shown through her eyes...that love at first sight has grown into a long term relationship...she has become my family.
Since I haven't done as many critiques of composition as we have been assigned, I will use a few of these photos to comment on. What I like about this photo, is how it draws you right in to the experience of the subject. It is intimate and immediate. However I would have preferred to have more depth of field, because in this case it is one of her art pieces and would not detract from the subject, because the colors are more muted than she is.

A Love to Celebrate

A Son's Blanket

This is Dot with her dear husband John Fisher Smith standing in front of the blanket she hand stitched for her son.

HAND STITCHED BLANKET/ RANT CONTINUED

After being brought to tears with technology, I want to just post some of the photos I took recently at my beloved friend Dot Fisher Smith's art showing and "open studio". This is a completely hand stitched blanket she made for her daughter with yarn her daughter had hand spun and dyed. She made it as a gift after their house had burned down to the ground, and they had lost everything they owned. YES, it took a lot of time to make this. YES, LOVE was embedded in every stitch. YES I am feeling reactionary to modern technology. I have stayed away from it this long, because I have valued the old ways....and this summer I decided I didn't really want to be left behind by the world. I had the courage to decide to come to school and try to play catch up. There are a lot of beautiful ideas that dance around in my head...I have several beautiful art collage type, inspirational books I would like to publish. I thought perhaps if I learned about digital media, it would help me express what is dancing around in my head....but right now I think it would be faster(and I would be way less in debt) if I just go about it the old fashioned way...so much so that I am seriously considering withdrawing from school!

TYPE Assignment/RANT

If I could I'd quit about now. You were kind enough Miles to sit with me and help me get the hang of the TYPE process. I appreciate that...however today I am sitting in the AMU Lab, attempting first to continue on my letters j,N and G and I am not able to execute any of my ideas. Finally frustrated, I have been trying to post them just as they are to the blog, and the message that keeps coming up in photoshop is that:"These layers will need to have the missing fonts replaced before they can be used for vector based output. Then even though I HAVE saved them as a jpeg, they will not post to my blog...the whirlygig just keeps spinning for an eternity. I have been here for two hours and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Furthermore it is really frustrating to my creative process to actually have some inspirations that I'd like to work with and be unable to play with them at all. This is my rant, I'll shut up now and see if I can post some photos.