Sep 202011
Incredibly Peaceful
Aug 292011
The steady push of the seasons is tangible; early morning temps in the 50′s announce to the trees that leaf-shedding is in the works. Small flocks of ducks and geese are beginning to make southerly movements.
I took this a few months ago at Apache del Bosque, the National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio NM home of the Green Chile Cheeseburger. I can not help but think about the way in which animals use social organization in the same way we do….. and in this case, these scouts were leaving the over-nighting site in advance of the rest of the flock.
I wonder whether we’ll be able to get the house sold in time to see the migrations southward — or whether we’ll still be here come Spring. Regardless which it may be, my brain is looking forward to cold mornings on the levee shooting birds.
Jul 042010
What more holiday-like scene than people having fun at the beach?
Jun 122010
I came across this scene last fall. I was crossing Vermont in mid-autumn on an overcast day. I love overcast skies. While they may not yield grand landscapes with blue skies, the diffusion of the clouds does wonderful things to enrich the colors of everything.
Jun 082010
It almost makes me want to go fishing — and I don’t fish!
Jun 042010
Water so often conveys a sense of tranquility — even though the sea can often be treacherous and the surrounding elements may be filled with motion and hub-bub. Well, at least it’s a symbol of tranquility to this landlubber. Sun shimmering over the water even on an overcast day when the sun can scarcely be identified.
Apr 022010
This time of year I come alive.
The first signs of spring are all I need to get the urge to get out and work in my garden, to get out to shoot more exteriors, but mostly just to revel in life.
Last year we tore out our parking lot. I live and work in a 90 yr old former schoolhouse — and we inherited along with the schoolhouse a 13 car beat up asphalt parking lot. The asphalt needed work, a lot of work, so we hired contractors to rip out the old stuff and put in a new lot — but much smaller than the original – I still have all the parking I need but I now have another 5000 sq ft of earth to play in.
After hauling in about 70 yards of topsoil we got things all leveled out (sort of) and did some planting of woody plants and flowers. And the wife and I are both eager to see how things look once they start greening up.
BUT…. last autumn we noticed that around the edges we had a lot of weeds. Not so much in the middle of the space — but always around the edges. And I’ve come to think of them as an artistic metaphor.
So much of art seems to be harassed by that which is only slightly related to the art. The interruptions that catch you just as you are on the verge of a breakthrough — and after which you can’t remember how you were going to do that post-processing technique. Dealing with galleries, dealing with customers, dealing with stubborn media or wonky tools ( It’s always the media/tools, isn’t it? It couldn’t ever ben the artist).
I’m heading South in a week and looking forward to a week away from home, away from the phone, away from anything that will get in the way of my thinking about my work — well, except for traffic, the need for sleep, and food — asking me not to think about food is like spitting into the wind.
I’ll be happy to return home a couple weeks later — but right now I don’t need any weeds around the edges…. I just wanna concentrate on my art.
And on that note, let’s close with an image without any weeds…..
Aug 262009
Once again summer is winding down and I haven’t done as much outdoor shooting during the good weather as I’d like.
We’ve been in the new house/studio for over three years not, almost four I guess and it seems that each year since making the move summer has gotten past me without spending any time in it. Which is a real tragedy in a state that has so much winter.
An avid gardener in a new house faces many challenges when living in Wisconsin. And trying to figure out what to do with a formerly commercial property we’ve only lived in for three years has been a bear. This building is all brick and it’s so rigid. Not only physically — it doesn’t give — but also spiritually — it’s all right angles and stark delineation. Figuring out how to soften it into something less institutional and more human has been a challenge.
Even when I’m not shooting art is still part of my life. And before a gardener can garden there’s the issue of site design. And that’s what has consumed more of this summer than I can imagine.
But the best thing we did was to pull out 8000 sq ft of asphalt ( an old 13 car parking lot ) and install only 3000 sq ft so that the remaining 5000 could be turned into our own little private park. A few curvy lines and cutouts and our commercial building is looking more like a private residence. More planting to come but we’re having our will with the earth.
And as the winds of winter howl outside I’ll be able say that this summer I actually enjoyed. Images or no images.
I love Wisconsin. But I love the short season of Spring-Summer-Fall much more than the long one of Winter. I’ve been all over the country though — in all the seasons and I still CHOOSE to live here. High taxes and all.
Jul 162009
Seasons have their own “feeling”, don’t they.
Frigid Winter.
Pregnant Spring.
Brisk Autumn.
And Summer: wonderful, hectic, verdant, and saturated. And what better way to while away the summer hours than watching the boats and hearing the clank, clank, clank of the rigging.
But these aren’t pleasure craft. They are the lifeblood of families and the dinner table bounty of their neighbors — they are workboats: fishing boats.
