Watch what you swallow.

SoHo - NYC - 010310

My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers

My uncle ordered popovers
from the restaurant’s bill of fare.
And, when they were served,
he regarded them with
a penetrating stare…
Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom
as he sat there on that chair:
“To eat these things,”
said my uncle,
“you must exercise great care.
You may swallow down what’s solid…
BUT…
you must spit out the air!”

And…
as you partake of the world’s bill of fare,
that’s darned good advice to follow.
Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.
And be careful what you swallow. - Theodore Geisel

Maybe this should be my new resolution for the year... be careful of what I swallow.

"Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better." ~ Henry Rollins

California Delta Fence - 122010

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone. ~ Paul Tillich 

I love photographers - Courtney

Courtney the photographer - 121910

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.  ~Ansel Adams

For the final project in my class I photographed photographers I respect.  I wanted to capture them with one of their own images they love and/or feel great pride or connection to.  There are many examples of photographer portraits with their photos in the shot.  I wanted these to be different.  I wanted these to be big and for the photographer to become part of the photo since it is their art. 

The first person I worked with is my friend Courtney.  She chose this self-portrait that includes her former boyfriend.  I can see why this photo is important to her.  You can see more of my photos of Courtney from another session here. 

I want to thank all of the photographers who sat for me.  I will post some photos here that the photographers agreed I could share on this site.

Courtney the photographer - 121910

A woman's dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view. - Sophia Loren

California Delta Fence - 121610

If you didn't grow up in agriculture/livestock regions, you may not know the main purpose of barbwire fences.  You would think they are there to keep predators away from your livestock. That is a small part of it.  The main purpose of barbwire fences is to keep your livestock in a controlled area and prevent them from running away, getting hit by a vehicle, or mingling with your neighbors herd.   The invention of barbwire transformed the West from wild openness to closed agriculture empires.

Joshua Tree National Park - 121610

There are so many barbwire fences in our lives - things meant to keep us in.  Seat belts, social norms, sidewalks (to keep us from wandering into the streets), offices, cubicles, etc.  Our houses are our places to live our lives without intruding into the public.  I can get naked, dress, eat, read, watch tv, view porn, make love, scratch, belch, go to the bathroom, yell, listen to music, and do my personal stuff at home without it escaping into the world. 

I am neither a fence builder nor a fence wrecker.  We need them for safety and privacy.  They also hinder us from exploring out of bounds -  like kids learning to use crayons in coloring book and told "stay in the lines".  Barbwire is designed to scratch and cut both ways... those trying to get in and those trying to get out.  Nobody every straddles or sits on barbwire fence due to indecisiveness due to the rusty barbs.  Either you are in or out.  The question becomes, when is it right to get out?

Fantasy love is much better than reality love. Never doing it is very exciting. The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet. - Andy Warhol

Valya - 121410

Trying a blog style similar to Valya's.  Keep it simple, relevant, and leaving them wanting more. 

Simple

Valya 121310

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. Henry David Thoreau


Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. Albert Einstein


For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong. Henry Louis Menken

...

Candace Nirvana - 112910

We must have reasons for speech but we need none for silence - Proverb

The recent rain and regional cold  snap make me silent and a listener of the quasi-rhythmic cadence of rain on the roof, windows, car, and my mind.  It is good to just listen.

I've also been writing when I should be silent and reading.   Some things should be left unsaid.

In the wind

Moon - 111010

A woman is a branchy tree and man a singing wind; and from her branches carelessly he takes what he can find.  - James Stephens

In Country

Delta - 110410

 Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment - Henry David Thoreau

 Took a field trip to the California Delta.  Here are some photos from that little excursion.

Consumnes River Preserve - 110410

 

 

 

 

Consumnes River Preserve - 110410

Minimal

Moon - 102010

Do not speak unless you can improve the silence - Proverb

I wonder if the same can be said for art and photography.  Do not create unless you can improve on the absence of the art.


The same should go for writing, blogging and all other activities as well.  If what I am doing is not improving on the absence of it, then I shouldn't do it.  It is better to not plant something in the pixel forest than to have to thin it out later.



Ok, enough rambling. 

Photo note - I think the photo above is an improvement over the absence of it.  Thanks Moon.

Clip Show

Not good  enough for consideration, even if it was in Black and White. - Candace

We are ending the summer television drought.  The reruns are disappearing and the new season is beginning.  Dr. L wrote a fun piece about crime shows over at WWST.

I just wrote a post about being demonized for being a sexual male over at Hear Me Roar.  I highly recommend you read the editorial I reference in the post, Why Do We Demonize Men Who Are Honest About Their Sexual Needs?  by Clarisse Thorn.   It explains my point far better than I did.

As for this blog, I am working on the fall (for me) of a photographic god, building a new art community, and my continued studies in photography.  They should be spilling out pretty soon.

It's weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don't even amount to a couple of hours.  ~James Lalropui Keivom

Doesn't that pretty much sum up life as well?  When I am on my deathbed, I won't remember the decades of detritus, I will remember the those bits of life that made it mean something.  Why should photography be any different?

When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!  ~Ted Grant

I disagree.  I could say that when you photograph a person in B&W, you photograph their shape, texture and contours.  When you photograph someone in color, you photograph the life they put into their shape texture and contours.  Someone I know thinks black and white nudes can be art, but color ones can't.  I think these people have their preferences and can live with them.  Their preferences shouldn't be the only preferences for all.

"It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."

Movie still - The Godfather

It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business. - Michael Corleone to Sonny - The Godfather (see movie clip below)

When in doubt, take it personally - Ollie

Nobody really gives a fuck about you, it is up to you to make your art important.
Don't go against your intuition.
Two choices in life - doing it or becoming bullshit.
 - Duane Michals

I need to tip-toe around this topic since some of the parties involved may read this.  I recently heard of a photo project that some acquaintances completed. A few of the key people in it knew I had a strong history with very similar projects, especially with this subject, material and theme.  I know they've seen my work and it is as good as the stuff I've seen from the project.  For some reason though no one thought to tell me about it or ask me to join.

At first I was furious.  How dare they do something they know I have done in the past and have very strong work to contribute.  Are they running a good old boys/girls club on this?  Did I alienate myself from their group?  How could they forget me?

After stewing on this perceived slight, I went to the final meeting of my NYC travel group to choose the final photos for our book and exhibition/gallery showing.  We each put up our top two or three dozen images and had to narrow it down to six for the book and three for the exhibit (the book and exhibit could overlap).  I had four themes for my photos, Sex in the City, On the Sidewalks, In the Museums, and The Usual Suspects (The usual sights of the city.)  Our instructor, Ron, facilitated the redaction exercise.  We went as a group and chose the final six and three for each person.  The individual photographer had a major say concerning his/her own choices, but we had to look at it as a complete book of 16 photographers and how all the photos would work together.

We came to my images second and they were ruthless.  Ron and others were saying things like:
"This one doesn't interest me. "
"Cliche."
"No point to this photo"
"This doesn't say anything about NYC."

I got quiet and softly said, "Ouch."  Ron then said, "Look, we want the best book we can make.  The critique and selection process is hard, but that is how it is.  If you ever hear art and photo directors for magazines and books during their selection process, it is ruthless.  If you are looking at getting an MFA, you had better get used to this type of moment, because it will be 100 times tougher and happen all the time."

We got down to my final six images.  I was hurt that a few others were not selected, but see how these six work together and were actually some of my favorites from the beginning.  It hurt, but it worked.  From that moment on though, I chose to be ruthless in my opinions of the others' work if I felt it did not live up to what should be their six best.  It's strictly business getting the best book.  It isn't personal.

That is the rub though.  Art is personal.  When others critique and pull out my favorite photos, it feels like they are ripping a part of me out as well.  In my cold rational mind, I understand appreciate the role of redaction in selecting a body of work.  I wrote two long posts about it in July.

In that instant, I learned two things that lead to a tie-in to the original issue.

1. Redaction is crucial.  Only the best should be shown.
2. If I am going to go into this for a new career, I need to get a thicker skin and be able to defend my work better when presenting it.

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com 
After thinking about those two lessons, I looked at our group photo from the trip taken with the great photographer Duane Michals and I remembered his wise words.
 
Nobody really gives a fuck about you, it is up to you to make your art important.
This quote truly applies to the art world and business.  No one gives a fuck about me, my work, and how I feel about it.  We wanted the best book.  The images chosen from my group may not be all my best, but they work best for the book.

The same goes true for the acquaintance who did not bother to ask me to participate in her project.  In all likelihood, she forgot about me or if she had thought of me, I didn't have the cache, history, portfolio, and prior body of work to part of her project.   It probably was business on that decision, and personal friendships should not have any part of business.  She and her peers are not in business to do me a favor unless I can offer them something back of value as well.   In other words, they really don't give a fuck about me.

Now what I have to figure out is how I can be included in the next project and find out why I wasn't considered for this one.  From that I will learn and be ready for future opportunities.  It may not be with them, and it may be a better one.

Don't go against your intuition.
I had obviously chosen the final 6 photos as part of the larger group I presented.  Some part of me told me to include them and the rational part of me knew that any 6 could have been chosen.  The final 6 are good and I am proud of them.  My intuition was right.


My intuition about my work that is very similar, and probably in the same league or better than the stuff I've seen in the project I was not included in tells me they missed an opportunity for some great stuff of mine.  That is my fault for not putting myself out their more, not theirs.   In a way, it is their loss, but not really.   My work is probably meant to be somewhere else and they got what they wanted.

I know what is good of my work.  Nobody else gives a fuck about it or me, unless I get out there with it and force them to look at it.  Most will say no.  A few will say yes.  The important thing to remember is: It's not personal, [Karl]. It's strictly business.  That is how I will view your role with my work as well.  You are just business when it comes to my art.



Two choices in life - doing it or becoming bullshit.
That pretty much sums up the other two quotes.  I just have to do it.  Everything else is bullshit.

SPECIAL NOTE: Thanks to Ron and crew for the great trip, experiences and for the creative project.  We created some good stuff.  By the way, I do give a fuck about your stuff.

Sex, Religion, and "American Values" - in their words

Candace - 081010

Interesting quotes on sex, religion and "American" values.
 

Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things:  One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell.  The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.  ~Butch Hancock

To hear many religious people talk, one would think God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals.  ~Don Schrader

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope?  If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!  ~George Bernard Shaw


I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.  ~John Waters


Sudden acquaintance brings repentance.  ~Thomas Fuller

Conservatives say teaching sex education in the public schools will promote promiscuity.  With our education system?  If we promote promiscuity the same way we promote math or science, they've got nothing to worry about.  ~Beverly Mickins

Chastity:  The most unnatural of the sexual perversions.   ~Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza, 1936


The only thing wrong with being an atheist is that there's nobody to talk to during an orgasm.   ~Author Unknown


Virginity can be lost by a thought.   ~St. Jerome

The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery.  Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay.  ~Martin Luther

Those who have prophesied dreadful consequences as a result of the greater sexual freedom which the young assert - unwanted babies, venereal disease and so on - are usually the very same people who seek the fulfillment of their prophecies by opposing the free availability to the young of contraception and the removal of the stigma and mystification that surround venereal disease .  ~Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action


When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned.  Do not have sex with the authorities.  ~Matt Groening

Now, if groups like Moral Majority have their way, there won't be any sex education at school, and our kids will be the dumbest in the world when it comes to sex.... But our parents are sexually retarded too.... Fear and primitive morals are creating a sexual pressure-cooker in this country and soon the top will blow.... Only in the U.S. do we find children drawing a picture of a baby coming from the clouds or from under a cabbage leaf.  ~Floyd Martinson

This last quote says it all about how messed up our country is with body/nudity/sexuality issues in relation to religion and "American" values.  As Marlene Dietrich said:

Sex. In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact.

Dirty Things

Donna's Ranch Brothel - Wells, NV

A dirty book is rarely dusty.  ~Author Unknown

Not much to add to that quote other than it is true.  I guess it goes well with the saying of "a rolling stone gathers no moss".

Boredom and lust

Valya - 080710

Boredom: the desire for desires - Tolstoy

Ever notice how similar the body feels when overwhelmingly bored or full of lust?  You can feel both burning through your body and hear the crackle of electricity in your head.  The tingling static charge desiring to do something, whether a new adventure or sex consumes all you think about.  All you know while existing in either states is that something had better happen... now.  True hell is living in both simultaneously.

Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst - Frederick Buechner

Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train. - Buddha

Boredom

Boredom - LKillKira

Boredom: the desire for desires - Tolstoy

I was going to write a boring post about boredom.  I decided to research some boring boredom quotes to make it even more boring.  Sadly though I started to find the quotes about boredom to become an interesting philosophical exploration into human nature, which can be exciting for some and even more boring for most.

I scoured  many pages of "boredom" quotes.   Below are some I find interesting.  I tried grouping them into themes or dichotomies (such a boring word).   I added some of my thoughts if I felt they were either insightful or boring.

Boredom is the root of evil theme

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need - Voltaire
Boredom is rage spread thin  - Paul Tillich
Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always.  - Guy Debord
Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it. -  Bertrand Russell
Idle people are often bored and bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel. It is not accident that boredom and cruelty are great preoccupations in our time. -  Renata Adler

Two major causes for strife are boredom or desperate need.  Out of both we seek something we are missing.  The first is for excitement and novelty.  The latter is out of survival.  On second thought maybe both have common thread of survival.  It is hard to survive a boring existence.

Without evil, the world would be boring Theme 

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom -  Anatole France 
Nature is unfair? So much the better, inequality is the only bearable thing, the monotony of equality can only lead us to boredom -  Francis Picabia 
Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue; its secondary stage, boredom; its tertiary stage, syphilis.  - Karl Kraus 

Why do we love gossip and the poison pen?  Why do we seek to hear dirt on others?  Why do secretly, and not so secretly, enjoy seeing the misery of others?  If all the world was perfect, we would be so damned boring.  I may think I am above this, but I do take delight in seeing Bush, Cheney, Coulter, etc. when they step in something foul and get flailed in the media.

Passion and love leads to boredom theme

Love fed fat soon turns to boredom  - Ovid

 I guess I can only think of one point to sum this theme up for me.  Complacency = Boredom

Boredom leads to dying or death theme 

Is boredom anything less than the sense of one's faculties slowly dying? - Arthur Helps 
To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.  - Heraclitus 

When we give into boredom, we slowly die.  We relinquish our passions, desires and controls in the desire of comfort.  Ever wonder why fancy coffins are padded and look so comfy?   The dead wont appreciate it. 

Boredom has its uses theme

Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism - Wendell Phillips

In marketing you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want? -  Roy H. Williams
Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure. -  Aldous Huxley

Boredom has its uses.  It is a time to reflect on why we are bored, what have we done to get bored and what is next.  Similar to the "boredom is the root of evil" theme, boredom can be the springboard to future excitement.  Maybe we have to look at boredom in the same way as we should look at drugs   they are neither good or bad, it is how we use them that can be good or bad.  I can use my boredom to inspire me to hurt the world or I can use it to find my next path- even if it is just a trip to the garage to rebuild a carburetor. 

OK, now I am growing bored of this topic.  August is the month for boredom, so lets celebrate this boring time.

NYC - Final Report - A Journal Summary

The Journal

I had to keep an artist's journal as an assignment for the class during my time in NYC,  I use a journal like that to capture ideas, quotes, thoughts, and other detritus that I pick up and find value in.  I rarely use it as a processing and clarifying tool.  In ways, that is what this blog is for.

Below are a few of the snippets I captured in it.  Maybe by putting them here, they will start to make sense and give me an internal look at what I saw in New York.  I chose not to edit them.  They are in their original words, except where I could not decipher my chicken scratch.  I left all the images hi-res.  Click on them to get the big version.


MoMA

 "I prowled the streets all day feeling very strung up and ready to pounce, determined to 'trap' life - to preserve living." -  Henri Cartier-Bresson

____
Duane Michals
We visited photographer Duane Michals' in his studio / home.  He talked with us for an hour and shared some of his new work.  At 78, he might as well be 38.  He lives.  Some of his quotes that stick with me:

"Before it becomes bullshit, ask questions"
"If you put shit your head, you will lead a shitty life."
"Nobody really gives a fuck about you, it is up to you to make your art important."
"Don't go against your intuition."
"Two choices in life - doing it or becoming bullshit (makes me think of what lightness of being  means)"
"Your true identity is in your secrets. " Maybe I need to photograph my secrets?
_____
MET

The Gugg

American women and fashion exhibit - How much is her desire to look good for herself, for us, or just because that is what men expect?

_____

Central Park Lovers

If You Can

Central Park
At John Lennon's Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, across from where he was killed.  Seeing all these people "worshiping" him 30 years post mortem makes me think of his lyric and change it to:

Imagine all the people, "faking" in harmony.

Singing "Yellow Submarine"

_____

With a Mission

The New Museum
(Upon seeing the life-sized wax statue of a man blowing himself) - Should be called, "Wouldn't You?"  I would.

 _______

Unseen Interactions

In Harlem
Life in New York is balls out in anonymity.  If you don't like it, don't look.

_______

Statue of Liberty - is now a beautiful cliche
_______

Ground Zero 
They can't build there.  Things get fucked up and they start over again.

_______

Touch them for Luck!  He doesn't mind.

Wall Street
Grab the brass bull by the balls.  al Quaeda and the banking industry did.




















_______

Coney Island
A depressing side show of recreation.  The hot mid-day sun barely reflects off of the dull paint of the rides.  The creak of the boardwalk matches the creak of the people walking on it.
Coney Island is purgatory. It is where we go when we expect heaven, even for an afternoon, but get used up and worn out ideals of what should be... or was.  Perfect place to observe the human condition in limbo of living.

______

The New York Connecting Arteries
Everyone is an independent being tied together by the one shared thing, New York.  Sid, the local corner market owner and Renee, the art gallery curator, bump into each other on the "N" line as the train stops suddenly.  Both have their lives built by all they have done, but they have done all of that in NYC.  That gives them a sameness that other cities don't hold.

 ______
Things overheard in the city
Costco exit - man angry he can't enter through the exit and the employee telling him to go around.
"Fuck you." he mutters.
"Yep, fuck me.  That is what we are made to do.  That is how we got here.  Now go around." she replies.

Outside the Hogs and Heifers Saloon by Highline Park.
"BAM!" Marla exclaims with a pop as she walks by us toward the bar's door.
"Bam?", asks my instructor.
"Yeah, late last night I was fucked up and fell and hurt my leg. Now I walk every other step with a BAM!"
She demonstrates by "bamming" her hip outward and laughs.  Her friend says, "BAM!"  We all say "BAM!"
Marla walks into the bar and tells us, "You got that right, BAM!"

Hogs and Heifers

______
Leaving NYC
The bus AC is broken and it is hot and muggy.  I snap at Mollee and my dark mood is better experienced alone.  I listen to my music to escape.  I feel more at home in NYC than in SF, or anywhere else I've been.  People are real, they say what they mean, they still care.

I miss NYC because it represents what I am not - not living the moment, not taking the risks to be more, not really living a life.
_____
SF and NYC
SF has a gentle heart for its people and visitors.  It is a fairy tale of acceptance that is both warm and only surface level.   SF is too afraid to offend anyone... other than conservatives.

If SF is a fairy tale, NYC is the dark and rough graphic novel of life.   Life is not always pretty, but it is alive.

SF may be Glenda the good witch, or at least thinks she is.  NYC is not the evil witch.  She is more like the human made mother nature, watching over all her charges.  No one person controls it.

Like nature, things flourish, grow, build, die, and decay.  Like nature, disaster happens and life on it dies for some.  Then things shift around and all goes on.
_____
The New York Look

We dress sexy, we dress good.
We wear something a little tighter, a little more colorful or different maybe.
Shauna over there, looks like a whore in her skin tight gold lame pants, but fuck you for judging her.  She didn't even notice you standing outside Forever 21 as she walked by.

____

On the way to Penn

Penn Station
Looking @ the tiny subway map only confused me.  Old Sid pulling an old suitcase on wheels sees me and asks, "Goin' to Penn Station?"
"Yeah"
"Take the 1,2, or 3.  Its your first stop."
I start to look for the 1, 2, or 3 train.    Sid says, "Follow me, I'm goin' there anyway."  I follow old Sid and his suitcase to Penn Station.
Sid leans in, "What do you want at Penn?"
"BH Photo."
"Yeah, thats on 9th."  He looks at my camera bag and all this confirms is my tourist status.  I am a visitor photographing the "exotics", which is just his fucking home.
I thank him and he replies, "Good luck."
____
The Swarm
We sit on the train coming into the next stop and hear a human roar.  Dozens of high schoolers are yelling in celebration.  They flood our car - some are yelling, other laughing, and singing.  Two are dance grinding each other.  Nothing but noise.
Two minutes, we pull into next stop, 59th and Lexington and the swarm of noisy birds fly en masse off our train car and their shrieks fade and echo off the tile hallways.  WTF was that.
_____

 
The Sexy
New Yorkers know how to be sexy.  They live it, not put it on. 















_____

Looking Up

Empire State Building
When I stand on its observation deck, NYC is my bitch.  I can spit on it.  I can squish Lady Liberty between my fingers.  I can flip off 8 million plus people in the 2 minutes it takes to walk around the obs. deck.  The city is not that much.

The Cage

Then I stand by the edge and look through the protective art-deco thick gauged wire cage and look down upon 42nd street going far down.  Some little shit of a kid runs into me and bumps me hard.  My nose hits the wire.  For one second I die as I see 42nd below about to swallow me.  I am once again NYC's bitch and she is my Mistress.  Don't ever take her for granted.  She will not always forgive.

You are not God.

_____
NY Minute
The cliche is "in a NY minute."  Yeah, its a cliche, but it is all of these minutes that get in your mind/heart that fuck with you/inspire you/hurt you/ and made you and me for all those one-minutes.


NOTE -I have over 2000 images to go through including two sessions with models.  I will post those as they are processed.  This will probably be my last post solely devoted to this trip to NYC as a travelogue.  Too much of it is still in me and has to be processed/developed in my internal darkroom.  As my coworker Ollie says, "when in doubt, take it personally."  I did.

Owning Up - Part 1

Montana Evening - 050910-1

This is the excellent foppery of the world: that when we are sick in fortune -- often the surfeits of our own behavior -- we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star!   

King Lear (Act One Scene 2) - William Shakespeare

Funny how so many of us can't take responsibility for our own actions and messes resulting from them.  We always have to blame it on the poor scapegoat.

"...when we are sick in fortune -- often the surfeits of our own behavior -- we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars..."

The German Parliament even has a fictitious member they created to blame all unpopular decisions on.  His name is Jakob Maria Mierscheid.  Accountability is not worth much anymore I guess. 

Montana Evening - 050910-2

Men do it, women do it.  Gays and straights do it.  All ethnicities do it.  All religions have people of the cloth who do it.  Republicans do it as well as the Democrats do it.  Rich and poor people do it.  The banks are doing it, but the loan borrowers also do it too.  I've done it and am sure I will do it again.  I am also certain everybody else has blamed everything but themselves for something they did or did not do.

Maybe it is a survival instinct, but it is like the boy who falsely cried "wolf" too many times.  Your credibility drops a little at first when you do it and goes into a death spiral if you continue doing it.

And the Cause Has Been Joined

 Don't

Joshua Tree National Park

I look to the four compass points
and am starting to see
the division lines for battles
scratched in varying grounds.

Some are for ideals
some are for religion
some are for freedom for some
some are for closing others in

We are heading toour own chosen lines
we scratch with a sharp, ragged stick
to stand behind and look across to the adversary
then slowly turn our backs to
so we no longer acknowledge
they may be more like us than not.


Quotes about choosing sides, enemies, and art I chose randomly by blindly clicking.  Some I agree with, some I chuckle at.

All sides in a trial want to hide at least some of the truth - Alan Dershowitz

Be truthful, nature only sides with truth - Adolf Loos

Cause and effect are two sides of one fact - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. - Jerry Garcia

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose. - Langston Hughes

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before. - Mae West

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious. - Sun Tzu

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.  The Dalai Lama

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. - John F. Kennedy

Photo Fermata

Holding the Moment

Welcome
Mission of this new(ish) blog:
I strive to be the artist I am.  This blog is one of my outlets to share my thoughts, creations, fears, education and stories of making art.  It may be selfish, but this is my blog to help me become a better artist and I hope you will find something of value along the way.

The shift from the S7S.  
I think the old blog was getting a bit stale and had lost its focus.  I rambled about whatever and not as much about what was important to my art.  I wrote about my sexual longing and issues, art, work, my truck, politics and everything that popped into my head.  This blog may have some of that, but not as much.  It is time to move on and not dwell on so many things I can not change or am too lazy to try.

The Fermata Symbol

Photo Fermata
Deja vu, momentary lapse, tuning out, zoning out, in the zone.  We all feel life pause or hold onto the second we are in longer than usual.

When I played in symphonies and bands, the fermata would make us stop going on in the music and continue playing the note we were on.  When we saw the note with the fermata above it, we would look up to the director and watch him or her for the signal to stop that note and continue onto the next note in the original tempo.  We were told that the fermata's duration was at the discretion of the director as to shape the music.  We could not stop the fermata.  If the conductor keeled over, the note would go on.  That is the control of the conductor at that moment.

Many other groups of musicians play fermatas.  Have you ever watched a jazz or rock band hold a note until one of the musicians makes a movement and the either they go on or they end the song?  That is a fermata.

Every photo is a fermata.  For the duration of the shutter, every bit of information carried into the camera through light particles freezes into a solitary moment on the film or sensor.  Sometimes the subject is frozen in place and other times it appears as a motion blur.  The image though captures all that as if it was time put on hold.   Even though a fast moving subject may be frozen in time, the viewer knows that it was moving and continued moving after photo was taken, just like music.

 Blue Angel 5  600+mph

Photo by Karl

The earliest experience most of us have with the photo fermata is when the school portrait photographer said told us to look at the camera and say "cheeeeeeeeese."  Each of those photos is us holding that "eeeeeeee" sound for the length of time the photographer felt was needed to get the correct exposure.

Fire Dancer - Burning Man

As a photographer, and a begrudging subject/model, I've grown to know the roles in the art.  The model and subject fill the screen with what is needed.  All the roles are crucial to the success of the photo, but it is the photographer who decides how to take the photo.  *To paraphrase Richard Avedon when talking about the model/photographer/subject,  "You are very important and I could not do this with out you, but I am in control."

I think all art is about control - the encounter between control and the uncontrollable. - Richard Avedon 

 My photographic artistic purpose then is to make that held moment important enough to capture and share.  It may only be important to me, but that is important enough to take it.  This blog is dedicated to those captured visual holds or fermatas.

Special thanks to my blog world friends for your support during the remodel.  A special nod to Joe and his blog, Improvisations, for giving me the idea of connecting music to photography.