Watch This Space

With best intentions, I go back for more.  The sun will be shining, the days full, the towels plush.  It makes no difference.  I long for my life, in color.

Untitled, poolside

 I will answer the question.  I need to know what my work is about.

Sequestered in Florida I spent hours cutting and glue-sticking small, black and white copies of my images onto blank notebook pages.  I am creating a visual reflections notebook, an exercise I read about in “Art Without Compromise,” by Wendy Richmond.

The time seems right for me to formulate a cohesive statement.

Old and new photographs are now paired, tripled and quadrupled with one another.  When grouped this way they share similar points of view, composition, subject matter and/or feeling.  Some of the juxtapositions are random, telling unexpected stories.  I'm adding words as well as quotes, song lyrics, articles, and works by the artists I admire.  It’s daunting to view my work next to a photograph by Marc Cohen or a painting of window cakes by Wayne Thiebaud.  I included a favorite poem by ee cummings that knocks me out.  I wonder if I will ever have a photograph that can truly accompany it on a page.

I’m hopeful that as the notebook fills it will speak to me about my images with clarity and a sense of purpose.  Until that bolt of lightening strikes - even while in captivity - I see with my heart.

Risk Taking

The preceding weeks were filled with questions about my body that no one could answer.  I was not yet myself.  Somehow I made it through the evening unharmed.  The images found me while I was consumed with my precarious physical state.  I was restored in the moment, camera ready.

The party was spectacular.

Boy, Injected

He was unfazed.  My heart raced.  We wont know if he is receiving the drug or the placebo until the study ends.  He didn't want to regret not trying.  Now we spend time in Clinical Research.  This boy dreams of baseball and is driven by hope.  I wonder how he does not feel like a pincushion.

Happy Potatoes

Happy potatoes.
I'm chasing optimism
on a greasy pan.

A special shout out to editrix and poet extraordinaire, Bonnie Emanuel. http://www.bonniejillemanuel.blogspot.com/