{ Art Project: My Own Little World }

All right, people, here goes nothing. As many of you know, I've been making lots of art lately (not that my regular photography isn't art, but it's not quite so...personal...), and I guess the time has come to put it out there. Tell you what, it's scary! Yay to all you brave artists who do it every day - you give me courage. This is my submission to the Castell Gallery's upcoming juried exhibition - a first for me. 

Specs: each panel is 3.5x3.5x1.5 in., digital image on paper with ink drawings and wax encaustic, mounted on wood.

The first piece, 8 panels, is titled Lost in the Woods. The second is The Escape, and the third is My Own Little World.

{ Photographer's Journal: Jones Pottery }

A while back I was lucky enough to meet Matt Jones, our local famous traditional Carolina potter. He lives in Sandy Mush, in an old farmhouse with the dirt-floored pottery and enormous wood-fired kiln out back. The process of his work is so aesthetically pleasing, from the great pans of locally-dug clay slaking in the breezeway to the woodpiles and brickwork of the kiln, but the most interesting part of photographing there for me was capturing the way he works - I love to study and capture the characteristic gestures of a craft, the confidence of the hands, the expression of concentration. I love shooting musicians playing for the same reason. Can't wait til November, when Matt has his twice-yearly, all-night wood firing - what a spectacle that will be. 

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{ Inspiration: Bricolage }

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via artnest.it

I recently learned a handy new word: bricolage. It's French, and it means something between 'tinkering' and 'do-it-yourself' - apparently in France the Home Depot is a 'bricolage' store. In the context of art, it means making it out of whatever is at hand, making use of what you have, using ingenuity. That's exactly what I like to do, in art-making and just in life, so it's nice to know there's a word for it.

To my mind, Italian artist Ivano Vitali is a perfect embodiment of this principle. He twists strips of newspaper into yarn and knits or crochets it, sometimes with giant needles seven feet long. I'm going to try this. With normal sized needles.

{ Photographer's Journal: Marvels and Geography }

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These are macro (extreme close-up) photographs of illustrations from a couple of antique books I found, Marvels of the New West and Elementary Physical Geography. In real life the images are amazingly detailed etchings just a couple inches across, which I photographed at an angle and with a very shallow depth of field. I hope that gives a sense of depth and distance. I've been enjoying this exploration of scale, which is new for me - my own tiny universe.

{ Inspiration: Photography Book Now 2010 Competition }

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via photographybooknow.blurb.com

Blurb, the on-demand publishing platform, is holding a photo book competition, and I'm in the process of putting together my entry. It's an interesting process so far - much like preparing for a show, it forces me to clarify my thoughts and pull together a cohesive body of work out of my increasingly vast archives. Funny thing with digital, it's so easy (and cheap) to shoot, you end up with a veritable sea of images - then the work becomes more curatorial than creative. That part of the process is one I should probably pay more attention to. So thanks, Blurb. And get ready for a really big thanks if I win that $25,000 grand prize!

{ Pro Bono Photo Project: The Peace Garden }

Last weekend I visited the amazing community garden at Pisgah View public housing here in Asheville. Resident Bob White, along with his wife Lucia Daugherty, their lovely children, friends, and supporters, have reclaimed the neglected baseball diamond, bringing in veggies, fruit trees, beehives, chickens, and a sense of peace and community. What an inspiration. I hope to keep documenting their work through the growing season.

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