Grocery List, Laundry List, and the Internship

Lots has been in the news about internships. I have some opinions, both positive and constructive. Yet. the one important fact that can not be overlooked is the relationships that develop out of face to face interaction. I love that I can ask those theory questions, inquiry about hands on work, and begin some new thoughts on how to process information.

I have started a new internship. I hope to comment on this experience while I go through it and have some wonderful conclusions or epiphanies.

And here I sit,

Where is the feminist voice in our art world? My Thursday Confession

Seriously, every time I think I have this clarity on where I fall in this postmodernist/feministic place, I find that I am still back there somewhere. Am I a feminist in a postmodern era or a modernist in a post feminist society? I feel this floating is not without merit; where is the feminist voice in our art world? Perhaps this is nothing more than equality, but how does this influence women? In my flux of unwanted wondering if I was a feminist or not, I went to Lucy Lippard's writings for answers. She has been a voice of significance since I lived in Santa Fe. She has a way of connecting dots about the constant go between of art and life and back to art.

What does the work of a feminist look like? Is it the artist, who has declared her feminism, produce work that inherently is feministic or is it the art illustrating feminism that make an feministic artist. Depends on your perspective just isn't satisfying my query. And, I think, much of this confusion is because we have stopped talking about the fundamental stones of feminism. We need to reconvene in this conversation. Lean In can not be our pinnacle of conversation, though at least Sandburg has brought some focus back to the topic despite her disconnect with many of the struggles of women today.  We are still underpaid and, sorry, but that glass ceiling has not broken. Metaphorically, women have been "welcomed" into the board room, but gender bias is still alive and well.

Wonder what Lippard would say?

This week my art confessional is Lippard's book: The Pink Glass Swan. Yes, it's been almost a decade since the first edition, but who else has such insight with the except of Guerrilla Girls?

Help to find books

Someone asked me where to go in search of books. As I mentioned yesterday in my art confession, I think Photo Eye is a place to browse for hours or just minutes. Here's the link to their bestseller listings:
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/bestsellers.cfm

My favorite is Mitch Dobrowner's book on storm landscapes.

Thursday Confession: books

This week I splurged on books. Yes, I do think that books are an indulgent pleasure that require both my attention and time. Since my birthday is around the corner, I wanted to get myself something. Photo Eye is the THE BEST spot to browse online and in their shop if you happen to be in Santa Fe.
My two books are
Roy Flukinger's book on Arnold Newman. I love the combination of photographic process and Newman's knowingness of those whom he photographed.

and
Down Country-the Tano of the Galisteo Basin.
Why? I used to live near here. Ed Ranney's photographs are not given justice in this printing. His actual prints are feet stoppers. Lucy Lippard, do I need to say more?

When is the last time you sat down with a book and turned the pages?

So let's get talking: how our conversation can save art

Still Life of Fruit                                     

Between DIA's selling of art and the scandalous reports on this year's Venice Biannual, the art world is seemingly not about art, but taking on a reality show like persona. Yikes! Forget the struggles and escapades of history and human nature. I just want to talk about art, the artistic process, and the conceptual theories that arise (and can be about history and human nature, but far from some reality show). Whoever made the conversation change, hear me now, let us return to the old ways of conversation. How to pass on histories, expressions and opinions without a conversation? Grab your coffee or tea, and I will go first.

Artist: Elizabeth Ozborne: http://elizabethosborne.us/index.php

Decades ago, I remember watching Elizabeth Osborne paint with watercolors. She sat posed with three things: a cup holding brushes, a cup of water, and paper. She worked gently on the paper. After some time, objects would appear on paper, almost alive. Painting is my personal respite from photography. Painting offers more direct control and considerably less technology, and I am able to have the tactile experience with paper. There is something more about working with a piece of paper for days creating a unique work versus the feeding of paper through a printer that has the capacity to reproduce the same work on demand. I once thought that this made for easier photography; now, I am unresolved wavering for a more intimate experience. So, I return to looking at Osborne's work for renewing this sense. She brings me back into my childhood to that one afternoon I watched her paint.

                                                    E. Osborne

Conversation Points:

Art and process are for all ages.
The depth of influence is immeasurable.
Art is a lifelong experience.
Painting.
Osborne's work over her lifetime and her changes.
Osborne's current publicized abstract work reminds me of the early abstractionists- Rothko and Hoffman come to mind.
Painting's influence on photography.

Ephemeral-do we really know what it means in Photography?

         Ephemeral baby gator?                  by Sarah Brown
This was captured with a DSLR with no altering workflow. The large aquarium tank glass created the mirroring effect of the gator. 

Ephemeral seems like a buzz word the photographic world. Is this a fad?a misconception?  misuse of meaning? Ephemeral in short means something temporary or fleeting. In the photography culture, the word ephemeral is misunderstood. Photographic work can be ephemeral, but what work isn't fleeting and impermanent? If we examine this idea of the subject of the photograph, nothing is permanent. Imagine the puns if we were all in the wet darkroom still?  The greek meaning, according to wikipedia, suggests ephemeral is lasting only one day, but I am going to take some liberties with this meaning. Flowers may last only a day and the Rancho de Toas Church has lasted for decades, but who is the authority to say the flowers and the church show their ephemeral character differently? When I think of ephemeral photographic work, I think of Debbie Fleming Caffrey, Andrea Modica, Jennifer Schlesinger Hanson, David Scheinbaum, Thomas Joshua Cooper. They capture moments that are constantly changing (or disappearing) and using wet darkroom processes to print. Ironically, the photographers using wet darkroom processes are becoming artifacts themselves. Toss in a computer and workflow and the very premise of ephemeral work is compromised because an exact copy is saved. Ready to be retrieved and printed upon demand. Where is the fleeting impermanence? A wet darkroom print is never the exact same every time. (Of course, this could ensue a different discussion all together with the new methods of preservation/conservation of digital born materials.)

Don't get me wrong. I am as curious about Susan Burnstine's cameras as I am about her workflow and printing. Yet, I find myself asking are her landscapes dream like because of the fuzzy blur created by her choice of lens? Who dreams in blurred landscapes? Craft and process obviously contribute a great deal to Burnstine's work. I enjoy her work because of the way she uses a camera as tool and avoids pixel destruction. Her print is evidence of her artistry with her camera. Personally, the blur seems to imply that our reality is one dimensional. I think that viewers can handle the reality without the blur. What happened to challenging the viewer? I am of the Minor White/Dr R. Zakia/George DeWolfe school of Contemplative Photography; photographs need no words to express and share emotions or meanings, which may have blurring. I have chosen to blur areas or backgrounds to emphasis something or conceal, but suggest at the same time. Sometimes, the shutter would be on a slow setting. Yet, the process steps would not short change the print. The presence within the image is enough to elicit a viewer's attention and reaction. On a side note, this one of my reasons for appreciating the intimate independent experience each of us has when viewing art of any medium. Art is personal. Maybe this is where the conceptual understanding of a photographic print goes askew. Too often, we forget that a photograph exhibited on a wall (or space of any kind) is a final product of a long process. In painting, we can see the brush strokes translate into effort and evidence of time. A photograph begins within the photographer and is created through a myriad of steps that rarely a viewer witnesses. Somewhere within the creating, regardless of shutter speed or development process, a photographic print represents a moment in time that the photographer interprets. Whether sharp or blurry, these moments are always artifacts of our past. This is why I love photography as I do-I am a history geek, through and through.

Thursday Confession

I did not purchase any art thing this week, but I can share what I "pretend" shopped. What is this pretend shop? Even though I don't actually buy anything, the cerebral experience shopping on line is almost as satisfying.

http://hyperallergic.com/77692/want-francis-bacons-paintbrushes-and-a-taxidermied-ostrich-this-is-your-moment/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Bad+Art+Definitely+Bad+Science+Confirms+The+Grotesque+Beauty+of+Wangechi+Mutu&utm_content=Bad+Art+Definitely+Bad+Science+Confirms+The+Grotesque+Beauty+of+Wangechi+Mutu+CID_98c93010f81950fac048b342705e0b1f&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=Francis%20Bacons%20paintbrushes

Maybe I am late to the party on self publishing machines?

Technology still surprises me. I was surfing through NYU's bookstore and noticed a link for self publishing that I clicked on with curiosity.
Link to the page: http://www.bookstores.nyu.edu/main.store/selfpublishing/index.html

The Espresso Book Machine looks amazing. Now, I have not physically been in the space where NYU has this machine, but from the webpage I can imagine the possibilities. The EBM prints, binds, and trims any digital file into a paperback book. You can also print out of Google's book archive of public domain works. Now if I could purchase an ISBN number from the EBM, I wouldn't need Blurb. This would satisfy my tactile need when creating something; I just wouldn't want to deal with the maintenance. Remember those darn copy machines? I was the official copier person in my early years working in offices. I have this love hate relationship with oversized office machines ever since.
I think this EBM could remedy that in the digital immediacy we all have come to expect.

Now if you are still wonder what I was doing surfing through the NYU bookstore to begin with, I will explain. I love books from book jacket, binding, to the font, to the paper, to the printing process, to the text. With the internet, I have the possibility of visiting a variety of different bookstores without having to deal with the August heat in South Florida. Ok, I just love looking and, sometimes, Barnes n Noble just isn't satisfying enough. 

A Birthday Card from Mom                      by Sarah Brown

My thoughts have wandered over the changing handwriting curriculum in primary education.  With email and texting, even with social media, sharing personal information is easy. Yet, writing requires focus, motor skills, and grammar off the cuff. To sit and write a letter or note is an act of time and love, as much as skill. With fewer letters mailed and technology dominating our personal exchange between one another, I find that my personal correspondences with my parents, friends, and teachers are the most revealing of our human condition and my vulnerability. As cursive writing and handwriting in general falls into some phase of obsolescence, the letters and notes are evidence that perhaps we will find an ancient art reborn again.

Confession of the Week

Thursdays seem like a great day to have my weekly confession of something art related. I will try to have something I created to share. This week I splurged on a new aquarelle charcoal pencil-6B, size 1 thin tipped paintbrush, and some ricepaper. Thin lines that can mix with thicker and heavier lines with softer charcoal. When I am on a break from photographing, I like to indulge myself in other mediums. My friend and mentor, Barbara Elision has often encouraged me to think of this as a brain muscle strength training exercise or yoga.

captured through PhotoBooth- my pencil and brush