3/14/2016

Her, with the camera

Posted on 3/14/2016 by Sweetpea

~ vintage photo, early version of stereo camera designed to take stereoscopic images ~

Do you remember your first?

I do. It was a box Brownie, bright pink plastic and I thought it was the cat's meow.

That probably was the start of everything.

Later, during college years, I collected a hoard of old relics, stacked them

on a bookcase in my tiny studio and if they were lucky

I even dusted now and then ... similar to this collection below

although not near as tidy.

~ photo collection courtesy of Flickr ~

I've simplified since then and only "collect" online images of these antiquities

- far less space involved & no cleaning required -
and the subject matter is mostly women using cameras.
Don't ask why that started cuz I just don't know.

But here's some favorites ... all females, using the *tool* of the day.

Where am I going with this? I hope it will become clear in the end.
I'm thinking these pictures may be good food for thought because

these glimpses back in time could spark a few potent thoughts about now.

In no particular order than just because I like them ...

~ Kodak girl, 1909 ~

~ Photojournalist, Margaret Bourke-White with her camera during WWII assignment,

Time Magazine. Favorite quote: "Work is something you can count on, a trusted,

lifelong friend who never deserts you." ~

~ Myrtle Lind, posed with Graflex camera, 1919, Library of Congress ~

~ American, Berenice Abbot, portrait behind a view-camera, early 1900s.

Specialized in architecture & urban street photography ~

~ Georgia O'Keefe with her new Leica, New Mexico, by Todd Webb ~

~ Jessie Tarbox Beals, pioneer photographer working Worlds Fair, 1904.

"Her trademarks were her self-described 'ability to hustle' and her tenacity in

overcoming gender barriers in her profession." First female night photographer. ~

~ Patti Smith, with one of her Land Poloroids, circa 1960s ~

~ Maiko girls (Apprentice Geisha) with camera, Japan, postcard mid 1920s ~

~ Documentary photographer, Dorothea Lange, working on 'Dust Bowl' series, circa 1936.

Favorite quote: "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

I've had a framed postcard of this image in my room for over 30 years - such spirit ~

~ Women holding Kodak cameras, Ideal Home Exhibition, 1971, Eastman Kodak

eyeeee, the hot pants! ~~

~ Elizabeth Taylor with a Rolleiflex, photographer unknown ~

~ vintage photograph, little girl with her camera, circa 1910, from Flickr ~

~ Mary Ellen Mark, self portrait with Marlon Brando, 1979 (set of 'Apocalypse Now').

Known for in-depth documentary projects and portraiture - Time Magazine called her

a "humanist" photographer. My teacher for one life-altering workshop, 1985. ~

~ Woman holding early Kodak camera, 1895. The camera was sold with

the film already loaded. The entire camera was returned to the factory

for film processing. Hulton Archive, Getty Images. ~

~ Diane Arbus, Central Park, 1969. Noted for photographs of marginalized people.

Photo, Gary Winogrand ~

~ Climbing pioneer, environmentalist, and feminist, Miriam O'Brien Underhill,

Chamonix Aiguilles, France, 1929. To scale this center ridge she held her camera between

her teeth. She was the first woman to conquer the Matterhorn, along with other

challenging peaks. On these treks she climbed only with other women - famously known

as "manless Alpine climbing." ~

~ Queen Elizabeth II and her Leica M3, circa 1958 ~

~ Imogen Cunningham, circa 1970s. Prolific American photographer known for

her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes.

Proponent of "sharp-focus rendition of simple subjects." ~

~ College girl recording her experiences in yearbook photos, date unknown ~

~ Margaret Bourke-White, top of the Chrysler Building, New York, NY 1935 ~

~ Edwardian woman, c. 1900. Possibly the world's oldest documented "selfie"

taken with a Kodak Brownie box camera ~

Which brings me back to the beginning of this story

and that pink plastic Brownie camera ....

This morning I read a blog post by one of my favorite male photographers,

David du Chemin, called 'The Place of Craft.' He always seems to arrive at the heart of

the matter, no matter what subject he chooses to speak about. Now, although his post is

aimed at photographers - the craft of photography - one could replace that word with ANY

other artistic discipline and his thought provoking words could still be applied.

Here's why [aside from the fact that many of them produced incredible work]

I've put up a truckload of images of women using the cameras of their day,

and why the *tool* is not the point at all.

Not yesterday ... and not today.

Excerpt from du Chemin's post:

Make your art with the tool you have. Use a Polaroid or a RED camera. Use film or digital. Use Leica lenses or Lensbabies. Create abstracts and impressionistic studies of shape and colour, or stunning landscapes that are tack-sharp @ 400%, but don't kid yourself - it's not sharpness that makes it great. It never has been. Humanity doesn't need more sharpness. That is not one of the things for which we hunger. We hunger for beauty, and meaning, for stories, and for love - among other things, things that are communicated visually through light and composition - through our use of balance and tension and movement and scale and colour and a hundred other things that you can't buy in the B&H catalog, and won't be found in the manual of your new camera, no matter how much money you spend, no matter how much better your camera is than mine. We get it. Hell, every one of us has right now, at least one camera that's better than what every photographer who created a truly iconic image before the year 2000 ever had. You can make sharper, larger, cleaner images than any of them, together, ever made. And you know who cares?

: : :

bead sketches : month two

Posted on 3/03/2016 by Sweetpea

And now there are 8 ...

February's collection - month two of my '52 weeks : bead sketches' project - is finished.

More playing relentlessly,

more diving deep,

more showing up faithfully.

I also did a lot of wondering about why I haven't imposed

a project like this on myself before. In truth I suppose because the time is NOW

and I wasn't where I needed to be to take this on before now.

Just showing up to do the work has great benefits.

I'll write more on that subject later as thoughts solidify, but for now

I've an amazing sense of freedom with this work / play

that I've never,

ever

had before.

There's surely a lesson in this approach for me

although I can't put it all into words yet.

For this month I thought it might be of interest if I noted where

my inspiration, or word prompts, or weekly idea came from.

They are written below each photograph with links.

~ bugle bead inspiration arose from HERE ~

~ exploring some thoughts about THIS ~

~ describing in materials the meaning of THIS PHRASE ~

~ experimenting with the pattern of THESE ~

Feels so good to be back with my beads.

: : :

Postscript: A few hours after I published this post I came across some

excellent words that seem to fit right in so I've come back to note them.

You don’t need more motivation or inspiration to create the life you want. You need less shame around the idea that you’re not doing your best. You need to stop listening to people who are in vastly different life circumstances and life stages than you tell you that you’re just not doing or being enough. You need to let timing do what it needs to do. You need to see lessons where you see barriers. You need to understand that what’s

right now becomes inspiration later.

by Jamie Varon, from 'To Anyone Who Thinks They're Falling Behind'

: : :

To view all of the 52 weeks : bead sketches posts, starting with the most recent,

CLICK HERE

Go.

Posted on 2/27/2016 by Sweetpea

I posted this over on Instagram yesterday,

but I'm thinking it needs a spot over here.

Like a sticky note on the mirror ...

No such thing as spare time,

no such thing as free time,

no such thing as down time,

all you got is life time.

Go.

~ Henry Rollins

The most important voice

Posted on 2/21/2016 by Sweetpea

~ Dream Boat, River Tay, Scotland ~

START CLOSE IN

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.

To find
another's voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don't take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

~ David Whyte, from "River Flow: New & Selected Poems"

bead sketches : month one

Posted on 2/02/2016 by Sweetpea

When I wrote the following on Dear Flora last month,

"Something new for what is feeling like a glorious new year on the horizon.

Thought it might be time to embark on a yearlong adventure ... 52 weeks

of 3-inch squares and the discovery of all the tiny worlds I can create

within them. I have no idea where this is going,

but go I must ... "

what I didn't mention was that I was going on this journey mainly to

play with beads again. We'd taken a break, my bead family and I. You know how it is

when you have to step away for a while in order to come back with fresh eyes,

a renewed heart?

I'd been away for so long that many new bead varieties had hit the markets without me

and I'd been growing steadily more curious about how to integrate them

into bead embroidery work. Compound this with all the hand dyed

cloth I'd been amassing, explorations with paper, metals and all sorts

of sundry textiles and what was building felt nothing short of a crisis of making ...

I needed to dive.

I needed to stop dreaming and start doing.

For the last year or so I've noticed myself being attracted to the projects

of others who'd committed themselves to creating something/anything on a steady schedule.

Committed. Key word.

Schedule. Key word.

Be they daily poems or sketches, weekly paintings or mixed media collages,

even a gorgeous pair of knitted socks per month, folks were dedicating themselves to

show up ... do the work. Best of it was, they were gaining much from

this kind of discipline. They talked about it - they were having breakthroughs.

Their new creative "habit" was renewing confidence &

providing fertile ground for inspiration.

This, to my mind, was a healthy choice of how to invest ones time.

So I had a good long think about what I could stomach doing for the long haul.

Having really blown it in the past was actually helpful for not setting goals

to outrageously out there ... 20/20 hindsight & all that.

Size was going to be critical. Beads are [mostly] tiny little pretties

and the last thing I wanted was a demanding blank space shouting, "Fill me up!"

So learning from a previous 6-inch disaster I first cut the size in half.

Another extremely important aspect of setting parameters was allowing

for the element of play ... I did not want to produce a *finished* square each week.

Instead, how freeing to simply play with ideas & materials

and just see where that took me.

Hence the name, bead sketches - not particularly clever, but to the point.

Without the pressure of having to finish something each week I found

month one an extremely enjoyable enterprise. As each new week rolled around I

picked up whatever caught my fancy in the moment & started from there.

I wondered what would happen if I paired this with that,

then tried it. I experimented with edge treatments & extending beyond

the exact space while allowing the materials to dictate the direction.

There were mess-ups - like joining methods, thread issues, fabric limitations -

which sent the beads all wonky-doodle ...

but I sure know a lot more now then if I'd never started.

Little templates to explore some ideas every week.

Slow and steady ... just show up.

Play relentlessly.

I'm really liking how this feels.

:::

It would be immensely enjoyable to hear about your experiences.

If you are someone who's ever [or currently] embarked on a daily, weekly,

even monthly practice, your comments about the process are most welcome here.

If you'd like to share a link where we can come and see what you made during the process,

please do. I think the sharing could be very advantageous indeed.

Thank you for stopping by.

"I have no idea where this is going, but go I must ..."

: : :

To view all of the 52 Weeks : Bead Sketches posts, starting with the most recent,

CLICK HERE

Five years ago

Posted on 1/28/2016 by Sweetpea

A trend has been afoot on the internet for quite some time,

something called Throwback Thursday

and although I've never participated, I have on occasion enjoyed friend's postings.

Which is what happened today. After having a good giggle over some ancient history

I saw on Facebook [it does have its upside from time to time] I thought to myself

what the heck, let's see what was going on say five years ago

in my own neck of the woods.

A hop over to my photo archives from January, 2011 & it appears

not much was happening different from now ...

I was out photographing a lot of frost,

was taking lots of chilly, storm-ridden walks with this one

[that year we could have ice skated on our pond!]

and I was enjoying some extremely pleasant hours weaving cloth scraps

which coincidentally, I've returned to a bit of late because of my '52 week project' ...

but I'll tell you more about that in my next post

where I'll share my first 3-inch explorations for the month of January.

Stay tuned, I'm very excited about it!

Nope, aside from the aforementioned activities which pretty much echo present day,

the image that has led me to write my first Throwback Thursday post

the

following...

Our dear Quinn.

Five years ago, right after Christmas, my fella and I drove to Oregon

to pick up this special being. Black dogs are notoriously difficult to adopt out

and this little girl was no exception. Malnourished, unsocialized, scared of

everything & everyone, we spent that first January gently introducing her to our world

and showing her as best we could that life had a better side

than living in a chainlink enclosure

by yourself.

Quinn is so skinny in this picture! Weighing in at 47 pounds she was only

five pounds heavier than my small collie back then. But no longer - now she is 65 pounds

and a powerhouse of solid swimming, ball chasing, long distance hiking muscle.

Best of all, she's found her person to be devoted to

and he has the dog he's always wanted ...

intelligent, curious, playful, steadfastly faithful & incredibly loyal.

It was a long road - is STILL a long road - training & helping this girl to be comfortable

in a world she previously mistrusted. None of that was her fault and we've had many a

discussion about what kind of dog she would have become if she'd had a better

start in life.

It is rarely ever too late to help a dog.

Please consider adoption for your next choice of fur friend.

You may actually inherit an angel in disguise.

This moment in between

Posted on 12/20/2015 by Sweetpea

Winter Solstice

Thinking only makes the heart sore.
I Ching
when you startle awake in the dark morning
heart pounding breathing fast
sitting bolt upright staring into
dark whirlpool black hole
feeling its suction
get out of bed
knock at the door of your nearest friend
ask to lie down ask to be held
listen while whispered words
turn the hole into deep night sky
stars close together
winter moon rising over white fields
nearby wren rustling dry leaves
distant owl echoing
two people walking up the road laughing
let your soul laugh
let your heart sigh out
that long held breath so hollow in your stomach
so swollen in your throat
already light is returning pairs of wings
lift softly off your eyelids one by one
each feathered edge clearer between you
and the pearl veil of day
you have nothing to do but live

~ ~~Anonymous~~ by Jody Aliesan, from "Grief Sweat" (Broken Moon Press, 1991)

: : :

Update on solstice morn: overnight, a friend sent a sweet note.

She wondered if perhaps the "anonymous" poem above had been written by me ...

Although I'd like nothing better then to claim that gem as my own, it troubled

me that such fine words had no author. So I went back to Google where I'd initially

found it and kept searching, but this time using the first line of the poem and not

the key words winter solstice for the search terms.

And there it was - reprinted in the book section of

the Los Angeles Times newspaper in the summer of 1991.

I also discovered that the first two lines of the original poem

had been dropped from all the copies circulating the internet;

I have added them back.