The Sea for My Birthday

May 1, 2014, 7:58pm

When I was in Iceland in 2014 I celebrated my 40th birthday, and for the entire month of May, my birthday month, I took a picture of the sea standing in the same exact spot. Every day I would walk to the rock wall across the street from SÍM where I was a resident artist. I would climb on top of one particular rock and place my foot in a groove that perfectly fit the side of my left combat boot. I used this groove as a tool to position myself in the same way for each photo, and it was a ritual: walking there, climbing on that one rock. placing my foot just so, looking out, taking a picture. I would also try to pause for a moment before and after taking the picture just to look.

I've been holding onto this series for over a year, thinking about it occasionally, and now that I'm without a studio, it's a great time to move forward. I'm trying to decide what to do with the images so I'm playing around with collaging them into a grid or a calendar-like composition. Another thought is to position them horizontally, side by side, in one long line or to create a book with one image per page. My friend, Brandon Dawley, who does all my graphic design, is helping me with the cropping, using his expert skills to get the horizon line perfectly centered in each image.

May 31, 2014, 9:21am

Thanks for reading.

This is What I Found Here

Gothenburg and Southern Archipelago, Sweden, 2014

I am without a studio at the moment, a challenging place to be. The studio is an important place for artists, obviously, and I am feeling its absence. In addition to my Pearl Piece (which you can still contribute to!), I'm looking for other ways to create beyond making objects, things I can work on anywhere. This week I will share these with you starting today with my collecting and arranging project titled This is What I Found Here. This series is a play on my first solo show in 2011, This is How I Remember It. The basic concept for that show centered on using my memories of important jewelry to create new work that was carefully arranged for the exhibition. For this new project, I have arranged different objects I collected according to where and when I found them. This documentation is a great way for me to explore composition and negative space, shape and line, and color and texture. Working intuitively, the process allows me to think spatially and arrange objects in a pleasing way. It's also serves as a method of recording the history of my experiences and memories through objects. This series of photographs is a work in progress. These pictures were taken at different times and the lighting is different from image to image. I am still playing around with editing each photo and would like to add to the series over time.

You can see all the images taken so far on Flickr. 

Blönduós, Iceland, 2015

Richfield Springs, New York, 2014

Allendale, Michigan, 2014

Thanks for reading.

Texílsetur Íslands

Currently, I'm living and working at Texílsetur Íslands, the Icelandic Textile Center, in Blönduós, Northwest Iceland. Texílsetur is housed in Kvennaskólinn, a former women's school, situated at the estuary of the Blanda River and Húnaflói Bay. It occupies the top two floors where there are private rooms and two large shared studios. I have a private room and studio and feel very fortunate to be making my work in such a special place, a transitional place, where the river meets the sea. I have long been fascinated by estuaries and brackish water, and given my most current work, In Between, which is about transition, being here at Texílsetur seems very, very appropriate. I'm also curious about the history of the school and like thinking about the years of women who lived and learned here, too.

I will be here for a month and will be creating a black version of "Island of 14,264 Days," something I've been wanting to do since I first made that piece in May, 2013. I came up with the idea then, to make a companion during the darkness of winter, the opposite of when I made the white version. I began working yesterday and will complete the piece by the end of the month. Other plans include walking and documenting my observations outside, but also studying the interior of this building and taking pictures of what I see inside. I also have a lot of reading to do.

the view from my room on my first day

Thanks for reading.

Sjáumst

a favorite mural

Sjáumst means "see you later" in Icelandic, which is the attitude I'm trying to take in my last moments here; I fly back to the US tomorrow morning. These past three months have been incredible. I did everything I wanted to do and so much more than I ever could have imagined. Once I'm settled into my studio in Richfield Springs, I will share my thoughts. For now, here are some more pictures of Reykjavík:

dramatic sky looking out into the harbor from Harpa

hallway at my favorite pool

a house in my neighborhood

inside the dome of Perlan

Thanks for reading.

My Hands are in It: Part Two

A few weeks ago I mentioned my videos and now you can watch them on YouTube. One was made in Höfn, Iceland and was made in the U.S. on a train. (I will add more once I figure out a pixilation problem I keep running into.) I still don't know how I will use these pieces, but I've been thinking about projecting different ones on each wall in a gallery to create an immersive space, or perhaps projecting them onto a sculptural installation. 

May 1, 7:58pm

In addition to collecting these short videos, I'm thinking more and more about my photos, which I started to tell you about when I showed "11 Minutes"  at the Sím May resident artist show. Another project I've been working on happened during the month of May, my birthday month. I took a photograph of the sea every day standing in the exact same spot near the Sím studios. I took the pictures at different times of the day whenever I could easily be in that one spot. I missed a few days while I was away for my birthday and another day when I just plain forgot, but this is a diary and I don't mind the missing days. I'm not sure how I will show these images once I'm ready--a long line might be really nice or a calendar-style format with blanks for the days I didn't take a picture. 

Thanks for reading.

This Time It Was Pictures

I didn't blog at all last week… wow, I was busy! I went to a bunch of Reykjavík Arts Festival events, completed a project for my second resident artist show and did my usual of daily walks and reading. I'm also helping a new friend in her studio, which I will tell you about soon. But first, let me tell you about the work I showed at the resident artist exhibition last Wednesday: a series of images taken on my birthday inside the hostel where I was staying. The pictures are details of seemingly mundane, static objects and spaces using available light. It took only 11 minutes to shoot these pictures but I didn't realize that until I put together the presentation for the exhibition. I like that I took those 11 minutes on my birthday, May 11, to look closely and think creatively. It was great to show the pictures during the exhibition and to treat my photographs as art works and more than just a part of my process. I also liked how simple it was to exhibit the work: I created a slide show on iPhoto and played it on a loop on my own laptop. I found this all very refreshing and satisfying.

You can all the images on Flickr.

Thanks for reading.

I Live Here Now, Part 10

I got my photographs back from Hank a few days ago and they are gorgeous. I can't wait to share them with you, but I do have to wait at least a few more weeks. Once we get closer to the show, I will start to publish some pictures. Right now, I'm working on my statement, titles, prices and I'm thinking about the display… 

Oh, and I made three more pieces! I added a necklace as a companion piece to another necklace and made matching earrings and ring for another piece. I was thinking about these piece before, but only in my periphery. Then I just ran out of time before my photography deadline. However, I couldn't let them go. Once I found out Hank could fit them in this week, I knew I had to follow through. I made them over the last two days and now they are off to Seattle. 

Finally, I broke my trusty Craftsman pliers while making chain. I've had these for years and was shocked that they just snapped.

Thanks for reading.

Thinking About Atmosphere

When I was still in Asheville, I started paying close attention to what I call "atmosphere." I have continued to try to create this in my photos here in Richfield Springs, through night time photos, macro lens shots of snow and hazy images through curtains. I'm trying to create and capture a feeling through these pictures, while training my eye to see better. 

I just added lots of new images to Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. There is no filter on any of these photographs. The hazy effects are created via condensation on my lens or on the window I'm shooting through, while other effects happen just by the angle of my camera. 

Thinking About White (Addendum)

About a month ago I posted about the color white as an observation and as used in my work. I've been thinking about that post a lot and other themes or patterns in my work. I've been studying my photographs, too, something else I do often. Looking closely at my pictures shows me what I am interested in--sometimes it's a general theme, sometimes it's more about details or small parts, some patterns have been around for awhile, some are new. (I also imagine there are patterns that I don't see yet and maybe won't for awhile to come.) Here is a small collection of white photographs to complement my white post from December. It's also a way to kick-off a new series about my photos and these patterns...I will post another theme or pattern I'm thinking about soon.

If you are interested in my photos, please visit my Flickr or find me on Instagram. I've also posted some of my favorite pictures on my website.

Thanks for reading. 

Bright Light

I have long admired the work of Ólafur Elíasson and became acutely interested when I lived in Iceland in the spring. I got to see his work in person for the first time--Ólafur Elíasson: Tiltrú at i8 Gallery--and liked the exhibition so much, I went twice. As I said in a recent interview on Art Jewelry Forum, "Seeing work about Iceland in Iceland by a favorite artist (who also happens to be Icelandic!) was fascinating and wonderful." I also spent several mornings wandering in Harpa, the concert hall in Reykjavík that he designed the facade of.

In both i8 Gallery and in Harpa, I was able to interact with his work. One piece at i8, a series of four mirrors each frosted in different areas and positioned at just the right height, made me feel as if I was walking in fog as I moved from mirror to mirror. The experience was reminiscent of some of my long walks in Iceland as it transformed the gallery into something else. While in Harpa, as I walked around inside and up and down stairs, the play of light, shadow, and prismatic color allowed me to interact with the building and heightened my awareness of the space and of myself in it.

inside Harpa on my first morning in Reykjavík and in Iceland

I have also been curious about light and shadow for awhile now, too, collecting images and videos as I walk. I think seeing Elíasson's work in person and upon further reading about it, I find myself diving deeper into this inspiration. Finally, something I keep going over in my mind is the fact that I believe my purpose or intention as an artist is to communicate and connect with others.

So...just the other day I read a Tweet from Studio Ólafur Elíasson that grabbed my attention. It began with "Celebrate the connectivity of art..." and then mentioned a new project with The Guardian called, "Share Your Sun." As soon as I read the Tweet, I dropped what I was doing and visited the website. The first few words drew me in and when I investigated the project I immediately wanted to join in. Anyone can participate by contributing photos or videos of the sun. The photo I submitted is the image at the top which I was excited to find among many others on both Share Your Sun and The Guardian over the weekend. This project gave me an opportunity to connect, communicate, and share with a broader audience and in the work of a favorite artist as it allowed me to go a little further with my own interest in light, shadow, and photography.

screen shot from Share Your Sun

my photo is on the left in the middle

Thanks for reading.

Things I Like: Observations as Influence

If you follow my work or are a fan on Facebook, you know about my Albums with the title, "Things I Like." I have a number of them posted, all from the different places I have traveled to or have lived in. Although I only post a small batch of images there, I take 1000s of photographs and they are all a direct document of what I am interested in...things like graffiti and urban decay, abandoned buildings, textures, light and shadow, micro and macro views of nature, and more.  If you are curious about what I find interesting and inspiring or if you want a little insight into how I see the world, please visit these photos. I believe my main goal as an artist is to communicate and these photos are an example of how I do that. You can see them on Facebook or Flickr. 

My latest Album is Asheville, NC where I currently live and work.

Thanks for reading.

Happiness = A Walk with My Camera

I was out for a walk recently after not walking for a few days due to bad weather and a non-functioning camera when I realized just how happy I am when I'm walking and taking pictures. It's one of my favorite things to do and one of my happiest times during the day. I love wandering, seeing new things or the same things in a different way, and then documenting my observations in photographs. I have no technical or aesthetic training in photography and I prefer using a simple point-and-shoot digital camera. I take hundreds, even thousands, of photos and I believe I have gotten better at it through all this looking and shooting. I have also grown to adore taking pictures.

I looked at my Flickr stats the other day and realized I have uploaded over 10,500 photographs: pictures of travel and things that inspire me, pictures of my work and my process, and pictures of teaching and student work, among many other subjects. Over 10,500! I really try to edit my photos and only post the best ones on Flickr and the best of the best on Facebook. I do hope you will take a look!

I am off to Reykjavik tomorrow to go to a number of museums and galleries and to also attend the Icelandic Tattoo Convention. I'll be back Monday with new posts and more photos, of course!

Thanks for reading.