Thinking About Art

Events in my professional life (my writer life) created a need for a professional portrait. That's another story that I'll tell another time. I know several photographers in Phoenix, and when I knew I needed a portrait, I also knew which one I wanted for this job.

Tyson Crosbie is a photographer, but he's an artist who works in the medium of photography. The other photographers I consider to be commercial photographers. They all do very nice work, and I'm sure each of them would have captured great images for me to use. But I didn't want a standard corporate PR headshot kind of portrait, or even a pretty portrait or a creative/clever portrait. I wanted something unconventional, something real, something honest. I haven't always wanted that. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's the natural arc of my personal journey--I don't know.

I'm still in the process of selecting my final image, and when that is done, I'll write about the experience here. But in the meantime, I want to introduce you to my friend, the artist Tyson Crosbie, through his video blog (vlog). I especially like this post. Check him out, and watch his other posts.

Project: Photo Accordion Book

Tonight, I gave a gift book to a very dear new friend. I decided over the weekend that I would make a small book for her. So I spent some time going through her Flickr archive looking for a photo I could use for the cover. It turned out, she has quite a collection of photos out there, and so I decided to print several pictures for her book.

Note: I was able to do this because my friend had not copyright protected her images on Flickr. If she had protected them, I would have needed her permission to use them, even in a gift for her. I would have taken that step, even though it would have removed most of the surprise of the gift.

I decided to use an accordion book. I assembled the book so it opens from both the bottom and the top. Before assembling the book, I decided that I would leave the book mostly blank for her to put in her pictures. Because she would be adding photos, I needed an artistic design for the inner pages that I could do, rather than embellishments added on top of photos. I decided to use Glimmer Mist and a Heidi Swap mask. Using three colors (Patina, Robin's Egg Blue, and Key Lime Green), I misted the backgrounds on both sides. I used papertowels to cover up pages that I didn't want to mist in each section. I made some more green and some more blue, mostly by the color I put on the top.

While the inner pages dried, I covered the covers with Bo Bunny striped paper, and then assembled the front decorations. I did a dry layout and used my digital camera to snap the planned layout for later. I went through my stash, and used some elephant stamps, a small compass, the word "journey," and a lot of flowers. I used a Tim Holtz ATC stamp to add some interest to the Bazzill library pocket. I used Peeled Paint distress ink to stamp the library pocket, and a series of green cateye chalks to distress the edges of things on the cover.

Next, I assembled the book, using a UHU glue stick to assemble the pages to the covers. I closed the book, and put it under something heavy in my office for an hour to make sure it was solid before moving forward. I added a few photos to the interior before I assembled the front cover. After the cover was finished, I went through and added tabs to many of the interior pages. As a last step, I used a small photo folder and attached it in the middle from the top, and inserted the remaining photos in it.


When I was finished, about an hour later (not counting drying time), I had a lovely gift I was proud to give. Total cost was under $10. My friend can use a Sharpie or a pigment ink pen to write captions on and around her photos after she assembled the whole album.

More pictures available on Flickr.
Project code: 280011

My Blink Photos

Many people are posting pictures of their homes based on the idea in Blink (by Malcolm Gladwell) that you can learn a great deal about people by spending a few minutes in their home. You get to see the real person this way, not the image they present. Catherine encouraged me to participate in this, and here it is.

For full disclosure, I did straighten up my desk, my studio had been a total wreck so I did unearth the worktable (mostly), I straightened up the kitchen counter (things are in the sink now), and I picked up a few things in the bedroom. But mostly, this is how I live and not staged. I didn't dust or vacuum or move things around. My financial filing is still on the family room floor. I didn't take some shots that would have shown you the backlog of shredding or the guest bath which needs picking up. I did start using a housekeeper every other week about a month ago, and that really helps me to keep things tidy. End of disclosure.

What can you learn about me from this? I must say, when I looked at this pictures, I saw some trends that jumped out, things I didn't realize were so obvious in my house. Yikes.




























I'm posting these and a few more pictures on my Flickr account in a few days, along with some narrative. I'll point out some of the details there that I think reveal tons about me.

Santa Fe Highlights - Day 4 (Wrapup)

The last day of my vacation was the drive home to Phoenix. I had planned to get an early start so I could arrive in Albuquerque at a shop called Papers! when they opened at 9 am. However, things didn't go exactly as planned and I got a later start.

The drive to Albuquerque takes about an hour. I stopped to refill the gas tank and my cooler (filled with healthy snacks for the road) and then arrived at the shop at 10:25. Imagine my total surprise when the shop was closed, and the sign said that they open at 10:30 on Saturday! Talk about great timing.

The shop is very nice. They have the large sheets of paper like The Paper Studio, and lots of paper related items like postcards, notecards, and other items that appear to younger shoppers. (They are located next to the University of New Mexico.) I was the first person in the shop, but within minutes, it was FULL.


The trip home was uneventful. I didn't stop along the way to take pictures, even though I had wanted to get some in Holbook. It just seemed like a good idea to get home at that point. The drive is really lovely, as you can see from these pictures snapped while driving. I've mastered the art of pointing the camera and shooting through the windshield without framing the shot. Some turn out good, others, not so good, but it's the best I can do while traveling alone.



The travel journal worked out so much better than I even expected. I love the new forms I created. At the start of each trip segment, I pulled out the forms for the places I wanted to visit and placed them in the clipboard on the front. That way, they were ready for me to glance through as I was deciding my itinerary on the go. It also made it super easy to fill in the forms for the places I visited. I was seen in more than one restaurant and other locations filling in the forms on my travel journal. It made deciding where to go a lot of fun, and gives me a record of things I definitely want to do again (and those that I will skip). Each night, I would re-read the completed forms, and I must admit, I had already forgotten some of the details I recorded in the moment. Maybe it's my age, or maybe it's just a good idea to take notes as I go. My next trip will be much better because of these forms.

The journal took a lot of use and abuse, and held up very well. I did find that the front cover needs to be reglued (the side at the honeycomb). Otherwise, it survived the trip without incident.

I took over 450 pictures with my new camera, and about 50 pictures with my cell phone. Many of the cell phone pictures went straight to Flickr. I'm working at editing the camera pictures and getting them posted as well. It may take another week to get through them all. The good news is that my camera's memory card holds about 1,000 pictures based on how full it got on this trip. That's a lot to cull down to add to the travel journal, eh?

With all of this writing, I haven't started to talk about the inner journey of my trip, the things I found on my mind, the dream images that haunted me, or the new ideas for who I want to be and what kind of work I want to do. Perhaps those thoughts will flow out later.

Project Update: Guitar Hero

I have spent several precious hours tonight in the studio. After a little bit of picking up, I pulled out the Guitar Hero project and continued where I left off. [This is an accordian/exploding book.]I believe I have about 70% of the pictures cut and temporarily attached in their final locations. I have pictures on the front and back, when I had only planned to cover the front. But as I went through the pictures, I found people who were missing from the existing photos, and I wanted to make sure the project documents Kyle's special night. So I expanded to the back.

I used the Tim Holtz distress inks in Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany, and Milled Lavender, but very little of the lavender. I've inked some tags, some metal rimmed tags, and some cardstock pieces for journaling. I used a combination of round and square stamps on the tags and attached them with eyelets in an old gold color. I used black craft foam cut into strips to raise up some photos so I can add journalling behind some of the pictures. I'm about half way through attaching the photos and embellishing the front.

It's always fun watching a project come together. I was tempted to take some pictures at this phase, but I have learned that at night there isn't enough light in the studio for good pictures. The flash overpowers things. I will have to wait for morning to take photos.

[Note: Here is a picture taken early Sunday morning. The lighting is not great, but it gives you an idea of how the project is falling together. If you look closely, you can see tabs behind some the pictures, and a tag behind one.]

I have researched options for having pictures taken of this project to add to my portfolio. Unfortunately, the photographers I contacted are all quite expensive, so I'm not taking that route. I've decided that I will learn how to set up the lighting and learn how to take the photos myself. I'm sure I will have to invest in some diffusers and lighting equipment. If anyone reading this has already traveled this road, I'd appreciate any tips and suggestions you can offer.