Lucy and I have history together. We met at the Washington Women's Arts Center in the late 1970s, have been in several artists' groups and many of the same shows. We laugh and we understand each other. Bottom line - I admire her work and enjoy working with her.
We both use digital cameras and we take quick photos rather than studied shots when we travel. We use the digital camera as a sketchbook - to take visual notes, to remind us of a detail, to catch an impression. One day at Starbucks we talked about our digital journalling and decided to develop a show from them. This is it. Glimpses: Digital Journals.
For months I have been going through photo files selecting, editing, and working with my "journals." Let me tell, you when you shoot randomly, catching glimpses of everything that catches your fancy, you pile up a lot of files to sift. The computer and cds hide the bulk - but they do accumulate. I am very grateful they are not all printed out.
My part of the show has evolved into an installation using digital frames - five digital frames of varied sizes. I am using about 400 images which are segmented into "story" groups which move, one image flowing into another. My primary aesthetic interest is, as always, color and light - so with some Provence images I have multiple versions of a single image - changing color and light with the feeling of Monet's haystacks.
My granddaughter, Juliana, has been the technical wizard - transferring the files to the frames. The frames are made by three different companies and their procedures vary. Some of that has to do with the size. I am using a 15", an 11" and three 8" for my collection of urban walls. The next hurdle is adding sound to several of the frames. ( a few of the urban walls series are in the small slide show at the top of this blog).
And, not to disappoint follks who expect wall works in a show, I have three 20" x 30" poster collages.
As I made the final selections, tweaking and changing, I was sorry to edit out the "mimes."
Jim and I were in Provence several summers ago. Walking through Arles we happened onto a street performer. This mime stepped onto a box platform and shifted poses for about 15 minutes. He was so good that at first glance I thought he was a plaster statue. Jim strolled on while I stayed to take photos of him as he changed poses.
I thought I would use the series of photographs in my art show, Glimpses, but so far they aren't working.
I will hold them for another day. Its hard to give up the idea. But when it isn't ready; it isn't ready.
I tell a story about how my grandmother made a cake - a little of this, a little of that - no recipe, all instinct. Watching Granny cook taught me to trust that the cake will rise.
Oops. Not always. But better to ditch the cake that fell than spoil the dinner.
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