At last...

Yes, just as Etta James said it best...at last. At last, I took action to exploring an avenue I've been pondering for the past 5 years. Graphic design classes. Woot. Woot.

Ideally, I'd love to go back full time to achieve the knowledge/training/confidence I'm hoping to achieve quickly but baby steps come to mind. So for now, I've enrolled in just two courses. Enthusiasm did kick in when I left my first class this morning thinking, "I wonder if anyone will drop in order to enroll in more classes." Slow down, Sally. For those of you that don't know. (Which I don't assume is very many.) Time management is not my strongest suit. And this is also something I hope to gain through heading back to school. I also feel thankful to be able to really devote myself into the projects assigned. And this is optimism speaking...we'll see how it pans out.
Here is an interesting post about developing your b&w film in coffee. Wha Wha What!? My friend Logan tipped me off to this a long while back.

Inspirational image found in a book at the library today.

here.

a girl can dream, right?

I just wish it could be in this house.
Can't keep from marveling over the distressed and beautifully colored wood work.

Found here.

something's hiding in here.

new found heros.

+

let the source be known.

Diane Arbus

I recently watched the film "Fur: Diane Arbus" and fell in love with it. The film is based on the female photographer's life but explores her deepest most inner thoughts, it uses beautiful imagery and color and simply blew me away.

And now...more about the artist:

"Diane (pronounced Dee-Ann ) was a privileged child, raised with her two siblings in large apartments on Central Park West and Park Avenue. She later told Studs Terkel, for his Hard Times: An Oral History of the Depression , "I grew up feeling immune and exempt from circumstance. One of the things I suffered from was that I never felt adversity. I was confirmed in a sense of unreality."

The wealth was complicated, as it often is, by distant parents: her father was kept away by work and her mother by depression. She was loved more than she was known. In her New Yorker review of two new Arbus exhibits -- Family Albums , at the Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art, and Revealed , at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art -- Judith Thurman writes of Arbus, "Her heritage was, in fact, that of most artistic children of privilege, who feel that their true selves are invisible, while resenting the dutiful, false selves for which they are loved: a dilemma that inspires the quest, in whatever medium, for a reflection."

She was luminous, with large green eyes, a delicate, exotic face and a slim body. And she was, writes Thurman, "nubile" (almost every published photo of her has a sexual charge to it). All kinds of people were captivated by her, and she was captivated by all kinds of people."

Hope you enjoy, I found her to be quite interesting.

images found via diane arbus google search.

Maggie Taylor and Jerry Uelsmann

If you are in dire need of inspiration, let me direct you to two artist that will spark something inside you that can only push you beyond everyday and into a surreal utopia. Just to clarify, Maggie Taylor and Jerry Uelsmann deserve their own separate posts, but since the two are conjoined in marriage and sometimes intertwine the objects/images within their beautiful masterpieces and quite frankly, I can't wait to talk about either, I'm writing them up together.

I'll start with Maggie Taylor...at first glance, her whimsical body of work took my breath away. Not only was I interested in the digital process, but I was already in love with all of the following: old tintypes, daguerreotypes, humans within nature, surrealism and creating mysteriously ambiguous images. Now this was a woman after my creative heart. 
I had the privilege of seeing both lecture at a conference I attended in November of 2007. Simply phenomenal. Both artist were very modest and funny.
Taylor's digital collages are composed of old photographs, scanned objects, images from her 5 megapixel camera, and an occasional borrowed negative from her trusty husband's backlog. (Usually something small like a tree, ladder or a boat.) Her scanned objects range from doll house miniatures to real bees and even dead fish. If she envisions a specific pose, she'll go out into the natural Florida light and shoot herself to get exactly what she needs, again...with the point and shoot.

These first two pieces are my favorites. Taylor gave examples of starter images like the background of the above picture and honestly, it was just an average snapshot of a grassy plain. Goes to show, a little imagination goes a long way.

Now onto Jerry Uelsmann. 

What's astonishing to me about his surreal images are not only his mastered ability to obtain perfect prints, but he composes all his work in the dark room. Nothing is digital. The closest confession of computer use, was the shadow in the image below. He said his wife, Maggie created a shadow in Photoshop, printed it out and then he photographed it. Impressive and admirable to say the least. I found Uelsmann to be quite funny. I read this interview with Jerry Uelsmann that's worth looking into if you like his work. The following is a pieced together excerpt:

"Today there is a lot of conceptually based art that begins with a particular theory and then the individual makes the images to fit. It’s like an assignment, all planned and then they just follow through and do the work.
My creative process begins when I get out with the camera and interact with the world. A camera is truly a license to explore. There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people. For me to walk around the block where I live could take five minutes. But when I have a camera, it could take five hours. You just engage in the world differently. If you can get to a point where you respond emotionally, not intellectually, with your camera there’s a whole world to encounter. There’s a lot of source material once you have the freedom of not having to complete an image at the camera."

 

Bottom line,  both of their bodies of work will whisper sweet nothings into your inner core. So listen. 

Here's your chance...If you're anywhere near the San Antonio area, please do yourself a favor and go see their lecture "Just Suppose: Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor" on February 17th at 7pm. Held in the Ruth Taylor Recital Hall at Trinity University.

Images found via random web searches.
Quote via interview

Emmanuel Polanco

2 examples from a set of tarot cards designed by the very talented, Emmanuel Polanco. Found in personal work.

Images via Emmanuel Polanco's site.

Mysteriously Awesome.

Images via ffffound.com

eva eun-sil han

As read on eva eun-sil han's bio:
[ Closing your eyes isn't going to change anything. Nothing's going to disappear just because you can't see what's going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. That's the kind of world we live in, Mr Nakata. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won't make time stand still.]

- Murakami Haruki "Kafka on the shore"

somehow I find that quote to be... absolutely perfect.

very dada and odd, but oh so inspiring.
Images via eva eun-sil han's website.