a change of plans and planes

post #142
        It is now Sunday, 8 pm, and the adventure of the day is that I am stuck in the Detroit airport for several hours.  So the post I had planned will not happen in full today, but luckily there is always next week.  
         Instead I would love to share some photos I took yesterday during a happy time at the beach in La Jolla, California.  (We were there for a nephew's college graduation.)  I experimented with the sports setting on my camera, finally.  So much fun!  I didn't even have my polaroid filter with me, but hey, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all.  My granddaughter ran back and forth and back and forth on the hard sand, following the incoming waves, loving the running and loving the water.  The first photo shows our nephew with his first cousin once removed, who is on the move!

       I am still shy/reluctant about showing faces of most people I know, especially the very young ones, in a public forum.  I remain wary of privacy and digital intrusion.  I know, everyone does it, all the time, but that doesn't mean I am comfortable with it for myself.  In any case, I think the happiness shows in these photos, even without a frontal smile.   It does mean that my favorite photos from yesterday are not in this post.

      PART 2:  MONDAY ADD ON -- Part of what I had ready for this blog got lost when the airport wifi quit last night, so I quickly posted what I could.  Now I want to replace the California bit I had ready to go:
       On this trip, I was able to stay a few nights with a close college friend.  This fall she plans to try to take on a major conundrum.  Over a century ago, somehow, a lone redwood tree started to grow on a hillside north of San Francisco. This was a long time before the Golden Gate Bridge was built (see this fascinating history of the bridge) which was in the 1930s.  Today most of the houses in the area are close together and have been there a very long time.  But not as long as the tree!  Now the tree is tall, growing in between her house and the neighbor's.  The tree is member of the family, in so many ways, but it can't be guaranteed to behave well.

     Before seeing my photos, however, here is a poem to keep in mind, written by Jane Hirshfield, who now lives in the same town:
 
       Tree
 
It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.

Even in this
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books --

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

     

 Now here are the photos I took one morning. 

the tree, the house

closer look, the bougainvillea

      

the rest of the tree, the roof

the tree's view to the east

        Any suggestions??  I guess this is another graduation of sorts!  Possibilities competing with the unknown.  And some inevitables thrown in for good measure.  Along with beauty.

Sideway Gallery, mostly

post #141
     This week I want to share some more photos of the Gallery I have where I work as well as where I display my note cards and framed photos.  I have a big printer there that I am learning how to use; there is no room for the printer at my house!

      First, here's another photo from the Art Fair I was part of last weekend, called A Day in the Country.  In addition to a live customer, it shows more of how our booth was set up, me on the left, Jennifer Reis on the right.

       Now here are a few more outside photos from Sideway Gallery (on Sideway Road....)  showing the wisteria reaching its peak.  The building came with wisteria.  And I let it do what it will -- and then I take photos of it!!

     Next, two interior shots that show the living room/kitchen area downstairs, which is a very open space.  Since I can't remember anything that I can't see, the cabinets are also open.  They take their colors from the big rooster photo!  However, what little cooking I do over here is with a hot plate or a toaster oven.  So far, this works out just fine.

          Both these photos were taken with my iPhone, while I was sitting on the couch.  I use my laptop down here quite often.  In fact, this is where I am sitting at the very moment I write these words....
          The gallery is several miles from my house.  If anyone wants to come by to look or to buy, please do call ahead to arrange a time.  The gallery number is 606 -738-6119.  I have said from the beginning that I am open by chance or by appointment.  Thanks for coming by today via this blog post!

other visitors to Sideway Gallery....

         Next week I will show the book that got me started in all this photography stuff fifteen years ago and talk more about how pieces of my work life fit together.  (The book title is Counting on the Woods, written by George Ella Lyon.  As she and I often say, the woods are counting on us all.)
         

      And last, as is obvious from what is in this blog, a lot of what I do is outside, in eastern Kentucky.  I keep an eye out for all the changes that go on around me.  This last photo shows recent activity at one of our bluebird houses.  I like the organic green roof concept.  I am fortunate to live and work where I do.

NOTE: LATE BREAKING NEWS at 9 pm Sunday -- I just heard that all the baby robins in the nest from several posts ago managed to make it out of the flower pot and into the big world!  Amazing! 

art fairs and my gallery

post #140
      Despite more than two and a half years of posts, I have not yet explained all that much about what I do or where I work or even what individual artistic path I have chosen to create for myself.  There has just been so much other stuff I have been eager to share.  Today, however, I will begin a try at establishing a sense of the places and spaces that make my work life happen.  
      A good place to start would be yesterday, a day spent in a fair with other artists, trying to sell my stuff to whomever comes by.  I had been invited to take a 10 x 10 place on a carpet in the hallway of the Morehead Conference Center.  There would be 6 or 7 of us in a row outside of the main room where 50 folk artists from ten states would be displaying and selling during the Kentucky Folk Art Center's A Day in the Country.  This made for a building busy all day with art and artists! (We all agree to stay there from 8:45 to 4.)
     I was able to share the space with my creative friend Jennifer Reis who does embellished fabric art as well as metal jewelry.  She also crochets jewelry.  It's way more fun to be sharing the setting up, which includes final design decisions for the space, as well as to be helping each other out during the day.  It also helps that her work and mine are easy to tell apart....
       Here is a photo of our "booth" all ready to go at 9 a.m. yesterday morning:

   

     It is of course hard to tell what will sell on any such day.  I had at least 75 different note cards on display.  But, for some random reason, my two best sellers of the day were writing spider and country crossing.  I only had five copies of each on hand.  Both were purchased because the customer had a longterm specific project in mind.  I do enjoy learning what speaks to people who come by to buy....

     I have come to admire the artists ENORMOUSLY who can set up weekend after weekend, and/or who can work around hot sun or rain.  I don't even have a tent because my note cards would not do well in most kinds of weather, plus I am not patient enough to do it by myself all day long.  I trust it is obvious that there is a lot of work involved in getting art work ready for an event, in setting up the day before an event starts, and in taking it all down at the end -- in an organized enough manner to fit it back in the vehicle and, later, in the space it came from to begin with!  For me, yesterday was cushy -- a rug!  No need for a tent!  The restroom and water fountain just across the hall!  Air-conditioning!  WiFi!  Live guitar and then banjo, with singing, at the end of the hallway!   But even so I didn't earn enough money to make up for the total time spent.  It's great publicity, however, which is important.  And I don't want to be working by myself every single minute, which is why the FUN part is so great as is the interaction with people who like my photography. 
       It is all part of that work any art path takes, one which we each have to determine for ourselves. 

      I've already written more than I expected to, so I will save the other gallery photos and thoughts for next week's blog.  Here are just two photos, both of the outside of Sideway Gallery, and there are more!  in just 7 days!

Wisteria appears!

storms, sharing art, and seeing a rainbow

post #139
     The NEWS I meant to include last week: the annual Folk Art Fair is this coming Saturday, at the Morehead Conference Center across the street from the Folk Art Center in Morehead, KY.  Called A Day in the Country, the fair features fifty or so folk artists from ten states.  In addition, this year a half dozen regional artists, from as many specialities, have been invited to set up in the hallway outside the central room.  So I will be selling my photo note cards and some matted or framed prints and a few books there from 9 - 4 on Saturday, June 1, 2013!  Mixed Media Artist Jennifer Reis will be sharing the booth with me 9 - 12:30, selling her jewelry and embellished fabric art.  As the art gallery director for Morehead State University, she has an exhibit opening there to attend to in the afternoon.       
        Come join us all during this remarkable annual gathering!

Folk Art Fair poster

       My photography is very definitely of my place.  Where I live seems endlessly fascinating to me.  I'm drawn in to what is happening around me, whether it's weather or something new to see -- or seeing the usual in a new way.  I blame it all on my overdeveloped curiosity gene.  The following photos were taken, as often happens, on my way home from town, a serious storm following me all the way.  (We live east of town, and the weather more often than not comes from the west.)  I figured I had time to stop at this hilltop I know about to catch the look of the sky.  Sure enough, when I finally arrived home, the drops were just beginning to fall. 
       The place where we settle can hold a strong power over us and keep us connected, like an anchor.

This contrail from an invisible airplane has made a shadow of itself!

      The rain was followed by a double rainbow, so this photo was taken from home.  I would be grateful for the beauty of such benevolent weather even without its contrast to some of the devastating happenings we might not experience directly.  My storm might not be your storm, but I hope rainbows come to all of us when they can. 
       My thanks to the many more viewers than usual who found my blog post last week --  I will do some more horses when I have the opportunity! 

mid May, horsing around, and more

post #138
         Last night we were part of the 25th reunion held by a high school class my husband once taught. I was fascinated by their stories, including the ones I heard about their history teacher, and impressed by so many bright kids from a small, rural eastern Kentucky school system still holding their own in the world and doing well.  
        Of note: They all use facebook and would include last names, but I still hesitate to do so without permission.  However, I learned that the high school senior I took the photo of (see last week's post), the one who had taken a photo of me, turns out to be one of three validictorians, and I want to say at the least Congratulations, Andraya!! 


      Last week I received some articles that I found interesting.  One is about Mother's Day,  by writer Anne Lamont, who says it like she sees it. Thanks, Leatha, for the alert.  Another is about CLEAN WATER, just in case any regular reader of this blog doesn't realize yet how important an issue that is to me.  I really thank the folks, like Ted and Doug from our part of the state, who are working so hard to hold our state government to what it is legally required to provide.
       The most energizing link is to a letter a reader sent to a writer.   George Ella discovered it.  I warn you, it is very heartening.  If you have time for only a single link, read this one.


I have been posting a lot of photos lately, so I decided to slow down a bit for today and only include a few I couldn't resist.  If you need more photos, go back through my last few posts and enjoy!

Miss Kim dwarf lilac, near our chicken house

  Yesterday I visited Jean, of Jean's jeans, where I unexpectedly had a chance to learn about horse photos:

Next time I will hope I have the right lens on hand, and a faster speed for my "film."  It would also help to have some advance warning that running was about to commence!

As always, her laundry line intriques me. I love the light this photo has.  And notice -- no wind, no running, and very clear detail.

      I feel strongly it's important to acknowledge the value of "mistakes" and "first tries" and "new territory."  Where would I be without them all!  This is of course also true for all the growing up we do and are a part of.

Sweet! Spring sweep, before summer sets in!

post #137
NOTE on Tuesday evening - I did post this on Sunday, but I seem to have then erased it!  MY BAD and MY being a DITZ!  along with my apologies.  I have now managed to reconstruct the post (8 pm Tuesday), so here's my second try: 

        A friend in Bolivia emailed today that they are "bracing for winter".  Oh my.  He did add that their winter means "temps that average about 68 degrees and bright sunny days and bright blue skies."  I had already decided not to delay posting the spring photos from this year that have so far not made it on to my last four posts.  Now, in addition, I would like to dedicate today's post to all those in the earth's southern hemisphere who haven't seen spring in many months....

ferns unfurling by the creek (see last week's post)

wisteria, with its ant helpers

the principal's office at the high school on Senior Prank day

This senior was taking my photo for a county project, but she had to tolerate my taking her photo as well.  Thanks!

lovely evening light on the way home from town last week

Thanks to this Angus bull for the fine pose

and to this calf for being curious!

     When I did get home that day, I took these two images of this dogwood tree, within a few minutes of each other.  All I changed was where I was standing. I rarely use Photoshop, and I didn't do that here. Beautiful, beautiful symbols of spring.

      This last photo was one of my first spring photos, taken in March.  Today I am thinking it is one of my favorite photos so far this year.  I didn't know what kind of tree or shrub it was or what the hanging things were --- but luckily there are ways to search out such information.  These are hanging catkins on an American Hazelnut.  Such discoveries in the woods that come from looking with my camera are a continual amazement for me.

    I apologize again for having erased (by mistake) the first version of this blog, but luckily I had kept a list of the photos I had used.  Thank you, George Ella, for wondering where Sunday's post had gone to.  Here's to life's second chances.

bird families, creeks and Cumberland Falls

post #136

       Spring continues, for just a bit longer.  A friend, Mary Camille, sent me a photo of baby robins newly hatched in a flower pot on her deck.  This photo says HUNGRY!  The parent had gone for a quick perusal, perhaps?  (Thanks for this birth announcement!  Please keep us posted on their progress.)

• 
  
         On my own recent day of birth, we were visited by not one but this time TWO pileated woodpeckers.  They were checking out our fallen willow tree.  I didn't have my 300m lens on the camera at that moment, but I did catch the following photo as record of the event, with my 25 - 105 lens.  I was pretty amazed to see this pair of pileateds -- from our kitchen window.
  
  
  
       For today's post, I want to share several images of our creek, which is so central to the natural life of this place.  Tonight, after so much rain, it would look very different than it does after weeks of no rain, but, as always, so much of plant and animal and insect life is connected to its ebbs and flows. The first image is what I might see when I first get to the creek, before crossing over it and walking along one side of it.
  
  
  
  
   The next view was taken during a dry spell, looking back at the creek after having gone a bit farther along.  Notice the dark tree trunk in the upper right of the photo:
  
  
  

       This third view is from not much farther along.  I am now standing with my back near the edge of what we call the first waterfall.   Notice the same tree, again in the upper right of the photo:

    
   I have been thinking about this creek and its variations and my many photos of it because this last photo is going to be used on the cover of a book that will come out in October!  However, for design purposes, the publishers have cropped the photo so that only the middle section is shown, in what is almost a square.  I understand their need to do this, but of course I am attached to the image as I took it.  Does that sound like some kind of worn out artist's lament?  In any case, I am so pleased the image will be used because the book is This Day: New and Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012, by Wendell Berry, to be published by Counterpoint Press; I will be saying more about this book in future posts. 


     To end today's post, I want to share two images from today when we returned from the wonderful Farm House Inn in southern Kentucky and stopped at the nearby Cumberland Falls.  It was exciting to feel the energy there after 24 hours of steady rain. I began thinking about how water comes from under the ground and comes from our creeks.  It becomes a river -- and then comes Cumberland Falls and such -- on the way to the ocean. 
      As I will say yet again, we all live downstream, and I just can't understand why we are not courageous enough to preserve sources of clean water, essential to the health and well-being of our planet and of our selves. 

      I enjoyed having my Panosonic Lumix waterproof point and shoot to use in the pouring rain, even though I don't use it often enough to remember all its bells and whistles.  Now someday I would like to see the famous moonbow these falls produce during a full moon on a clear night.  I am sure there is a bigger crowd for that than there was today, despite this spectacular show.