One of my wonderful, awesome students drew this for me, and it will be hanging up in my studio very soon. It will be there to hold me accountable, remind me, inspire me, make me smile. Never stop. Never stop doing what you love and know to be right. Never stop believing in yourself.
Book: this thing that I hold in my hands. This thing to lose myself in when no other world of words will do. Dear book. It’s fate is uncertain with electronic media, but behold the master bookbinder, Don Taylor, in this lovely video by Made in Toronto. No Kindle or iPad can replace these unique, historic, deeply personal items.
Tacoma hosts, almost once a year for the past few, a little music festival called Squeak and Squawk, and this year it fell at the beginning of April. Five days of live music with two shows every day makes for some hard decisions. I attended two of the underages shows and was duly impressed with the music. (Aside: Perhaps the people who must attend underages shows would prefer to attend the 21+ shows, but I, due to aging, prefer the underages showtimes. I get to bed at the nice, early hour of 10 or so.) It was fun. Bands listened to: Humble Cub, Tallest Trees, Not from Brooklyn, Watermelon Sugar, Bandolier, and Tea Cozies. Had a great time. Enjoy the photos.
Another aside: Musicians make the greatest faces while playing. Take for example Itzhak Perlman. He is not only amazing to listen to but also fun to watch.
Humble Cub, Tahoma Tea Company, Squeak and Squawk 2012
Tallest Tree, Tahoma Tea Company, Squeak and Squawk 2012
Watermelon Sugar, the Space, Squeak and Squawk 2012
Bandolier, the Space, Squeak and Squawk 2012
Tea Cozies, the Space, Squeak and Squawk 2012
Tea Cozies, the Space, Squeak and Squawk 2012
on a Monday.
This is how Tuesday is gonna go. From the Goddard’s movie Bande รก Part, an excellent heist movie. Watch it, though, don’t just take my word.
Two weeks ago, I had the excellent opportunity to hear The Variety Hour in concert at the Hells Kitchen in Tacoma and create some photographs of their set. Concert photography inherently challenges the photographer with its variable lighting, venue regulations, variable stage designs, and crowds. Mostly, though, the challenge has been coordinating the photography with the lighting and hoping the shutter synchronizes with any light changes. Also, the venue’s lighting schemes have given me some ideas about planned light schemes. For example, I really love the cool blue light falling on the bassist, Bryan Michel, the backlit images of the lead guitar and singer, Rob Olsen, and the slightly grainy but intense images of the drummer, Robert Lomax.
Really, though, check out their release Transmissives. It’s a great, solid, enjoyable first album.
The big ice and snow storm, that beset the Great Pacific Northwest this month, provided for some very lovely, quiet days. Unfortunately, grey, grey, and more grey blanketed those days leaving everything poorly illuminated while the snow, to a camera, remained blindingly bright. However, the beauty and oddity of the ice storm overcame that as it froze large amounts of water around anything sticking out of the ground. Crystal balls floated atop dead flowers, and ice snakes wound down and around stems and blackish leaves.
Right here. It just popped into my head this morning as I gazed out the window into the beautiful, blue sky. There was the sunshine.
Being smack in the center of learning to be more present and aware, practice loving kindness, and stretch my comfort levels, I’m bound to connect with this more in other areas such as reading. About four years ago, it was suggested to me to read Remembrance of Things Past1 by Marcel Proust. I had no opinion about the book(s), but found that many people did and much to the negative. Per the “book(s),” it can be inferred that this is a many volumes long book, and, when I read long books, I tend to take a very long time to read them. It seems exponentially longer, and I take breaks, sometimes months long, from the reading. I don’t know why. This leaves me in book 2 of volume 1, Within a Budding Grove.
The narrator’s name, if it was ever presented, does not come to memory, and we hear the story, firsthand, from him. He is very present in his memories and, in his memories, very present in the moment. The first book describes some very lovely effects of light and flowers and food. The second book, it seems, delves a little into the fragile nature of our emotional selves, but it also sees the narrator develop the idea of how his own actions affect others. In this passage he refers directly to “loving-kindness” as he relates the turmoil he experienced in deciding to go to the theatre
…, I wondered whether it was desirable, whether there were not other reasons than my parents’ prohibition which should have made me abandon it. In the first place, whereas I had hated them for their cruelty, their consent made them now so dear to me that the thought of causing them pain through which the purpose of life now appeared to me as the pursuit not of truth but of loving-kindness, and life itself seemed good or evil only in so far as my parents were happy or sad.
Further along in the story, the narrator observes M. Swann during a lapse into past jealousies.
But this memory was not pleasing to him, and rather than plumbing the depths of shame that he felt in it he preferred to indulge in a little grimace, twisting up the corners of his mouth and adding, if need be, a shake of the head which signified “What do I care about it?”
There arises the concept of sitting with the emotion or being with it from an observational, non-judgmental position. Proust, perhaps, suggests that if M. Swann were to explore the shame, there might be a resolution to it, a reason not to dwell on it. That shame, however, becomes a theme in Swann’s life.
RoTP‘s narrator is an interesting paradox of experiences because he explores the ideas of loving-kindness and mindful presence while he himself becomes embroiled in his own emotions, anxieties, and obsessions, which, in turn, remove him from the experience. I just find it interesting that these minor themes come up and that fiction continues to be a great place to expand our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
1Proust, Marcel. Translated by C.K. Scott Montcrief and Terence Kilmartin. Volume I: Swann’s Way, Within a Budding Grove, Remembrance of Things Past. (I’d have more information, but the terrible binding gave cause to remove the book’s first book as I finished it.)
With all the extra time due to Snow Panic 2012, I’ve been spending hours drawing. Hours. It is really hard to draw for hours. Really. It doesn’t seem like it would take a lot of muscle to hold one’s arm out for half an hour while making a contour line drawing, but I keep thinking that I’m really out of shape. The shoulder muscles burn under the few, measly ounces of pencil at the end of my arm.
I’ve dedicated the drawing time to drawing exercises, specifically contour and gesture line drawings. Each is very useful for beginning to understand that which sits in front of you and aids the artist in confronting the lack in perception. For example, if we imagine a tree something specific comes to mind whether that be shape, color, proportion, or perspective. If we then go outside and observe the tree as if for the first time, it could be a very different experience. Art making requires presence, openness, and deep concentration. The contour line drawing exercise requires the student to look solely upon the subject matter while drawing the line as if the pencil touched the model at the same speed the eye moves over that line. It’s a very intimate experience. Compare that to gesture drawing where the poses last seconds or minutes, and the pen or pencil never leaves the paper. An energetic line evokes the figure’s movement and weight. Each practice requires the student to let go of control and expectations.
Rembrandt made beautiful drawings as studies for larger paintings. Many are founded in the concept of gesture drawing. These lovely, finished drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger depend on contour line drawing. Below are some of my drawings from the week.
Someone asked me to create a sketch for a video set – for which I am very honored. Here’s one of the sketches.
