The Joy of Being, Part Three

Our world is so complicated, it can be quite a challenge to find the simple gesture or moment that allows you to refresh and refocus.  Recently I happened upon a guided meditation featuring the chime of a bell that helped bring me to do just that.  It's simple to download and takes about 10 minutes to go through the exercise. 


When it was over I felt a sense of calm and peacefulness and I highly recommend it. You can find an explanation of the exercise here and a discussion of contemplative practices here.   


You can find other guided meditations from the Center here. The bell meditation is guided by physicist Arthur Zajonc who is also the academic director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.  






      

The Joy of Being, Part Two

"Following your dream" often takes you down a road less traveled. And therein lies the fear and fascination in starting the journey.  Believing in your vision, laying it on the line and opening yourself up to whatever you may encounter also means taking a big risk.  And hopefully, creating work that is unique and engaging.

Ian Ruhter/Alchemist

That's what propels photographer Ian Ruhter's pursuit of "Silver and Light". In one sense, it's what he calls the technical approach he uses to create his images, incorporating a huge bellows camera and a photographic process developed 160 years ago.


And at a time when innovators in modern image-making have mostly embraced the digital domain, Ruhter returned to an early photographic technique to capture one-of-a-kind pieces using the wet plate collodian process that was adapted so effectively by Matthew Brady during the Civil War. And so brilliantly by artist Sally Mann.  


Here are some examples of his work: 

You can see his photographs are at once realistic and some what abstracted, as if portraying an ancient view of a modern scene. And each image holds some portions in quite sharp focus while other areas have a soft, gauzy quality. Which creates a more dreamy, almost mysterious mood. In a sense, you see what is there, but you also experience it as a moment removed from time and place.  

It's a space at once familiar and strange, and that makes us pay attention.  I think each image offers us a window into the world that Ruhter is trying to show us.  And I think that's the other part of what he's after.  Check out the video "Silver & Light" where Ruhter lays out his vision and describes his artistic process. And you can see more images at his blog and at his website.
I don't think every photograph works, but I appreciate what he's trying to do and the risk he's taking to accomplish it.

The Joy of Being, Part One

I've been wading through the river of thoughts and imaginings that flow by me, casting about for the next post for The Vision Thing.  And today, I've found several.  They are quite unrelated, except they all celebrate the joy of being.  

The first is a well-cultivated "spontaneous" event. And while the event was well-planned and carefully crafted, it has all the sense of surprise and adventure that serendipity invites into our lives.  And I love those moments of happenstance that randomly connect us to something larger and more intriguing than what lies on the path we think we're following.


Here's a link to the video "We are Sabadell flash mob" created by Banco Sabadell celebrating the 130th Anniversary of its founding.  Yes, it's a commercial, but it's also an Ode to Joy.  Definitely worth checking out.

Heidi Clarke's Art You Can Eat

Heidi Clarke and some of her creations

Serendipity, fate, who knows, but I'm continually enchanted by those unexpected encounters that enrich your life. Today we're in Portland, OR and our long time friends, Richie and Patty took us to their local farmers market where I chanced upon Heidi Clarke.  Here are some of the things she makes:

I asked her how she got started. She told me she was an artist, then went to Culinary school to train as a butcher (I was so surprised by that odd juxtaposition that I forgot to ask why).  But fate changed her life when a chance encounter found her sitting on a bus next to a pastry chef, who noticed Heidi reading Bon Appetit.  They got to talking, one thing led to another, and Heidi left the meat market to create cakes and cookies.  And here are some of her confections:

I love the zaniness of her creations.  And you can see how her back-ground as an artist propels her sense of whimsy.  I guess when it comes to cake, if you can imagine it, Heidi can create it.

   You can see more about Heidi's cakes and cookies and her company, Zephyr Cakes on her website here.  And Etsy, a website featuring artisans and their creations, has more on Zephyr Cakes here.  Her cakes are so fanciful, as my friend Patty says, it seems a shame to eat them.  But when we sampled one of her lime sugar cookies, I found it infused with an airy, tart sweetness like a lover's good-bye kiss.

Mac Premo and The Art of Identity

Mac Premo and some of his stuff

What makes us who we are? Is it how we act? Our behavior towards others? Perhaps our thoughts and values? How others see us?  Maybe so, but these abstractions are like vapor and can be hard to hold on to.  


Another way of looking at identity is to focus on the things we choose.  Our stuff.  And yes, things have their own fascination, meaning and psychic value.   

Mac Premo is all about stuff.  His bio describes him as "a professional stuffmaker."  And he uses objects collected over the years to create his art and craft award-winning commercials.  A sculptor, fabricator, designer and animator, his interests and off-beat humor seem to feed off each other.  Here's a link to a wry video he made: 2011 Year in Review.  

Matt's Dumpster

The year 2011 also found him in a quandary. He was leaving his beloved studio, moving to a smaller space and that meant a lot of his stuff would end up in the dumpster.  So he turned adversity into art with a work he calls The Dumpster Project.

Matt Documenting an Object for The Dumpster Project

The Dumpster Project is a record of about 500 objects he's collected and saved over the years.  Each of them photographed, cataloged with notes about what they mean to him, and posted on his blog. And also fabricated as part of a massive collage.  

Matt made this to describe how the dumpster would look

Mac made this sample in a suitcase to show people what he was going to do, hoping someone would say, "I like it, here's a dumpster" for The Dumpster Project.  And someone did.


As he says in a video describing the project, "I think we imbue meaning to objects and subsequently those objects become a record of who you are."  Or maybe, we just have a lot of stuff...

Here's a wider view of the interior of the dumpster.  And a portrait of the artist and his work.

Brooklyn, New York is home to The Dumpster Project.  It's been on view at the DeKalb Market and had a brief stay in Miami.

Here's the dumpster next to Mac's new studio in Brooklyn.  You can see more images of the interior here.  A Highbrow Magazine story and an ABC News profile fill in a few more details.

I like how Mac Premo has tried to plumb the depths of identity with his Dumpster Project.  By binding his life experiences to the objects he's displayed, he's opened a door into his quirky persona while inviting us to think about the trappings of our own lives. And all the objects that define us. It's a murky and complicated world, the world of things, and it's fun to be able to explore it with fresh eyes.

Studio G Makes a Cool Promo

So in the Cool Tech Phone Wars of late I'd usually declare Apple as the winner.  I talking about marketing here, not the actual products.  The Android spots I've seen on TV make me nervous, feeling like something is going to blow up or drill some virtual hole in my brain.  See what I mean: 

Droid

But Google's video arm, Studio G, has come up with a marketing video I like a lot.  It has a low key anti-tech feel. The spot starts with this image. 

In Google World, it's all about the hand crank. 

The video is totally retro as it promotes Google Play, which is their rebranded destination for all things Android.  And what I like about it is the concept, showing all kinds of antiquated gear in a box (all stuff that we used to use not so long ago) that becomes cool in a steam punk kind of way.  Here's the hand cranked box.  I do like the concept because it totally plays against techno cool.  Which gets your attention and makes it fun too, watching the camera move from one piece of gear to the next.


What unifies the concept is the panning camera, which moves from gear to gear as the voice calls out what you can do in your new Googley world they call Play.  They got the shot they liked on take 14.  You can see their video here.  And you can read a little about the making of the spot here.  Check it out.

David Hoptman

Cezanne

Hoptman

When I first saw this image on The Online Photographer, a photography blog, I thought I was looking at a image by Cezanne. But how could that be? So I looked further to discover it was taken by master photographer David Hoptman.  He teaches a Tuscan Light Photo Workshop and clearly is on to something.
From what I can glean from his site, he is very much about form, texture, color and design.  Obviously with a captivating eye.  And he works with a variety of styles and approaches.  Here are a few examples I liked.

There's obviously much more on his site and he writes about the creative process as well. It's not surprising that he does landscape and architectural photography, still lifes and interiors.  But he also works with Picassoesque abstractions, a Minox camera which creates a diffused, pointillistic image, and stylized nudes. Everything elegantly presented. And one of those happy accidental encounters that make the digital world so seductive.