Sometimes I get too busy for excitement?

I just realized that I have been leaving this blog out of all the excitement.

I mean like I think these are cool.

A Muse, A Nymph

A Muse, a Nymph, of old is the search, for your beauty has roots in the rivers and stream, the forest and woods. Your presence is needed with the goddesses you attend. Long have you been on the hunt. Your laughter and song still echoes in the hills, yet your shadow has forever left. 

 

Oh mistress of shadows where a upon do you set.

 

My canvas are empty, my dreams a mist.

Black and white

I just love black and white photographs, from film to the newer digital edits the values of the shadows is so impressive. 90% of my work is in black and white because of the way I feel about it.

 

My mentor Man Ray used to say the devil is in the details and the details are always in the shadows, color just hides them, so what are you hiding? That impact has sent my life in a direction, one for the search of the shadows, the things hidden from view. Personally I think that is best stated visually in black and white.

 

Maybe it’s just that I am old now but colors seem to be blending more now days. What ever did happen to the vivid yellows of '69?

The results of a good stupor.

I came too this morning after a solid self imposed stupor, only to find that time had changed. Nothing else at all had changed, not my walls, not my life, only I had been missing. The politics are the same, the economy, and the things to discuss.

 

I think I preferred the self delusion.

Style or get better????

You know as an artist, a photographer my self esteem is based not only on my family, the ones I call dear, but also upon my work. Maybe I do so a bit more so than others maybe a bit less; some is even based on my income as well. To a large extent I believe that other artists are similar in some ways.

 

Last week I asked a prestigious photographer to critique my work, I know he is running one of these workshop businesses, you know where you can go shoot a “model” use the light setups provided, and if you get stuck there is a mentor standing close by. He also is, if I may, well famous in certain circles in the publishing arena.

 

His feedback was I need to pick up more techniques and of coarse the pitch for the workshop. Not bad really when I set and think about it, so all this last weekend I am thinking about it. You know if I improve I could get more of that kind of attention. You know famous in certain circles.

 

Monday came and went and I was just going through my images, a bit of difference for me because I went off to the Coast in Lincon City Or.  Hoping for a few wave images the cliffs, the sea spray, the drama of the springtime in the Pacific North West, you know a mini vacation with the excuse of shooting.

 

It rained all weekend and the wind is still in the news today. The kind of rain that even if your camera is in a water bag it is in danger. So I didn’t get a chance to shoot as many images I wanted but the ones I did get I am satisfied, yet not. I wanted so much more.

 

Well I was trying to avoid the many responsibilities of running a business, email and contact with the outside world was cut to levels of priority and only checked twice in three days. You see I did not want to miss the value of the experience. I wish that was more of a reality for others but I can understand the need for that instant attention and validations.

 

Tuesday morning came and my level of contact with the outside world was back in full swing, answering the over 300 emails a day, the view of traffic on images, the links and updates I do daily, the stuff that seems to take most of my days, with what seems the mundane simplicity of just telling the world I am a artist a photographer or just that I am here.

 

When setting in this stack of emails was this email that just seemed to stick with me, “Hi Chas, I have to say, as a figurative artist, that your images are excellent, especially those with lots of deep shadows making them very atmospheric and certainly more sensual than the conventional images generally shown in magazines, the sign of a true artist. best regards and thanks again, Tom Green”  I am dumbfounded over this unsolicited critique, or this admiration from a fellow artist.

 

So do I need to learn more or just stay in the dark? This question has been bouncing around in my little brain since I read that email. Sure it is always good to get recharged on the fundamentals, being better is being better, really it is. At the same time I really like what Tom Green said, It too bad that there are so few photographers running workshops on low level detail captures. Or that there are so few books on it, I like the shadows I always have.

 

I certainly like the statement from Tom, “especially those with lots of deep shadows making them very atmospheric and certainly more sensual than the conventional images generally shown in magazines, the sign of a true artist.” I sure wish I could place that statement in front of the publishers in certain circles especially knowing they are changing their view of what is atmospheric and sensual or who they choose to shoot it.

Maybe that is why they are running the workshop to replace the income. Makes one wonder.

 

Either way I am sure to be looking into a workshop or two, I like learning, at the same time I kind of like my style.

Label me if you need too, I am only who I am

As far back as I can remember, there has always been the few people who for what ever reason could not fit in nor belong to a group. They themselves talked about or did things differently, from clothing to socializing they are just different. Even books like the Outsiders glamorized the idea of anti-social behaviors. I could not count the amount of movies stories or plays that the theme of genius and different social behaviors reaches the top ten lists of stories you have to read or movie you have to see.

 

Labeling these individuals is our cultures way to justify the unease in which we try to accept them.

 

When I was a child ADD and Bi-polar were not around, nor was the need to medicate a 10^th of the population. I find it hard to believe that some genetic core changed in fifty years that so many are labeled as such. I am sure there are those that need assistance, and truly have thought and behavior issues, I think these are the most over used social help labeling.

 

Now days it is almost a fad to claim to be different, unique yet odd. I know honestly that I use mine as an advertising ploy in my own marketing, not that I would ever claim to be either a genius or mad, but that the cookie cutter that made me was broken. Thus it is okay to be me.

 

Label me if you need too, I am only who I am.

Social behaviors???

I believe that all social behaviors are; behaviors based out of the many animal instincts, It is our view of our experience of those which defines our cultures.

 

Love in its many forms can not be defined by any one of the animal instincts, but a combination of many.

 

Our descriptions of love like a poem, or a gift of a rose, is based on the value of the experience with which we have acted. Solidifying it by a act of animal instinct like sex, validates the experience, reason of the gift presented in love or lust.

I am an artist first

I am an artist first, sometimes I write, sometimes, I take pictures, or draw, I play music, thus writing for me is another medium.

 

Success in it, means something different to many people, I have no choice but to make a business out of my art as I am responsible for my family and my income.

 

To me the happiness at home, the wonder of my children, are only enhanced when I sell an image.

 

Having a passerby stop and pause to look at my work, that is success should they buy that is an honor.

Springtime

o-to the spring festivals of old! Where the warming of the fields; bring the thoughts of warm summer days, and hopes of a great harvest.

 

May spring bring you new wonderful things!