I want to be reincarnated as a manatee.

I do. Really. So if reincarnation IS real, I hope to be a manatee.

I wanted to insert a picture of a manatee here, but I can't find my files...eek? They're gone :( So here's a puppy I met last year at Lake Eola, her name is Bella.

AND NOW....I RE-BRING TO YOU THE STILL IMAGE VIDEO OF NONSENSE THAT HAS A WHOPPING 206 HITS ON YOUTUBE. Am I famous? No...but this video just rocks.




Now I will blog regarding ASMP lecture, then blog on my thoughts and inspirations.

Boring but useful blogging: I attended the ASMP "I Need to Jumpstart My Business" lecture with Judy Herrmann last night. Good stuff! It was pretty inspirational. Instead of all the usual "gloom and doom" mumbo jumbo we hear at SOMEWHERE all the time, that the industry is dying and blablabla. No offense to those people, but you're BRINGIN ME DOWN!

Judy showed us success story after success story for still photographers who when faced with the "times" and had the decision to either go bankrupt, go video or change the way they did things, and they reinvented themselves into extremely successful photographers. Heck YEAH! Now, in "these times" they reinvented themselves and are successful. She also spoke on the importance of MIXING business and personal because as artists your work is personal, and making the right decisions to get to the place in life you want to be...and the steps to get there. So on and so forth. It was a great speech. I was scared to go because I was alone but I settled in once I got there and I'm very glad that I attended.

And what I took most from it was this quote that she said, that may be slightly off but nevertheless the point is the same: "It's impossible to create good work when you're working with a jerk", even once the job is over and its onto the next one the next day, that negativity will follow you and it will show in your work.

"We are more than photographers, we are visual communicators."
"Real good work is good without commentary"

Also, the advice to pursue whatever it is that you are passionate about because it shows in your images. She described feeling goosebumps when she sees work that she can tell the photographer was intimately involved in creating, emotionally, spiritually, whatever way you want to look at it. That is the work that I need to strive towards, and like she said, find your niche and then find a way to work it so you can make money off of it. She also strongly emphasized quality over quantity, and that she'd rather see fewer images that are amazing than a fuller portfolio with a few mediocre photos mixed in.

SUMMARY
1. Nurture your creativity
2. Nurture your relationships, stop just short of stalking. (it was a joke...but not really)
3. "When you lose your vision, take a look at what is and imagine what could be"
4. "It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you are not"

PERSONAL

I discovered over spring break, through my project on Maria Bolton (www.mariabolton.com), I can find great inspiration from artists that are not photographers, like her, but also from people who aren't even artists at all but have passion about something, be it health, yoga, biking, gardening, whatever. Being around people with passion FEEDS my creativity.

That happened to me at the "Green Drinks" event at Dandelion, my eyes became open to the community that is capable of giving me the inspiration I need to get through the hard times. All while discussing the Sunrail I had this serenity settle over me that I'm not alone as an artist, and shouldn't plan to work alone as one. What a group of amazing people. I've never felt more comfortable or accepted in my LIFE than I felt amongst them. I don't know if I've ever felt that at all. I'm not saying Dandelion is the only place that can happen but for artists, writers, designers, videographers and people who love tea (haha), but for me it was the first time I felt free to let my mind wander at ease with no fear of judgment. Good times.

I could keep going, but I gotta stop. This blog is way too long

in class

shoot me.

Face yourself, then face the world.

Quote I made up for myself. It's probably already been said. Today is one of those days that my itunes is playing songs for my mood.

"Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments...."

Here are two from the last batch. I'm disappointed in them, but whatever, what can I do? The scanners at school are not being friendly lately, grainy, loss of detail, muted colors. It's like the symptoms of scanner depression. So I had to edit them a bit (give them their Photoshop medication) and ....there it is! There may be a second rendition of each, I may have gone a bit too far. Or maybe I should go even farther. WAYYYYYYYY father. Into oblivion. I am not going to sleep well tonight.




I keep finding quotes from these geniuses, I want them posted all throughout my house, covering the walls. Like madness. Here are my newest favorites. A few more below.

+ To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams. - Giorgio de Chirico

+ Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men. - Giorgio de Chirico

Strange Little Girl

Look up the lyrics.

Shot more for my nature vs man series (seen here) and on my last blog, but the 2 black and whites aren't intermixing well with the color. I'm excited about the outcome.

I'm a little worried they may all look similar, but maybe all together it'll look like a real series, not a bunch of duplicates. We'll see. I've never been looking at anything in "series vision" as I would call it. Portfolio workshop is definitely the best class for me by far. Prof told us to go shoot whatever we want to and then come back with the work, and we'll figure out together how it all goes together, and why we're attracted to what we are. It's like art therapy! Love it. Love the freedom, the feelings, to be driven by myself rather than under the directions of another. The ones I shot today are large format so they'll be up here in a few days once I get the film processed.

I want to make art and im a hypocrite.

i rarely write in here, just in my own journal, but i feel the need for a digital rant. ONWARD!

i want to make art. ugly art, pretty art, pointless art, whatever art. just art. with no directive, just want to float along like a tumbleweed snapping everything i see. i want to have a stack of film i don't develop for months so i have surprise when i develop it months later.

i want to live in a darkroom and make photos about nature vs man but i have to be man to develop photos in a darkroom with chemicals that make the process nature vs me. i say fuck the man! and i am the man! and we are all the man! and there is no way around it...so i would decide using deductive reasoning.

We hurt one thing to help another, what a cycle!

i am open to all interpretations of things so i'm a pretty approachable person to discuss ANY matter to, i can see all sides of almost everything.

but my latest rendezvous within the orlando art, eco and living with a purpose community have really made me think think think...in a good, inspirational way. i feel tha love!!

Reminders to self:

"Good art wounds as well as delights. It must, because our defenses against the truth are wound so tightly around us. But as art chips away at our defenses, it also opens us to healing potentialities that transcend intellectual games and ego-preserving strategies."~ Rollo May, 1985, My Quest for Beauty, p. 172

"People who comprehend a thing to its very depths rarely stay faithful to it forever. For they have brought its depths into the light of day: and in the depths there is always much that is unpleasant to see." from Nietzsche's Human, all too Human, s.489, R.J. Hollingdale transl.

Sing it Bob, every little thing is gonna be alright

Don't worry about a thing, little baby seals, every little thing is gonna be alright.

Figure Study

Gotta start somewhere right? These are kind of polar opposite figure studies. The black and white one, I had the idea of the light exploding from one side of the body and wrapping around the other side, turning into black. Very harsh, more about the light than the subject. The other is with a lens baby, wanted to accent the curves and get the distortion and feathering from the lens than through editing.

Macro, Jaclyn Russell and the Cat Lady

Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been a painter, claimed to be a painter, or claimed to know how to use a paint brush or paint.

In some sort of artistic enraged frenzy, I decided to do some really bad painting on a home depot box, destroy cotton balls, collect leaves, sticks, and mulch and most importantly, incorporate the infamous cat lady into the image to be cleaning up the mess and rebuilding earth. Which is ironic to me, and really only Jaclyn...who is the only person who can truly understand it.

So therefore, let it be open to interpretation

Anyhow, I had a macro assignment with the 4x5 and instead of just looking at something really close I decided to make a half-assed "set" and go with it and see what happens. It makes me laugh. Bob Ross would not be proud, those are not happy clouds.