A few shots taken with my holga inside an abandoned house, from a few weeks back. It’s a location I’m hoping to return to sometime soon and do a more thorough job of photographing.
Category: Holga
Magic in the Landscape
Out for a Paddle
Taken from the train window, somewhere near Tacoma, Washington.
I really wish I was better about keeping up with what’s going on at local galleries, because too often I see shows just before they close or miss them completely. In some cases the shows I do catch at the last minute are ones I would definitely recommend to others, but then it’s too late.
Such is the case with the show I went to see on Saturday afternoon at Jacana Gallery. The show featured the work of artist/illustrator Soizick Meister. The series of paintings focuses on easily recognizable landscapes around Vancouver, with plenty of iconic imagery of crows, herons, tanker ships against the north shore, logs on Kits/Jericho beaches, and other things easily recognizable as “Vancouver”. In every painting there is the mysterious figure of Mr. M dressed in hat and trench coat, turned towards the scene to contemplate the landscape. The scenes are peaceful, sometimes with playful details of paper boats or piles of books. This is magic realism at it’s best, and I found the show to be a wealth of inspiration.
Starlings Take Flight
This is my favorite shot taken on my Portland trip. I love watching birds take flight.
I keep meaning to write about the good summer I have been having but so far I haven’t been able to find the time. Here are a few good things:
1. Slowly transforming my apartment into a more inspiring space just by changing the art around on the walls and adding more.
2. Fun dinners with various friends on various days.
3. A cycling trip to Agassiz a few weekends ago with the lovely Mann family.
4. Moving to a new work space, and liking it much better than the old one.
5. Feeling inspired again and beginning to plan and prepare to submit work for shows in the fall.
6. Having too many good things to actually mention in the short amount of time I’ve taken to write this.
Portland Artist – Theo Ellsworth
Title: Starlings at Twilight
I was less impressed with the Saturday market in Portland on my latest visit than I was the previous time I was there. It seemed much more crafty and junky with fewer “gems” here and there. My favorite artist from the visit is Theo Ellsworth, a writer, illustrator and comic book artist. His drawings are intricately detailed and feature fantastical scenes, people and creatures from his own made up world. His style reminds me a bit of drawings I’ve seen by Clive Barker but without the dark twists. I bought one of Theo’s lovely prints (and wish I’d picked up more) as well as a copy of his book Capacity Number 7.
Five good things
1. Getting my apartment sorted out after too many days of living in the mess created by repairs in part of the space.
2. Starting to read The World Without Us.
3. Having my hair cut shorter, but not yet as short as before.
4. Keeping up with my goal to write letters to send home every two weeks.
5. Dancing together around the living room to the lovely sounds of Beirut.
Spring magnolias
Taken with a holga “macro” – a holga with a close-up filter over the lens.
Holga Show 2.0
I have one of my Holga photographs in an online show at the Photomedia Centre: Holga Show 2.0. I had work accepted in 2006 as well, and I actually prefer the selection and presentation of that show to the current one. None the less, please check it out.
The Holga Show is our second annual show of fine art photography produced from toy cameras with plastic lenses, such as the Holga. Thirty-seven images by thirty-three artists were selected for exhibition from the entries received from our open call. Best of show honors were awarded to Tread, James Arnold, Nicolas Bellion, and Kelsey Jarboe.
And now I need to take my Holga for a spin. It has been awhile since I’ve shot anything with it. I blame the rain. 😉
Big Sister. Little Sister.
Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland is looking for more people to take part in their mentorship program in 2008. I became involved with the organization last year, and thought I’d share my experiences.
With the dedication of our wonderful volunteers, we are currently providing 315 girls with the support of a caring mentor– thank you! But for 2008, Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland is on a mission! We know that there are many more young girls who need a mentor in their lives, so we want to serve even more girls in 2008! In order to accomplish this, we need more women to volunteer with us AND more families and community workers to know about our programs so they can refer girls to us who could benefit from having a mentor.
In the spring of 2007 I was looking around for volunteer work and I decided to give Big Sisters a try. It was something I’d been considering for awhile, especially after hearing about it from a friend who’d been matched with a Big Brother (the boy version of Big Sisters) as a young boy and his good experiences within their relationship. I didn’t know much about the program at the time, other than it involved volunteering my time and working closely with a young girl I would be paired up with.
My first step was to attend one of the many Info Sessions Big Sisters hold regularly around the Lower Mainland, to learn more about the program and it’s requirements. Once I decided I was definitely interested I filled out an application package, attended an orientation session with other hopeful candidates, and then a one-on-one screening interview with a Big Sister councelor. It was a couple of months before Big Sisters got back to me about a potential match with a teenaged girl named Lauren. They put a lot of care and attention into finding just the right combination of people because they want the relationship to last.
In the beginning it felt very odd and awkward, to both Lauren and I, to hang out because essentially ours is an arranged relationship even though we are both willingly involved. It has taken time to get to know one another and become comfortable talking about ourselves, but it’s totally worth it. It was also tricky between both our schedules to come up with a regular day and time to get together, but seeing each other the same day every week has been key in helping the relationship grow. My “Little Sister” is a wonderful beautiful person, full of life and intelligence, is lots of fun to be around, and shares my love of photography.I feel lucky to know Lauren and she would not have come into my life any other way.
If you are interested in becoming a Big Sister yourself, please call Call 604.873.4525 ext. 300 or email info(at)bigsisters(dot)bc(dot)ca. Information about qualifications can be found here.
You are so much more than your thinking mind can comprehend
The title of this entry is the gist of something my yoga teacher said in class on Saturday morning a few weekends ago. We are so much more than the thoughts that limit us.
A very tall tree in the tea garden
I’m up for the second time this morning after a very late night of going to bed at the magical hour when 2am becomes 1am again.
I was looking at my cell phone when it changed back.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen before.
Neat.
And even though I went to bed THAT late my body clock still insisted I be awake for 6am.
Blergh…