Monday, December 20, 2010

Chemical Tribe




It's been awhile, and its down to the wire. January is coming fast, and I still have too many things to figure out.

I've been mulling on presentation etc. and this is one of the ideas I have been working with.

I have some ideas/issues that remain unresolved, however, and I'm not sure what will happen with that.

Monday, November 8, 2010

End of the Day



So a little slice of Jarrod. One is my elementary school. The other is a cemetery. That stone wall you see in the one separates the two. I grew up playing in a playground that abutted a graveyard.

It was especially interesting the day there was a funeral for a member of the Hell's Angels, with rival Motorcycle Clubs in attendance. They assigned a member of the club to guard the schoolyard. My Mother was a volunteer at the school, and talked with one of the Hell's Angels for a while. He seemed nice.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Lost Cause



It's been a little while, so here are some more from my Backyardigans series. I have alot more of these, too many to post actually.

In January I'm going to borrow a page from a friend's book, and perhaps print all of them small to arrange in a large grid like manner... Not really sure yet, but I'm still working out the logistics.

It still surprises me, some of the junk I find out behind my house now. It seems to come in waves, presumably when the company is gearing up for a big job, I find more hazardous crap blocking my back door. There was a wind storm a couple of weeks ago, nothing major, but it looked like a hurricane had rolled through.

Now there's a storage pod for the top of a car. Where'd that come from, I wonder?


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

What's Left For Me?




I've been looking at walls, and barriers and blocked paths. There seem to be so many things that you should be able to get to, but somehow cannot.

Just a thought.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

John the Revelator


Quick sample of what I'm working on, still in process, so don't judge yet.

Also new paper is up.

Just click to the right.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

This Life



I've been exploring melrose, and have found that I have an interesting perspective. Having grown up here, I see it differently than it wants to be viewed.

This city is becoming very expensive to live in. I currently live at home to save money while in school, but the will not be the case for too much longer. When I move out, I will not be able to afford to live here anymore. A whole swath of people are finding the same issue, and it seems that the city's push for a more upscale sort of image is forcing some of its long term residents from its borders.

I approach this with a mixture of feelings of loss and sadness, it's hard when one's home no longer has any place for them, and also relief, because it is certainly coming to a point in my life where I will want to be moving on.

These emotions have somewhat changed my approach, and the images that I am making have become more sort of alienated landscapes of places where I have specific attachments or memories. In the images I have been making, I have found things that are at once paths and obstructions. They urge you to move on, but also block the way.

Certainly Melrose is not the only place that this is happening, and it is serving both literally and less tangibly for me in other ways as well.

I am finishing up one paper now, and have already started working on the next, in which I will address photography and its links to memory.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Golden Age






As promised, though it took a few days longer than I thought.

I'm really having trouble finding my momentum again. I started the semester off guns blazing, but now I think I've stumbled a little bit. I find myself shooting alot, but not really having much that I feel is worth using. Maybe I just need some more time to work the stuff that won't pan out out of my system, but I feel a little discouraged.

Oh well, I'm hoping to break through this pretty soon, and start getting some more results that I'm really excited about.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Milo in the Doldrums




I have been shooting alot, but they're all things that require alot of processing, so not many examples yet. I should have something more in the next few days.

The places I have been shooting, I am using 100% available light, so I am prisoner to all of the normal things that go with it. Also, being public places many of them, it is hard to find a time where the light is right and the people are scarce. Seems everytime I have a perfect shot, someone parks in the middle of it, or a function gets out or something absolutely ridiculous happens, and by the time it clears up, my lighting is kaput. Oh well, the dangers of reality I suppose.

Anyway, My second paper is up, and more images will be up in the next few days.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Your Decision


I've been reading alot, and working on some of the ideas that have come up. Thinking about the deadpan aesthetic in my work lately, and wondering if that's a direction I want to go in.

I've also been spending more time processing my images, and trying to enhance some of the emotive qualities even a little bit more. While finishing up my residency summary, even more ideas occurred to me, and I really want to start venturing out into the community more.

Earlier today I was walking through a parking lot while running errands, and kicked a syringe that was on the ground. I've been going through the city without my camera to get a feel for where some things that I want to be shooting are, and trying to frame what I want to shoot before I even really start to shoot it. I don't know why, but this has been helping me slow down and be a little more deliberate about the work I want to create.

All the while I have also been documenting my backyard, and the conditions therin. I think everyone is on vacation, because there hasn't been much change or activity in the last week or so.

Also, first paper of the semester is up. Link to the right.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Black Days






These are just a few quick examples of what I've been working on since the residency ended. Trying to keep going without losing any momentum, and really thinking about all the ideas I need to figure out. This is all discussed at more length in my Residency Summary, though. That should be posted pretty soon.

Also...Waiting to hear back from mentors, and I'm still pretty hopeful.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Fell On...

Thinking about all of the things discussed during the residency, I came home and found a mess out behind my house. It was bizarre, and went a ways toward working on some issues I've been rolling in my head. It was quite appropriate, actually, and made some images of it. Kind of funny how some things just seem to fall right into place.

Need to hit the ground running and really start to hash out all of the things in my head. Starting my residency summary while its still fresh in my mind, and posted my Semester summary from last month (finally) on my other blog. Just click on "view my Papers".

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Everything Ends





All that I have ben doing is personal (obviously), and has revolved around exploring and engaging all of the aspects of my life that I don't normally focus on. I find myself drawn to places/objects/functions of my life are all very present from day to day, so much so that they are usually over looked. Where I live, the car I drive, where I work and what I watch on tv.

More than just documenting my life, however, these things that I've been shooting are all somehow pillars in my life. The things that hold it up, and they have begun to crumble. Making photographs of these things that are personal and somehow conveying that has been most challenging. Everything from my house to my car, and even the tv set have been very present in my life for the past six years, and each, in its own right, is dying slowly.

Now I'm thinking about how I want to present them in June, and which ones I want to make larger prints of. I have made test prints of everything worth keeping, and will also bring those, but will only actually be presenting a handful in a much larger format.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

That's What You Get





So, another month has passed, and the clock is ticking away. June is not far enough away to do all that I want to, but I have been fervently continuing both series of images.

I know at some point these two series are going to find a way to merge into one, but I think that's still a ways off yet. My work has been evolving and changing more and more lately. I have almost completely phased out shooting film and have gone all digital, and I have stopped doing black and white as well. I feel that the work I am making is only being accurately expressed, in part, through my use of color.

More on this later...

Another paper is up as well...

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Birth and Death and Rebirth




Blogging is difficult without the internet. Anyway, I have been shooting alot, and have been continuing both projects that I have been working on. I've included images from Both. One is a set of images taken off my TV screen, and it is growing in interesting ways. There is just something compelling to me about taking high resolution digital images of my screen that is so low quality. It's old, and not even that good when it was new. They are both abstract and strangely familiar at the same time.

I've been thinking about what drives us these days, and how technology has become a sort of religion. People gathered like the flock, listening to the television gods to instruct them on how to live, what to buy, where to eat and what cholestorol medicine will help them most. I just read a novel by Neil Gaimen called American Gods that deals with concepts similar to that. The old Gods of Earth and sky have died, only to be supplanted by the new Gods made of wire and silicon, and this has influenced my thinking quite a bit.
The other series is dealing with more directly personal subject matter, and I am using mostly film to shoot it. In the last week or so, I have branched out into some digital imaging as well, however. I am exploring my everyday world, and the things that surround me on a more regular basis. These images are starting to become more abstract, and I feel are getting closer to what I am trying to say.

It started when I was still shooting at the beach, and I realized that I had become more interested in what I encountered on my way there, rather than on what I found once I arrived. The journey was what was really engaging me. Taking this into consideration, I took many of the images while commuting, and often from behind the wheel of my car. Both projects are shaping up, and I feel like they're heading in a direction that will eventually cause them to somehow merge.

Also I posted my latest paper (does anyone actually read them?...)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Fare the Well




Took another trip down to New York to meet with my Mentor, and it went quite well. I left feeling pretty good about what I'm doing, and completely ok with shifting gears as much as I have. So long for now, Winthrop Beach.

So my new direction is a little more stripped down, and a little less conceptual. The meaning is there, but I'm going to have to sift awhile longer to fully understand it. I hesitate to say too much before I am where I want to be, but these are a couple examples that I actually took on my trip out.

I stayed with a super cool friend who lives not too far outside the city, and got these while wondering around where she lives. Until next time all...

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Time is Running Out





There aren't enough hours in the day it seems, lately. I have been doing stuff nonstop, and going and going and going, but I don't really feel I have all that much to show for it. I'll be meeting with Dan in another couple weeks, and am very worried that I haven't done enough.

These days are just too packed lately, and I still don't feel like I have ironed out all the wrinkles in my time management strategy (mostly because I don't really have a time management strategy, but whatever).

I have deviated far from course lately, and haven't even been to the beach in a month. Instead I have been experimenting with a bunch of different ideas, and trying all of the random stuff that has been popping into my head. Random, I know.

One of the things that caught my mind was taking pictures of the images on my television screen. This has led to some interesting images and ideas, and has evolved in a few different ways already. I think its kind of interesting to use my high resolution digital camera to create these really strange low-fi images from my old CRT television.

I have also been shooting alot of film, and scanning it into my computer. Then I have been blowing them up on my screen, and reshooting it with my digital (sort of like artistic copy work). Often times I am leaving the pointer or other icons in the images, and I'm finding it adds an interesting dimension. I still plan on shooting more at the beach, however. I hope it's a good thing that I'm a little all over the place at the moment.

Also, I posted my second paper, just click the link to the right if you would like to check it out.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Darkened Wood



I met with my mentor for the first time yesterday. It went well. It was my first trip ever down to NYC, and all in all, it was pretty amazing. I'm left with a whole lot of questions though, and after meeting with Dan I think that I am seeing things a little differently.

Lately I've been drowning a little bit, and feeling in over my head. So much so, that I am stalling. I've been getting too caught up in all the other stuff that goes along with doing what we're doing, and forgetting where to start. I think that I've been so worried about having huge ideas, and conceptual motivations that I've gotten ahead of myself. I need to strip down and pull back a little bit.

Meeting with Dan reminded me where it all comes from: within. My solution is to relax a little bit and just let myself do what feels right. I'm going to be less concerned with feeling so much pressure to create a particular type of something, and just create. I need to go out and shoot as much as I can, and then worry about some of the other stuff. That's just how I function, and I know that's the only way that I'm going to create anything worth anything.

I guess the real trouble I am having is bridging the gap. I get self expression. I get Larger concepts. Reconciling the two is where I seem to have problems. Turning these vehicles of self into something that actually has a greater meaning or importance. It's funny, because I know how to do it, I've done it before, but thinking about it too much before hand has ground my gears to a shuddering halt.

I've got to get out there and just do what feels right.

Monday, February 1, 2010

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I have finished my Residency Summary, and will be posting it just as soon as I figure out how.

Also, I believe that I have figured out who my mentor is going to be. JOY!

That is all for now. Please go away.

Thank You and Good Night

Friday, January 29, 2010