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Archive | December, 2013

Happy Christmas!

By on December 24, 2013 in craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paroikia, Paros, Paros Portraits, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spiritual journey, Uncategorized, working
Snowy morning sunrise, December 19, 2013

Snowy morning, December 19, 2013, 16*F.  Leica M8

 

 

…and a few days later. Very weird.

…and a few days later, December 22. 68*F.  Very weird.  Leica M8

 

 

 

 

Christmas is here and all through the house it is very quiet.  The cat plays with her tail, my mother sits in the living room reading the New York Times.  Tonight is Christmas Eve and we are having a Mexican dinner–pork quesadillas, guacamole, salad and a candied pumpkin dessert.  The tree is up, decorated and there are presents beneath its bangled branches.

The best gifts this year have not been material.  They have been the deep changes I have felt within myself and how I perceive the world.  This, in turn, gives me the opportunity to respond in new ways.  I am not always familiar with these aspects, nor am I always comfortable, but they are for the best and I feel have improved as a human as a result.  Here are some off the top of my head…

— My role as a teacher is not to reward or punish via the archaic system of “grades” so common today.  I am there to guide, lift up and hopefully inspire.

— My own work is a testament to long labor, arduous and fulfilling.  I am grateful to have been able to have an exhibition of my photography this year.  I am also grateful to have been allowed to exhibit it in a place I love–Paros and The Aegean Center for the Fine Arts.

— My future is unknown and uncertain. The best I can do is show up and be part of life’s rich pageant.

—  That’s OK most of the time.

Merry Christmas and have a lovely New Year!

JDCM

Mid-December update…

By on December 12, 2013 in Athens Greece, autumn, beauty, biking, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, quiet islands, skill and craft, spiritual journey, working
Phrenology at the Street Market

Phrenology at the Street Market.  Leica M8, Voigtlander 28mm; f/5.6; 1/125; ISO 320

-I haven’t posted in a while.  I have been busy with the ending of the 2013 Autumn Session at the Aegean Center.  I have been very pleased with this session.  My steep learning curve as an instructor has taught me a few things and I have been able to avoid some of the pitfalls common to any novitiate.  My overall opinion of teaching is that the small rewards outweigh the tragic gaffes and stumbles.  I keep searching for the Golden Key which unlocks the door.  It has been a humbling three months.

-I am currently in Athens, making my way back to the USA for the Christmas and New Year holiday.  I will visit with family, close and dear friends, and enjoy driving my car.

-It will be frigid in the little town where I grew up.  This will make exercise difficult and lazing about watching movies easy.  For the month that I am there I will probably join a gym and try to burn off the calories as I gain them.  I have no desire to return to Paros 6 kilos heavier than when I left.  One of the many benefits to living on Paros is the ability to get out and about without donning the kind of winter gear I will wear in New York.  There is also no snow on Paros, or none to worry about anyway.  This allows me to ride my bike.  It’s all about layers.

-I was sitting in a café yesterday with some Athenian friends and I was astounded at the general din of this large, ancient and sprawling city.  After the quiet of Paros, the noise is deafening.  It troubled my sleep last night.  I tossed and turned.

-I still adhere to the belief that I am not an “artist”, per se, or at least would rather not be known as one.  Call me a “skilled technician” or “an able-bodied craftsman” or “a journeyman photographer”.  The world has become a market for the “artist”, a place to sell goods, like a street vendor selling fruit, or perhaps something darker.  In order for “the artist” to really be a mainstream success, he or she must conform to the trends and fads that guide the fickle opinions of gallerists and marketeers.  For me, this is a trap.  If I am creating to please the public, then I am on an ego-trip.  It urges me to be the center of attention, in the limelight.  I am not comfortable with center stage.  Once in a while these lines intersect.  The rest of the time I have to be patient with hard work, working long nights and being a wallflower.

JDCM