Happy New Year to all! Please let this new year be a bit kinder and warmer than the last, with all of its fears and worries over what people felt to be really important. Money. What we need to do is act a little kinder towards one another and stay away from Belarus! No a place to go these days for a vacation.
Longnook
I leave for Athens in 59 days. I am going back to the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts for another term. I have been courted by both the digital printing guru and the darkroom sorceress and have chosen the ways of the darkroom for my work-study program. I will be working with my 4×5 and medium format primarily. I’ll bring my new digital–oh yes, I have upgraded to a Canon 5D MkII. It is lovely and full-frame which finally allows me to use the L-Series lenses to their full effect.
I have submitted 5 pieces for a juried show in Hudson, NY to be exhibited in the old Opera House in February. I hope that at least one is chosen and they give it a good space to see it. The pieces are all 11″x14″. As you can see by the image, it is following the abstract path I have been on for the past year. Whether I stay there, I don’t know. The Aegean Center will see to that. If this spring is half the catharsis that last spring was, then I should be in good shape for whatever the arts world throws at me.
I recently had the chance to visit a friend’s home and look at his art collection. I was unimpressed. Yes, it was all “very important” art and the artists were all “very important” but the work itself left me cold and uninspired: Modern art devoid of warmth, life and verve. It left me grateful that I love the work that I love and this work varies throughput the ages. Trust me, there is some very modern work that blows my mind as well as some older pieces that find dull and insipid. I think that actually it was the collector that I found dull, with his repetitive phrases of “important” and which museum wanted which pieces when he died. Very tacky.
The light is very flat today, but I hope to get out and shoot a roll or two. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunnier and I will take the 4×5 out and make some exposures. I am working on farm images these days. I have to call a nearby farmer and get permission to shoot on his property. That’s all I’m saying about it.
JDCM
I like your goal to be kinder this year. It’s something we should all work on. I hope that your trip to Greece is as fulfilling for you this year as it was last.
As for the collector, his art may not be to your taste, but it obviously makes him happy. He’s proud of it and wanted to show it off; the museums made him feel validated. Boasting can be annoying to the listener, but I think a lot of us do it. Art is so subjective, and the things that you like may leave him feeling equally cold. Look at it this way: at least you don’t have to live with it. :0)