Tag Archives | artistic eye

Pisa…2014

By John on September 23, 2014 in autumn, beauty, craft, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, skill and craft, spiritual journey, Uncategorized

–It has been two years since I have visited Italy. What I have seen still inspires.

–This year I traveled to Pisa with some friends. The sun was warm, the clouds white, puffy and benevolent. The breeze was cool enough to be pleasant and carried a slight tang of the nearby sea. I have always been impressed with Pisa. I find the town charming and the buildings along the Arno fill me with a kind of peace as they gracefully follow the curve of the river. I imagine the Romans in their boats, big and small, navigating…

–The Camposanto is the emotional high point for me. The frescoes are amazing for many reasons, perhaps because they are even there. Anyone who visits is made aware of the damage caused by Allied bombing during the Second World War and the subsequent attempts to repair and restore their delicate structures.

–Of all the great dignitaries, princes, princesses, lords and ladies entombed in the Campo, one resident stands out: Deane Keller. Keller was an American, a member of the MFAA Group that, during WW II, scoured a desolated Europe to save the great artistic treasures either looted by the NAZIs or damaged by the ravages of war. He is responsible for the saving of what we now see in Florence and Pisa, especially the frescoes of Pisa. Much was lost. Much has disappeared. While standing next to Keller’s tomb, I was talking to a friend about this. I began to cry. I was reminded that what we draw, paint, sculpt or photograph is of the finest delicacy and so easily destroyed. Keller tried to fix what he could and his work continues to this day.

–JDCM

Frescoe restoration at the Campo Santo, Pisa, Italy 2014

Fresco restoration at the Camposanto, Pisa, Italy 2014

Departures and arrivals…

By John on September 17, 2014 in 35 mm photography, autumn, beauty, biking, black and white portraiture, craft, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, quiet islands, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spiritual journey, Uncategorized, working

The crowds have thinned out on Paros. The roads have become less treacherous and the island is, once again, for those of us who live here. There is a collective sigh of relief. I have been biking well, using my new Boardman road bike and loving it. In a recent post I stated that I wanted to ride at least 125km per week. I have done that in three days. I will have to up the ante. Maybe 200km? Easy-peasey. My mountain biking has been vigorous and rugged. As it should be.

I continue to build a solid portfolio of 35mm portrait pieces for my exhibit scheduled in the fall of 2015. I think I also have enough ‘cafe-Cafe‘ images for the small show I hope to hang in November. Now all I have to do is print, matte and frame 12 images. This will begin in October, when I return…

I am leaving for Italy tomorrow. It will be a short trip, only a couple of weeks, and I will hook up with friends and colleagues for some art, art history and good eats. I am all but packed with only my shaving kit to stuff in my rucksack. My camera bag is ready, awaiting my laptop and assorted odds and ends. I am only bringing two cameras: my trusty, well-used Canon G11 point-and-shoot and the small Pentax 35mm I bought from a friend last July when I was back in America. I will bring the 50mm and 135mm lenses. I have been having fun with this little machine and so it feels good to continue the joy.

Cavafy’s poetry continues to inspire and fill me with emotion…

Return

Return often and take hold of me,

cherished sensation, return and take hold of me–

when the body’s memory awakens.

and past desire again runs through the blood;

when the lips and skin remember,

and the hands feel as though they touch again.

Return often and take hold of me at night,

when the lips and skin remember.

–JDCM

In the shift…

By John on August 31, 2014 in 35 mm photography, autumn, beauty, biking, black and white portraiture, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, mountain biking in Greece, portraiture, skill and craft, Uncategorized, working

–The August crowds have departed and it is almost September. The summer is slipping away (has slipped away), a tide across the sand. The light has shifted. It is no longer the July glare. Delicate clouds mute the summer fierceness. Autumn approaches. Today it is windy and cooler. A meltemi eases fevered brows. A scirocco will present itself midweek. The breeze will drop to almost nothing.

–All the forecasts point to the possibility of a light shower this week. Whether this will happen on Paros or another nearby island is never certain. I shall just have to wait and see.

–The mountain bike race on Andiparos has been cancelled. The next event I can participate in is the race on Naxos, at the end of October. That’s OK, although I was looking forward to Andiparos.

–In a couple of weeks I head off to Italy to visit with friends, eat some steak Florentine, and allow the Renaissance to inspire my eye.

–My portrait work continues. I would like to shoot and develop a couple of rolls of 35mm before I head to Italia.

–I continue my biking. I need to pump up the kilometers a bit. Now that it is cooler and there are fewer cars, this is easier. I pay the final installment on my road bike tomorrow. Then I can begin that dynamic routine. 200 km a week total with both bikes. That is all I ask…

–JDCM

Impressions of Amsterdam…

By John on August 22, 2014 in spiritual journey, Uncategorized

Amsterdam is not really part of Holland. It is an autonomous state within the Netherlands. They would prefer it if you did not call them “Dutch.”

The weather during my stay has been unusually cool and wet, very much like November weather on Paros. I am grateful I brought my fleece and warmer, wet-weather clothes. I have needed them.

People in Amsterdam are so fluent in English as to make native English speakers seem lacking. I have even heard the locals speaking English to each other. Odd. At other times I have heard a very Anglicized Dutch. An Amsterdammer told me they love to hear visiting Belgians speak Flemish since it is closer to their mother tongue.

The food here is good, if on the heavy side. In addition to the traditional Amsterdammer restaurants there are numerous Indonesian and Surinamese places, a tasty side-effect of brutal colonization and the Dutch East India Trading Company. For some reason there are also large numbers of Argentinian/Uruguayan steak houses. These seem to cater more to tourists. Another interesting restaurant is all-you-can-eat sushi. The locals love these spots. I ate at one twice. Inexpensive and high quality.

The Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum (modern art) are all superb. I bought my tickets in advance and avoided the long waits on line. I also visited the Rembrandt House and the Dutch Resistance Museum. Both were excellent and worth a viewing, especially the latter. Ultra-right wing political parties are on the rise in Holland and in Europe as a whole. We must all take a stand against fascism and all that it means. If not me, then who? If not now, when?

I do not think that those who drafted the laws regarding the decriminalization of “soft drugs” in Holland expected the odor of pot smoke to fill the streets and cafes full of college students getting wasted. There are national movements trying to limit the usage to residents, but in Amsterdam that vote was thrown out. Too much tourist money. Still, it is illegal to grow it, illegal to transport it, illegal to sell over 5 grams per day to one person and illegal to buy it in bulk. Therefore the “legal” cafes are still reliant on the black market for their stash. So what is legal about it? I recoiled as if from a hot stove.

As I write this I am out of town visiting friends in the small rural village of Elspeet. Really lovely. Quiet, green and flat as a panenkoek.

–JDCM

Paros, Athens, Amsterdam…

By John on August 18, 2014 in Athens Greece, beauty, Greece, Paroikia, Paros, spiritual journey, Uncategorized

I have been back in Greece since…August 1st? July 31st?…It feels blurry…I remember a 27 hour travel day: cars, planes, boats…my body temperature shocked from a cool New York July 70F to a sweltering Athens August 38C…dehydrated, jet-lagged, sleep-deprived. I experienced daily periods of vertigo and lightheadedness for almost a full week. Water, sports drinks, sleep and more water…7 days later I was 100% and feeling fine. A friend believes I may have picked up a mild virus during a leg. Perhaps. At least it wasn’t my suspected Google-diagnosed brain tumor or West Nile Virus.

Paros has been jammed with tourists, as it always is this time of year. Too much, really, for me to handle. I found the best thing to do is bike early in the morning, go swimming, have coffee, check email and make sure it is all done by ten in the morning, then hide in my apartment until a reasonable hour, like 19:00 hours…we dine late, 22:00 or even later…

I left Paros last night (this morning?) at 01:30 on the Blue Star Naxos. The large ferry was mobbed with Athenians returning home after the religious holiday (The Ascension of the Virgin Mary) and we docked just a couple of hours ago. While on the dock, weaving through the crowds, I heard an American voice say, “How can this be so stressful? I thought Greece was laid back…” Ah, yes, the great illusion…

I was tired so I took a cab to the Attalos Hotel, my oasis. While my room is not ready yet, I am out of the chaos and look forward to snoozing most of the day away on cool sheets.

I am en route to Amsterdam, NL for the week. My little scheme is to visit some top-notch museums (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, Rembrandt House, Modern Art), eat some Indonesian food and visit some good friends outside of the city during the weekend. Pretty simple. Then back to Greece and Paros for the very end of August and most of September…

–JDCM

Milos, day 6…

By John on June 12, 2014 in 35 mm photography, beauty, biking, craft, Cyclades stone walls, Cycladic stone walls, Greece, hiking in the Cyclades, mountain biking in Greece, Paros, quiet islands, rangefinder camera, skill and craft, spiritual journey, stone walls, working

–I had forgotten how posh Milos can be. It is easy to avoid if one so chooses.

–From the top of Prophitas Ilias (748 m) the view is spectacular. Even on a hazy day like today, the archipelago was in full view. Kimolos, Polyagios, Santorini, Sifnos, Serifos, Folegandros, Paros. This was all around me. Far to the south I could make out a faint, long shape: Crete.

–The FIAT Panda is, perhaps, the finest car in its class ever made. A real gaidaros…a real donkey. I have mentioned this in other posts already. A big ‘thank you’ to Niko’s Rental in Adamas for allowing me to change my rental agreement not once, but twice.

–I have purchased my ferry ticket back to Paros on the ‘Aqua Jewel’, leaving Sunday evening at 18:00 hrs. This leaves me with almost three full days left for my biking, hiking, swimming and photography. Not always in that order.

–Yesterday I had just finished up an arduous 10km hike, ending up at a lovely beach on the west coast. As I lay on the sand I suddenly realized I did not know what day of the week it was. I had to laugh.

–The last time I was here ( June 2012) I only spent 3 days. Being here so long has allowed me to really get into Milos. I have discovered that despite the heavy mining and cosmopolitan aspects, it is as rugged and wild as they come. Wild goats still scamper up and down the rocky crags.

–Tomorrow is a photography day. My goal is to finish one roll of AGFA in my Voigtlander and start another. Easy-peasy. Rocks and wood.

–JDCM

Happy May…and some thoughts on photography…

By John on May 2, 2014 in 4×5 photography, beauty, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

–May is here. The sun is shining, the tourists are few. The winds are from the south, north, east and west. It is lovely here on Paros.

–My darkroom work is progressing nicely. I have been printing my Weather/Texture 35mm images on a regular basis and am finding great joy in the consistency of this portfolio. I have also been keeping up with my 4×5 portrait work and recently photographed a young artist who is visiting our fair isle. I made 12 exposures, of varying depths-of-field. I’ll develop them this weekend. Paros Portraits, Part II moves at its own pace…

–Recently a close friend gave me a lovely gift: Richard Avedon’s Woman in the Mirror . The images reminded me to look a little deeper into this photographer’s life. I have always been impressed by his work. I admire those who labor at what they love and have paid their dues, either through hard work, hard times, or both. Avedon was a skilled craftsman who supported himself and his family through commercial photography. While I never met the man, I get the feeling that while he became famous in his own time, he maintained his humility.

Avedon said that “I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.”

…also “sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me.”

He also believed that “a photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks.”

–Dig it.

–JDCM

Photography and other works…

By John on February 25, 2014 in 120 film, 35 mm photography, 4×5 photography, beauty, biking, black and white portraiture, craft, darkroom work, Greece, mountain biking in Greece, Paroikia, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, skill and craft, spiritual journey, spring in the Aegean

–I haven’t spoken much about my photography lately, not since my Paros Portrait exhibition in August 2013. Although I have shot and developed plenty of film, I haven’t been printing. This has changed in the past couple of weeks.

–I am continuing my 4×5 portrait work and will do so at least for another year. This as a larger arc beneath which I conceive and work on several other projects.

— I am thinking of a 35mm collection of textural pieces. By “textural” I mean close up images of worn wood, rusted and tarnished metals, peeling paint. These images tell of time and of the elements. My eye falls into the deepest crack in the wood, the darkest keyhole, into the tiniest shadow beneath a curling leaf of old paint. I want to go there. I want to set up shop. This new portfolio will be small, only 12 pieces. I will begin during the first week of March and finish on the last week of May. That is 12 weeks, or close enough.

–The soft focus work of Julia Margaret Cameron has also inspired me, especially after seeing a small exhibit last December in America. I will work on something along those lines. Still lives and medium format feels like the right way to go. I will need to go shopping for the right kinds of vases and props. This will give me a chance to pick up some new crockery for my own kitchen as well–plates and bowls and such.

–More biking, of course. The weather just cries “get outside…move your muscles…” The other day I rode to Marathi, then headed north overland, then northeast, bushwhacking until I was able to make it to a small farm road that led me to a large monastery just outside of Paroikia. From there I headed back north, across the road. Somewhere in there I punctured my rear tire, so I stopped and changed the tube. Then I headed back home. Clear paths? Hmmm…That’s subjective. Click the thumbnails to enlarge…

–JDCM

If there is a path there, I worked for it. Unrideable, of course. I pushed the bike.

10 minutes of quick repairs and I was back on the road.

49 years…

By John on February 17, 2014 in beauty, biking, craft, Greece, Paroikia, Paros, spiritual journey, spring in the Aegean

–Today is my birthday. I have been on the planet, breathing the air, since February 17, 1965. I am an Aquarian, and in the the Year of the Wood Snake to boot. It’s a heavy combination, if you follow these things. Those of you who know me well enough will see that the associated characteristics fit me to a “T.”

–My future family were traveling in Europe when I was born. They settled in Dublin, Ireland for a year waiting for me to arrive. When I was old enough to travel they hit the road again and stayed in Italy for a couple of months before heading back to America. My sisters were 10 and 8. Somewhere there are home movies my father made showing us all at the time.

–I have had my share of successes and failures. Some of them have been of my own doing and some have been granted or inflicted upon me. Such is life. No one is immune to that dynamic. I suppose it is how we roll with the punches, how we dust ourselves off, that matters.

–Yesterday I surprised myself. After a tough 2-hour, somewhat technical, mountain bike ride, I bumped into a small phalanx of other riders on my way back home. One invited me along for a leisurely ride into the hills. I went. I usually would not do this, i.e., join in so quickly. It was fun. I met some people I hadn’t met before, had a couple small chats. Nothing too committed, nothing too serious. Then I came home.

–I also had a superb and very difficult ride three days ago. I rode from Paroikia to Lefkes (45 min.) and then from Lefkes to the radio aerials that sit atop the highest peak (1.25 hrs). From there I rode down the south-western slope, along an extremely rocky track, that eventually turned into a decent farm road. All unpaved, of course. The route eventually led me to Kakapetra, an area just south of Paroikia and a stones throw from a friend’s house (45 min.) I stopped by for coffee and a chat. The image below is from that jaunt. You can see the aerials far away in the distance.

–I have reapplied for my American passport via the mail and the embassy in Athens; I have washed a load of laundry; I have shopped for cat food. Tonight, I get to eat dinner with a good friend at one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. I begin my 50th year as a photographer and an amateur mountain biker. Looking back, when I turned 30 I was a chef de cuisine (10 years) and a guitar player (15 years). Like the snake, I shed my skin.

Biking from the aerials on Paros.

Back on Paros…

By John on January 27, 2014 in beauty, biking, Greece, Paroikia, Paros, quiet islands, spiritual journey, spring in the Aegean, Uncategorized, working

–It is quiet here. The rain falls through the night and the clouds cover the sky during the day. There are moments of sunshine–brilliant, silver and brief. I hope to get out and shoot some film in a couple of days when the clouds roll away.

–I have been out biking, for which I am grateful. The sense of freedom on a mountain bike that one does not have in either a car or walking. Fast, but not too fast, panniers full of cameras.

–The people, food and music of Greece keep me here. The light is nice too.

–I will be going through my files and uploading all my past “header images” from this blog to my Flickr site. It might be interesting to see how they all look together.

–I have decided that I would like to be known as someone who worked hard rather than someone with any great talent. Dedication and hard work has always brought me farther than subjective opinion. I can measure the first. The second is fickle and none of my business.

–In February I begin a new 7-year cycle of life. I can already feel the shift. It feels tectonic.

JDCM

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