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European relief, directional aids and new courses…

By on September 1, 2011 in Paros

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene I was unsure as to the status of my flight to Italy.  Thankfully Air France did not cancel the flight, the weather cleared overnight and I flew out of JFK without mishap  or delay.  My hat is off to the staff at that illustrious airport and the fine job they did Monday August 29, 2011.

I arrived in Florence around 9:00 hours and had to wait a few hours until my room was ready.  The Hotel Orto di Medici was kind enough to let me sleep on a couch in the day room until 14:00 when I could check in.  A simple but clean room was presented to me and a crawled into the sack for some more shuteye.  That evening I walked around and found a decent trattoria: carpaccio with spicy arugula, baked beans with garlic and tomatoes and fried rabbit reminded me that I was no longer in America and safe and happy here in Europe, a place I seem to be calling home more often than not.  The next morning I awoke very early and took a dimly-lit walk through the empty streets, down to the River Arno and onto the Ponte Vecchio, devoid of tourists and closed for the night.  It was lovely.  The street cleaners went about their business as I strolled about, buying off the jet-lag and getting my bearings.  My internal compass is more-or-less realigned.  I returned to the hotel, snoozed for a couple of hours and woke up to one of the better continental breakfasts I have had.  The salami and mortadella were excellent, the cappuccino was tasty and they even had rice cakes as a choice over than toast.  I ate well, knowing that my day trip to Fiesole would burn off the calories.  I took the bus to Fiesole and walked around the Roman and Etruscan ruins virtually alone–after another cappuccino.  I came back to Florence by lunchtime and made my way from the Piazza San Marco to the San Croce area and visited the Museo Galileo, which is also called the Science Museum.  Wonderful, really fantastic.  Measuring devices of all types, styles, eras and functions were on display, most collected by the di Medici family over the centuries.  I was hit by an understanding of the nature of man, or of at least intelligent man.  We are born to measure, to divine distances and directions, pressures and quantities physical and ephemeral.  My common metaphor of the sailor’s compass is held up by the cases of quadrants, octants, sundials, Jacobs staffs, clocks and globes of any and seemingly all varieties.  I am inspired.

Today is Thursday, September 1.  I am meeting some spiritual friends for coffee and conversation at 13:30.  Before that I hope to beat some of the crowds to the Palazzo Pitti and then head to the Museo Zoologico la Specola.  In the afternoon My day is free to wander.  I would like to avoid the crowds for an hour or so and then come back to the hotel for a short siesta.  Then I’ll pack my bags.  Tomorrow I head to Pistoia, the Villa Rospigliosi and the Aegean Center.  First, however, I am meeting up with a fellow student at the train station, which leaves me with Friday morning free before I check out and dump my bags (carefully re-packed) at the left-luggage office, Firenze Santa Maria Novello.  I can only imagine what awaits me…

JDCM

Coming down to the wire…

By on August 20, 2011 in Paros

It’s a misty and cloudy day this morning with nine short days before I head back to the Aegean Center, Europe and the future of my life.  Today I was supposed to go on a hike with some of the ‘Page’ editors, but we have postponed and will meet for lunch instead.  They wish to monopolize as much of my time as possible, but I must maintain balance in all things today.  There are the usual tasks that comes with every Saturday morning and there are those I wish to accomplish before I attend an arts opening this evening.  There is darkroom work today, that’s for sure.  I have 5 rolls of Ilford PanF 50 120 that I need to develop and hang this afternoon and tonight I need to print at least one, if not two, pieces for some people who allowed me to photograph on their property. If I get a chance, I’ll scan and add to the website before I scoot out next Monday.  I’ll need to tone those before I deliver them, that’s for sure.

I have run a ‘test pack’ and am fairly secure on what I am bringing and what I am leaving behind.  Since I will be in Italy for the first month I need to bring some nicer clothes with me.  Long pants, shoes, shirts, etc…One cannot dress down in Florence and Rome like one does on Paros.  The Italians frown on shirts and t-shirts in their churches and restaurants, and with good reason: it’s smacks of laziness, poverty and disrespect.

The American culture, or the ‘Culture of Death’ as I like to call it, raises this attitude to the level of acceptance.  What we consider mainstream here in the USA, i.e. fashion, music, food and general knowledge derives itself from abject poverty and ignorance.  The other day I was driving behind a large Ford pick-up with the proud emblem ‘Redneck’ on the back; the television is rife with political religious crazies espousing a dangerously medievalist and venomous doctrine geared towards the poor, the paranoid and the poorly educated; the radio airwaves are saturated with violence, misogyny and anger; I look around at the sullen faces of today’s youth and wonder who these people are that could be our future?  This can be a daunting vision, all of this.  I find light and growth in isolated pockets of humanism and spirit.  Arts communities are more important than ever these days, and of course they are the first programs to lose any outside funding front the powers that be.  That money must go elsewhere.  I am convince we are either on the brink, or already within, a New Dark Ages.  The Enlightenment is over, as is the Renaissance that preceded it.  But this is a natural cycle.  It is just our luck to be at the low end of the bell curve.

In any case I am out of here soon enough.  I’ll leave the bucolic Hudson Valley behind for a few months  while I engage in a lengthy peripatetic lecture through Italy and Greece.  I’ll try to update this as I go along, I hope more than I usually do.  Next post: Florence, Italy.

Caio,

JDCM

The ghost town…

By on June 10, 2011 in Paros, Uncategorized

It is quiet here.  Although there are small knots of tourists, mostly retirees, the nature of Paroikia has changed with the departure of many of my fellow Aegean Center students.  There’s no more back and forth from classes or the digital lab, the darkroom or painting studios.  The cafes are no longer host to small throngs of eager-eyed art students from abroad, at least from my perspective.  I am still working in the dark room, though, at night when the air is, conceivably, cooler.  This is really not true since the ambient temperature in the room itself is upwards of 70*F.  I have had to begin cooling down the developer with ice packs made from 500ml bottles and even then it takes a while for the soup to drop to 21C.  I am currently printing snapshots from my time here: landscapes, hikes and street scenes.  Mostly for memory’s sake than anything else.  Tonight I’ll enlarge a small landscape from a hike: olive groves, stone walls, rocky hills behind and puffy white clouds in an azure sky.  It should be a pretty little piece and if I get it down I’ll make three copies for gifts.

I am having my horoscope read today by a fellow student from Belgium and it will be interesting to see if the reading matches up with my current life changes and bio-rhythmic waves. I am packing boxes for storage and shipping having already shipped my portfolios and a box containing my 4×5 back to the US already.  The shipper said 3 to 5 days, which means a week at least.  I hope they reach Ancramdale in good shape.  The weather has been odd.  The scirocco that has been coming through the Cyclades as of late has brought with it dust, hot Saharan winds and a general laziness that speaks of even hotter climes than Paros.  Yesterday was hot and cloudy most of the morning and I lay on the beach enjoying the heat without the direct sunlight.  Back at my flat and after my siesta I awoke at 4:30 to find that the clouds had rolled away and the sun returned in all of its blistering glory.  ‘Hot’ is a relative term, but it was that alright.  By sundown it had cooled a bit but I slept with the air-con blowing so at least I was able to get a full night’s rest without sweating.

I have been given permission to update my photo site with some of the figure studies I have created.  I call this series ‘Opus’, which in Latin means ‘work’.  They will be in series and I will have to have the prints scanned when I get home.  It will take some time, but time I have.  Strange…Many years ago I was in a rock band called ‘Furnace’.  I wanted to create a larger, longer piece called ‘God-Family-Work’.  This idea was pooh-poohed by the other band members and I was eventually drummed out of the group for being too irresponsible and lazy.  Now I am creating a piece I call ‘Opus’.  Perhaps this is a philosophical thread that has always run through my life.  Today I search  family, or more precisely a community of fellows; I continue my seeking for guidance from a Power greater than myself and I labor for the results I wish to attain.  Am I living the design I hope to create?

More to come..

JDCM

Halfway through and coming down to the crunch…

By on April 22, 2011 in Paros

This weekend is the Easter celebration. both for the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches.  This means that Paros is jammed with holiday travelers as well as those returning to the island for a traditional family get-together.  I could do without all the traffic, throngs of tourists and everything that comes along with it, but let’s face it–religion is Big Business and Bug Business needs money.  I have always been uncomfortable with any group or ideology that tells me what to do.  Big Religion is just as bad as Big Government.  More shady deals based on power, money and the acquisition of More.  But I digress…The events will be colorful and ancient, full of meaning for many.

My photography is progressing.  I have several lovely images from the figure sessions (both film and digital) and will be cranking out more in the next two weeks.  In the past few weeks the digital lab has increased its output and a couple of people who had been spinning their wheels seem to have had a fire lighted under them.  This is good.  To be honest I was growing disillusioned with the student body (my problem, not theirs), but hey, they are young and full of beans.  Everyone is working at their own pace and they will all receive a wonderful gift of having been here.   I can focus on my own work from here on and finish my portfolios.  The group show is on June 3rd or 4th, which isn’t a lot of time…

More to come…JDCM

The Aegean Center, my work and the future…

By on March 27, 2011 in Paros, Uncategorized

It has been 25 days since I last blogged.  So much has happened, so many paths have been established through the possible wilderness of my life and the future I have before me, but first a basic update:  Paros is wonderful and the Aegean Center isboth challenging and warm.  The weather the first few weeks was very much like the end of winter anywhere-changeable.  It rained, became downright cold, even snowed but there were brilliant sunny days interspersed with the gloom and clouds as they rolled over the hills into Paroikia.  There has been a shift in the past few days and the sun has been shining with highs in the mid-60s F.  I jumped into the cool blue water the other day and paddled about for a bit then beachcombed for a spell.  This was time off and I have been working very hard in both the darkroom and the digital lab.  The big surprie has been in Basic and Figure Drawing.  I have been enjoying both immensely and learning more about ‘seing’ than I knew I could.  It has already paid off in my photographic work.

Other big news:  I have been offered a chance to return in the fall for the fall term here, which begins in Tuscany for September and then returns to Paros in October for another 2 1/2 months.  This is something I wanted to do last year but could not let go of my responsibilities at home, emotionally speaking.  Now I can and I am grabbing hold of this chance with both hands.  This term will be more historical in nature and will obviously focus a great deal on the Italian Renaissance. So I will return  to America on June 22nd and turn around and leave again on September 1st or close to it.

More to come…

JDCM

Athens greeted me with cool rain and grey eyes…

By on March 2, 2011 in Paros

If I stand on the balcony of my hotel room and look to the left I see the Acropolis and the Parthenon through a small canyon of more modern buildings.  I am back in Greece and I feel like I have never left.  I know the streets, the alleyways and the mood of the people.  It is still winter and the economy is in shambles, so they are very dark and full of woe–Wednesday’s Children one and all. 

I didn’t sleep on the flight from New York, so I hit the sack when I checked in to the Hotel Attallos, just off of the Monastiraki.  I slept for 6 hours then I went out for a coffee and met up with some Greek and ex-pat friends closer to the city center.  I came back, grabbed a gyro and hit the hay.  I have slept for another 4 hours and am now wide awake at 1:40 in the morning.  No worries.  I am in town for another day so I can use that time to re-aquaint myself with a museum or two.  I need to buy my boat ticket for Friday also.  I am meeting up with some returning students today and we’ll all go to Paros Friday morning. 

I have an idea for a photo shoot based on the pre-Olympian gods, the Titans.  It might make for interesting subjects for carbon printing or at least large format printing.  I invision Edward Steichen’s images of sculptor Auguste Rodin and I see gods and goddesses in his place…

More to come,

JDCM

A re-scheduled life…

By on November 11, 2010 in Uncategorized

With the end of October and the first week of November came a drifting ennui that left me feeling fat and lazy.  Granted I am not overweight at all (182#), but I was on the way to gaining a mental spare tire, so to speak.  Thankfully I was kicked in the ass by a friend, which is what I needed.  As a result I have re-scheduled my days to be more productive and directed.  I have a daily list of ‘to-dos’ which reads the same pretty much every day.  There is time for photography, at least 3-4 hours a day, either film, digital or both (this includes processing); there is time for a few hours of reading; and then I spend some precious qt with my family and meeting friends for coffee.  Social time, if you will.

My five years at SUNY gave my life structure and without it there was nothing to guide my life, just too much free will and randomness.   So I took a month off from thinking…

I am beginning some work (digital and film, abstract and realist) for a nearby hotel which will hang with a couple of other artists for a few months; I am currently printing a small series of snapshots from last spring for fellow students and my own records; my reading list includes some books on artistic aesthetics as well as technical dark room stuff.  In short, for the next three months I am understanding that I am still in school and traveling the academic path to knowledge.  What a relief.

I am always relieved to know that I find greater freedom in structure.

More to come…

JDCM

Re-focusing my energies…

By on November 2, 2010 in Uncategorized

Since my graduation from SUNY last month, I have discovered that I have become unfocused.  The last five years have allowed me to concentrate on a specific goal, i.e. securing my history degree, long overdue.  I have done this to the best of my ability.  I have written recently about setting new goals and have, I hope, been able to communicate how difficult a task that can be.  Sure, I have my photography, but I am slacking in some areas of that. There are rolls of film piling up that demand my attention; there are prints promised that have yet to be made, let alone test-stripped; I need to get back into the swing of things with a vengeance, as if my life depended upon it, which in a strange way it does.  If this is the path I am to tread, then I must get on with it and stop gazing at the scenery on the side of the road!  I need to focus and get the work done.  Maybe I should make a list of projects.  I’ll start here..

1. Develop all the rolls of 120 film from my trip to Provincetown.

2. Sort through the negatives of fellow students from last spring.

3. Choose the negatives I wish to print and get that done!

4. Sort through the “Lighthouse” negatives and print some of them.

5. Begin work on the “Beekeeper” project.

If I really apply myself, these labors could occupy much of my time.  That’s the issue, I think.  I have a lot of time on my hands and am not using it wisely.  I lack the discipline I have had in the past few years in regards to my academic work.  I need to think one word–

PORTFOLIO

–take it seriously and go from there.  This includes 4×5 contact prints, once I am more capable with that camera.  The most recent exposures are better, not so bulletproof.  I will make this happen.  No more hoping, no more dreams of completion.  I will do it and be happy because I will have worked hard to accomplish these tasks.

More to come…

JDCM

Time for Phase III…The Next Five Years…

By on October 6, 2010 in Uncategorized

Much has happened in the past few days.  The 14th Colony Photo Show went up without a hitch and the six b/w medium format pieces I submitted look lovely on the wall.  To top this off, I have sold one which makes me very happy.  I am here to get my work out there, not make a million bucks.  By the way, if anyone ever asks you about the difference between “b/w photograph (non-digital)”, “silver print” or “silver gelatin print” make sure you tell them there is no difference.  The fancier name was dreamed up by museum currators who felt that “black and white photograph” was too plain sounding and the  “silver gelatin print” sounded more important.

There is one more group show this month that I am in and that will be it for me until next summer, unless someone invites me to be in a show, that is.  Plus, I am off to Greece in March for more work at the Aegean Center, so that will pre-empt any shows I might be in.

After five years of hard work and ceaseless toiling through a byzantine bureaucracy, I have graduated from the State University of New York with a BA in Historical Studies.  I am amazed and really don’t know what to do with the feelings: relief, joy, pride, etc…I also have pretty much visited most of the places on my to-do list.  This brings an end to my first Five Year Plan so I need to develop a new one.  What will it be?  I’m taking suggestions…Perhaps life will, as it does, show me the path to take and perhaps I am already on it.  “Keep going” my father said.  I will.

JDCM

Waiting for an assignment and off to Paris…

By on April 11, 2010 in Uncategorized

I am still enjoying being here.  This comes on the heels of a crisis of artistic faith in which I find myself seeing novelty and light in all things film and dull same-old-same-old in the digital realm.  The solution is simple.  Since I cannot see the forest for the trees I will be given an assignment by the director–actually we all will.  I hope it is soon because I am running out of time to complete my portfolio.  This is not entirely true.  I have almost 60 days until the term ends which is plenty of space.  The director, John Pack,  said that I take great pictures of many things but that they are all very comfortable and secure for me to photograph.  His challenge is to push me out of my comfort zone and see what comes of it.  I agree with his ideas but I am waiting for the assignment to arrive.  I am enthusiastic.  I was told by my other photography teacher that if it seems too agreeable to ask for something else.  That’ll work for me.

Our spring break begins next week.  I’ll be heading off to Paris for a few days to visit my father who is there for the spring on sabbatical from school.  He is there with his wife until June and they have a nice place in the 4th Arrondisement.  My goal is to shoot at least one roll of film per day while I am there and a lot of digital to work on when I get back.  Of course if I need more film I’m pretty sure I can get some there.  I’ll check on-line and find out.

Just a side note…How lucky am I to be living this life?  What blessed stars shine down upon me and guide me through the wilderness and into the light!

JDCM