Weightlessness

This piece I made for the Shared Spaces show at Nazareth College. It speaks about the feeling of lightness that I experience when I make images. The fleeting moments that disappear into a space I often don't visit.

TEDx Flour City; Branching Out

TEDx Flour City 2015
Quite literally a life-changing event for at least one person-- me.
Facing the most pressure-laden part of my year, and grappling with what I can only describe as burnout or disenchantment with my teaching life, I attended my first TEDx Event.  Starting with a conversation with experienced coffee roasters and makers, I drank my first enjoyable cup of black coffee.

Thought the rest of the day was equally enlightening, the most significant moment occurred when I realized that somehow, in all of this networking and idea sharing, I was myself.

OK. So that sounds like what Andrea Holland described as "the feels." Honestly, I felt like I was not alone in my ardent desire to make a mark on the world that would be important and help other people. From learning about measuring the distance of dark matter in the universe to storycorps-- an archive of private interviews between millions of people, I felt like if I dropped a pebble into the pond, someone might see the ripple and drop another one.

Perhaps I will contribute my own verse in the future. For now, I will relish in my day of brain massage and positive energy of other humans like me who want to do something to make the world a better place in ways big and small.

Some creatures are connected despite differences in DNA

 I

 This is my father, and his faithful companion-- Rosie. They are both different now. My father, having suffered a stroke this summer, is now residing in a nursing home and drifts between lucid moments and what I hope is ignorant bliss. Rosie has been relocated to a new home with a recently widowed woman; she continues to work her magic on another lonely soul. For the last two years they lived together. Man and dog sharing donuts, television, and companionship. Like a couple whose spark has grown deeper. Visceral; with no need for words. I am thankful that my father had Rosie in his life, if only for a wisp of time. She brought him comfort and warmth after the chill and isolation of my mother's absence.

I always find it curious that shadows have color. In the velvet shadows of the Little Theatre neon this bicycle whispered to me and posed for some photos.

Bucolic Maine. My favorite beach in the world is in Maine. Smooth rocks of every shape, color and size. The sound of the surf rolling them over each other. Simple. Sensual. Hypnotic. Bucolic.

The Brooklyn Museum. A hidden treasure to be sure. Home of the Holy Grail of Feminist Art: The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago. Who should see it? EVERYBODY.

Madison in the bath. I could completely stop shooting now and still have more images than I could ever process-- unless I quit my job. I vacillate between thinking I am simply amusing myself, and believing I have something important to contribute to the world of images. I think it is unfair that women (some/many/me) feel that photos of our children are any less engaging or important than the other subjects that "important" artists make images of. Sally Mann's images were important to her. How did she know they would be important (and controversial) to others?