Is especially nice.
I woke up to find that my IPAD2 design was accepted for best designs. The case features a shot from my white daisies series of photographs.
Daisies
Happy Friday!
Through the Snowy Woods
We are finally having a touch of winter in Pennsylvania. There is not much snow to speak of, but the temperature and wind chill are certainly winterlike.
So, after 90 minutes of kick-butt cardio and some heavy lifting at the gym, some house cleaning and a little walk with the dogs, I hunkered down to go through old photographs. I do a sorting, of sorts, every so often, to determine what will stay in my hard drives and what gets moved to the never to be seen again files.
I found some old shots that I really love and have done nothing with, so far. I thought I would share some wintery scenes with you. The black and white photographs were made six years ago in the Shenandoah Heights area of the hard coal region, where I was born and raised.
Woodland Winter Walk
When I found them, I decided my Holga and I were going to be re-acquainted for some photo fun. The Holga is a cheap, plastic camera with an equally cheap plastic lens. Cheap, plastic, hmm… So, how can you make art with something like THAT? Oh, with your eyes, of course. It’s about “seeing.”
Beyond this, though, one who works with a Holga control has little control over the final outcome. The camera leaks light, vignettes, falls open. Whatever! I’ve made some of my most salable and award-winning prints with this a Holga. And, digital geek that I am, I still love using it.
Bedazzle
I invested in a Diana (a Holga by another name, really) lens for my digital camera. It works okay, but a Holga it is not. I’d rather spend the pennies for some black-and-white 120 film and borrow Jay’s electrical tape (to hold my Holga closed and prevent some light leaks) than put the newfangled Diana lens on my digital Canon.
Bedazzle is a photograph also made in my film days. I remember the day I made it. I was in Shenandoah Heights, slipping, siding and laughing my way through a morning of fun with the pups and my cameras.
This final scene was made two years ago this weekend. You remember THAT winter, right? We had two blizzards in two weeks. Besides having great times outdoors with Mother Nature and my cameras, what I remember most about that winter is that I ate a lot of whole wheat pancakes with zero guilt. I figured all the snow-shoeing and shoveling would allow me to splurge on those additional calories. Because, come on, a cold morning, you just don’t eat one pancake. You eat a plateful with a quarter pound of butter and half a gallon of real Pennsylvania maple syrup or Pennsylvania honey – or both.
Stay warm. Me? I think I’m praying for another blizzard.
It's Snowing by Christine Goldbeck
In winter, I need to push myself out of hibernation mode and into the usual-Christine-way-of-being. Short, sometimes sunless, days make me want to get in my PJs and snuggle down with books. Not that there is anything wrong with this, of course, but when it’s cold and gray, I could do that 24/7. So, this winter, I am taking – AGAIN because I learn so much from Elaine Brady Smith – “Mixed Media Collage” at the Art Association of Harrisburg.
Forcing myself to get out usually boosts my creative energyand forcing myself to learn new things often leads me to new ways of thinking and doing my art. So, it is with my “Girls Who Wear Glasses” Series, the first of which is “Rose-Colored Glasses.”
I was driving home after this week’s class when the idea hit me. The second collage I made, which is not quite ready for prime time, features a deer wearing a mask, which was a finishing touch on the piece inspired by a need for a certain color and a little red-wine. (Hey, it was 10:30 or so last Saturday night, so a glass of vino was appropriate).
I think the title for the collection comes from the early 20th Century American Writer Dorothy Parker, who said “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” Parker is among my favorite authors and I wish I would have known her. She is also responsible for witticisms such as “Time doth flit; oh shit” and “You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think.”
I could easily get myself sidetracked on a monologue about Dotty; however, I shall get back to the points I intended. (1) I am glad I force myself out of my comfort zone and (2) New ways of thinking and doing are good for us, all of us, not just so-called creative types, like me.
Keep your mind open to new ways of seeing, eh? It’s healthy. And, please, keep your eyes open for more “Girls Who Wear Glasses.”
Some would consider today to have been a blah, gray, wintry kind of time. Certainly not a day to be out making photographs.
Although there were no shadows to convey depth and texture, there was no sun to make the snow appear as glitter, it was spectacular out there. I used the day to focus on value contrasts and to find the geometry of winter.
Winter Geometry- Trees HDR
Winter Geometry 4
Please visit my Tumblr account to view the gallery.
Frozen Emotion, a photograph by Christine Goldbeck
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” – Martin Luther King
A young man brutally, fatally beaten in Old City, Philadelphia. Just days after carnage in Northeast Philly. Oh, Philly is not the only place where people are killing people. We just see it on the front pages of national newspapers and mainstream media websites because it is Philly.
I think MLK said it correctly in his quote above. What he meant, I believe, is that we have such little value for life, such little care for others who don’t act like we do, think like we do, DO as we do. Mostly, we have lost ability to respect the right of others to be different, within the confines of a civil society, of course. We have lost civility and respect toward others altogether, really.
When I began to write this morning, I was going to tell you about my dream for myself as an artist working in community and about my personal artistic “dreams” (goals).
Instead, I just want to say that I, too, have a dream and it is that every BODY — everybody — re-acquaint with and teach civility, compassion, tolerance and understanding. That every BODY — everybody — use civil communication to agree, to compromise or to agree to disagree while being respectful of the right for the opponent to LIVE.
Given the headlines, given the trash on social media and television where people talk over one another rather than with one another, I’d say it’s a BIG dream. That’s sad.
Stick with me. I promise, this is not boring. We shall revisit some of my most popular posts, including those that made you yell at me! What’s more, later on, I invite some of the best thinkers and doers I know to join me in this project.
Thanks, Dora Ficher, for inviting me to participate in the ‘My 7 Links’ Project.
The Last Blossom
The idea is to re-visit your own posts and find one to fit each of the 7 proposed categories, then ‘choose’ 5 more bloggers to do the same, and so on. It is a way to unite bloggers of all types to collaborate.
The following are the 7 categories: 1. Most beautiful post; 2. Most popular post; 3. Most controversial post; 4. Most helpful post; 5. Most “surprisingly successful” post; 6. Most neglected post and 7 ,the post that makes you most proud.
So, here goes.
Evolution Theory – a visual creation story because the photographs of the paintings are so real and because I loved describing my own creative process in making this series about creation.
Inset of Evolution Theory VI
I had so much fun telling artist to be careful when responding to emails that seemed too good to be true (because they are too good to be true).
You Bet It’s Personal. Don’t Let it be ANY Other Way!” In which I discuss artists as fixer-uppers who rescue blighted buildings and communities that have lost their positivity.
Arts on Union
Don’t be fooled: Creative = Innovative in all sorts of jobs and places wherein we talk about how art is in everything- including SCIENCE.
Fantasy Garden II
What Are Your Favorite Photographs of?” Wow! My Facebook pages went nuts after the blog feed hit them. It was so much fun to interact with readers, friends and followers. I have to do this one again, I think.
Roses at the Farm
Attention! Are YOU Paying Attention? I reckon readers were (a) not paying attention or (b) not paying attention. But, I felt better for writing it and I stick by my story!
Is that ART or JUST a PHOTO. Honestly, I know digital cameras give folks confidence (even arrogance), but owning one REALLY is different from knowing how to use it to make great photos. Ask my students!
For their bright, nurturing, kind personalities, positive outlooks and innovative ideas, I have invited the following bloggers to participate in the “My 7 Links’ Project:
AND, yes, I know, I aim BIG. I’ve read their books, I read their blogs and I have conferenced with these innovators and I love their thinking. You need to follow them and know them. So, I invite:
The Philadelphia Sketch Club notified me this morning via email that two of my photographs have been juried into its upcoming show, “PHOTOgraphy 2011.”
First Light
The juror was Lori Waselchuk, a nationally-known documentary photographer and arts activist. Her photographs have appeared in magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Newsweek, LIFE, and The New York Times. She is a recipient of the Aaron Siskind Foundation’s 2009 Individual Photographer Fellowship, the 2007 PhotoNOLA Review Prize and has earned numerous other awards.
The Philadelphia Sketch Club, formed in 1860, is America’s oldest continuously operating club for professional artists and their admirers. It is locatedat 235 S. Camac Street (between 12th and 13th, Locust and Spruce streets) in Center City, Philadelphia.
There will be a reception and awards ceremony for PHOTOgraphy 2011 on Sunday, Nov. 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.
Jay wired it and it is.on the wall. Great show. Great crowd. Great patrons.
The sun in shining and more than 90 artists and artisans are here until 6 pm today and from 10 am to 5 pm tomorrow.
Sunflowers is the anchor piece in a triptych
New paintings! New photographs! New demos!
Come see us this weekend. Arts on Union (that’s us) is Booth 181.
Farm Kitchen Window I
