On being an artist and a mother...

http://littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/on-being-an-artist-and-a-mother-a-conversation/

One of my most favorite: Francesca Woodman

This blog entry is dedicated to you Lena!

Francesca Woodman is one of my favorite photographers of all time. A completely tortured soul, but a beautiful one nonetheless.  This is just a quick link to the most recent release of her work, but there is tons more out there.  This is just a taste test. Enjoy.

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2012/02/24/this-week-in-photography-books-francesca-woodman/

Free Money--Scholarships Available!!!

This is from Kasey McKee in our SCC Foundation office...

Good day, lovely campus community!

The SCC Foundation is now accepting scholarship applications for the 2012-13 academic year. The deadline is April 2 so if you know someone (personally or professionally) who might benefit from the funding that has been made available, please pass along/post this information.

Application packets can be downloaded from this webpage, picked up outside the Foundation office, Administration Building, Room 1119 or in the Enrollment Services office, Administration Building, Room 1113. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at 636.922.8472 or Tara at 636.922.8437.

Thank you, in advance, for helping to spread the word! And, to those who have private, named scholarships established for our students, thank you for your continued support!

Kasey McKee

Associate Vice President, Foundation & Alumni Relations

St. Charles Community College (SCC) Foundation

4601 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, Cottleville, MO 63376

636.922.8472 (office) / 314.650.7741 (cell)

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Follow the Foundation on Facebook!

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

Adobe announces Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad2

Adobe announces Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad2

Dedication for my yoga practice tonight: my students!

What a good set of conversations we had unfold today!?! How exciting it is for me to watch you all grow.
This is dedicated to students, with whom I am honored to have intersected... Past, present, and future...


Of Love
“I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but not less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some—now carry my revelation with you—
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world—its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself—I imagine
this is how it began.”
~Mary Oliver

Borrowed with admiration from a weekly reading from Drishti Yoga...

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This is one of the shows i'd like for us to see at the Sheldon! Sheldon exhibit shows dignity of people in northern Haiti

Sheldon exhibit shows dignity of people in northern Haiti

JOSH EVANS!! "Varsity Art" at Art Saint Louis

Please join us at the opening reception of Art Saint Louis' Varsity Art exhibition!!!  Our very own Josh Evans will be showing some of his work and there will be work from all of the best students at the local area institutions.  The reception is 3/9   6-8pm!!!  See below for details!

http://www.artstlouis.org/

Guest Speaker: Susan Moore 3/1 VAB107 10AM!!!

Please join us for Susan's discussion of her landscape work on Thursday morning.  Susan is in town for her reception at the Weitman Gallery on Washington University's campus on Friday 3/2 from 4-6pm.  We are getting to steal her away for a few hours to get an up close and personal look at her work.  Susan teaches at Indiana University-South Bend and is an alum of Washington University's Graduate Photography Program...  and one of my dearest photographer friends!  This is a special occasion!!

Weitman Gallery information

Susan's website

http://mypage.iu.edu/~sulmoore/index.html

Even better fireflies! (I Am Not A Gun: Will-o'-the-wisps)

Gorgeous.

I Am Not A Gun: Will-o'-the-wisps

Levitation...

(Here is a quick email from my photo father Stan.  This is such a strange little site.  Funny too.)






Perfect for that shutter speed assignment......

http://yowayowacamera.com/banana/


xo


Stan Strembicki
St. Louis, Missouri

The Slow-Photography Movement

Some of you may have seen this as it had circulated amongst our faculty not so long ago.  I think it is highly relevant more than ever regarding the speed at which we are witnessing the culture go by.
Enjoy.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/obsessions/2011/01/the_slowphotography_movement.html

A movie about Gregory Crewdson - coming soon!

Coming soon!

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters Trailer from Benjamin Shapiro on Vimeo.

http://www.gregorycrewdsonmovie.com/

Art 21: A tribute to Mike Kelley!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Art21-News--A-Tribute-to-Mike-Kelley--New-Videos-Featuring-Yinka-Shonibare-MBE-and-LaToya-Ruby-Frazier--and-More.html?soid=1102056357892&aid=gvCoykA5T7w

And yes, she’s talking to you...

This one is dedicated to my dearest students, the ones that I look up to from here, who are trying to get you to pay attention to how you treat one another. Love you guys & gals! Here is a story that should sound familiar!

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/turning-art-into-activism/

Feeling Social Enough Yet? (Conscientious)

LOve this!! I can hardly stand it there are so many places to post stuff that I don't get to make because I am too preoccupied with posting stuff.

Conscientious | Feeling Social Enough Yet?

The Problem with Western Press Photo

Here is a link to a very interesting discussion on the idea of photographs that lie...

Conscientious | The Problem with Western Press Photo

new book by Alec Soth & the distance between us...

Check out Alec Soth's new book Broken Manual...

http://alecsoth.com/photography/projects/broken-manual/

Photoshop – How Do I Figure Out What Size To Scan?

For those of you who need a little refresher, and for those of you who are curious about scanning for you blogs...

Photoshop – How Do I Figure Out What Size To Scan?

2 Great Photo Events

This weekend we took two little family outings, one was to the members preview of "An Orchestrated Vision" @ the Saint Louis Art Museum. It was a fantastic show. The artists and images included left me longing to see more. So I guess that means that we will be headed back there again soon.

 http://www.slam.org/

Finley even approved. She was so into it she crossed her feet to get cozy for the ride. Just kidding, what one year old in their right mind gives a poop about this stuff? She squealed and cried until her awesome Dad took her for a walk to watch little kids in the main hall. Super troopers!

The other exhibition we saw was the opening at the Sheldon on Friday evening, which was not 1 but rather 6 small galleries showcasing photographs from Haiti by Patti Gabriel, as well as photographs by Steve Giovinco & Tim Simmons Edge of Darkness, plus some other totally unrelated to photography exhibits... architecture, children's art, musical instruments, watercolor and sculpture. All of these displays were rich sets of visual imagery.

http://www.sheldonconcerthall.org/galleries_current.asp

Fin and I in the window at the Sheldon.

I am a firm believer in taking her just about everywhere. So far so good. A week after she was born we had such bad cabin fever that we took her to an opening swaddled to me in a wrap under my coat. It was easy then, now she wants to run, climb, and touch EVERYTHING! You know what they say, you get back what you were tenfold. Yikes! I am totally in for it.   

Maybe some of you already know this, but I have been working on a photographic project with 3 other photographers for the Sheldon Music Hall's 100th Anniversary. This is arguably one of the country's most acoustically perfect music venues and at one point in it's history, not so long ago, it's future did not look so good.  As things unfold with our project I will keep everyone posted as to the schedule of events. A book and an exhibition/celebration is forthcoming.

I love swimming dogs!

My girl Kai is like a champion swimming, diving, extravaganza! I can't keep her out of even the smallest puddles, so naturally when our friend Megan showed these images to me I had to pass them on! Hilarious and beautiful. Something to brighten the day!

http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2012/02/11/underwater-dogs-by-seth-casteel-picture-gallery/

Want to know your rights as a photographer?

Thought you might like to hear about your rights.

Lovingly dedicated to all of my photo students, past & present!

Pictures of D...

Literally there are hundreds of images of this little gal in my catalogs. These are not anywhere near the best, just convenient and just a few. She probably survived more adventures than the images that I was lucky enough to catch of her in my distracted state of early adulthood. I imagine that she had used up at least 9 of her allotted lives, and that has actually been confirmed repeatedly by many respectable sources.  

Delhi-dog was originally the by-product of my Aunt Barbie's super-old, mangey mutt, Boots, who got a little too friendly with Ruby, the too young to be fixed, but not too young to have pups, Beagle. And as my mother might say, "they ate spaghetti together, like the Lady and the Tramp, and then they had pups."  A rather poisonous beau from my previous lifetime adopted one of these so-called spaghetti pups, and after much deliberation, play, and napping with the sweet little dumbo-eared pup we named her Delilah. Delhi for short. She had more names than any dog I have ever known. Most of which were completely ridiculous, or made no sense what-so-ever... Delhi-dog, Del, D, D-dog, Deli-sandwich, Hero, Dilweed, Doobie, Dilbert, Scooter, Tooter, Tooters, Tootie, Toots, Tuesday, Princess Tuesday, Delilah Hooker the Southern Belle,  D-Wee, Doodle, Noodle, Nonna, Nonie, The Queen, Butterfly, Goldilocks, Scoob, Grasshopper, Choochie, Choochie-Chachie, Chachkee, Tutchka, Tootsie, The Matriarch, just to name a few...  ehhmm...  I am sure that this is not that unusual for anyone who has completely fallen head over heels in love with a tiny, sassy, beagley, spunky, seal-colored, little ball of sleek inky fur. Honestly, even if it isn't, I don't know if I care. It was the way it was. My little wash and wear pup had claimed me within moments of our first sniff of one another, and as for Winston-the beau, well, let's just say that she got over him more quickly than anyone might have guessed. 

Delilah was college educated. She would walk to the studio with me at night and we would sneak into the locked suite on rooms by prying one of the casement windows open and then climbing/crawling/crashing into the empty dark space that made up MU's photo area. We would print in the crusty, creepy, sulfury, darkroom until the wee hours of the morning as often as possible. Del on her little make-shift roll-up bed under the enlarger cubicle with her soup bone, and I, with some leftover beer or wine from the previous weekend. Sometimes friends would join us, but mostly it was just us. She was sooo small early on that I could take her just about anywhere. She would go with me to the photography studio nearly everyday. Old Professor Olie Schuchard just loved her to pieces and even when she pottied in front of the studio film processing sink, (and he slid in it!) he still let her hang out with us. Commonly she would ride around in the front of my overalls, in my zipped up fleece,  in my backpacks, to parties, to the store, hiking, biking, camping, and traveling, lots and lots of traveling after music and all that that entails...  We were completely inseparable and she was my raison d'etre. She gave me purpose enough to not self-destruct as so many young folks tend to do. Every morning no matter how badly I wanted to hibernate, we would get up and go out into the world to do her business and to just be. 

She was the grand diplomat of dogs when it came to her canine relations.  It was not uncommon for us to throw great dinner parties in college where there were more dogs that humans in our house. Del raised many surrogates, mediated many fights, instigated all forms of household terror and destruction, and melted even the most aggressive of canine/human demeanors. Cats even loved her. In fact, her first real away from home roommates where two feline friends, Mina and Maya. Miny (pronounced Mee-nee) liked to sleep curled up in a Kleenex box together. And they often bonded over mouse hunting in our Columbia apartment. 

As she evolved into a much more mature pupper she went on to graduate school with me. In my U-city studio she had her very own handmade palette futon where she perched, everyday that I could bring her, surveilling the happenings of the Wash U photo grads and their mishaps. She was my ride along companion. She undoubtedly earned her honorary MFA and charmed many people into changing their minds about dogs along the way. When she didn't go with me she would bust into my roommate's room and demand to nest in her covers. Many times we would say that we had to "make Delhi into the bed" or we would come home to find our beds completely dug up and Del lounging somewhere way deep down in the pillows.

I went away for a summer to live in Florence, Italia where I was a TA for my professor Stan Strembicki in the WU study abroad program. Poor Del lived with my parents while I was gone and it was absolutely gut wrenching for me to leave her. My parents had always lived with dogs and of course adored their dogs. In fact, at the time that my parents were married my grandfather had some 26 dogs living on his property at one time. Most of these were puppies, and no he was not a breeder... and no he was not a hoarder or anything other than proof of the whole spaghetti slurping phenomenon that Lady and the Tramp proved to be true...       ...Yikes!... I can't even imagine what you must think. Oh well!  Anyhow, my parents up until D's entrance onto the scene, had never really let our dogs sleep in the main part of the house, much less in our rooms, unless it was either killing cold, storming, or the 4th of July. Miss Del changed all of that single-handedly in one night. My naive parents left her to roam the house that first night that I was officially gone--their biggest mistake.  Old Del was crafty, and she was a professional snuggler to boot. Worst of all, she was a notorious tongue kisser! Sneaky about it too! Very carefully and undetectably she wriggled her way up between the sheets at the foot of my folks bed, army crawled up into their pillow space and proceeded to sleep there until morning on her back with her paws peeping out just over the folded back bed covers.  My father had turned over in his sleep to face her at some ungodly hour, of course thinking that it was my mom. He found very rudely and silently that the tongue that was stealthily licking the inside of his mouth was most certainly not that of his bride. Nor was the breath! Yep, completely digusting! When I came home at the end of the summer it was clear that things had changed--from then on dogs were allowed in the house, and not only that but Del, especially, was allowed on the furniture, in the beds, in the pillows, and even allowed to jump up on laps, (when invited of course!) Somehow I don't think it was her kissing talents that won them over in the end though. 

Sweet Del! This is only a tiny snippet of your story, but I really needed to remember you today old friend. They just don't make them as true blue as they use to. I often tell Finley stories about you and without a doubt I will continue. You will forever be my little seal-colored, ghost-face with a rhino bump on your nose, even when we draw you or paint your image in words. Thank you for giving me the incredible honor of having had a raison d'etre--you.

Our very own, Jon Slade!

One of our very own friends and fellow photographers, Jon Slade, has been included for the second time in a show called Small Works at Soho Gallery in NYC. I am so thrilled to share this! I am particularly interested in this ongoing body of work that he is building. Please check out his original post! Image right: Motherhood. http://bonesnsparrows.blogspot.com/2012/02/soho-photo-national-small-works.html

Julia Hetta

There is something so painterly in style & composition to these. I can't quite place it but maybe it is the northern europeaness of the sitter's features and the light. I am really intrigued but some of these portraits. I am often really intrigued by this particular blog as well.


Conscientious | Julia Hetta

Kohei Sugiura: The Japanese Photobook as Object

Hey Digital Photo II students! Check this out!

Conscientious | Kohei Sugiura: The Japanese Photobook as Object

James Nachtwey - if you have not seen this, then please watch!

Every time I teach B+W Photo I, one of my favorite classes to teach, I assign a project investigating "the decisive moment". One of the things we look at is a film called "War Photographer". My students leave my classroom completely changed on some sort of fundamental level forevermore, as do I everytime! I re-visit it. James Nachtwey is the photographer being examined in the film. Below is a talk of his, it is slow to start but once you get to the image portion of the video you will get a sense of the utter power of his images. If you don't know this photographer I invite & expect you to watch. He is one of the most important image-makers of our time. He is a vote for kindness and humanity. His images will remind you that most of us have no idea what suffering truly is about. I urge you to pass the knowledge of this man and his work on to anyone and everyone you know.