the light - quotidian to the core / box o' prints update

covers / page spreads • click to embiggen
I have created a new book which is off to the POD printer for printing / production. The book, titled simply "the LIGHT", is a collection of pictures - created over an extended period of time - the makings of which were instigated by chance encounters with fleeting light falling upon commonplace scenes. That is to write, while I am intrinsically drawn to picturing the commonplace, it was the light which pricked my eye and sensibilities.

My Artist Statement in the book:

George Eastman stated the obvious when he said, “Light makes photography.” inasmuch as the word “photography” derives from the Greek words φως (phos), meaning "light", and γραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light". Without light there is no photography.

That written, in modern photo speak, the phrase “the light” has come to mean natural light which baths the landscape in a dramatic and, most often, color-saturated fashion. Dramatic sunsets/rises and the sturm und drang of inclement weather are two ubiquitous examples and there are those whose picture making mission in life is to “chase the light".

In my picture making pursuit, I use whatever light I encounter - found light - in any given picture making situation. It is rare that that light does not suit my picturing intent. Equally rare are those times when ”the light” itself is the primary inciter of my picturing activity.

However, there are times when the found light streaming into interior landscapes creates fleeting moments of intense, focused, and transformative illumination which pricks my eye and sensibilities. While the rather quotidian illuminated objects and/or fragments of interior are of interest to me, it is the light itself which has instigated my desire to make picture.

And it is at those times that I feel “the light” is chasing me.

Box O' Prints project update: to date 4 participants have stepped up to the plate. A minimum of 4 more would be ideal in order to get the thing moving. Of the hundreds of Landscapist followers / readers, surely there must be 4 more out there who would like to participate.

FYI, this project is not intended to involve only "master printers" and it is not a competition. The intent is simply to create the opportunity to put prints, as the ultimate expression of one's work, into the hands of those who prefer prints over screens and it does not matter if one is using a cell phone, crappy/toy camera, or an 11×14 Deardorf view camera in the making of one's work. Nor does subject matter matter - people, places, things, found or made, color or b/w - it's all good.

So, come on. Put your insecurities, self doubts and reservations about your pictures / picture making aside if that's what's holding you back. No matter what your picturing thing is, this project is nothing if not win-win for all who choose to get involved.

BTW, my thanks go out to Markus Spring for his entry, From Love For Prints To "A Box O' Prints, in which he relates his love for prints and provides a link to this blog, re: the Box O' Prints.

cinemascapist and son emerge victorious

Celebration - Saranac Lake Red Storm ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
l. - Hugo #1 Star / r. - locker room with teammates ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOver the past weekend in Lake Placid, the Cinemascapist coached (with a little help from his General Manager) his Squirt team, Saranac Lake Red Storm, to victory in a Canadian Hockey Enterprises tournament. In the championship game Hugo led his team to victory with a hat trick and he received the #1 Star / Player of the Game award.

civilized ku # 2651 ~ fixin' my dukkha with a box o' prints

Coming soon ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggenRelative to yesterday's entry, diptych # 61, and its noodling around with the ideas of shibui and wabi-abi and also relative to my recent entry, diptych # 60 / civilized ku # 2649, wherein I mentioned my screen fatigue and my love of prints, let introduce the notion of dukkha - a Pāli word for one of the Buddhist Three marks of existence. The other 2 marks are anicca and anatta. Roughly translated, annica = impermanence, dukkha= suffering / unsatisfactoriness, and anatta = non-self.

That written, I can write without reservation that I bear the mark of dukkha / unsatisfactoriness, re: my desire to view prints, around my neck like the proverbial millstone. And, like the Rolling Stones, as much as I try and I try and I try and I try, I can't no satisfaction from viewing pictures online / on screen.

So, in the cause of getting some satisfaction, the time has come for me to do something about it.

How so, you might ask / wonder? Well, as the Beatles sang, I'll get by with a little help from my friends - those friends are you, my loyal readers / followers. And, have no doubt about it, the rewards with be as great for you as they are for me. To wit ....

.... the point of the endeavor is to bring together a group - 8-10 (?) - of fellow print lovers who would like to take part in what amounts to print-based chain letter. That is, a constantly circulating box of prints.

Initially, the box - actually, a portfolio box in a shipping case - would contain 1 print from each participant. The box would remain with each participant for a period of time - 1 week (?) - giving each participant time to savor the contents of the box. Before forwarding the box to the next participant in the chain, the box holder would place another of his/her prints in the box.

At the end of 1 complete circuit of the box, there would be 20 prints in the box - 2 from each participant. At that point and during the next go around, each box holder would remove his/her oldest print from the box and insert a new 1 - repeat for each successive go around. After the second go round, there would always be 20 prints in the box and each participant would be able to view each and every one. By limiting the group to 8-10 participants and the time each participant has the box to 1 week, each participant should receive the box once every 2 months / 6x a year.

Bonus time: in addition to the reward / pleasure of holding and viewing the prints, each participant would also be able to contact any other participant to purchase a print or even better, arrange a print swap.

The only cost involved for each participant in the endeavor is the minimal cost of mailing / shipping the box to the next participant. The cost of print making, assuming that each participant who loves prints makes his/her own prints, is limited to materials. That's about it, cost-wise, inasmuch as I will supply the portfolio case/box + shipping case.

All of that written, how about it? Just contact me and we'll get the ball rolling. Interested or not, please pass the word along to others who might be interested. It's truly a win-win endeavor.

Thanks in advance for your help in making this endeavor become a reality.

diptych # 61 ~ cultivated taste - shibui / wabi-sabi

Red and white ~ Au Sable Forks, NY / Lake Placid, NY in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenI am reading a book (an actual paper-based book) about Camp Santanoni and its Japanese architectural influences. In the chapters which deal with the Japanese influence, the notion of shibui* - an aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty - is raised in this fashion:

".... an unassuming quality in which refinement underlies a commonplace appearance, perceptible only to a cultivated taste."

On a related note, although not mentioned in the book, is another Japanese aesthetic (actually 2 which are most often co-joined), that of wabi-sabi* which is centered around the acceptance of transience and imperfection - one of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. An aesthetic which, according to Wikipedia:

"...nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

Having resided for 2 years in Japan (although I was in the military, I lived off-base in a Japanese residence - eat, sit, and sleep on the floor - amongst the local Japanese population), I have had the pleasure of learning about and - to the best of my ability to understand - experiencing these aesthetics firsthand. IMO, it's almost impossible for a westerner to convey the full meaning / experience of these aesthetics because they are not just applicable to the arts but are, in fact, inculcated / infused into all aspects of Japanese society / life.

In any event, the notions of the shibui and wabi-sabi aesthetics have influenced my picture making - they also describe the resultant pictures quite well - and the appreciation I have for most of the pictures made by others which prick my eye and sensibilities.

*WARNING - one can go on a bit of a blurry-eyed mind-numbing journey in pursuit of trying to find / discern an exact meaning of various Japanese words or phrases

FYI, diptych # 61 illustrates a 48 period of our goofy weather - snow over ice covered cars on Sunday, warm temps with melting ice and snow + dense fog on Tuesday.

triptych # 12 / civilized ku # 2650 ~ fighting cold with fire

House fire ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Ice storm ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDuring the past 3-4 weeks here in Au Sable Forks (and the NE US in general), we have been experiencing some "interesting" examples of weather extremes - very rapidly changing temperature (seasonal) extremes together with changing modes of precipitation - snow turning to rain and back to snow again, melting snow refreezing as ice, and 1 genuine 24hr. ice storm. Consequently, even though we have snow covered ground, that snow is now under a thick layer of ice. Ice which is thick enough to resist cracking or breaking through when walked upon.

The temperature extremes - yesterday's high in the 40˚s(F) with a night time low of 0˚(F) - with low temps of -20˚ have played havoc with plumbing in less than well-insulated houses. Freezing and bursting water pipes are very common. Somehow - we are still without a furnace - we have avoided any freezing pipes issues.

All of that written, one of the features of living in the North Country / Adirondacks is a constant parade (during the winter months) of front page newspaper stories / local tv news casts about house fires. Many, if not most, of the fires are the result of questionable practices in the attempt to produce heat - improper use of space heaters, overloading of electrical circuits with electric space heaters, and a variety of other follies.

Last Friday evening, one such folly, resulting in the total destruction of a house, happened within sight / close proximity to our house. For 4 days prior to the event, the night temperatures were all well below 0˚F, typically in the -5˚F to -20˚F range. Day highs were in the -5˚F to 2˚F range. Truly excellent water pipe freezing weather and that's precisely what happened in the house in question.

The owners were attempting to thaw pipes with what was obviously an ill-advised technique. Don't what that technique was but the results are painfully apparent. The house became a raging inferno and the firefighters from 6 surrounding towns had a hell of time dealing with the blaze while slipping, sliding, and falling on the previously mentioned ice covered ground. And with temps well below 0˚F, they had to fight the fire in shifts - while one group retreated to the local firehouse to warm up and avoid hypothermia, another group took over until they too had to retreat ... and so it went well into the morning hours.

Update on Thursday, January 16, 2014 at 10:00AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: John Linn wrote: "Speaking of cold, still no furnace? Didn't you get a new furnace courtesy of Irene?"

my response: As I write, guys are in the basement installing the new furnace. And no, the boiler survived Irene but all the ancillary equipment - burner, etc, - was replaced. It does appear that those pieces survived the latest debacle but we won't know for certain until they try to fire up the thing.

diptych # 60 / civilized ku # 2649 ~ bumping up against the surface barrier

60 Main ~ Phonicia, NY - in the Catskill Park • click to embiggen
60 Main interior ~ Phonicia, NY - in the Catskill Park • click to embiggenAs I have mentioned in a previous entry or 2, I am suffering from web-based picture viewing overload. That condition is growing ever more intense as time goes by. And even if one operates, online picture viewing wise, under the assumption that it's all good (the pictures), I am a firm believer in the notion that there can be too much of a good thing.

So, in the cause of reducing my web-based viewing fatigue, I have limited my online picture viewing to a relatively few blogs which feature the pictures of the blog author and 2 magazine type sites which publish the works of many different picture makers, most of whom are making pictures which prick my eye and sensibilities. You might think that M.O. makes me a creature of habit but I'd rather be that than a bleary-eyed creature aimlessly wandering about the near-limitless online picture viewing morass*.

That written, even limiting my web-based picture viewing to the aformentioned extent, I still am left somewhat bleary-eyed and most intensely unsatisfied. I attribute the bleary-eyed-ness primarily to screen fatigue as opposed to picture viewing fatigue. My life, like those of many others, is filled with screens - iPhone, iPad, MacBook (Air), Mac Pro+monitor, flat screen tv (2), auto dashboard info / navi screen, to name just a few.

To a certain extent, I can state with conviction that I've had my fill of screens.

Screen fatigue does contributed to my unsatisfied state inasmuch as every picture looks the same on a screen - the "surface" of every picture is always identical. However, even more influential, unsatisfied wise, than that viewing aspect is the fact that an onscreen picture has not even the illusion of tangibility. It remains, to my eye and sensibility, forever removed / detached from any sense of immediacy. Inevitably and nearly universally, the picture strikes me as rather lifeless and coolly analytical.

Consequently, even when viewing online pictures which I like, I am always left with the feeling of wanting more. Not more pictures but more immediacy, a physical / tactile engagement with the pictures in the form of prints - i.e., the ability to touch them, to hold them, and to see the surface of the substrate.

Without a doubt, the surface of a print - matte, semi-matte, glossy, smooth, textured, not to mention the size of a print, adds immeasurably (for good or bad) to the viewing experience and ultimately to the appreciation of a picture.

Therefore, to my eye and sensibilities, the best of all picture viewing worlds is that in which pictures have interesting / rich denoted and connoted content which is presented on the surface of a finely crafted print, which, in tandem, create a truly beautiful object.

Stay tuned for more of what I plan to do about getting some satisfaction.

*after writing this entry, I read today's TOP entry which addresses the same subject.

diptych # 59 / civilized ku # 2643-48 ~ paying the piper

Lake Placid Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Xmas dinner / Lake Placid Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Xmas dinner check/ Lake Placid Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Tuthilltown Spirits / in my kitchen ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenIn addition to all of the usual holiday comings and goings, the wife and I have been treated to life in sub-zero temperatures without a furnace. With 5 electric oil-filled radiators and a continuous raging fire in the fireplace we have manged to keep the house at a semi-tolerable 2-pair-wool-socks-thermal-underwear-turtleneck-wool-sweater-2-comforters+wool-blanket-on-the-bed temperature. The real challenge we face is finding a heating contractor that isn't booked solid with fix the furnace - as opposed to replace the furnace - emergencies.

In any event, the furnace failure (cracked boiler) was a post Xmas event, so the wife and I were able to enjoy our annual Xmas dinner at the
Lake Placid Lodge. The Lodge offers a 3-course prix fixe menu with only 3 choices for each course. The food at the Lodge is beyond excellent and the ambiance is warm and intimate rustic which makes for a very relaxing and enjoyable experience / meal. Especially so when one is blissfully unaware of the about to unfold furnace debacle.

That written, the Lodge is a rather pricey joint in which to dine what with a $102.00US bottle of wine (low cost on their wine list) and all. But what caught my attention - albeit not until day or two later when I actually looked at the check - was the fact that we had paid $24.00US for a pour of one of my favorite bourbons - Hudson Baby Bourbon from Tuthilltown Spirits , a downstate distillery. Tuthilltown Spirits is distilling whiskeys, the first to do so (legally) in New York State since Prohibition.

I really like the distillery's bourbons / whiskeys as is made evident by the picture of 4 of their 5 varieties sitting on my kitchen table. The 5th variety - a single malt whiskey - is on its way to my local liquor store. Each of the products offer forth, to the nose and the palette, a distinctly different take on their respective genres - rye, whiskey, bourbon, and unaged corn whiskey, aka: good ol' American high proof moonshine / white lightnin'.

For the uninitiated, bourbon / whiskey wise, a really great / interesting learning experience is to acquire the Corn Whiskey and the Baby Bourbon Whiskey and compare the 2 side-by-side. They are both made from the exact same mash. The difference in the end products is that, after distillation, one is aged in oak barrels while the other goes straight into the bottle without any aging. With this comparison, the color and taste of the barrel - which in a good whiskey / bourbon is a combination of different colors and many flavors - in the aged product is immediately apparent.

All of that written, back to the $24.00US pour of Hudson Baby Bourbon at the Lake Placid Lodge - most Tuthilltown whiskeys are priced at $40.00US for the 375ml bottles pictured above. Not cheap by any means, putting it in the upper reaches, cost wise, of excellent (but not rare) bourbons / whiskeys. However, one pour at the Lake Placid Lodge is more than half the cost of a bottle of Hudson Baby Bourbon. If I had had a second pour, for the same cost I could have purchased a bottle of the stuff and left the change from a $50.00 bill on the counter.

I guess all the nice Lake Placid Lodge warmth and rustic ambiance has a price.

diptych # 58 ~ frozen in place ....

Ice storm ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen.... literally frozen in place.

We're in the grip of category IV (of V) ice storm. Although, here in The Forks, we're straddling the weather line between nasty and really nasty. Just 10 miles to the north, the storm is much more severe than in The Forks - State of Emergency, travel restrictions, power outages, etc.

But, here's the thing re: travel restrictions - currently, the advisory is for no unnecessary driving. However, my idea of necessary driving during inclement weather is heading out in our AWD vehicle and doing donuts and 4-wheel drifts around corners and curves.

And, seriously, what better time to do so than during driving restriction conditions? The roads are slippery and virtually everyone else heeds the advisory and stays off the roads which means no slow pokes to get in the way and clog things up - not to mention the diminished possibility of a head-on collision (due, no doubt, to the driving error of others).

That written, I won't be heading out today for a couple reasons: 1) it would take a blowtorch or buckets of hot water to open the car door, and, 2) we're starting a fire in our conjugal bed to keep us nice and warm on an icy cold winter day.