civilized ku # 2340-55 ~ RIP lives!

Patience is a virtue ~ Tannersville, NY - in the Catskill Park • click to embiggenRip Van Ocipede, Land of Rip, Cabin Fever ~ • click to embiggenPop Van Winkle, Hobo Rip, Contractor Rip ~ • click to embiggenI am the mountain, The Amazing MagicalRip, Mechanic Rip ~ • click to embiggenRip's Last Stop, Jerry Van Winkle/RWV Tie Dye, Clowning Around with Rip ~ • click to embiggenWaking Up and Stepping Out, Rip Van Liberty, Lord of the Isle ~ • click to embiggenDuring our weekend in the Catskills, the wife and I saw a lot of stuff, but what we saw the most of was Rip Van Winkle in various guises. Those sighting were attributable to the fact that there 54 such Rips scattered about the northern Catskills - all part of the 3rd annual RIP LIVES! 2012 GALA & AUCTION.

For those of you not familiar with Rip Van Winkle, Rip is the amiable, somewhat hermetic, and most definitely work shirking character in Washington Irving's story of the same name. Long story short, Rip, while attempting to avoid his wife's nagging, wanders into the mountains (the Catskill Mountains) and discovers the source of thunder - a group of bearded men (the ghosts of Henry Hudson's - as in, Hudson River - crew) playing nine-pins. Rip starts drinking their liquor and falls fast asleep.

As it turns out, he sleeps for quite a few years, from roughly before the start of the Revolutionary War until after the war is over. When Rip returns home, high jinks and confusion are the order of the day.

In any event, during my trip in the mountains, my wife, unlike Rip's wife, didn't nag me one bit while I was driving around spotting Rip's and repeatedly stopping to make pictures, or, as she calls it, "dicking around".

ku # 1177-81 ~ the "little Adirondacks"

On the water at sunset ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Thicket / sunset ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Mist / sunrise ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Shoreline / sunrise ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Dock / sunrise ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenThe wife and I are heading out for the weekend to New York State's other state forest, the Catskill Mountains.

The Catskill Mountains are often referred to as the "little Adirondacks" inasmuch as, like the Adirondacks, it is a state forest with some protected land, a bit of protected wilderness, some mountains / streams/ rivers / lakes, with a sprinkling of small villages / hamlets thrown in for good measure. Unlike the Adirondacks, it a good bit smaller in all of the aforementioned attributes and, in large part, more developed. It should come as no surprise, development wise, since its proximity to NYC has made the Catskills a kind of playground for the big city dwellers.

All told, the Catskills are nice enough, but they ain't no Adirondacks.

In any event, fall color is much in event - measuring 35-50% of peak color (dependent upon elevation) - so I expect to see a fair number of leaf peepers out and about, engaged in their annual orgasmic / feverish fall color picturing mode. Naturally, I do my best to avoid falling into that picture making trap.

squares² # 4 ~ φῶς γραφή

civilized ku + ku together • click to embiggenI imagine most in the room know that the Greek words, φῶς γραφή (pronounced phos graphê), are the Greek root words for our word, photography - φῶς = "light, γραφή = drawing / writing (FYI, I studied Latin (4 years) and Ancient Greek (3 years) in high school). That is why, on occasion, photography is described as "drawing / writing with light".

Light is indeed that which we light writers (aka: photographers) know is indispensable to the making of our art/Art and we all know that trying to picture a black cat in a coal bin is difficult. However, without light, that task is absolutely impossible. Or, to state it another way, light sensitive material + no light = nothing, picture wise.

That written, some picture makers think making pictures is "all about the light". If it weren't for the fact the most picture makers who subscribe to that theory have turned golden / dramatic light into a picturing fetish, I would agree that, at times, a picture can be "about the light". However, for me, light is most often a facilitator in the making of a picture but not at all what the picture is about.

In any case, when I make pictures that are ostensibly "about the light" (although never wholly so) and the making of which are instigated by the qualities / characteristics of "the light", those pictures are invariably responses to a wide range of light quality / characteristics, not just a Pavlovian response to one particular kind of light.

It would be very safe to say that I am not a one-trick pony, or, as the wife's mother said, a "Johnny one note" when it comes to making pictures "about the light".

civilized ku # 2339 ~ refrigerator reds

reds in the refrigerator ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenFor the past few, every time I have opened the refrigerator door those red peppers have been screaming, "Take my picture."

rain # 25-33 ~ rainy day and a Chinese dinner

Utility pole ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Mountain mist ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Tractor ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Embankment ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Grassy clump ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
2 trees ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Leaning tree ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Roadside ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Tree trunk ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenYesterday, by mid morning, it began to rain and did so for most of the day. It was a great day for making rain pictures although I went out with the intention of making 1 picture - Utility pole. A picture for the making of which I had been waiting for rain.

Waiting for particular conditions or light is not my normal picturing MO. As most of you know, my usual picturing making is accomplished by having a camera(s) with me at all times in order to picture whatever happens to come my way / catch my eye. Other than assignment oriented picture making, which requires making pictures of specific referents, just being prepared to make a picture of whatever catches my eye and tweaks my sensibilities is the order of any given day.

Yesterday's specific referent / conditions picture making outing was different in its intent but similar in results to my usual picturing habits. That is, between here and my referent objective (and there about), quite a number of picture making possibilities where evident. So, as can be seen above, I made a bunch of pictures.

Interesting enough, I didn't get the exact picture I set out to make. While I did make a Utility pole picture, it is not the picture I had 'pre-visualized' - That picture, the one wanted to make, would have required a much heavier rainfall. I don't know why, but I see, in my minds eye, that scene in a very heavy downpour with rain very much in evidence.

The heavy downpour did eventually appear but much later in the day. Unfortunately, picture making wise, as I was preparing to head out to the same scene again, the wife showed up with a takeout Chinese dinner. So, rather than fiddling with my camera(s), I fiddled with chopsticks instead.

Maybe I'll have better luck next time - rain wise, not dinner wise.

squares² # 3 ~ common beauty / beauty in common

squares² ~ all together, in my mind and eye • click to embiggenAs mentioned, I have ruminated for quite some time - measured in years, not months or days - my propensity for discursive promiscuity, picture making wise. Most of that time inside my head was spent thinking, not about my picturing MO, but rather what to do, presentation wise, with all of those discursive pictures. While I have half a dozen or so referent focused bodies of work, those bodies of work taken all together are minuscule, # of pictures wise, relative to the now 4,000+ and rising # of pictures which, IMO, fall into the discursive promiscuity picture making realm of things.

That written, the solution to my presentation quandary would seem to be at hand ...

While I have always recognized that the best of my discursive, but nevertheless vision unified, pictures would need to be printed and displayed in a presentationally cohesive manner, the exact manner of doing so has, until now, escaped me. However, having essentially boxed myself into a corner by writing and talking about the notion of unified vision as evidenced across a diverse body of pictures, I had to get down to brass tacks and cash the check my mouth was writing.

As a result of that effort, I have arrived at a plan of creating a series of square prints, each with 4 seemingly unrelated, referent wise, square pictures (all printed on a single sheet of paper), or, to put it another way - squares². Each squares² print will be created in 4 sizes - 24"×24" (edition of 20), 36"×36" (edition of 10), 48"×48" (edition of 4), and 60"×60" (edition of 1).

The initial plan is to create, over time, multiple 20 squares² picture collections. How many collections? Who knows. I have enough pictures to make 200 20 squares² picture collections but that's not gonna happen. However, the number 10 sounds like a nice round doable number.

I am actually rather excited about this project simply because it's all coming together / starting to make sense.

civilized ku # 2338 ~ another picture not about cats

Cats sleeping in window ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenThis picture, although it might appear to be about cats, is most definitely not about cats because I don't do cat pictures.

diptych # 9 ~ seeing what's not there

Cats / dishrack ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenI am certain there are those who might think this diptych is about cats, bicycle seats, garden tools, a straw hat, paper towels, a water bottle, or clean cookware amongst other things. However, IMO, if that's all one sees, one has not yet learned how see.