squares² # 2 ~ common beauty / beauty in common

diversity, all linked together in my eye and mind • click to embiggenDuring my recent visit with the Curator at view, one of the points we discussed, re: my pictures, was the continuity in vision which is evident across my diverse (referent wise) bodies of work - a topic I recently addressed in the civilized ku # 2299-2305 / ku # 1160 / rain # 20-22 entry under the heading of "profligatographers":

Profligatographers, unlike many who make theme / referent related work, make unified bodies of work which are made coherent by their concentrated efforts on the simple act of seeing. Despite their seemingly promiscuous choice of picturing referents, a Profligatographer very often has a distinctive personal vision / manner of seeing which pulls everything together, body of work wise.

The Curator, after viewing all 5 of my folios, most definitely saw the overarching vision which I believe unifies all of my pictures. That is, with the possible exception of my single women pictures. She felt those pictures to be less controlled / structured than my other work, an assessment with which I agree.

My single women pictures are much more referent biased than most of my other pictures. In my other works, while the referents matter, there is much more visual evidence of the deliberative use of natural color, shapes, and space within the frame, all of which come together to create the design / form as viewed on the 2D surface of the print. And, IMO, it is the coming together of all of those elements which is the overarching visual bedrock of my vision, that is, a quality / characteristic which is most often described as "beautiful prints" (in and of themselves, independent of the referent).

That written, my pictures are more than just visual. Moving beyond the illustrative, my intent is to address / illuminate, picturing wise, what I consider to be the beauty to be found in the commonplace - those things which are looked at in the passing parade of everyday life but to which little attention is given. To bring attention to the fine details of everyday life as opposed to the grand spectacles thereof. That M.O. is, IMO, the other overarching implied bedrock of my vision.

To my eye and sensibilities, taken together, my explicitly stated (the referent / the illustrated) way of seeing and my implied (the illuminated) meaning(s), create the overarching totality of my vision. And, I don't believe it takes a genius to understand and/or see, in all of my work, that the visual quality of my prints emphatically underscores the implied meaning(s) to be had / found therein ..... beautiful prints + common stuff = common beauty.

Or perhaps, on the other hand, some of you might think that I and my pictures are full of s**t. In any case, opinions of all kinds are encouraged and welcome.

civilized ku # 2328-36 ~ state fair

Roasting pig / NYS State Fair ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenRear ends ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen
Chinese gourmet ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen
Fried dough ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen
Funnel cakes ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen
Cows / redhead ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen
Train / midway ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen
Chicken ~ NYS Fair / Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenIMO, if you can't see something to picture at a state fair, you must be blind as a bat. I can not think of a more concentrated place/space which is so incredibly target rich. And after this year's visit to the Fair, I have vowed to return next year for 2 days of picturing.

High on my list is to concentrate on food vendors - there must be hundreds of them and all of them are incredibly over-the-top, signage wise. Then there are the animals and the surrounding fair life of their owners / handlers - aka: farmers. That's an interesting culture unto itself. And, of course, there's the midway and the freak / side shows - the bearded lady, the world's smallest horse, et al. Of special interest to me would be making a series of on-the-spot portraits of carnival barkers who are a show all by themselves.

In any event, the more I think about it, 2 days may not be enough time to cover it all. Maybe that's why the Fair is 7 days long.

FYI, the food vendor pictures were made while the wedding couple and the wife and I were riding around in the Fair parade.

civilized ku # 33 ~ published work

Busted red door / abandoned mill ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenFYI, the upcoming Nov/Dec issue of Adirondack Life Magazine will have a feature spread / story with 10 pictures from my The Forks ~ there's no place like home exhibit.

picture windows # 49 ~ sailboat

Sailboat ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

ku # 1175 ~ boat+dog / flat out dumb luck

Dog on boat ~ Blue Mountain Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenFor 6 days during our stay on Blue Mountain Lake, I attempted, unsuccessfully, to make a picture of this dog on a boat. The boat+dog went by our cottage 3-4 times a day on no particular schedule so it was impossible to predict their appearance and therefore be prepared to make a picture. Each time they appeared over the first 6 days, they were either too far out of camera range (for the lens mounted on the camera) or I didn't have a camera at hand and the few pictures I attempted just didn't have it.

However, on the very last morning of our stay, as I was out early picturing another great sunrise (taking advantage of the light, so to speak), the boat+dog came around the point positioned exactly the right distance for my camera/lens set up. Boat+dog appeared so suddenly and unexpectedly that I was fortunate the camera was set for the proper exposure, the light couldn't have been better and the dog was in the same position - although I never saw him in any other position or even move, for that matter - because I only got one shot at it. Literally, one single click of the shutter.

FYI ~ ticket please

The ticket ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenRev. Hobson punching their tickets ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenReverend Hobson's first wedding ceremony went off without a hitch. Well, except for the fact that everyone, to include the best man / maid of honor / Reverend Hobson and most notably the wedding couple, forgot all about the wedding rings until after I had pronounced them husband and wife (by the power vested in me). But at least they got their rickets punched.

In any event, I kept it short and sweet (the temperature inside the railroad car was over 100˚F) and everyone had a great time.

FYI, here is the script / text from my service (written by me - with an assist from the wife - and dictated to the wife during our morning car ride to the NYS Fair on the day of the event):

Welcome all of you to Luke and Linda's wedding. It means a lot to them that you are all aboard to see them off as they begin their journey. And, I'd like to thank Luke and Linda, for affording me the opportunity to be the conductor for this wedding ceremony...

When I first was informed that Luke and Linda were going to be married on railroad car at the NYS Fair, I thought it to be a bit weird. However, after thinking about it and now actually being here, I think it's really weird.

Nevertheless, I guess it is rather appropriate to begin one of life's most important journeys on this antique railroad car. After all, the naked truth is, if Linda didn't have a fondness for old things (indicate my brother), we wouldn't be here today.

In any event, like all train trips, there might be whistle stops at strange locations, derailments, or even train wrecks along the way. But I would remind Luke and Linda that the journey, with all its rewards and hazards, is at least as important as the destination. Therefore, enjoy this trip, that begins in new York state and arrives at the state of connubial bliss.

In that spirit, I now present Luke and Linda with their one way tickets, to their ultimate! destination.

Now, as You have all journeyed here to share the day as Luke and Linda become husband and wife, I invite you to witness their vows. Without actually knowing who's the engineer and who's riding the caboose on this train, I will begin with Luke.

Do you Luke, take Linda to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?

Ticket please (punch the ticket)

Do you Linda, take Luke to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for Rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?

Ticket please (punch the ticket)

By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

BTW, that last sentence is one that I never imagined ever uttering in my lifetime.

PS thanks to my son, The Cinemascapist, for designing the ticket on very short notice. While I had planned to do it, I nevertheless left home 2 weeks before the ceremony (taking Hugo to Rochester for hockey camp) without tickets in hand and never thinking that I wouldn't be back home before the ceremony. So, on the afternoon before the wedding date, I called Aaron from our cottage on Blue Mountain Lake and asked him to design the ticket. He send me a proof via email and I arranged for him to email the finished ticket to a Kinko printing center in Syracuse and was able to pick up the tickets the next morning on our way to the Fair. My thanks to Aaron the modern wonder of the internet and email.

Update on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 08:07AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment(s): John Linn wrote: "Do you Linda, take Luke to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for Rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?" .... Can we assume a typo or is there more to the story?"

And Sven W (no link provided) wrote: "A railroad car certainly presents limited opportunities for the wedding photog!"

my response(s): John, I guess the wife isn't as good at taking dictation as I thought. And Sven, that's no wedding photog, that's my wife (who made the picture) - the guy in the orange shirt is a tv videographer).

FYI ~ my next exhibit(?)

View ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMain gallery ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSide gallery ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDuring my recent stay on Blue Mountain Lake, I ventured down the road to Inlet to play a round of golf, after which I went a little bit farther down the road to Old Forge to run an errand.

Entering Old Forge, I passed by view, a multi-disciplinary art institution of long standing (albeit it in a brand new facility). The wife and I have visited view on a number of occasions when passing through Old Forge. For some reason we almost always pass through during their annual Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors and this year was no exception to that rule.

In any event, as I was leaving Old Forge, I decided to stop and try to hookup with the view Director whom I had met last summer at a conference. My life without the APA book was circulating at the conference and the view Director had taken notice of it. We had brief conversation which ended with her stating, "maybe it's time that we had an exhibit which would stir a little controversy" and she invited me to stay in touch.

Long story, short, I didn't stay in touch. So, even though I had forgotten her name, I stopped in to view and asked the receptionist to see the Director (mentioning her interest in my work for a possible exhibition). The receptionist explained that the Director had nothing to do with exhibitions and I would have to see the Curator. She dialed up the Curator, explained the situation, and the Curator agreed to see me.

When the Curator came to the entrance area, I again explained the circumstance of my visit and she was gracious enough to take the time to look at my work. I did not have the life without the APA book with me but I did have all 5 of my new folio books*. She looked at the life without the APA pictures online and then looked at all of the folio books. The net result was that she very enthusiastically suggest that she would like to have an exhibition of my pictures, mostly likely my decay and disgust and kitchen life work.

What was of particular interest to me, exhibition possibility not excluded, was the fact that she "got" nearly everything regarding my picturing intentions, the visual statement and implied meaning(s) (aka: the illustrative and illuminative properties of my pictures). Amongst many other things, she loved how I had "embraced the square" and my utilization of the 2D space within that format. She also mentioned that she thought the prints in the books were outstandingly beautiful.

After the better part of an hour with her, looking at and discussing my work, she took me on a tour of the exhibition galleries and made special mention of the particular gallery (see Side gallery, 2 of 4 walls, above) in which she would like to exhibit my work. She specified that space because she said it had the best gallery lighting and my work deserved to be exhibited under the best of conditions.

Needless to state, I was and remain thrilled by the whole affair.

*the folio books comprised of bound together, lay flat, photo prints, not reproductions.

ku # 1173-74 / civilized ku # 2320-27 ~ an odd night out

Post, steps, flowers ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Camp Flat Rock wing ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flat Rock bedrooms wing ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Lake Champlain shore ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
flat rock ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Interior ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Interior # 2 ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Pack basket ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Rocky point ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Vermont ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenYesterday evening, the wife and I went out for a $1,000.00USD-a-ticket political soiree. The event was for our good friend (the wife's ex law partner), US Congressman Bill Owens (a Democrat).

What made it an odd night out is twofold: 1) we don't ever have any $1,000 nights out, and, 2) the party was chock full (34-36 of 40) of top-1%-ers Republicans, a group we don't normally hangout with. Nevertheless, we sorta had to attend, so we sucked it up and went.

The party was held at Camp Flat Rock, a seasonal privately owned Adirondack Great Camp on the shore of Lake Champlain. The camp is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and, even though privately owned, it is under the stewardship of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy to ensure that the land (40 acres) will not be developed in the future.

The soiree's host family (the camp owner) are dyed-in-the-wool, multi-generational Republicans - one of the family's patriarchs broke open a bottle of champagne on the occasion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death, apparently believing it was cause for celebration - and most of the other attendees, the wife and I excepted, were of the same political persuasion.

Why a Democrat political fundraiser attended by mostly Republicans, you might asked?

My guess is simple ... most of the attendees could be classified as "lost generation" Republicans. That is to say, Republicans who, although they be Conservatives (most might actually be Rockefeller Republicans*), are most definitely not beady-eyed zealots of the Tea Party / Republican far-far Right Wing political persuasion. I am fairly certain that most, if not all of them, are quite dismayed by the current state of their beloved political party.

As such, they appreciate Democrat Bill Owens and his true practical and bi-partisanship approach to governance - he voted with Republicans 35% of the time. He is an honest-to-god political moderate, dedicated to sensible political compromise in order to get things done and he has no stringent political ideology to which he must adhered at all costs.

It is extremely unfortunate that Bill is in such a minuscule minority in the US Congress. Our country needs many more like him on both sides of the aisle. Here's hoping he is re-elected simply because he's a good man and I don't want to be represented by his moronic Tea Party-backed opponent.

*a member of the Republican Party of the United States of America, who is fiscally conservative, but not Christian conservative, and politically ambiguous on social conservatism.