Had a great time talking at the Santa Monica Apple Store about iPhone photography. I saw some great pictures and showed a few of my own. And thank you to Christian Peacock for the photographs!
Category: iPhone Snaps
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Video from my Ovation TV Showing
The My Art series that I was selected for showed on Ovation TV today. Here is the YouTube video. Enjoy!
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Ovation TV Showing
So I did what I griped about a few months back and entered a contest. But, it was a FREE contest and all the submissions were all posted online so everyone could see them. So it felt a bit more INNOCENT and fun, instead of someone collecting money from artists, then turn around and use their images commercially to advertise collecting even more money from artists. yeah. I guess that’s my beef with most “contests.” But, when Ovation TV announced they were having a contest for their community members and we had to upload our work to a discussion board so all was on display, that really seemed more enthusiastic. And they aren’t making money off of me either. Bonus. And it all paid off when I won. HOW FUN! A real legitimate contest that doesn’t make money from artists. Kudos Ovation TV!
It was for their Framed Art Race 2010 and we had to upload cell phone images. Since all I’ve been doing lately is taking pictures with my iPhone it was a logical thing for me to do. So I won their contest and my iPhone image of Rei will be featured on TV in about 4 weeks. Coincidentally, Rei will also be the photograph in leNuLA @ A&I on May 27. In Rei’s words, “The universe has made it clear that it likes it when we hang out and you take pictures.” I have to agree. Thanks Rei!
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My show is being hung today
My show is being hung today.
I took some iPhone snaps of the progress. Included is the unbound copies of my book. If your in Los Angeles or near by please come out this Thursday and I will sign a copy for you.
933 N. Highland Ave
Hollywood, CA 90038
7PM – 10PM
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My Book is finished
I have always wanted to print a book of my work that I could be satisfied with. When I think of art books I envision each page to be a representation of a print that I would make. So many self publishers fall short of this goal and really don’t care about the quality of each page, but more so the quantity of books they can get through their printers which aren’t usually calibrated frequently. When the printers aren’t calibrated frequently this causes each book to be printed different from the next which could be one of the issues, but there are several. As you can see on my site I sell a book printed by Blurb. I’ll be taking that down and “discontinuing” sales of DISCONTINUde as the quality is not up to my standards. They missed my deep blacks in ALL of my prints. There is no detail. It’s just black. One of the prints I’m attaching in this posting … Achilles Knee (model, Stephanie Anne)… none of the trees to the left of the picture even show up in the book. They are just a black blob, as are each of the prints in the book. And that’s a shame because the size of the book is really cute and square (5×5) like my photos and I wanted it to be a nice little book one could keep. And many of my sepia toned images turned green. So, even if I used a little color to try and get their printers to behave in a manner that would look good for my prints, nothing worked. I even calibrated Photoshop to use their color calibration. It was really disappointing. This was also to be a book that they would showcase at an event so people could see the quality of their work. It was so disappointing for me that I told them they couldn’t showcase my book.
A&I had printed a couple of my photographs in their books for group shows they had which I was a part of, and both of my photographs looked excellent inside of Nude X and I Spy With My Plastic Eye. When asked to do a show of my work and a book, I went into the book making process with a lot more optimism and was not sorry for it. Creating a book is a lot of work. It’s much more than just slapping an image on a page. It takes time to create a flow, work out where you need to put type, what font to use, which image should represent each theme. So when you spend that much effort to layout and creating an art piece with your photography and then paying for it, it’s so nice when it all comes out perfect. My book Fiat Lux is beautiful. And I’m not tooting my own horn or A&I’s because they gave me a show. I’m blunt… if something sucks I usually say so straight away. They really do care about quality and it’s obvious that they all enjoy seeing a great product come from their lab. In fact, I’m sure they would be embarrassed if something subpar ever exited the building.
I’m very excited for people to see and purchase this book during my opening.
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Happy 2010, so long 2009…
2009 was rather good to me. I have a lot of things to be thankful for, and there are a lot of people out there I send my love to and thanks. You all know who you are… and there are so many of you I don’t think I could begin to name each one of you or I would be here till next year! Yes… I’m that thankful and that graciously overjoyed that you are all in my life.
In these troubled times of economic crisis and the loss of work of so many people around the world, 2010 really should be a time to come together and stand by one another in order to better all of our lives. I’ve been trying to do my part within the art community by building bridges and creating opportunities for not only myself, but for all the friends who share my love of photography. I was able to do this several times in 2009. I feel honored to have contributed to connecting people and hopefully leaving them with a bright spot when they look back upon the year in reflection.
January 2009 started out working with the Palm Springs Photo Festival producing all the workshops and organizing all of those days. Finding talent and assistants and working with some quite amazing photographers helping them get their classes off without a hitch. I got to meet some of my favorite photographers, Greg Gorman, Steve McCurry and Duane Michals and help them produce an outstanding workshop program for their students. It wasn’t all fun and games at times because it was a lot of work, but it was a great experience that I’ll always look back on and smile at. A bright spot.
I launched ARTnudes Network in June – A Networking/blogging website for models, photographers, painters, sculptures and sketchers – Mostly fine art nude photography, but all artists are welcome to jump in as long as it’s art related. I’ve had this concept on hold for so many years and it is amazing to finally get it going and see so many people connecting with each other. There are still many things to do with it and it will be done! It’s intended for serious artists, and artists who want to be serious.
In August my best friend, brides maid, and always epic photographically model (that was a mouth full) – Ida Mae, gave birth to a baby boy. I am so happy for her!!! We were planning on another maternity shoot before she gave birth two days before she went into labor a month early. What a beautiful moment of 2009. I got to see her in November when I was staying in Hanover, New Hampshire over Thanksgiving. Brief but special. It was great seeing her in her element.
In October I had a most excellent vacation to Australia with several of my friends from Community Zoe. I’ve written quite a bit about it on this site, but I can’t begin to describe the amazing time that was had. It was perfect. The best one yet. Might have to do it again! This is definitely a bright spot – but more like an entire sun ray – or if you would look at a pie chart this would take over about 40% of the pie. At least. So, super sunny spot. Maybe I should create a pie chart with the amount of bright spots and relative percentage of impact they had on me over the year. hmm.
In September my modeling work was hanging in two galleries at the same time. In Melbourne, Australia in the work of Michael Marlborough and in Charlotte, North Carolina in the work of Bryce Lankard. Two of my best friends and they both had gallery shows at the same time. Kind of cool. And my photography work was published in the book 210 Photographers – 1×2. That three thing. Sunny.
October was Australia, but more of my work was also published in the book NUDES Indexx II . Then the newspaper clip about all of us in the Cairns’ Post.
Once returning from Australia I helped Jeff Dunas get his Palm Springs Photo Festival community site up and running, then it was a gallery show at A&I called I Spy With My Plastic Eye, and another book publishing that was produced for the show. The print that I made for the show has sold too, so bonus! It all benefitted WeSpark – a non-profit organization that provides free support for cancer patients. It makes me feel good that my art was benefitting such an important cause and thank you to A&I, Astor Morgan and Baret Lepejian for having me be a part of such a cool event!
I attended the BMI Awards to watch my husband receive his 8th BMI Crystal Statue @ the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the one from Pretty Woman. You never know who will be at these award ceremonies. One year we were sitting at a table next to Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys and another time Paul Anka and Mark Mothersbaugh from DEVO and another time the family members from the late Howling Wolf. It’s great people watching, good food, and a great celebration for all the recording artists that BMI represents. And concerning copyright, I don’t know of another organization that fights for the rights of artists in the way they do. If only photographers, painters and other artists had something similar. I learn a lot each time I go. And it’s always a proud moment watching my husband get an award.
In December I got a wonderful opportunity to have a solo showing of my nudes @ A&I in Hollywood. I’ll be producing a book and showing about 40 – 50 of my prints. The opening reception will be on February 18, 2010. (my fingers still want to type 2009, eeek, have to get used to that!) So, I’ve been in editing mode from the day I found out until now. Excluding the lovely time I spent in Kauai, Hawaii during the Holidays. I think I’ll be making Hawaii a December ritual
Thank you to all who have come into my life, I’ve learned many things from all of you. If you stand in the light, the shadows look prettier. And if we can all come together for good in 2010 maybe the shadows won’t feel so forgotten or “insert random thought of wisdom here.” I think all of us can make it brighter. I’ll do my best.
