Spring Fine Arts and Craft Festival – Check

This past weekend’s show at Kutztown Univ. was fun and allowed me time to spend with some special people. My neighbor bought me 2 CDs by a musical group playing at the show and a woman shared her frog tattoo with me after seeing my frog image “Eye Witness”. I photographed a Williamsburg-style miniature scene created by a Reading-Berks Chapter craftsmen and some additional works for next year’s show postcard.

I am getting my show-legs back. Set-up and tare-down went smoother than my first show of the year last week. And, I got my trailer backed into my garage on the first try. Last week it took me 4 attempts. I’ll be working on a couple custom framing orders from this weekend then concentrating on 2 upcoming events.

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Reading-Berks Chapter Spring Show – Mar. 27-28, 2010

This weekend I will be with the Reading-Berks Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen for our annual  Spring Fine Arts and Craft Show held at Kutztown University. This 2 day event is a great opportunity to see some of the finest artists and craftsmen in the area exhibit and offer their works. The show will offer food and entertainment as well.

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Lady’s Slippers, by Request

I received an email yesterday about an image of Pink Lady Slippers. It was seen by the emailer at a show I did last summer and she wanted to know if it was still available. Being that it has been spring for all of 3 days, I am of course thinking about flowers anyway (and not to fondly of the fact that my lawn will soon need mowing).

A couple years ago, a friend took me to the property of couple he knew on which Pink Lady Slippers grew wild. With their permission, and being exceedingly careful (picture Twister with a tripod), we spent several hours trying to make visual poetry from these amazing Orchids. These are relatively big plants and very 3-dimensional. The lighting was mostly overcast, my preferred conditions for working with any flower as it prevents harsh shadow and strong highlights.

The three-dimensionality of the Lady Slippers presents a challenge in that depth-of-field (the amount of the image that is in focus) becomes more difficult to control. I wanted a muted, soft background for the flowers, but in order to maintain the entire plant in focus, I had to use a smaller aperture which also brought the background more into focus. So, visually I had to find a way to achieve both goals and still isolate the flower from it’s surroundings. I’m pretty sure it was at this point that I decided doing yoga would be an asset.

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Life Imitating Art Imitating Blog

A recent blog entry I made here, generated a bit of discussion. It even made its way to dinnertime discussion with my wife and daughter at my house. A couple days later my daughter (7th grade) brought me a book she was reading to point out a particular paragraph to me. One line really caught her attention. On page 128 of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, author Wendy Mass writes

“Mom thinks that art is a personal thing, and Aunt Judi believes that art isn’t art until it’s appreciated by the public”

My daughter recognized the close relation to the discussion here  and thought it interesting. Our dinnertime discussion on this topic added relevance to her reading. I suspect the passage from Mass’ book would not have had as big an impact on my daughter otherwise. I don’t know fully how that line related to Mass’  book, but I’m glad it was there.

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North Penn Select Craft Show – March 20

I am pleased to be back at this superb show of fine art and craft. This one day wonder is held this Saturday from 9:30am to 4:30pm and will be well attended. I am enjoying my new space location at the center of all three rooms and will be showing new works from this winter.

Please take a look at the web link for full information – North Penn Select Craft Show

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

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Who Gets to Judge?

Well at least last night, I did. Asked to be a third juror for a local photography competition, I had to place a numerical value (up to 33) on over 400 images. It is always an interesting exercise and makes me very aware of how judging an image is often quite subjective. I tried to create an internal process that allowed me to not spend 10 minutes on each image (that would have taken 3 days!).

I couldn’t help thinking while driving home what numerical value I would place on my own images. Maybe I should go through that process when evaluating my work. I suspect though that some of my work wouldn’t do too well even though I really like the images. So what that tells me is that I am much more interested in my work having an emotional component than being a technical 33. I think I’ve known this for a while though, I’m more interested in the art of photography than the process.

My work is judged though, and actually all the time. Beyond myself of course, it’s judged by the tens of thousands of people I put it in front of each year, by the viewers of my website and blog, by the members of the gallery I belong to, by the editors of publications I submit to, the jurors of competitions I enter, by my wife and even my 12 year old daughter!

That’s a lot of judging! The result? Well my own judging is the most important and in some ways defines who I am as an artist, but I do listen very attentively to all the others as they can affect my own vision and views. Editors have brought my attention to images I overlooked, art show patrons have informed me of attributes of my work that I missed, my very supportive wife sometimes dislikes work I’m very fond of, my daughter doesn’t particularly like my most popular print but really enjoys a newer piece I suspected she would not.

In a year’s time I may judge my work and other’s differently than I do now. But what you see now and how I value other’s work is always based on my own best judgement.

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