NEWS AND VIEWS
As more of my friends and associates are now keeping in touch on Twitter, I have joined the chirping. You can find me twittering here. You can also follow the link on the right hand side and down on this blog screen. What have I gotten myself into now? Actually, the connections I’ve made have already been helpful.
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I had a fine lunch today with two artist friends, Bea and Meg. We meet as our schedules allow. Bea is an amazing painter (see her link on side panel), Meg is a master wood carver (biologist, farmer, and who knows what else). We met doing a wildlife art show in New Hope, Pennsylvania about a dozen years ago. We don’t do shows together any more, but we stay in touch as friends and as artists. It’s great to get together and talk about our projects, travels (not so much in my case), and things in general.
It is helpful to bounce ideas off each other and share impressions and experiences. We each approach things from a different perspective and with somewhat different goals. We talked for well over two hours today, but that could’ve gone much longer.
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Having just finished my last show of 2008, and with Thanksgiving tomorrow, this feels like a good time to just say – thanks! Thank you to everyone who came out to shows this year and supported me with a new purchase or a kind remark. Thank you to everyone who has commented on this blog or through email and given me helpful feedback or words of encouragement. Thank you to family and friends for their support and for just being there. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make the shows of 2008 as good as they could be. I’ll look back on 2008 fondly because of you all!
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The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen’s Fine Craft Show in Lancaster, PA this past weekend went off without a hitch. This is gift-giving time and I know that many of the pieces purchased were going to be gifts. A couple ladies purchased selections for each other at the same time in my booth. I wasn’t quite sure who to hand bags to, the giver or the givee. It’s always rewarding to have my work selected whether it’s a gift for oneself or another. I appreciate that people see something in my images that makes them think of people they care about. Oh, but the cheers I got this past weekend had nothing to do with my photography. It was a simple thing really.
A green football had been thrown over the fence of an elementary school yard. I drove right over it and then stopped and walked back about 30 feet to get it. The 12 or so kids were yelling at me – “please” and “sorry it go into the street”. I threw the ball back to the girl standing furthest from the fence to great cheers and thank yous. And yea, I put a good spiral on the toss. They cheered the whole time I jogged back to my car. I’m thinking about having a small green football in my booth at my next show.
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I’ve always been around creative people. Growing up with an artist mother, hanging out with aspiring artists throughout school, and exhibiting at shows for almost 15 years has been a great experience. I really appreciate works in all media from painting to music and writing. My normal reading list is really quite limited in scope, but once in awhile I have occasion to stretch beyond my typical queue of photography books and related magazines. This time I really stretched. The first novel by children’s book writer Donna Gephart (but certainly not her last) is not just a fun read, but very timely. I’m a bit of a political junky, so I related to the story line of a political campaign’s impact on a young girl. The main character – Vanessa, is about the same age as my daughter and niece (I got copies for both girls) and the book gives an informative, if not somewhat scary, insight into a young girl’s head. Venessa’s mother (a governor) is running for president during a time when Vanessa is already dealing with a variety of issues
The title of the book is As If Being 12 3/4 Isn’t Bad Enough, My Mom Is Running for President. OK, now I have admitted to struggling with titles for my images (and quite a few people tell me they enjoy them), but a title of this length would probably not work for me. It’s tempting, but no. At one point in the book, Vanessa lists the reasons why she doesn’t want her mother to run for president. My favorite is that she already feels that photographers catch her looking her worse. Speaking from experience, my daughter accuses me of that all the time as well.
Donna Gephart is a talented writer in a variety of genres, but clearly in her element as a children’s book author. She is a passionate writer who treats the art and craft of writing the way any artist approaches their medium. I admire creative people who enjoy the process as well as strive for excellence, Donna Gephart does that. I often think about the analogy of creative writing and photography. Isn’t creative writing after all really a way of eliciting a mental picture, a mood, or a feeling? Words, light, or paint, the creative process uses different raw materials, but pretty much to the same goal – communication. Donna has a second book in the works, until then, I’ll probably be working through my normal pile.
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It’s not as bad as it sounds really. In fact, it’s kind of a compliment I think. People come into my booth, seem to like my work, and proceed to tell me where I can go …………”to make beautiful pictures”. Often I am told to go out west, or to Canada, Alaska, Florida, even Europe. I would like to go to any or all of these places. Maybe someday I will. But to a certain extent, I think people suggesting these trips, as kind-hearted as they are, are missing what my work is about. I create images about the places and things that I have grown to love, admire, and want to share. I love their excitement about the places they have been. But, my work is a personal expression of what excites me, and place is not important to me. My approach is more on the order of a relationship with a Walden’s Pond - intimate, personal, but not grand. I like the simple, often overlooked, and familiar. I just don’t believe that I could go to any location once, twice, or even three times and come away with a feeling about that place enough to create the kind of imagery I hope to create. On the other hand, the imagery I make at locations I have been going back to for ten years or more, continually excites me.
I don’t photograph at East Coast locations, and primarily areas close to home, just because it’s what I can do. It is because it is what I want to do. No disrespect intended if I can’t share your experiences of a trip to Africa, Antarctica, the Galapagos or even Yellowstone. It’s just that what excites me visually often is what’s happening 20 miles away (or closer), not 2000 miles away.
I also suspect that most people don’t realize that the truely great photography done out west or abroad is the result of many return trips or even full-time residence in those areas. So I want to make great photographs where I reside or can go back to often. It is often said that writers should write about what they know, painters should paint what they know, I have found that to be true for my work as well. And, if the opportunity to go to Alaska presents itself – I’m there!
(c) Paul Grecian 2008 - www.paulgrecianphoto.com
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With a prediction for heavy rain and winds tomorrow, the Chadds Ford Days was cancelled for Saturday. It was a good decision but leaves me somewhat stuck. I’m here in the Brandywine Valley in a Best Western room and I will be here till Sunday morning. A decision about whether we will set up on Sunday will be made at 6:00am that morning. So I’ve got tonight and all day tomorrow with not a whole lot to do.
I did suspect this would be the situation, so I have reading and this laptop of course, and a television. There’s also a Border’s down the road, so if the weather allows driving, I may find my way over there as well tomorrow.
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My daughter Hannah started school this week. Her schedule determines my schedule. She’s up an hour earlier this year having just started middle school, so I’m up an hour earlier as well. At 5:00am I make coffee and read for a bit, get Hannah up at 6:00, make her breakfast and see her off. An early start means I get more done my noon than I used to and that’s fine with me.
This weekend (Sept. 6-7) is the Chadds Ford Days event in Chadds Ford, PA. Hurricane Hanna may determine my schedule this time. We’re watching it carefully and frankly won’t know for sure what’s going to happen with the show until late tomorrow (Friday).
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I’m back on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is where I come to do seascapes and work with plant and animal life that lives in the dunes, marshes and other maritime environments here. I arrived on Sunday, got situated and based on weather reports, began to plan outings to areas I want to work. First stop was Jockey’s Ridge which is the tallest dune on the east coast. A popular spot for hang-gliding and kite flying, this place is also interesting visually, and fun to explore. It was very hot and I did something I don’t often do, worked the location during mid-afternoon with the sun high in the sky and very harsh.
I have begun collecting artifacts of the beach that I find in some of the shops here and plan on doing some images of these subjects. I also checked out a couple of the local galleries to see what is being sold and the quality of the photography here. The photography offered is mostly by local artists. I always find it interesting how locals see things differently than visitors. The truth is though that there is not a lot of photography offered here and much of what is offered is by the same few artists.
I haven’t processed any images from this current trip, here though is one from last year using an 8mm circular fisheye lens.
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“Summer breeze, makes me feel fine” – you know that Seals and Crofts lyric right?. It was a nice day! I spoke to several people who said they checked the weather forecast for the week and selected today for their visit. The first piece selected today was Flowers for Him an 8×10 print matted to 11×14. I told the young woman who selected it that she represented my first sale of the day and that I was blogging about it. She told me she already knew.
Still 4 days to go with the big July 4th weekend coming up. I did finally get some funnel cake. Actually I split a serving of it with Sandy from Canada who is in the space across from me. When the show got slow towards the end of the day, I spent some time with Al (just outside the door of building A where I’m set up) solving the world’s problems. More work to do tomorrow.
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