Presenting In Public

The Sun Is On Our Side

I was invited to give a talk at the Jackson Civic Art Association Tuesday night on my still life photography: what was my thinking, what were my techniques, etc. It was also a how-to for other artists to think about making their own still life paintings, drawings, or photos.

It’s a good way to really think about your own projects. If you have to explain the whole thing, from idea to execution, you get really intimate with your process. I feel like the talk was good for me and helpful for them.

And many of the group members did come up and compliment me on my presentation. “I really appreciate the length of your talk,” one lady told me. “Some people are up there for hours going on and on about technique.”

That’s another thing: can you show and tell in an efficient time frame?

In another life, I was probably a teacher. Coworkers at my last job nicknamed me “Professor Dave” because of my presentation style, and my love for getting up on a whiteboard and scribbling out thoughts and ideas. I see talks like the one I gave Tuesday as part lesson, part performance. It’s fun for me.

It was also fun to break down my inspirations, thinking, and planning during the still life project.

 

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Playing By the Rules

Art World Exclusives

Jörg Colberg at Conscientious Photography Magazine:

What if we finally thought about breaking out of that narrow little world I call “photoland”? If were really serious about it, that would not entail giving up all of the things we believe in so dearly. But it would mean thinking about a lot of them a bit differently. You don’t like Humans of New York? Well, try to do a site that does the same thing, but better (whatever your idea of “better” might be).

Colberg’s points are that (a) photographers might want to keep their art world exclusive (“Do photobooks, for example, always have to be luxury objects?” he asks), and that (b) nothing interesting comes from catering to that exclusive world.

If you want to take on city hall, don’t do it at Paris Photo.

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The Real Competition Is Inaction

No Competition In Art

Seth Godin in “Plenty of room on the island“:

So encouraging and promoting the work of your fellow artists, writers, tweeters, designers, singers, painters, speakers, instigators and leaders isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s smart as well.

Art is no place to be selfish. Share the work you love.

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Around the House, November Edition

The light is coming in sideways.

This could be the last “Around the House” I do for this home. By the time spring rolls around, we could sell the house and be living somewhere else.

We have a walker now. She’s padding around the place pretty easily these days.

Lots of sunny weekends to go outside and rake all those oak leaves. Then start a fire in the burn pit and make the whole neighborhood smell like Halloween.

Winter is such a slow photography time for me that’s it’s nice to get these last few days of decent weather in before the gloom settles on us.

Art As Protest

Coat the Feelings

If there’s any solace in this election, it’s that struggle and angst breed great art.

From World War I (Modernism!) to the Vietnam War period (Woodstock!), when people are upset, they tend to make great things. Heck, during the George W. Bush years, a lot of people took their protest and turned it into memorable work.

Art is coping. This time, I’m sure we’ll see lots of great stuff.

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Fear the Future

Election Day

Things I’m nervous about today:

  • The election
  • Should Hillary win, the kind of Congress she’ll get (and work with)
  • Voter intimidation, and disenfranchisement
  • My well pump behaving as normal
  • Climate change
  • The inability to print my baby’s first year photo book because Aperture won’t let you print books anymore

Things I can actually do something about:

  • Voting, including taking the kids with me
  • Watching the election results roll in on TV tonight
  • Flush my well water so it’s safe to drink
  • Vote for candidates who respect education, science, and the findings of scientists
  • Finding another solution to printing a beautiful photo book that I’ve already laid out and captioned

An action-packed day here in America as we elect our local, state, and national leaders for the next two to four years. I vote in a rural township hall, and usually only have a dozen or so people in front of me when I go to vote. This year, I’m taking the kids with me out of child care necessity, but I’m looking forward to exposing the kids to this important national ritual.

If you follow me on Twitter, you can probably guess at my political affiliation. After being nervous about the outcome for weeks now, over the weekend I finally resigned myself to trusting the national body politic to make the wise choice.

Frankly, I’ll just be glad when it’s over. And for all of us, I hope we pay less attention to this stuff until much later in the cycle, for sanity’s sake. It’s not healthy for America to be in campaign mode for 18-plus months. Six months would be plenty.

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Strange November

Strange November

November so far here in Michigan has been rare and lovely: mid 60s, sunny, and the leaves have held on for what seems to be a longer time.

But then there’s all the weirdness in my life right now: the whole family has been sick, we’re trying to sell our house, the election. To top it off, yesterday our water well pump gave up the ghost – while I was in the shower, with shampoo still in my hair, no less.

That’s life, right? The good and the bad. The strange and the secure. Everything is in transition.

Luckily, the nicer weather means more chances to make photographs. I took the boy to an area nature preserve yesterday for some hiking, just to get out in the woods. My wife picked up a bushel of random apples yesterday, so I may do a little still life project around that.

Strange November. It may get even stranger tomorrow night. Make sure you get out and vote.

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Black Light Machine

Speaking of music: Frost’s behind the scenes work on their song “Black Light Machine” was a lot of fun to watch. With all of these “here’s how the song was made” videos and podcasts, it’s great to see the musicians actually performing their individual parts.

And my gosh, that guitar section at 5:56. Beautiful.

Frost is becoming one of my favorite bands – and they’re a recent discovery, thanks to that Spotify / YouTube / Amazon connection. Great, poppy prog with virtuoso musicians. If you have a spare 26 minutes, let “Milliontown” wash over you. Every part and movement is perfect.

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