Sunday, July 24, 2011

good morning sunday :: n˚18








 So it's been a rather hectic week!  Car issues, scheduling issues, getting ready for a visit from my kid sis and her family.  You know, normal summer stuff.  Plus, it's been hotter than hades!  Monday's shoot went extremely well.  It was actually cool that day.  I spent a late afternoon with three beautiful and talented ladies who will be heading for the lights and action of Los Angeles in a few days.  The images above are just a few of the pictures I made that day.  I do have a few more on my flickr photostream.  More to come.  So all's good.  Okay, now a list.  A short one may I add. 
  • So speaking of photostreams, I really like this Flickrite's photos.  
  • I'm not too sure what I think of this new Blogger layout.  Wondering if it's me or my Mac that's freaking out on this thing.  
  • This is such a neet magazine!
  • Loving the new album by this talented gal!
And wow, yeah, I feel like there's definitely more to share with you but my brain is seriously having issues.  Thinking it's in need of some seriously defragging.  That is a word right?  Well friends, I hope you are going to have a fantastic week ahead.  If you've got some cool things to share with me today, let me hear about it!  

Sunday, July 17, 2011

good morning sunday :: n˚17



Hello friends!  It is Sunday, not morning however, but still Sunday.  It's been a great day so far and I hope that yours is as well.  This last week started off rather slow, per usual, but the pace picked up during the weekend.  This week will be even busier.  Yay!  Ideas are flowing and I'm moving with it!  Okay, so on to the list!

  • I'm enjoying this new to me wedding magazine from "down undah"!  It is chock full of lovely photographs, the kind that make you want to get remarried all over again just so you can recreate some of the beautiful decorations and celebrations featured on each page!  Neat thing is, they also have a blog!
  • The research I did for my previous post about photographer Tim Walker has really helped to get me inspired!  I am seriously SERIOUSLY dying to get my hands on his book Pictures.  I know I've told you that already, but just in case you didn't know.  ;)
  • Last Friday, I had the pleasure of working with a young model by the name of Marley.  We took a trip up to North Topsail on the northern most tip of Topsail Island here in North Carolina and all I can say is that it was gorgeous!  The above photos are just a few of the images I took that day.
  • A new photo shoot again tomorrow!  More on that once I have pictures for you.
  • I think it would be so neat to get one of these and see what kind of photos you can make with it. 
  • Since we're talking about toys, I'd also love to get my hands on this camera too!  To view some photos taken with this adorable little toy cam, check out the Diana Mini Love flickr group.
  • Can you believe it's already August.  Seriously, can you? 
Alright friends, there will be more to share with you this week, especially with fun projects in the works so. . . here's wishing all of you a creative and joy-filled week ahead!  'Til next time.


Friday, July 15, 2011

the inspiration that is tim walker


Fashion is the dream department of photography.
~Tim Walker

Extravagant sets.  Interesting characters.  Poetic imagery.

British fashion photographer, Tim Walker, has been wowing the readers of Vogue magazine, and the world around, with his dreamlike photographs for more than a decade.  A few years ago, I published a post here about Mr. Walker, and today I wanted to reintroduce him to you.  I find a lot of inspiration in hearing the processes in which artists create.  Recently, I came upon two interviews of Tim and thought that you may be interested in them as well.  Here is the first:


The second interview was done by Penny Martin for SHOWstudio's In Fashion series.  

Last year, the famed photographer has also taken on a new role:  director.  The Lost Explorer, his first film, is a 20 minute short based on the story of the same name by author Patrick McGrath.  The story tells of a girl who discovers a dying man, an anthropologist from Africa who has camped out behind her family's home in London, and the sequence of events that take place upon her discovery of him. Unfortunately, the film has only been seen here in the US in private screenings, mostly in New York.  However, should the film's trailer compel  you to see more, Tim has put together a book of stills from his movie.

With a newly revamped website, admirers of Tim's work will not be disappointed.  It features more galleries of his work, such as new projects and portraiture, as well as video.  A definite feast for the eyes!

Have a great weekend my friends! 



Thursday, July 14, 2011

artist :: etsuko ichikawa

A mesmerizing film that captures the meditative process of pyrography as done by artist Etsuko Ichikawa.   Thank you Anthropologist for going out and finding yet another inspiring individual, and sharing her brilliance with us!


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

.the artist's voice :: an interview with erica steiner.


It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for  force and beauty of its process.  ~Max Eastman
 

When I think of the word reverie, often times the first thing that comes to mind are the imagery of paintings by California based artist, Erica Steiner.   I've been following Erica's work for several years now and over time, her art has simply continued to inspire.  There is such a spiritual quality to each of her paintings. The eloquent connection between the artist's hand and soul is evident with each brushstroke, and every detail, as if the painting itself is a beautiful conversation.  And perhaps this is why I adore her artwork so much.  Not too long ago, I finally decided to ask this talented sweetheart to share a bit about herself and her creativity with us.  Here is what she had to say.  [click on the images for a larger view]


KEThere are many that say they knew very early on in life that some day they would become an artist.  Is this true for you?  At what point in your life did you realize you wanted to become an artist and what motivated you to pursue it as a full-time career?
ES:  Deep down I think I always knew I had it in me, but I definitely haven’t always been as in touch with that knowing as I am now.  Although there were times  in my youth when I was passionately devoted to making art—I’ve loved art, I think, since birth—it was not until I was in my late twenties, hiking on a mountain trail in Kauai, that I had an epiphany, a moment of clarity, and realized that it was time to make art my career.    Since then, things have been simpler—not always easy, of course, but simpler, and happier—because art gives me such a strong sense of purpose and continuity, a refuge, and a kind of psychic root system that keeps me grounded.



KEYour paintings are a wonderful explosion of color and texture!  One can easily get lost in your detail work.  Tell us a little bit about your style.


ES:  I try to achieve a sort of romantic or lyrical coming-together of artistic genres: abstraction, ornamentation, landscape, representation, with subtle elements of street and folk art, informed by an expansive, anthropological sensibility, and an essentially Californian, vibrant, Technicolor spirit.  There is definitely a strong decorative aspect to my work, which I consider essentially feminist at its core; my work is also very concerned with integration, with synthesis, with bringing together disparate stylistic elements whose origins span time and space (combining, for example, aspects of Aboriginal painting with elements of Victorian fashion, or images inspired by medieval Catholic illuminated manuscripts).  The influences can come from anywhere and are continually evolving; they come through experiences I have in my everyday life, or simply, from the ether.



KE:  Every artist has a Muse.  What would you say are your greatest sources of inspiration? 


ES:  I grew up on a farm in northern California which was fairly isolated, and I think that in a way, I felt more connected to nature, to land, than to people.  The land—our land, our farm—was so familiar, so intimately ours… not because we owned it (I don’t think people ever really own land), but because we belonged to it.  Perhaps for that reason, the natural world has always been, and probably will always be, my most vociferous muse.  These days, since I’m living on the coast, it’s more and more the ocean, the movement of it, the dangerous beauty of it that inspires me; the more time I spend here, the more its energy seems to inhabit my work.  

KE:  Your recent collection of work Heaven is Not The Wide Blue Sky has just recently been exhibited in Los Angeles at Edgar Varela Fine Arts.  How would you say this new series differs from your previous work?
ES:  I think because just before I started this series, I moved to a place that is both rural and relatively close to the city, the new work incorporates the ever-present influence of nature, as well as, for the first time, more industrial/ human-made landscape imagery.  This was a big change for me, and one that I had resisted for a long time, but the images were persistent in their wanting to be painted, and I finally relented. The result is a juxtaposition of geometric and human-made elements with the more feminine imagery of rebirth and renewal that has long been the mainstay of my work (lush floral imagery, psychedelic and textile-inspired patterns, gold leaf).  In addition, the work addresses the rapid environmental degradation currently taking place on the planet, incorporating occasionally catastrophic or apocalyptic imagery, including erupting volcanoes, nuclear reactors, and flooded land and city scapes.



KE:  In any of your travels, is there one particular memory you have that stands out in your mind? 


ES:  There is one, sort of hauntingly beautiful memory that comes to mind. I was nineteen, and staying in a losmen in a remote agricultural region of the Indonesian island of Flores.  It was a clear, chill, early November night, and, having arrived in the village after sundown, I decided to go out for a walk and explore.  By flashlight, I found a path through some nearby rice paddies, which lead to a footbridge and beyond it, a patch of forest that obscured the sky.  Finally, I found myself in a clearing, and spread out in front of me, a cemetery flush with candlelight, altars of flowers and photographs and clusters of saint’s candles flickering in glass jars.  The graves were not marked by stones but by wooden crosses, but still it seem­ed to me that they were very old, and as my eyes gradually adjusted to the light, human figures began to take form, standing, kneeling, embracing one another, and processing quietly like apparitions among the graves.  Later I would realize that I had encountered the ritualized celebration of the night when the veils between the worlds are said to be at their thinnest, All Saint’s Day, the Day of the Dead.  But in the moment, the beauty of the scene was so potent that it was all I could do to take it in.  It was a truly a dream-like, waking moment, a moment when I felt reality give in, just a little, and let me in on a secret.   


KE:  For fun, what is your all-time favorite movie?
ES:  I don’t think I could ever choose a favorite movie, but the movie that comes to mind, the first movie that really captured my imagination, was the infamous 1970’s musical, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  It was a spectacularly awful movie (renowned to be one of the worst ever made) based on the songs of Sergeant Pepper as interpreted by the Bee Gees.  My Dad, who was, and still is, a huge Beatles fan, took me to the Plaza movie theater in Petaluma to see it when I was five years old, and I fell madly in love with the music of Sergeant Pepper, my first passionate love affair with a work of art. 



KE:  Any words of wisdom?


ES: 
Speaking of The Beatles, they taught me this when I was little, and I still think it’s true: All You Need Is Love. (Think about it.)

Find more of Erica's work, as well as dates for upcoming exhibitions, by visiting her website.  Also, be sure to check out Erica's  Facebook page.  Thanks so much for hanging out with us today friends!

 

Monday, July 11, 2011

.summer lovin' :: the threadsence way.




 







Once again, the dynamic husband and wife team who make up Stephanie Williams Photography take us out on a gorgeous day in San Clemente for Threadsence's new Summer LookBook.  Carefree and light, these images make me want to smear on some sunscreen and just have a play out in the sun!  Pages and pages of California Dreamin'!  Watch the "behind-the-scenes" reel from the shoot below! 
 Photos via Threadsence Facebook