I was asked to donate a signed copy of fly away to the Massachusetts College of Art & Design’s annual Photobook auction. I forgot to sign it before I took pictures so will do that plus doublecheck everything and perhaps add a few more details today!
Here is a peek of it. The online auction is open to the public and will be held November 30th- December 4th. When I have the link I will add it to this post! 🖤
I was delighted to be on the cover of a local neighborhood magazine this month. It was a lovely welcome back to the west side of Cleveland.
I was asked to share about my photography journey, family, and volunteer work for the article. Thank you Beachcliff Beacon- Jason, Christine, and Rachel!
The colors of summer I noticed today…. delicate white blossoms hanging from deep green leaves… soft shadows falling on floating pink petals… pale sky blues and yellow greens colliding with rainbow light…
I recently finished book 9 in my fly away series of 25 unique handmade artist books. This book went to a dear friend in California.
Each book contains this poem from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll that I type onto antique paper with my 1930’s Underwood Standard Portable Typewriter;
"In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;
Ever drifting down the stream,
Lingering in the golden gleam -
Life, what is it, but a Dream?"
- Lewis Carroll
ARTIST STATEMENT, fly away
There is a very short period of time that everyone is a child, and only so many summers we can experience as a child, before they "die", and we must become adults. In this series, I focus on the fleetingness of time, and the dream like world my daughter takes me to, as she escapes into her imagination in the outside world of our home, the Ohio landscape. Through multiple exposures and a technique called freelensing in which I hold my broken film lenses, detached from the camera, I have tried to create the world which she imagines and inhabits. One in which time is irrelevant and where fairies do exist, and she is Queen of the Butterflies. It is an escape to wonderland, a dream world she flies away to, and always comes back.
You can read Douglas Stockdale’s lovely review of it here
I am working on book 10 if you are interested in purchasing one!
I sell all of my artist books here!
xo
I found these recently and they just made me happy. I tend to see in black and white, especially when I am working on a body of work, but I love these pictures in color too.
“ I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way.”- Georgia O’Keefe
It was such an honor to have my artist photobook, “fly away” included in The Photobook Journal’s “Interesting books of 2019.” You can read the list and see all the other books chosen here !
Here are some pages from book #8 “fly away” that was just finished for a collector in California. They are unique handmade editions in a series of 25. This is the series artist statement:
Fly Away
”In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die; Ever drifting down the stream, Lingering in the golden gleam - Life, what is it, but a Dream?" - Lewis Carroll There is a very short period of time that everyone is a child, and only so many summers we can experience as a child, before they "die", and we must become adults. In this series, I focus on the fleetingness of time, and the dream like world my daughter takes me to, as she escapes into her imagination in the outside world of our home, the Ohio landscape. Through multiple exposures and a technique called freelensing in which I hold my broken film lenses, detached from the camera, I have tried to create the world which she imagines and inhabits. One in which time is irrelevant and where fairies do exist, and she is Queen of the Butterflies. It is an escape to wonderland, a dream world she flies away to, and always comes back.
This is a series of 25 and books 9-25 are still available to purchase here
Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
now please follow the circle around to Lea's beautiful images of Martha's Vineyard here
Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
Please follow our circle all the way around the world. Next up is Nikki Frettsome's wonderful work here, https://www.theedgeofelsewhere.com/single-post/2017/08/29/Into-Something-Better
Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
You and I spend early mornings as the sun rises and evenings as the sun fades together almost every day. The day the sun stood still at it's highest point, summer solstice, I lay in the grass watching you chase dragonflies and moths. Our place where the sky is so wide and blue, and you have run countless times through the the grasses we have called "the field of light."
now please follow our circle around to see all the beauty in nature freelensed around the world. Next up is Nadia Stone http://www.nadiastonephotography.com/into-something-b…circle-june-2017
Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
In these tangled woods my two youngest and I have found an enchanted bit of quiet and beauty. On this evening it was dripping with light. It was beautiful, but it was not perfect. They fought, one stomped away pretending to leave us but came back, I felt a little irritable as the school year is winding down and this is the last week. There is always so much to do out in our real world and it weighs so heavily sometimes. But I stopped and sat at the foot of tree bathed in the prettiest light. They picked up sticks and made each other laugh, we found a toad, my daughter taught our new puppy tricks, and our old dog came alive in the woods like he always does. For a moment between 12 year old boy jokes that were driving me nuts, my son let me take a few close up shots of his sweet face. Last summer we spent a lot of time going for walks in these woods. On this day, they did feel a year older, changed, as I did, because, we were. It was a chance to look at their lighthearted faces glowing in the yellow light and remember to breathe, to laugh. I hope we spend more time here this summer and maybe even get their two older brothers to come with us. It really is a place where our "thoughts (could float) light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees" and "into something better."
Now please follow the circle around to my dear friend Heather's beautiful work, http://heathermrobinsonphotography.com/blog/2017/05/30/into-something-better-great-smoky-mountains-north-carolina-usa-may-2017/