Poetry and a brief life update

I know I have sadly not updated in a while but I blame my crazy life schedule.

Having a coke with you by Frank O'Hara

Here is a little inspiration for the afternoon. I've been absolutely obsessed with this poem since one of my professors played this clip in class. It even inspired me to write something of my own.

The Drive

It is February,
and the sun through the glass window
gives me a kind of backwards feeling
The season of sundresses should be over
but I'm still rushing with the taste of escape,
with the melody of summer.

You look at me and say "Gorgeous"
and the sound mingles with the pressure of the open window
as my hand rides on the waves of wind.
A soundtrack for the musk of smoke and beef jerky and oranges
wrapping around us to create a tangible environment,
a weight to the air that sticks to our skin.

I look at you and admire the strips of light that frame you,
and how the drama of it all
makes it seem like we are in some kind of marvelous film
something low budget that leaves everything unresolved at the end,
similar to real life.

----

It feels good to be writing again. I somehow lost the joy of writing from years of assignments and required readings. It felt good to hold a pen to paper and jot down thoughts on what was happening around me, what happened before, what may happen later. SFAI's open studios are a week from tomorrow. There are a lot of things that need to be done in that time. Namely I need to figure out what I am doing with my space and do it. I'll post pictures after the event next week.

End of my back East adventure

 My trip to New York finally got eventful today. I planned on going to the Brooklyn Museum of Art but it wasn't open so I headed to the Guggenheim. They have a Maurizio Cattelan piece titled "All" which is really just a full collection of his work up until now. 130 pieces hanging from the ceiling in a cluster of confusion. Here is a link to the New York Times article on the exhibit. On one hand it was really interesting to see all the pieces, but on the other hand it was so distracting to view the worksin this salon-style. Photos below. I really enjoyed going to the Guggenheim, though. I'm almost ashamed to say it but that was my first time (even though I have been to the Met about a million times and it is neighbors with the Guggenheim). I specifically enjoyed seeing the Kandinsky pieces and this one Roy Lichtenstein painting (shown below).

 

Girl with tear - Roy Lichtenstein

Kandinsky - The White Border

Wednesday I'm going to the Brooklyn Museum of Art (specifically to see the Judy Chicago- Dinner Party piece) and then going shopping in Midtown with the brother. Then flying back to SF Thursday. What a world wind tour. More pictures to come. I'm having a good time here.

Happy Holidays...and other things

The semester is over! It ended last week on Friday, I handed my last paper in on Saturday and then flew out on Sunday. Talk about exhausting. I finally feel rested and ready to start tackling things that I have been putting off, especially since I'm pretty much done all of my holiday shopping.

I know the progress has been slow, which is all my fault, but I should have a mess of new work up here in the next few days. I'm excited to be home but unfortunately I haven't really been doing anything. I leave in the morning while it is dark for work and get home in the evening after work and, surprise surprise, it is already dark. It kind of hampers any photographic excursions. Saturday I am definitely going to do something, though. I have not decided what yet but I will adventure if it kills me. At first I was considering taking a trip up to Rochester to see the Eastman house which has an incredible collection of photography.  However, it is a six hour drive and the reality of the situation is I haven't seen my parents in five months and I can't justify spending a night away when I am only spending a few days with them. Also, it is cold. Therefore, the trip will have to happen over the summer when I have a little more time.

I may just drive to Ridley Creek State Park and walk around with my camera. Sunday I'm photographing Livi, my favorite two year old model, and her friend Gianna. I'm looking forward to taking some fun photos of them.

The moral of the story is that work is to come.

Inspiration Board for new project

I have recently been photographing women who are on the outskirts of the core gender identity because of the way they wear their hair. Hair is very interesting to me because it defines an individual so much. If a woman has shorter, cropped hair they are somehow less of a woman. The few women I have photographed all mentioned that they had been confused for men on several occasions and it is, for the most part, directly connected to the length of their hair. Why is that hair is so deeply connected to the societal and self-identity of women?

[Frida Kahlo. Self Portrait with Cropped Hair. 1940]

I find this painting by Frida Kahlo to be very interesting as well. She painted this right after she divorced Diego Rivera for the first time. In the work she has written the lyric of a Mexican song: "Look, if I loved you it was because of your hair. Now that you are without hair, I don't love you anymore." It shows her estrangement. She is also shedding her gender in this portrait as previously she painted herself in dresses etc.

[Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1965]

While not completely related, I find this performance by Yoko Ono to be very interesting. There is something very vulnerable of having something cut off, especially when someone else is doing the cutting.

All of that being said, I think I'm going to do a very intimate performance with just a few other people. I don't want to give too many details because I haven't mapped everything out, but images and a video will come.  Women are defined by their beauty and as my research and interaction has led me to believe, a woman's hair is very deeply woven into that.

I have become more and more interested in performance art and using the body as art. Marina Abramovic is incredible at this with allowing the audience to interact with her body, sometimes even violently. In my own work, I'm not interested with having the public interact with me but I am very intrigued by the idea of body as art.

I am also very interested in the idea of body modification as art. Orlan is a premium example of this. Her work, while extreme, really show the core of desire especially during her plastic surgery performances. Please be warned, this video is a graphic depiction of plastic surgery!

While I am not quite on the same trajectory of either of those women, I do find a lot of inspiration in the path that they laid.

Mid-term retrospective

My seminar professor, Jack Fulton, was discussing this photograph in class on Monday. He was trying to show how even the simplest of ideas can become spectacular and emotive images. It was also meant as motivator to for our whole class to produce more.

[The Unmade Bed/ Imogen Cunningham/ 1957]

This image really works for me and is truly a good motivation to start cranking out more work. More of Imogen Cunningham's work can be seen here.