Because It Matters.

I know, I know, I have not posted in AGES!  But it is summer vacation and soon I will have a “What I Did on My Summer vacation” post, but right now there is something a bit more important.

As everyone knows, Detroit is bankrupt.  Financially is the proclamation for now, but bankruptcy of a different kind has taken place long before that.  The people of Detroit have suffered from a decline in self-esteem, worth, value and significance brought on by corruption, racism, poverty and neglect.  Now I am not here to step further on top of what many shout out as the hell hole of America.  Quite the opposite.  I will be the first to shout out about all the beautiful places in Detroit.  The smaller, magical spots that people overlook and the grander more obvious places.  One of those places is my favorite place in Detroit.  A place I take others, or get lost in all by myself.  A place that fills my eyes with delight and in a turn brings tears to my eyes.  Good tears.  The DIA.  Never been there?  My header is looking out onto Woodward from the front steps, just look around “Le Penseurs” buttocks.

You don’t have to be an artist to appreciate all the beauty and mastery dating from primitive times until now.  There is something there for everyone, every age, every mood, every heart.  because of that, it is in integral place in the heart of Detroit.  Its architecture alone is a gem in a neglected mine that is being dusted off and re cultivated.  A bright spot in the gray matter.

It hurts my heart in a way that no metaphor can mimic to think that any of these valuable pieces of history could be sold to pay for someone elses mismanagement.  The DIA did not mismanage, the city did.  I’d like to say that I get it, but I don’t.  I get that if I was a retired or current city employee I would be pensive, to say the least.  But I will never “get” that the idea of taking what is great, from a city that was once GREAT to raise it to mediocre is the only option.

I am hardly an eloquent speaker of what art means, but I can tell you it must mean something since the cavemen were creating it way before our more refined versions ever arrived.  it was there before words and numbers. It was there to tell stories, to celebrate and to document history.  The DIA is an enclave of history, stories and celebrations.  it is one of the most important places to help this city to raise to GREAT again, and when things in this city are valued by the city, then people start to value the city and when that happens everyone starts valuing the city, and when I mean the city, I mean everyone in it.

Never been?  Here is what you are missing….

 

 

Seriously, Calder, Kandinsky, Rivera, Rothko, Warhol, Van Gogh, Matisse and Detroit’s own Charles McGee…what are you waiting for?  Go, give your heart a lift, give the city a lift and for goodness sake, if art is the greatest asset to the city, make it a great asset to you.

Getting Back to Me.

As the new year progresses, I have thought more of what it is in my life that I want to change, or more so, what I want to realize.  I believe that the passions that we develop when we are younger are there for a divine purpose.  Everything within us is there because God wanted it to be, and He will use it for His good.  It has been hard for me to even consider that idea in the past, as I thought that my passions, my desires were really self-serving and that it was “un-Godly”.  I mean what purpose for the greater good of mankind can art or photography or French or becoming a Broadway star be?  When I started to recognize that the things that are innately in me are what I need to feed me, feed my soul, I recognized that Gods intention is not to restrain me, but to set me free.

Art can help someone in their dying days.  I have two pieces of art in a  Hospice Facility.  A friend, whose aunt recently passed at the facility, recognized my work.  I took over 40 free portraits this past Christmas to those who could not afford them.  I am still waiting on my big break on Broadway, so stayed tuned for that venture.  As for French, well, I can only hope to be able to use it in some way.

I remember when I was little of wanting to be several things, as all children do, we run through the gamete of ideas.  When I was 7, I wanted to become a nun.  That one only lasted 24 hours.  I was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau when I was 10.  I wanted to become a  marine biologist, then I realized I didn’t really like the ocean much.   I wanted to become an artist, and to be honest I never thought I would, but I am.  I also dreamed of being a photographer for National Geographic, but without going into any dangerous places.  So, in the past months I have realized that I still want to be a photographer in the National Geographic style.  And maybe, God willing, I may get that opportunity in the shape of a documenting a mission trip, and if its to Haiti, then I can use my French!

Drive By Shootings

I have children.  4 of them. Ages 16, 11, 5 and 4.  And I am an artist.  Being an artist and having many young children makes creating restricted. I do not have my own studio, so I had to come up with ways to create without leaving a trace.  Not just because of messes, but because I did not want my children to get into anything.  When I received my camera 5 years ago I realized that I could create, have little mess, take it with me and even include them.

Some times the need to create comes upon you in strange places and odd times.  Having my camera with me helped me to have that outlet whenever the need arrived.  As a parent I find myself in the car.  A lot.  So I began placing my camera on my shoulder to capture what I saw and what the camera saw.  Here are some the first images that came out of this experiment.

Memories

No, I did not forget to post.  I could not.  I was in LA.  So,  “Memories” is the theme.  I was off making memories in a constant warm climate.  It involved a lot of sleeping, which I probably could have done in Cleveland, but the weather was better.  I saw this odd display that I had to capture and it looks like a mixed bag of memories.  Probably some pretty bad ones.

Happy Birthday to ME!

This past Saturday was my birthday. I’ll give you a minute to put it in your calendar so you don’t forget next year.  Go ahead, I’ll wait….That’s it June 16th….Great!  Can’t wait to see what you get me next year!  This year, however, my husband took me to the Detroit Institute of Arts to view the Patti Smith photo exhibit and take a pottery wheel throwing class.  I have never done pottery before and absolutely loved it.  It was so meditative and therapeutic.  Very much like yoga, and yes, absolutely no ego allowed!

 

The day began with the Patti Smith exhibit.  Her images evoked emotion and when you read the back drop of her photographs, like all art, you can appreciate it all the more.  No photography was allowed in the exhibit, but I found the one that was most emotive for me.

Jim Carroll’s Bed

Seemingly quite benign, but the this photo was taken a couple of days after September 11, 2009, the day he died.  His bed just slept in and unmade.  It brought tears to my eyes.

However, everything gets a bit more cheerful after that.  I, of course documented the highlights of the day for you and for me.

Matisse brings joyful tears to my eyes.  Seriously.

One of my favorite paintings at the DIA.

One of my top three favorite artists, although not one of my favorite pieces by him.

The above and below are pieces by Charles MCGee, a Detroit artist, and a very lovely gentleman.  I had the pleasure of working with him when I worked at a private art gallery.  Feels like quite an honor to have worked with him.

Vince hits right under Henri Matisse for me.  I try to emulate and copy him (you did notice the name of my blog, right?) but never succeed.  Just amazing.

 

Am I the only one who wants to start whistling right now?

The painting that Patti Smith spoke of in an interview I read about the exhibit….

coloring outside the lines….

My wheel creations, painted, unglazed and yet to be fired.  We have to wait like TWO WHOLE WEEKS!  Reminds me of what it was like to be a kid waiting for Christmas…

This is Eric’s creation.

Thanks to I-94 construction, we had a nice scenic detour en route to our hotel…..

View from my hotel window…a good, good birthday.

Week 24

It has been 24 weeks since I started the photo challenge.  Seems like less, but I recognize I am not quite half way through and my photos are not getting me to get those great shots-more like just hurry up and find a shot and make it work.  I guess I need to be a bit more conscientious.   However, I did play with the theme a bit this time.  Instead of posting the invariable picture of a father with a child, like this:

I opted for being a wee bit more creative, and offer up the father of abstract art, Kandinsky.

There is much more underlying my Kandinsky selection, but I’ll get into that in the next post!

 

 

 

Catch Up #2

I can’t believe I have to do a part 2 to this.  I promised myself I would not fall behind again.  Its a good thing I am so easy going.  I really only cared for a short bit.  Now if I promised someone else, well then I would have felt bad for a little bit longer than that.

So we missed about 3 weeks of challenge posts.  I did in fact take the photos, they just never made it to the blog.  Flickr yes, the blog, no….The first missed was the topic “Mother”.  Pretty simple.

The second was “Dirty”.  It could have gone in so many directions, but I am all about capturing my here and now and dislike contrivances. SO my here and now, dirty.

 

And lastly, “Motion”, which normally would have to be contrived, but this was happenstance.  I love happenstance.

I promise I won’t fall behind again, or at least until it happens again!

Inward seeking

I know i am behind.  I decided to skip one of the weeks, do the next week, and eventually get the shot I missed-confused?  Yep, me too!  This past week’s theme was “looking through” .  I am much more of a documentary photographer , then someone who will set up a shot.  I dislike working in the studio and find that the main objective of photography, for me, is to capture life in that moment(s).  So, I captured, where I was and what was around me, in that moment.

First Friday Redux

This past weekend marked a second First Friday event in Adrian, MI.  I was able to capture some images of great kid art done at Adrian College’s Kids Art camp.  A camp my older daughter has participated in a few times and has asked to do it again!  I was really impressed, particularly with the glazed ceramic pieces!  The display of artwork was presented in the upstairs of Copeland Furniture.  The light was amazing in the late afternoon and was thinking I wouldn’t mind having it for my own studio!