the Hoffman program

So I'm taking a walk in the beautiful neighborhood, (it's a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Could you be mine?) and I come upon the quiet resort of White Sulphur Springs. The bronze plaque tells me it's the oldest health springs of its sort in California, founded in 1852 and providing a healthful retreat for the wealthy San Franciscans of the day. Today, it is home of the Hoffman Process but today, it looks quite deserted. Albert and I are strolling along, he, enjoying the numerous squirrels while I am enjoying the utter lack of humans. The fantasy begins as we turn a moss-strewn bend in the road and are overpowered by the sulphuric odor. It's cool and silent and smelly...What if Anthony Bourdain and his crew were sitting in that hot tub?, after a day of shooting in the snooty Napa wine country?, enjoying a soak?, a smoke? and a heavenly cab? and what if he asked, "Would you like to join us?" It's a F A N T A S Y, OK?
The Hoffman Process turns out to be some kind of new age thing--actually called the Hoffman Quadrinity Process--by which one comes to the site, spends 8 days with other like minded people and fixes everything that is holding you back from being your perfect self. You must abstain from alcoholic beverages, non-prescription mind altering drugs and sex for the 8 days. For the process participation, the non-profit institute will charge you $3995.
Neither Anthony nor I will be attending.

Book Launch

Just Ducky

Here he is, fully put together. This was a rather zen hour of assemblage.

luscious buttons

A little tease from my soon to be released book, Very Sexy Buttons. This bakelite gem from the 40's almost looks like caramel, begging to be consumed.

Thanksgiving

This is one of the largest horizontally mounted stained glass windows, from the Chapel of Thanksgiving in Dallas, Texas. The artist is Gabriel Loire. I'll visit with family in Dallas just after finals so I'm going to make an effort to go see this. While the spiral is both ancient and contemporary, it is it's continuum symbolism that most attracts me. On and on......

Just Ducky!

My adorable paper toy--it's Just Ducky! Pretty clever solution for posting an image since I'm not able to access the template from PS with the wonderful ill-functioning computers in the Digital Media Lab.

Truly scratch

So I'm getting a little better at PS and getting the hang of going fast--o.k. faster. I can see where this could have great practical application if one was designing a textile or wallpaper as options are really limitless. I still need to figure out how to use the color in PS so that it translates on the web. The color for these designs looked very different in the lab.

In walking three minutes from my house, there's this great little shack--a little ol' place where we could get together...But the view from my living room, even before coffee, is pretty sweet. Our latest assignment in Photo is obsession--how to choose just one--and do multiples in B n W?

From scratch, almost

Poor cat looked so lonely up on that hill, but now, mouse has come to play. There are so many possibilities and so little time.

Self Portrait

So here I am with my little digital camera and borrowed tripod. This is my life right now: going to school, trying to figure things out and on the mobile with my daughter back east who's doing the same. The interior is my "office" with the embroidered "K", flamingo paint by numbers and songbird lampshade from my own hands. The wall color is called Santa Rosa which is ironic because that's were I was born.

Portrait of The Other

I took this in Medford and was really interested in capturing the bike rider before he crossed the boulevard. I like how the woman is in focus but so much smaller than he is and she's standing on the "other" side of the road. There's the obvious race and gender differences but also the more subtle generational differences-he with his hoodie and cool shorts and she--kinda frumpy, middle age. I think it works well.

Portrait of Bobho

I love this photo because he didn't know I was taking it. It had been raining nonstop and very chilly for July, then when the sun came out, so did his joy.

On a Photoshop Roll

So how much fun is it to just hit artistic filter, choose one, try a different one, make an adjustment here or there and voila! MASTERPIECE! Vanessa never had it that easy.

Dia de los Muertos

About 4 hours of work and a little over 100 shots later, I captured a spirit! Those paranormal experts had better watch out.

Day of the Dead

Photoshop breakthrough! I know it seems simple, but just figuring out a little bit of layers and masking made this collage (the missing one) do-able.

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Alphabet Soup

B is for Being exactly where I am

Alphabet Soup

Q is for Questioning the sanity of this exercise

Alphabet Soup

M is for Much Much More which is what I have to learn.

Alphabet Soup

D is for Drink which I'm going to go have

Alphabet Soup

E is for Elegant which barbed wire is not

Alphabet Soup

K is for Kristen who's frustrated with technology and the time wasted in the name of "making work easier"

someone else's dreamer

I thought this was a very effective marrying of an album cover to the model. When it is first glanced at you don't quite realize what you are looking at. It works quite well because of the tonality between the woman's dress and the background of the album. I haven't had a lot of exposure to the flickr files and finding it quite vast.

This is Beautiful Dreamer. She is part of a sculpture you can see from my show titled "Lost and Found" opening next week at the Thorndike Gallery. The sculptures are mostly ceramic with wool and found objects--she's completely needle felted and is dreaming on a ceramic river while the world burns around her.

So here are all those glorious plants in a real setting. Look how the colors of heather echo the colors in the brick. I love how the stone wall could have been built to control the heather but its exuberance could not be contained. The photographer filled the frame with land and, as no one can be seen, creates a sense of isolation.

An amazing display of heather at the Berkshire County Faire last month. This image doesn't do justice to the vibrancy of the plant material. The top and bottom rows were more pinky red blending into the orangey hue, but I especially loved how the one last yellow plant was so eye catching.

Here's a beautiful origami gnome. He's really just a shell of his former self and I feel a bit like him trying to learn photoshop. When you go into images and search for "gnome", it's a little scary how many images are returned and how many variations of the lowly woodland creature there are. I think the shadows in this photo exacerbate the creepiness of this static figure. I wouldn't want to meet him on a moonless night. It's also interesting how many times you see the red/white combo--I mean she could have chosen any color to photograph this against but went with the classic.

Greetings from West Putford!

Just back from the Gnome Reserve where I snapped these guys with their pants down. Usually shy, they didn't seem to mind too much as they are accustom to tourists and their roving cameras. What can I technically say about this photo? It show's a good sense of humor both from the standpoint of one woman spending 30 years of her life collecting and displaying the lowly garden art (having amassed some 1000 pieces) and another traveling some 5000 miles to see it.