All Hallow's Eve 2009

... and the date has some delicious memories from over the years! Students are dressing up today, but it is the creative teachers that are the most fun to watch with their costumes! Stay upbeat and keep the balance as it makes you who you are...

Sunrise and Photography

Awesome is the best description for the sunrise as we passed the Taunton River Bridge in Hancock/Sullivan yesterday morning. I remember back in the 70's capturing a shot of purple sky and clouds on that same spot, but it was a different bridge and the sun was setting... I think I have a slide of it somewhere. Mother nature offers us so much if we just take part in it. I honestly think I could live anywhere except a city and be happy.


My Photo One class is processing their film, and it is so exciting to see them marvel at the results. Yesterday was contrast filters and reading negatives/contact sheets and the first print of the semester was shoes on the floor, and I may post it with permission at a later time. I do have a few foot draggers, but they were grounded yesterday, so I'm not too worried about them keeping up with things. It's a great class with about six students sharing leadership roles. They digitize all their work and do a Keynote for their portfolio task as well as turn in all assignments on the computer.

Kayak Sunset

I had to go out in the kayak last night after I got home from school. It was such a beautiful day. I ended up being struck by the color contrasts between the orange of the setting sun and the blue of the water and of the sky. Everything just seemed to kind of "pop" in terms of color, so I post these photos as is (or "are" as proper).


The sun set and I paddled back from "2 rocks" as the light dwindled thinking how much of a miracle each day is and wondering how the spirit that moved me to experience that sunset event in the bay was connected to the rest of the world. Maybe here?

Ahh, Morning and My Art II Students!

I am so lucky to be doing what I do and still love it as much as I do, and this morning, even though we were a bit later starting than usual, just made me feel good to be alive. The sun was just peeking over the trees as we came over the bridge onto the Island and the highlights on the trees and homes across the cove were very impressive. That low, early morning light is so dramatic that it makes my emotions become very "edgy"... too many people just drove by all this stuff this morning without even really seeing it!


My Art II class is so awesome! These guys work hard, take themselves seriously, and do thoughtful and careful pieces. They are so creative and imaginative that they encourage me and themselves constantly.

It Feels Like Drawing

I spend a part of each day doing some sort of drawing, but this weekend the 2 drawings that I did on a cardboard scrap panel echoed the works I had painted at haystack last month, but with a bit more order and a lot more delicacy. I ended up with finishing details in colored pencil, which I really enjoy as a tool, but hardly ever use as a medium in a work all by itself.

The first two photos are details of this weekend's work, a two-sided piece that folds and is free standing. I started to think of function that the work might have and I saw it sitting on a table and offering some sort of privacy for a part of a room or a table top. In my case it would probably cover/block a messy section of table. The other two pictures are of the sharpening scraps from the last colored pencil work on the piece and a photo of it standing on my studio floor.

Haystack Show in the Wing Gallery

Well, here we are again, the Island Art Teachers with a showing of the work most recently from Haystack. It is a great mix of media, solutions to arts problems, and the example of teachers as artists in the process of being lifelong learners.
The Artist's Statements that accompany the work are insightful explanations and doorways to the working methods and materials the artist use and explore.
In the above photograph their are several students observing and exploring the work in front of them. I am so glad that I teach what I teach!

WOW! Morning Light and "The Feeling"

What a view of the sun this morning on the way to school. The cross in Lamoine on the tree line from Trenton and the sun just coming up through the trees and the resulting shadows that were created as we were going over the bridge this morning all worked together to create a glorious morning. It is time things moved into a brighter side, and I am more than wiling to embrace the light!

October Self-Portrait?

Working with images right off PhotoBooth, I came up with a couple of quick "mask and layer" versions and so will post one here. I'm also working in the studio today and doing a "backed" piece on corrugated cardboard from a drawing. The numerical concepts are coming into my vision and I'm seeing numbers significant to me at the least on a series of levels, but haven't wanted to include dates and such at this point.
My face represents my life, it reveals many things about me, but to those I love and those who love me, it is my presence that is needed, not just my ghostly (close to ghastly) image.

Finding Things & Not Fearing the Dark Side

I think part of my impetuous approach to everything, but especially to my art, is that I love the revealing, the "new" that comes from seeing things in a different way. Nothing is "old" or uninteresting, but circumstance and perception is revealing constant insight to whatever lies in wait for visual discovery. "Finding" does not just rely on the acuteness of a person's perception either, but it goes into the receptiveness of thought and the opening and clearing of the mind to allow all of those "things", those ideas, feelings and loves that we accumulate during our daily wanderings to leap forth and delight us in discovery.
The dark side is something that I have experienced in the past, am experiencing as I write this and will most likely continue to experience in the future from time to time. Sure, I get lost in it and forget how disappointing the end results from too much time in the dark can be, but it never stays once I figure the source... and coming out of the "dark side" is often so refreshing and enlightening. An exception is that my niece is having some tough nights (dark side dreams and thoughts) from the trauma I imposed on her through my recent medication lapse into coma. I wasn't there to see it, but I am still feeling second-hand effects from drawing the spirits of family members into the dark side.
So, here's some stuff... the first photo is simply a "lifting" of lighter colors from a garden photo of the meager corn stalks in our garden (but yet a "fall" and Halloween-ish symbol) with PhotoShop and then dropping them on a black background, period. I can see all kinds of figures in those stalks dancing around and enjoying their own "light". We should all do that more, eh?

The second image is of one of the trees on the shore that I shot last night waiting for my two brothers-in-law to get in from an afternoon sail to Bar Harbor. They were about 2 hours after dark because they were working against the wind on the way back and even that died out once they got into the bay. I had my camera in "nightshot" mode and got some "spooky" pictures. I put a portrait of myself under that image and got something I sort of like... drawn into the trees, the earth.

A Leg?

Randomness is not always so random. At times even the most random event can become a circumstance of coincidence, pushing me on to wonder if that might also be the definition of fate. I sometimes (note sometimes) believe that fate has an inherent good purpose and that if things are always closing and opening, then there is bound to be that goodness come from deeds and expressions, and it's deeds and expressions that have become dear to me.

Autumn (Fall)

So I asked my photography class to find some images that represent the concept of "Fall" for this weekend. I am excited and looking forward to seeing what they come up with, as my meager shots seem somewhat ordinary, and I am sure there will be a few that surpass my attempts, at the least in terms of originality. Why am I not feeling very creative today? I think it is probably because the garden and putting it to bed has been in my mind this morning. I am offering several photos in an attempt to at least come up with one that stands out. Gee, I never thought of that, put up one good one and a bunch of so so ones so that the good one looks even better? Nah, I'll post the ones from yesterday that I like.

The Summit

Dan G and I got up early enough this morning to see the view from "the summit" here at Point Lookout. Wow! This place is remarkable and sitting here in the main room at Erickson Building, cup of coffee nearby, and getting ready for the day. It should be informative and fun!

There are moose everywhere here, and this morning I realized that there are only a few that are real, but what a marvelous environment!

Bridge Block

Oh yeah, a new adventure on the way to work with the construction at the head of the Island. We had advanced about a half mile from the original stop when I shot the above photo, in which I wanted to show the full effect of a long line of traffic just kind of sitting on the bridge. I'm sure there's a lot of grumbling and such by participants in this adventure, but it slows us down, gives us a chance to look around, and I am most certain that the end result will be an improvement over the "clog" in traffic that has existed for years here at the entrance to Mount Desert Island.
Slow down, look around and "smell the roses" is the least stressful way to pass the rest of the world that is inexorably moving by and allow room for passion to progress.

Bumper Dismantling Debris

The early morning work before I took Matt to Bangor consisted of dismantling my bumper from the parts that it tore off the frame of my truck when it let go. All of the connecting bolts were half inch and single piece lock nuts, and very rusty, so I didn't know if they would come apart without a great deal of force. They did come apart, but with a great deal of heat and pneumatic tools. It is a long story and the point is that I got this interesting shot of the debris, totally random, but somehow framed around the cardboard slab I used to protect the floor. The tools I used are there as well as the debris of rust and parts. Beauty is not always beautiful.

Yesterday ended with me having an uncomfortable feeling inside my body. I couldn't define exactly what was bothering me, but it was gone this morning, so I'll do what I do best with things that tend to disturb me, I'll ignore it.

Somehow Disjointed...

The last few days, and my last attempt at blog post from school, have been up and down, scattered feeling so I fell back on the old right brain and worked in my studio for a while. Selfish of me, but I need to settle myself sometimes too, and the many things weighing from home and school (such as repairing truck and getting assignments graded and posted) are always that unless respite (lucky me I still have my mind, huh?) comes my way, and when it doesn't come my way I go find it. The creative process almost always cleanses me, and by association I hope it helps those around me as well.
Time I take in the studio is mine and no one else's, so it is ultimately selfish of me when there are so many important things needing to be done here at and around the house. I will take a biggest part of the day tomorrow for Matt as I am going to Bangor (melancholy) with him for a movie and some music.
My studio is a pigpen right now (see picture) and I should take time to clean, but that won't happen until things loosen up a bit. Another conference next week, maybe a start on the truck, but we'll see.