Imaginary Portraits...

... and the power of the imagination on the mind and on perception have been fascinating me lately. I guess juxtaposing my ideas and imaginary faces that might represent people I know while I imagine how their lives are led is somewhat weird, but I find myself looking at myself and wondering why more lately. Hmmm, must be the approach of middle age, eh? Anyway, I've drawn about 20 of these portraits of myself and am posting a few here. The rough ink style that I use is very spontaneous and gives me a sense of introspection even with the faces of others and the ones I've drawn that I don't even know who they are.

Ducks!

Ducks in the bay as I looked out the window this morning, and I followed them with the camera from the living room window. The warmer weather and the rain has opened up the bay to all the sea fowl and they flock to where the fresh water washes into the salt water. This pair was very close to shore, the tide was high and they were right in near and around the rocks. The design of their bodies and the beauty of their movements through the water fascinate me.
I got up early to do school work (check out the condition of my desktop in the snapshot below as I was in the middle of a video rubric that students and I built together) and then when David got up he and I worked on the oak stairs, installing trim and preparing treads. I didn't go outdoors all day. Bummer.

Push Pins

Push pins are everywhere in my room. So much "eye candy" stuck up on the wall that is supported by the push pin factor that I don't have much more than a few square feet left to fill, and I'm working on it! I like the photo for this post, the texture, the contrast between the plastic and the metal points and the "blue one".

Paper Towels...

... are probably the material that I have in my hands the most during the day, from dyes to pastels to pencil there is always a reason to wash my hands and then dry them. I've used paper towels for collage, paper mache and numerous other arts projects, but it never really occurred to me before today to take a look at them as photographic subjects. A random crumpled piece became a point of interest, and here I'm posting the best one and the worst one.

Oak Grain and Bananas

Yeah, I know... pretty random, but that's my life, random as you can imagine. A lot of stuff just goes by without noticing, but when some stuff does notice me I feel as if I have to notice it back. That's almost always when I am drawn back into the beauty of things. Beauty draws our attention, does it not? Here's what I have to post from today, shots of bananas on the counter this morning and grain from a knot in the oak for the stairs. The grain really is beautiful in many ways, depth, color and visual texture.

Rain and Fire

The morning commute was not at all slippery as the rain was coming down lightly mixed with an occasional snowflake or two, but it was pretty just the same. I'm posting a windshield shot that somehow feels familiar, but posting nontheless.
So really tired after back in school today and I will make this short. We saw a car just starting to catch on fire on the way to my niece's birthday party tonight after supper, and boy! It didn't take long for that fire to completely take over the car! I posted that video to YouTube... and below.

Shop Weekend

David and I spent the last couple of days milling out the lumber for the finish stairs here in the house. Looking at just the treads yesterday (30 of them) and how much they cost retail ($30 each) I think we once again realized what it means for us to be able to do all this stuff ourselves. The oak for the stairs came from a tree that fell to the wind back in the late 80's down on the Bayside Road in Ellsworth at "Uncle" Oscar Remmick's. While there were quite a few knots in the stuff, we took the longer pieces and then the stair treads and the little pieces and got pretty much all we need to do the stairs. Working in the shop is kind of fun because you can imagine the beauty of the work you are about to do before it is complete. Care taken in sanding, fitting the pieces together and finishing them all really makes the end result beautiful. I took a bunch of shots of the wood and working today and maybe I'll post some on FaceBook. I'm putting off until the last minute the work for school that I wanted to accomplish while vacation was going, but I didn't have a major load and we start the week off with a faculty meeting, so... The first photo on the right is a "sweep" shot with the HX1.

Light Snow But The Ice is Gone

Light snow last night, deer tracks in the driveway, and no ice in front of the house. It is hard to believe it is February out there as I was doing some work on the boat trailer and was in long sleeve t-shirt. Beauty is still there, inside and out, and I think I would always find it no matter where or how I might be. I never feel like I accomplish enough during these breaks from school, but that's more a matter of expectations I think. Some photos from today.

Dreamcatcher & Nails

I finally got my truck back onto the road, all inspected, new tires and everything up to "snuff". I've missed driving it although the Toyota is so much better on gas. I made the dreamcatcher a number of years ago and have just been adding stuff to it for a while now. I think it brings me luck, the karma I have to earn.

I went into the shop early this morning and the eastern light was interesting in a number of places. One that fascinated me was the nail boxes, and the sharp shadows drew my attention. I took a dozen pictures and am posting one I cropped to fit with the shadows. Today was a good day, but Matt was troubled.

More Ice

I would guess that the price we are paying for all that rain at the beginning of last summer is no snow now, but for most people I have talked to that is fine. The panorama above is from the ice on rocks on the shore in front of the house. Wow! Too many prepositions in that sentence.

The Sony H1 that I used to shoot the pans in the last couple of posts does a pretty good job of stitching frames together. There's something intriguing about that wide shot.

Fire and Ice, The Mud Creek & Dan's Wall

Some shots from today coming through Mud Creek at sunrise for the late start at school and in room 123 with the low sun coming through a window to illuminate several wall pieces. I really loved the sun and ice and the extremes in the sense of color and the plays of warm and cool. Some good dialog in the department meeting this morning on students reflection of their art and how we might measure the artistic growth of our students.

Lunch Box on the Way Home

I usually don't manage to get to all of my lunch eaten during the day, but whatever is left over makes a good snack for on the way home. This shot came to me while I was looking to decide what to have first tonight. There wasn't much light so the interior dome provided illumination, and I flipped the photo over so the fruit looks like it floats. I ate the orange first.

Torrey is Home!

I don't see him enough, and when my youngest son visits from Portland, it really is a nice feeling to have the boys (men) back together. Jen, Torrey and I went up to the Grange Hall (Lynne is renting it and will run a "thrift shop" with a wide assortment of items for sale) so Torrey could get a look at it. He has been taking and posting many pictures in the last month or so and I am very impressed with the quality and range of the work he has been showing on the web recently. You can check his stuff out at http://www.facebook.com/torreyalanjohnson?ref=nf and see what you think!
The photos I'm posting were taken at the Grange Hall this afternoon, really cold, but it hasn't been used for years and the look is one of sad disrepair and age. David and I will most likely be working on it this spring to get it ready to open. I'm sure Torrey will be posting some of the photos he took as well. The child's jacket among the scattered puzzle pieces kind of summed up the feeling of the place.

An "Ice" Smile

The day was cold and the night proposes more of the same, but when I got home the light was of such a quality that I couldn't resist the pull of the shore for pictures. I found "An Ice Smile" when I noticed ice stuck to the side of a large rock on the (frozen now) beach. It looked as if the ice had formed as the tide left or as the snow that was on the rock melted away. Who knows, but it looked interesting so I took it. It wasn't until I uploaded and looked at it that it resembled teeth or a smile to me.

The other shot is a low angle one that looks across toward Spruce Lodge. The low camera makes the snow/ice seem much bigger and it is as if the landscape is being overtaken. Cool is the operative word here.

Trenton Sunrise

On the way to school this morning, I hung the camera out the car window and shot this photo of the sun just rising. Hmmm... there is something about the power of the sun, isn't there?

The Pig

I can't believe that it has been so long since I last posted something here, but my only excuse is that the semester has changed, I have found myself "right out straight" lately, and with new students and new classes my focus on school has become more intense. We will have a couple of teaching interns come down to the school this spring and my colleague Dan is going to take one on as well. It should be fun!
I'm working with disperse dye in my Fiber Arts class and my post here is a process demonstration I did for the class. I really like this medium and students are starting to see the potential with it for their own work with several pieces already taking a nice pathway. Gosh, I love my work!