Where to start? Just prior to getting this new website complete enough that I can call it ready to view, I was traveling cross country en route to the artist residencies where I'm living and working on my art this winter and spring. So I've got images from travel, new art, and work in progress. It's nice to have a space to be able to share images as I make them. What to share first?
I'll start with a couple of images from my cross country drive, in which I stopped places I'd not been before (and having done a lot of cross country drives, I do have to plan to make that happen, to see the things I'd missed on other routes, other trips). Here's White Sands in New Mexico:
White Sands National Monument
And rather than just photograph it as it is, I couldn't resist putting my typewriter in the sand. Because who doesn't play with one's typewriter in the sand when visiting national parks at dawn? And who, in this digital age, doesn't travel with an old Underwood manual typewriter? It seemed to make sense to me, yet I was the only one doing anything of the sort.
I think writer's block often feels like this, but maybe that's just me?
It was nice to have these images to get started with when I arrived at the Penland School of Crafts winter studio residency. It had been so long since I'd had access to a darkroom, and having new film to print is always a good way to get one's hands back into those chemical trays after some time away.
And having ended up in that part of New Mexico, I couldn't resist going just a bit further out of my way to stop in Roswell, New Mexico (hey, the UFOs went further out of their intergalactic way to stop there, so my detour is minor by comparison, right?). Who could possibly miss out on all the alien tourist attractions? (hint: not me.)
This fabulous collection of painted figures (what, you mean they're not real?) is along the highway just south of town. I love it, love it. If I ever have a house with a yard, I just might want something like this in it. Right next to the church sign with my own (non-religious) messages on it. Yes indeed.
So, I've got typewriters and aliens... so this blog is officially off to a good start. You need to fit the aliens in at the beginning. It's awkward inserting them later on, but you'll always be sorry if you have to leave them out entirely, right?