Category: art

Hallmark and My Dreams – 1


So, I be in Greenfield, starting another part of my life. Sharon’s home. At 10:00, or so, she said she had done ok with the separation due to school – ate well, did things, felt some tender and loving thoughts that resulted in a phone call and voicemail which I missed while washing the tub. On my own, but not really; she directs me from afar, advising me to care for myself and my surroundings.

Needed to drive safely and arrive in tact and on time. Nothing more important than being safe and healthy for school and our reunions. Who does this? We be flying blind; building a relationship by being apart, so we can be together and interesting as we get ready for the ubiquitous hospital bed.

Had the three pages of Jay Maisel’s Monster that I got at his workshop in 2010. Had done some of the exercises, many of them, but hadn’t focused on his semi-rhetorical questions. Put simply, he asked, “why do I do this?” I know and I don’t know, you know. Put a camera in hand and I am me and so many of these other peeps who stared through lenses. I don’t see if I don’t see an image; it is like when I was an attorney, which I am not anymore, by choice, when everything that I saw was a case of American injustice.

Here we go. I gots so much to see and learn. I be going to learn my strengths and weaknesses. Who knows, they may not be the ones I think. I know I love to shoot, but I also like to see the prints (I brought almost all of my best portfolios). I don’t know what my ultimate goal is. I know I want to learn lighting and posing/shooting studio portraits. I can talk to the subjects; I cannot shoot people whose attentions I don’t have. Is that true; who knows. Yup. I wish I could draw, but I would do anything to shoot and print big.

I have given up all my outside interests other than my wife and my health. I have to make this work, you know. Photography is the thing that dreams come from.

City Hall Park Art


Larry Glen and Kevin couldn’t decide if the pieces which look like furniture were art. They had no trouble deciding that, on this cold day, it wasn’t a good idea to sit on either the sofa or the chair. Both are made of metal and it was 5 degrees.

I mean, what is art? The chair image ain’t the chair; it represents the chair, lacks the function of the chair, has its design, but it ain’t real. It must be art, eh? Too cold, though to talk with these connoisseurs about the topic. It was too cold to even have a camera; I shot with Canon S90, which I kept in my pocket where it fogged up.

Kevin came from Barre. “Don’t drink the water there,” I was told when we came to VT. He has stage 5 colon cancer. In town to go to the doctor and see his social worker, he hopes that Make a Wish will send him to Japan for his last fling to see amime and the life there. He don’t care about cold. He’s still alive. Go live, my man. You have courage.

 

Larry and Matt Sweet have a tent. No way these guys do the shelter thing; too many rules. Know how to camp in the tent. Keep out the drafts and cold air.

Joe knows some kids, maybe college kids, who let him sleep in a utility room. They give him beer, pot, and food. He offered me some of his pina colada. Not exactly a drink I would drink, assuming I would drink in the park on a day like this, even if I were thirsty or going through withdrawl. I associate pina coladas with warm weather and tropical breezes, not sub arctic cold.

Connor and Country. I cannot be sure. They were looking for someone or something, they thought.

Keith came out for tobacco. I could not see coming out for something to smoke. A hospital appointment, sure; you got nowhere to go or you don’t know where you are, sure; but tobacco …. What a country. We all get a vote, too.

Damn, it was cold. And the cold doesn’t usually bother me. Tomorrow, colder. Joe said only the really hard core would be out tomorrow. We will see.

 

 

Amy Winehouse, Dead at 27

 

 

What did she say in F*uck Me Pumps, “… don’t be upset if they call you a skank.” Only two albums, one of which I, yes, me, own. Great ink. But don’t compare her to the others who only made it to 27 (Cobain, Janice, Jimmy, Jim, Brian Jones). I still cry for Lennon whose longer life would have made the world betta, betta, betta. When your obit can only refer to one great song whose point is that you should have gone to rehab and didn’t, I cannot mourn her, especially with what happened in Norway.

 

Paul Fixes a Guitar

He wanted to speak photography. Has a camera received for doing body work on a car, in addition to $300. Has my card on his coffee table. Chased me down for ablums I left in a bag on the bench, next the woman who thought I might shoot her image and the guy, Greg, who wants to leave but who may not have told her and who didn’t want his image which she took, and kept working on his guitar.

He used a tool which a friend had given him that day.

Stanley Bleifeld, Sculptor, Dead at 86

I visit the Lone Sailor regularly. Watch him watching the water, waiting to begin his mission. Stanley Bleifeld knew him better than I could.

He stands in the cold.

His eyes always open.

The wind sometimes picks up his jacket which is a composite of five naval tops. Some in the service don’t like seeing his hand in his pocket.

The sun plays tricks with his skin, some of which comes from famous Naval vessels.

He likes the sun, too.

Birds don’t always show his broad back respect.

Not his position to complain.

Len Spier Educates “Art in Photography” in Burlington VT

Len Spier shot Burlington before he presented a talk to members of Meet Up, “Art in Photography,” entitled, Watch Your Back. Now 83, he now aims a G10 due to a stroke suffered five years ago. Energetic and poised, he hasn’t lost his love for images or his desire to educate photographers that they are artists whose work is worth protecting, even if they aren’t professionals. Trained as an attorney who made a living at litigating and shooting, he is uniquely qualified to speak on the interstices of art and law.

This being his first visit to Burlintgon, everything attracted his attention. Aware no train service serves the Queen City and hailing from a subway driven metro area, he shot a freight train from in front of the antique store on Flynn Avenue.

Seen here in front of his the Dark Room Gallery where he would deliver his talk, he posed with one of his pictures, Polka Dot Woman, that hung during a recent Photo Space Juried photo competition. Ken Signorello, director of the Gallery and the event coordinator for the lecture stands behind the image.

27 people showed up to hear him, despite snow and sleet. “The copyright law is in the Constitution….Make sure to put your copyright on your works. Your rights accrue when you create the image. Protect them.” He gave examples of clauses to put in contracts when selling rights to the images…. Be aware of all the social networking possibilities.” “You need to get a release if you are going to use the image for trade or commerce.” More time was needed, but he covered a lot in a clear, concise, understandable way.

He had the floor. So, after talking about copyright and the rights of street photographers to shoot, unimpeded in public areas, he showed some of his works. Here, he discusses dueling toilets he discovered in the lavatory at a Court Street Law Office in Brooklyn. “I’d seen toilets next to one another in the army without anything between them; … but here, I picture the lawyer and the secretary facing one another, one talking and the other pen in hand.”

The next morning, Ken and Len share thoughts about the previous nights event. They look happy, because the message was delivered so generously and in good humor. Very well received, if you look at their faces.

A pure tourist, he visited Middlebury, Addison County to experience rural VT. He looked at cows, a covered bridge, an abandoned house (not that all unfamiliar to a New Yorker), and lunched near the angry Otter Creek.

Before returning to the Big Apple, Len examined an old Russian Camera that Dan Scott bought on E-Bay. They discussed film, 120 film.