A meager life's work

On day 18 of a 20 day semester I found myself putting in twice the normal days work as I stayed quite late to learn how to tone prints. And as I stepped out of the classroom that day holding my two boxes overflowing with prints, my teacher said to me...

wow, that's like you're whole life's work you're holding there.

I supposed that was true in a way, and as I looked again at the overstuffed boxes, what seemed before to be an enormous amount of work, now seemed meager and deflated.

Though headway has been made, I was reminded that I am only at the very beginning of my journey. With all the discoveries yet to be made I think the beginning is an exciting place to be.

Someday perhaps two arms won't be enough to carry out the life's work of this girl.

Before I show you what I have been working on all of June let me first explain that this is from an ongoing project which is still taking form. Eventually it will include the wholeness of my family, but for now it is mostly consisting of my three little girls. I am in awe of the beauty that can be found within the sincerity of a young person. What they give you in terms of truth and depth is such an amazing gift. Especially so for the mother that has an all access pass to witness these things plainly and often, now to capture them is a treasure.

Again this is not the whole of my project but a small sampling of what was created within the small amount of time that was my summer school class.

note the sequentiality of the photographs as we begin in a public place, and move into more private spaces. The tracing of these moments being under normal circumstances unavailable to you as an outsider, now sit suspended here for indefinite amounts of time for your looking.























Now next time you go to photograph ask yourself this one question...

What does ____________ look like photographed?

and then answer the question with your experimentation.

within reach, if you're willing.

Tomorrow is my last day of summer school. It's bitter-sweet, with a little bit of a lean toward the sweet.

I'm preparing for some much needed sharing on here!

Till then...



oh yes~ Take your children to see Mr. Popper's Penguins, it's great. I laughed and laughed. Abnormally loud in fact.


<3 jill

For all you COCO LOCO{s}

Yes, I am speaking to all you crazy locals of G-town.

There's something kind of wonderful happening in Gilbert and I want to tell you about it so you can join me in supporting it as much as possible!!!

Do you like ART?

me too. like ALOT. (especially photography)

do you like how I put that in parentheses as if you didn't know? me too. I'm hilarious.

There's this place I've been hearing about for months now.

It's called Art Intersection.

Honestly for all the hearing about this place I haven't paid it nearly enough attention. We all make stupid mistakes sometimes right? yes, yes I thought so. I think there was a part of me that thought it was this mythical place where artists go to dream. Yeah, because for as many times as I've driven through downtown Gilbert I have never actually seen this mythical place of beauty.

Rumor has it they have a wet darkroom there.

It took getting an email from my fall semester teacher, Mr. Williams to get me to actually look for it online.

Yep. It's there. Darkroom and all. I feel so sheepish. And guess where!!! It's right where my kids old dance studio used to be. And that would explain why I never saw it.

Art Intersection is more than just a little intriguing. Not only do they have a darkroom but they have classes! And not just for you but they have classes for kids too! not just photography classes lots of crafty little classes.

I hope Mr. Williams doesn't mind me grabbing a line from his email and sharing it with you...

"Carol Panaro-Smith at Art Intersection teaches workshops with her partner Jim Hajicek who used to be the 19th century guru at ASU. Maybe they offer something that would interest you."

uhhh ya think??!!!! Yeah, that is why I finally looked it up :)

oh and you're gonna laugh when you hear this...

Last month I entered some of my photographs in a little contest we were having at school to have work displayed at Art Intersection. (still didn't look it up)

Totally won. (still didn't look it up)

HAHA! seriously right? let me rephrase 'totally won' because that was worded mainly for effect.

Three of my photographs were chosen to humbly hang with some of my fellow students work in the show... 'Through the Viewfinder: Works by CGCC Students and Faculty' from May 18- June 30.

I considered posting the three chosen photographs but then what are the chances I can get you out there to see them in real life? Not good. Thats what I thought. So no, if you want to see you must come bring your human body parts including your pretty eye balls over to art intersection.

Don't worry, I am SURE I will remind you ;)

So just to recap these are the things you should do...

check out their website.
follow their blog.
like them on Facebook.
enjoy their tweets.
sign yourself up for some classes.
sign your kids up for some classes.
come see my pretty photographs in the show from May 18- June 30.

got all that?

Don't forget to tell all your friends and neighbors about it too. Who knew Gilbert was going to get all artsy on us? Let's keep this place around!!!!!

you're the best! thanks.

<3 Jill

overlook | looking over

The semester is winding down. I was happy to have a break from the usual get up at 6 am, out the door by 7:30. Drop the kid off at grandma's house, smell like chemicals for the rest of the day routine.

I mean its fun but breaks are nice too.

Yesterday me and Lucy went with my class to the phoenix Art Museum. I was surprised she wanted to go with me so bad. Though I know it was partly because she wanted to see the 'blob' for herself... tell ya later. Still I couldn't resist such a sweet little girl begging to experience art!

We explored the dickens out of that place and then near the very end unexpectedly came upon what I like to call the hall of glorious light.


and so we played a little longer...




then I made a bad movie to share with you :)

and by bad I mean low res. - no skills.

Saturday I will be spending all day in the darkroom finishing up my final project.

Should be loads of fun.

{ wanted: whirled peas }

I feel like I'm always in this great race against the sun.

and I lose 100% of the time. I say that alot I know but seriously!!! It seems to be quite true.

It's a real bummer.




Can you tell where were headed with this next assignment?

Discovering the thrills of shutter speeds :) !!

I took Kassidy out to work on this little effect. It was really too late. Sun was down. I am satisfied with about one in 20 shots. Those aren't great odds for a film shoot.

Oh dear.

cross your fingers for me!!!

p.s.- this was not a recommended or suggested effect in anyway... I just kind of like it :)

p.s.s- 100% might be a slight exaggeration... maybe.

not literal irony. That's MY motto.

You might want to prepare yourself...

to be super un-impressed!

Ha!

I thought I would share a bit of what I've gotten to do in my photography class.

These are my photograms...

I got a little excited and did 3!



Mr. Williams had us bring objects from home for these :) Can you tell what I brought?

let me help you out here!

a key. super cheap forever 21 necklace. 70's looking glass I found at Goodwill a while ago. scraps of fabric. Pretty little fabric sack I pack earring and bobby-pins in when I go on vacation so they don't scatter in my make-up bag. and marbles. some of which are in a plastic sandwich baggie. Yes katie, YOUR marbles... good for more than just the 'great jar of bravery' I borrowed them for :)

I had so much fun that day!

Mr.Williams gave us an assignment. I took one look and was like. pshhhah. This will be so cinchy. NOT! Haha!

I struggled with it like crazy. He gave us 12 words. We were to capture each idea on a 24 exposure roll of film. Thats 2 tries for each word. BTW... he added that they weren't necessarily literal subjects.

There were words such as 'a tree' 'a house' which seem easy at first glance but in reality were hard because um... well I don't like to be generic. (I have been known to over think things from time to time) and then there was 'light itself' which I wondered how that would look black and white...

and 'irony'... no thank you. I'd rather not.

We don't even speak that word in my house anymore!!!

needless to say my irony photo is not literal irony!

Did I tell you we went to Sedona and Jerome for labor day? I thought it would be perfect. I could get my homework done and relax all at once.

again... HA!

I should've known. Well anyway, just so you know...

my photos are fabulously generic :)

But the great part is that in school today we got to develop the film!!!!!!!!!!!! I was just happy to see something on there! Seriously, you never can tell with film. Well I can't anyway.

I tried to scan the negatives (because I am antsy, and I wanted to see what they look like if I inverted them in photoshop)

Yep. My scanner doesn't do transparencies.

I suppose I will just have to wait for Monday to see what I got.

You know what?! I am so happy right now. Like floating on air happy.

ahhhhhhhhhh! Time to go mop the floor and bring myself down to earth just a bit. Earth... yet another one of my words.

nighy night!

cheese and tomato with a side of nostril rings

If I could choose just one word for today it would most definitely be

Sweltering!

This sweltering days is the day I happened to find myself at school for the first time in like, ummmmm... 10 years?

Wow. That makes me feel really old. But wait, community college style schooling, closer to 14 years. Crazy!

Here's my little synopsis of my time at college today...

Showed up with scant time to spare. Parked without a parking permit. What can I say? I like to live on the edge... not really though, I just didn't want to be late because I was really excited!! :)

Sat front and center so I could stare the teacher down right proper. He didn't notice.

Sat there kinda awkwardly for near 5 minutes whilst the rest of the class filed in.

and guess what! I WASN'T the oldest person in the class!! Woot! There was this one guy that was noticeably oldish. He gave me a wink and a nod, I think he was acknowledging our common condition. That being people over the age of 20. But just for the record oldish dude... no more winks or nods please.

When Mr. Williams started talking it went alot like this...

This is my first year teaching here, he said. I have previously taught at ASU, the labs here are much nicer

Yeah Yeah!! I like where this is going :)

At this point you can't wipe the smile off my face.

I was sitting next to Taylor. He has a liking for body piercing. Really that is just a guess... he had something shiny and loopy in his nostril. He is the only person I took any real note of and mostly because of his shininess. And maybe because he was sitting next to me. And I could smell him alot.

very smokey shiny little fella.

and then just like that Mr. Williams piped up again

This should be a short class, we can't really do anything without cameras.

Wait what? You people didn't bring your cameras?!?!?!?!!

*cue smile fading*

further along whilst reading from 'required materials' list

you guys will need to purchase a camera, I recommend thePromaster 2500PK with 50mm f/1.7 lens.

Wait what???? You people don't even have a camera yet??!?

oh and by the way, there's no class on Wednesday... take that time to gather your materials

and then it was over, just like that.

What? I feel so jipped off!

Sooooooo I packed up my camera and headed over to Tempe Camera to gather all the other supplies on the list. it was a long list. $191 long.

In all fairness it does say in bold type and underlines: $$$ Photography is very expensive!!! Expect to spend up to $400 for materials

So I guess that includes the camera?

But don't get me wrong. I am still super excited for the days that class is actually in session, which apparently is next week.

Remember the post I did a while ago with shots of Natalie that I did with my photography group? I kind of forgot to show you that one image I talked so highly of. Remember? It's the one Rhonda took.

Still. LOVE.

Here it is for you guys...



Something about it I just kind of adore :)

I had other postings planned for today but they will have to wait until tomorrow. Just think CHEESE.

Everybody loves cheese right?

well... until you eat too much that is. Then you suddenly don't.

Dear Lolo,

Do you remember that cheese and tomato salad I made you that one night? Remember how it was literally just cheese and tomatoes drizzled with oil and vinegar? Still one of my favorite salads, I mean if you add the cracked pepper and basil its better but we do what we can with what we got.

love, Jill

p.s.- That has nothing what-so-ever to do with the next post. Just a happy thought I'm passing along :)