Slots and Doilies

So we went to Vegas, we had a wonderful time, saw Christina's family, had some yummy food, and of course lost some money. Yes we played the slots, we were on a quarter machine and Christina did not have the hot hand, fortunately we only lost 8 large, dollars that is. It is a strange city, looking out from the 14th floor of the Golden Nugget you can see how the town is surrounded by nothing but desert (one s not two). Talking to a number of locals we got the sense that Vegas has been hit pretty hard by the recent recession, and we noticed that this was the least number of people we have ever seen there. One thing that was kind of fun that we did was go to a little "local" bar, I think it was called beauty, or something similar, anyhow it was closest thing that I have been too that reminds me of the local bars back home in Athens Ga. It was decked out in 50's and 60's salon parafenalia, in fact I sat in one of those big "perm" dome chairs. The DJ was playing 80's music, and it provided a nice backdrop for a trip down memory lane.

So we were there for about 3 nights, and we managed to get back on Sunday, in that we were very lucky because all of the flights were soldout, we had the air travel gods looking out for us because we managed to get the last two seats on the last plane out, flying stand by. Most lucky! So I shot about 4 rolls of film while we were there, and I am looking forward to getting them processed and sharing some images, again it is a very strange place!

Once we got back to Baltimore, we got directly back into our routines, Christina at SWA and myself teaching down at MC, MICA, and holding down the fort at the crib. But on Thursday I was able to break away from the norm to have a little studio visit with Seth Crawford. He is a 2nd year MFA student at MICA who just took down a wonderful thesis show, and is about to start thinking about what next. I saw Mr Crawford's show before we went to Vegas and I asked if we could meet to discuss the availability of a piece from his show. It is an image of Charles Bronson, of Death Wish fame, printed on a Doily. The image is spectacular and I fell immediately in love with it. Long story short it has been added to our collection and we look forward to visitors dropping by having some tea and pondering the importance of Mr Bronson's impact on American Cinema.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the lovely weather that has been brought in by the season of Spring...

Sweet!

So with the other major Sweet Holiday just passing, and it looking like Vegas will be a go I thought I would take a moment to put up an image that was made at the Telepathy Station back in 2006. We were a part of a show that was put together by Trifocal Projects called Thread and it was held at Artspace in New Haven Ct. Anywho, this was a drawing that came from one of the pairs of visitors who sat down and made a drawing. I have always enjoyed this image, and with the Weather being perfect for our trip to Vegas, and the sweetness of Chocolate still lingering from the weekend, well I thought it was somehow relevant. I hope everyone is having a good start of the week, and I will let you know if we hit it big...

"Low Fat Mayonaise" by Nick a visitor participating with the Telepathy Station at Artspace, New Haven Ct. 2006

Land of Temptation

So as some may or may not know, Christina and I have a soft spot for locales that are heavy on escapism, and if not WDW, then what better place to go for a couple of days than Las Vegas. Now I am not sure if we will in fact get away, last time I took some time off for a trip I ended up spending it in lovely Towson, but if we do manage to get there we will be relaxing at the Golden Nugget. Now this will be a first for us, we have stayed at the Rio, and the Venetian, but never downtown so it should be pretty exciting. Now if we do indeed go, which will be for a Birthday Party, I will be taking along the Mamiya 7 so I can do a little shooting, while we wander around. Neither Christina or I have much of a taste for gaming, but we love the shopping (window), the food, and the overall ambiance of the city. So wish us some luck in getting out of town, and I will hopefully be able to share some new work from Vegas. Until then the hopes and dreams captured in WDW will have to hold us over. Keep your fingers crossed...

"Untitled" from 32380

Options and Motives

So yesterday I spoke with some of my classes about cameras, we discussed how we can talk about them, describe them, how and why cameras differ, and some of the corresponding strengths and weaknesses. In doing so I showed them my antique 8 x 10 field camera. This thing is a relic, it is over 100 years old at this point, but it still more or less works. Anyway when ever I share it the students find it rather interesting, and usually are curious as to whether or not it still works, and in fact it does. This is an image from "Interior Motives" that I am particularly fond of. It was shot using Fuji Crystal Archive color paper as the negative, which I rated at ISO 12.

"Untitled" from Interior Motives, a 8 x 10 contact print