Remember when we didn't have to hoard our polaroids?

An enlargement of a Polaroid transfer from 2004. Part of a series titled "The Closet" where I used macro photography to document items in my grandmother's closet.

Wanna hear something cool?

I'm a consultant at the Newcomb Art Gallery - the museum at Tulane University. I'm re-designing their internship program, which goes along perfectly with my dissertation topic. We're also going to use this to apply to present at NAEA and AAM. Wish me luck!

(ps - you did know that I'm working on my Doctorate in Arts Administration with a Certificate in Art Museum Education, yes?)

Karla's Place

I was able to go into this former home just hours before the tear down process began. Two months later, all that's left is a pile of rubble.

I search out lonely locations, looking for the evidence of human existence. To see the entire set, click here.

DIxie Brewing Company in New Orleans

I recently visited New Orleans. My friend was apartment hunting for his move next month and I wanted to explore the city. Fellow artist James Mazza joined me on the trip. We happened upon the abandonded Dixie Brewing Company.

According to the internet, "In 2005, the Dixie Brewery was severely damaged when New Orleans was flooded during Hurricane Katrina. After the area was dewatered the brewery complex was looted with much of the equipment stolen. The site of the brewery is currently slated to become part of the planned LSU/VA hospital complex. Planners of the complex have pledged not to demolish the building as it is architecturally and historically significant."

To see the rest of the set, please click here.

everyone needs a little sunshine

Back in November, I donated three pieces to the Masters' Mystery Exhibition in Miami to benefit the Florida International University Art Department. Yep, I'm a good person. And it seems that someone actually bought one my pieces! I got an e-mail sent through the form on my website. Excellent! A following e-mail included this tid-bit:

"I am just beginning a personal photography collection. Yours was the first in the collection that was not taken by my father or myself! I'm really interested in architecture, but not simply buildings. I'm really interested in the stories they tell. Your piece is just that!"

Color me flattered!

I promise I've been too busy to blog.

Phew. It's finally the end of the year. Happy days are here again! Or at least a few relaxing days.

Things at 621 Gallery continue to go well. I donated several pieces of art for the auction and they made the gallery a pretty penny.

I donated work to the 3rd Annual Masters' Mystery Show at the Ritz-Carlton in South Beach, FL. It was held during Art Basel week and all the proceeds benefited the Florida International University art department. It featured over 1,500 original postcards created by over 300 up-and-coming and world-renowned artists from 31 countries as well as a plethora of celebrities. I also exhibited in the Snap To Grip exhibition at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts in LA.

My first semester in the Arts Administration Doctoral Program at FSU was amazing! It was thrilling to be in a department where everyone else wants to be there. The professors are fantastic and exceptionally helpful! I've been writing a lot about wedding photography and the ritual that surrounds it. But my favorite project was designing an international juried digital photography exhibition as a fundraiser for 621 Gallery. The board accepted my proposal and I’m working on doing some more research, designing the website, advertising (basically all the backend fun preparations) as DIS course for the spring. We’ll see how that goes. Be on the lookout for how to submit!

I've been doing some interesting work and am looking towards my dissertation. I've been writing about what I know. And what I know is the American white wedding and wedding photography. Crazy, I know! I am a walking talking wedding knowledge source! The latest one I did was on the iconic white wedding dress and its role as a cultural artifact. As strange as it sounds, it's fun stuff! There are all these remarkable factoids to be found! I'm looking into taking a few courses in the anthropology department. There's a Symbols and Rituals course that looks like the cat's meow!

I had a bit of a catastrophe along the way. The Saturday after Thanksgiving I fell down some stairs and severely sprained both of my ankles. I promise I wasn't dancing down the stairs and I've forbidden my friends from doing anything similar. I was in a wheelchair for 3-4 weeks and am hobbling around now. I’m passing the snails at present but don’t see any marathons in my future. Which is ok because the only kind of marathons I did before was running through the rest of a museum 5 minutes before closing.

We watched ‘The Corporation’ in Tom Anderson’s Social Foundations course. It’s one of the few movies I think everyone should see. Get on it! It can be found on DVD at Video 21 in Tallahassee. No, that is not an adult film store.

sometimes things in your head just go *click*

Last weekend was the 621 Gallery Board retreat. Not only did I get sunburned at the beach but I also became the Vice President of the not-for-profit gallery. Fantastic!

I also heard that one of my images made it into the Southern Places, Southern Faces juried exhibition put on by SlowExposures in Concord, GA. It may sound like some little town's show but I want you to check out the jurors. Julian Cox and Debbie Fleming Caffery! It all clicked in my head tonight and I must confess to some jumping up and down ecstatically. By the way, this is the image that got in.

"untitled" no. 3301
16x24 digital C-print

You can hardly tell online that there's a few tiles beginning to fall off the wall. What you don't notice until you are face to face with the print is that the photo on the newspaper is of the Twin Towers and states 'Unhappy Anniversary.'

The current show at the High, 'New Photography,' is phenomenal! Really fantastic! Angela West has Cibachrome prints of her hometown in north GA. And, dear lord, are they beautiful! They have a mirror like finish and feel as though there's a light glowing within them. Pretty much you stand in front of a massive one and drool. Taryn Simon's work was fascinating as usual. The artist photographs wrongly imprisoned but now free men in the spot of their alleged crime. Theatrical and clever with stunning quality. Julian Cox, the curator for this show, is obviously a force to be reckoned with. He's been at The High as the Curator of Photography for a bit over a year. This exhibition of these 4 artists took up the entire second story floor of the new wing. It honestly felt as if each person had their own solo show. The 4 (2 from Atlanta and 2 from New York, all famed) bodies worked together amazingly well. If you'd like to read more then click here. If you're in the area then you should stop by. And you should also check out Nan Goldin's Cookie Mueller portfolio which was donated to the High earlier this year.

Various art updates!

It's been too long since an Official Art Update. I will put everything in bullet form because it's more official looking.

• 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL propositioned me to be their graphic designer. Tremendous amounts of fun! Every month I get to design a postcard. I have a bit of a love affair with postcards to this is right up my alley.
• I am now on 621's Board! Not only does this benefit a cause I believe in and help teach me some about my new chosen field, it's also more fun than a barrel full of monkeys!
  
• I also made the gallery a MySpace page. Judging by the number of hits I think it was a good move.
  
• Two of my pieces are hanging in the Roddenbery Memorial Library in Cairo, GA until further notice.
  
• July is the Month of Exhibits! My work will be in the Transitions exhibition at 621 Gallery AND in a show in Barnesville, GA. More details later.
• In November I will be in a show at Iowa State University.
• I'm applying to a number of juried shows with important sounding jurors. I'll let you know how that goes.

In other news, have any of you heard of stand-out board? I had WHCC make a 16x24 print and attach it to this stand-out board as an experiment. It looks as if it's some type of 3/4 inch thick box made out of a very thin but substantial board material with hanging holes cut in it. The box is filled with a foam like material and the outside edge is covered in a thin strip of black plastic. It's a final and permanent framing device. I'm not too keen on the thought of nothing hard being there to protect the front of my print. But I will say that it looks fantastic hanging on a wall! And it's ultra-lite which certainly helps when it comes to shipping.

somewhere above the clouds is heaven

On the plane to San Fran I decided to take some photos with my digital camera. I was exceptionally excited when I noticed these crazy lines and blocked out areas my camera was recording. By the time we reached ground I had begun planning what to shoot with my malfunctioning wonder. It was about this time I realized that my camera was in perfect normal boring working order again. Lesson learned: take more photos while flying.

Thesis Exhibition

I promised many folks images from my recent thesis exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, FL. Andrew Ross was kind enough to document it for us graduating kids. Many many thanks to him! To see the images go to the Diptychs Gallery on my Web Site.