Tule Elk Park Artist in Residence

I usually call myself a photographer and it's certainly something I'm known for but my background is a many faceted thing in terms of art.
I certainly cross boundaries, straying into everything from stone carving to weaving and ceramics.

 Having served three apprenticeships has also left me a classically trained painter and blacksmith. So, no there isn't a lot I won't do.

One of the best things about being artist in residence at Tule Elk Park is the freedom to just be creative without being bound by any title other than artist. Aside from the personal freedom that also makes it easier to work with students who don't have a lot of artistic boundaries yet.

Tule Elk Park focuses heavily on interacting with their garden and students have at least some outside time each day where they encounter living growing things, and typically, good old fashioned dirt. 

As part of my project paradigm I'm working on using many elements from the on campus garden in conjunction with found a foraged items from around the city. Things like, leaves, sticks, pine cones and pine needles, anything that's surrounding us, often going unnoticed.

The goal is to continue the theme of the school in promoting a healthy relationship with our natural surroundings and settings. I'd like to also encourage the students to re-imagine their entire world.

Today we worked on a project that did just that. We gathered fallen leaves and sticks to assemble into simple mobile's that are a re-envisioning of the trees they came from, complete with name "leaves" that not only add a compositional element but serve as a visual maker of the collaborative team element that went into making the mobiles.

Fantastic stuff and the kids did great.

Fashion never really goes away...

Before devoting almost all of my time and skills to the miniatures I did a variety of photographic work including fashion editorial. I like it a lot but don't like to do it half way and "boring" is right off the menu. While I've essentially left it behind, once in a while a model or client approaches me with an idea and I can't resist.

This is one of those times!

I'll be shooting some new fashion material as soon as we pull it all together. So, keep an eye on this space.

Best,
J

Smoke Jumpers

Much like my fascination for mushrooms, I'm also generally fascinated with forests, the more densely arboreal and primeval the better. Lucky enough to live a short hop from Muir Woods national park, I'm out there often and not long ago went with camera, miniatures, a great new assistant and a mission. 

A job I've never had but one that seems like a life changing, paradigm shifting good time is that of Smoke Jumper. You know, those fearless folks that parachute into wild areas to fight fires? Yes, exactly. The whole things is just hip and about as honest an adventure one could hope for. 

So, when I spotted a nice little outcrop of mushrooms I dropped my 1/87th scale smoke jumpers into action and let them get to work. The shots are looking great and as usual, I learned a thing or two that will make the next images that much better. Looking forward to my next trip to Muir Woods.  

Tule Elk Park artist in residence

Beyond excited to take be Tule Elk Park school's new artist in residence. Starting next Wednesday ill be working with students on projects designed to teach creative process, helping out with images for the school website, PR and social media efforts as well as a series of artist in residence images with the miniatures. Its a complete honor and a privilege.

Inspiration

Did a semi-planned ad hoc shoot in Petaluma CA this morning. A friend had asked if I was up for visiting a pumpkin patch so I pocketed some miniatures, made a few notes and "napkin sketches" and headed out. I have a fondness for pumpkins anyway and there are two pumpkin images in Curiouser and Curiouser already, so any successful shots today would be a good fit for now and leave potential for a short series of their own if it goes that direction.

The two key factors today were that I didn't know for sure what I would be getting into and without location lighting I'd be reliant on the weather and pushing camera settings to make things work. Luckily today I had an assistant to hold things, interfere with the crowd and generally just watch my things so I could focus.

Oddly, this time around, the main inspiration was a feedback loop from my own work. For me that's a good place to be, tapping a self referencing state of creative flow within a given project can drive it to interesting places. Inspiration as a general thing can come from almost any angle and often comes from a number of them all at once. With these images I'd been fixated on pumpkin related shots from a while back and loosely references travel photography I've been inundated with lately.

Microworlds at SFMOMA!

Dropped by SFMOMA today, actually was in the neighborhood, and got to see Microworlds happily on display in the gift shop. I know it's not like my work is in the gallery space but it was a thrill to experience. They were even nice enough to let me take a couple of quick photos of the book on display.

Humbled, flattered and beside myself just not know what to think about it but knowing that it feels great to have that kind of presence and recognition. I was also able to get the proper contacts to work out some sort of book signing. If it comes together I'll be posting about that as well. 

I'm now feeling guilty about not being more on the ball in giving the photography it's own blog already. Though there is a Facebook page in place now with a new website on it's way in the coming months as well as the announcement of new projects and even a few teaser images for one that I'm sure will be an immense amount of fun and a huge personal challenge for me. Fun, challenging, what's not to like? 

So, stay tuned for updates on a signing at the MOMA or another venue in the near future!