Paint Chip Inspiration: "Volcanic Blast"

If this is your first visit and you've not seen my "Paint Chip Inspiration" feature, let me repeat what I wrote months ago:

This idea is not unique to me. It comes from Rachel Berger here: http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=11257

She selected a paint chip out of a bag, one a day for 100 days, and wrote a short response to that color/that color's name. BRILLIANT! So I thought, I like color. I can write. I can doodle. I have paint chips. And I can scan. So here I am with my first sixth ninth paint chip ...

VOLCANIC BLAST
 
I was lucky to have a mom with a sense of adventure. My dad was transferred from San Diego to Hawaii in 1959 (before it was a state). The following year, when Kilauea volcano was erupting on the island of Hawaii, Mom and I got on a plane, flew to the Big Island, and then looked for a cab to take us to the site. Mom was pretty and blonde. I was a kid. Cab drivers were falling all over themselves to take us up to the volcano. Undoubtedly because I was a cute kid ...

What I remember most is the sound, the constant roar of lava geysers shooting up into the night sky. And then the colors, the red, orange, yellow and white-hot lava fountains soaring up and then flowing downward into the caldera. It was amazing for the both of us to see. Native Hawaiians tossed bottles of booze over the edge, hoping to appease Pele the Fire Goddess so that no homes would be harmed in the lava flows.

I could be wrong, but I believe Mom and I flew back that same night, with the sounds and sights of the volcanic eruption seared into our minds. Mom had married young, married a handsome young Navy officer, hadn’t seen much of the world, really, but she was born to learn, born to travel, born to adapt, and, luckily, sometimes she took me along. A cute kid with a pretty blonde mother.

©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Latest work: "Kyoto Temple"

I made this photomontage using pictures I took primarily in Kyoto. I used the temple photo, photos of a couple of washi papers I was given in Kyoto, a photo of a weathered wall, photo of wooden boards with Japanese calligraphy (all from Kyoto) and then a photograph of a building I shot here in Newport, Oregon. I was pleasantly surprised at the way the combination of washi paper and everything else created a watercolor aspect to the entire scene. Nothing here was planned. I just begin adding things, taking things away, removing parts of things, until I see what I like. And here, I like what I see. ©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

It's crabbing season!

In many ways it's great to be back home, back into a certain rhythm -- a rhythm in the seasons and a rhythm in the photography. We had some errands to run up in Newport this afternoon and, since it wasn't rainy and skies were overcast, it was a perfect time to wander around the fishing boats and all their various and sundry paraphernalia.

It's Thanksgiving, which means we're close to crabbing season. Buoys are all painted and prepped, ready to be loaded aboard their boats. Don't you just love the colors?

The white-painted F/V Miss Yvonne heads over to have all of her crab pots loaded on board, while the F/V My Lee, beautiful in blue against a background blue mural, patiently waits for Friday, when the boats are allowed out to begin soaking their pots. When do they pull them up? They begin December 1.

What this means is that when we look out our kitchen window in the evening, we'll see all sorts of bright lights out on the horizon, sometimes as many as 15-20 of them, as the crabbers get hard at work.

To celebrate, Chris and I shared a cracked Dungeness crab for dinner last night. Ahhhh! Heavenly.

The crabbers are receiving $3.10/pound for their catch this year, which is apparently a high price for them. The crab we bought yesterday (pre-season) at Fred Meyer was $5.99/pound. Any time we can get fresh crab for less than $6/pound around here, we consider ourselves lucky. You folks, who don't live in the area, probably pay less than we do, we who live in the "Dungeness Crab Capitol of the World." Most of the crabs harvested here are shipped out immediately. Heavy sigh . . .

It's crab season. It's almost Thanksgiving. I'm thankful you're here reading this, thankful I'm here writing this, and feeling quite crabby -- in a good way!

©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Latest work: "Falling Leaves Crescent Moon"

Early evening I looked out my hotel window in Kyoto and saw a crescent moon. Directly below it was a single little fluffy cloud. As though the moon was going to "nest" into the cloud. Or the cloud was slowly rising up to support the moon. Either way I looked at it, it was magical.

I found this image in my "Works in Progress" file yesterday afternoon and it made me think of that moon, that cloud, the falling leaves in Japan. So I brought it up, tweaked some things, added some more things, and voila! Now I have an image that's reminiscent of Kyoto, autumn leaves, meticulously raked rock gardens, and more.

Unlike yesterday's image, this one definitely works. I love it. And isn't it a good story? ©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Sometimes I just don't know . . .

I had the idea for this picture last night. It kept me awake. I got up early this morning to begin it and now I just don't know . . . Sometimes you have to live with something for awhile, revisit it with new eyes, new ideas, and that's the case here. (Click the photo to enlarge it.)

I often have this quiet "knowing" that yes, this is right, this is good. I don't have that feeling with this one. I'm thinking that it's trite, overcooked, overdone, contrived. Looking at it here, it looks darker than I would like. And I think the background competes with the center photo. There's too much going on for my liking.

The concept was a Japanese garden in fall and then the feeling of sliding wooden doors in the background. I used my photograph of trees in Kyoto's Imperial Palace Garden as well as photos I took of various washi papers, antique Japanese book covers and book pages. The original version was a bit too green for me, and so I toned it down to look like this.

Why even show this to you? Shouldn't I just be showing you my very best? Well, no, not here in my blog. I believe we all go through this same process. We create something that seems like a really good idea. We want it to work. But we're not sure. We have doubts.

(And, hmmmm, aren't those doubts what make us artists? Not really. Is "the more I doubt, the better the art?" a truism? Nah. Too simple. I digress . . .)

But if we do not doubt sometimes, if we do not edit, tweak, experiment, practice our craft, and (gasp!) fail, then all we're creating are snapshots. And if we don't experiment and create less-than-wonderful images, then we're not growing as artists.

In the past I've often said that being a good photographer means knowing what not to show. Well, I know I'm a good photographer and a good artist, but, like everybody else, I sometimes have my doubts. Luckily, I have the confidence to show you what might be a less-than-wonderful image, knowing that I will either re-work this concept, keep it in the "works in progress" file, or simply chuck it.

When I was teaching classroom-style classes, I kept a lot of my awful slides and showed them, not thinking of them as failures, but rather as "teaching tools." And perhaps that's what I have here: a very good teaching tool!

[Ah, the value of letting a bit of time elapse between creation and posting! It's only been six hours since I posted this, but man, what a less-than-acceptable picture I created! It's so bad that I'm tempted to remove this entire post, but nope, it's a good learning experience. The lesson? Get more than three hours of sleep AND do not post right away. Not a good image at all! I've created another one this afternoon -- no resemblance to this one -- but will wait until tomorrow to post it. Lesson learned!]

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Latest work: "Kyoto Wall"

One of the first photos I took in Japan was (and this will sound weird unless you know me) of some tape that had been partially torn off a metal door. I knew that it would be good in a photomontage. So that was the basis of this picture.

I then photographed various antique Japanese book pages and covers, added more papers when I arrived home, and here we are. I like the warm tones, the feeling of depth, the solid structure of the composition, and the sense of mystery.

©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Latest work: "Time Overseas"

My recent trip to Japan recalls a year spent there when I was twelve. Time passes. Things change, things remain the same. This photomontage was made using old papers, torn photos, pictures of watch faces, and the cover of an antique Japanese book.

I've been home a couple of days but it's hard to get back into the creative swing of things. I look at all the papers and old books I brought back from Japan and my mind goes blank. Such pressure to make new and wonderful things, and such new and wonderful stuff to use! But I've got nothing. A couple ideas, sure. Have to do some experimenting to see if what I'm envisioning will work. But basically I'm feeling frozen.

First things first. One step at a time. Clear the decks. Organize the stash. Pick ONE thing to do. Begin doing it. That's all.

But it's not all. There are photos to go through, to analyze, to sort, to edit. And maybe one of those photos will beg to be used in a photomontage, with maybe a photo of an old book cover, maybe some monoprinting I've done. The combination of digital fodder and physical fodder is exciting yet daunting. And soon I find my brain is a maelstrom of ideas, excitement, despair, and inaction.

So.  First things first. One step at a time. Clear the decks. Organize the stash. Pick ONE thing to do. Begin doing it. That's all. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Sold the first two weeks of November

Things are beginning to ramp up a bit from Fine Art America, which is great. Here's what sold during the first two weeks of November; the second two weeks look to be even better.

Sizes here range from a single greeting card (the third photo down) to a 3' x 3' photo (the colorful pink and green cactus image). And to those of you who took my photomontage online class, I'll have you know that my infamous crow photos have sold numerous times! Ha! You doubters, you!

Some buyers choose prints that are put into a tube and shipped out, while others opt for images printed on metal, or canvas wraps, or matted and framed. I've shown here how each final image looks the way they've ordered it. It's nice that FAA shows me the buyers' final choice so I can see what they are getting. Canvas wraps seem to be the most popular option.

I am back from Japan, with a LOT of photos awaiting processing. So many it's daunting. I also brought home a slew of antique Japanese books so that I can make physical collages as well as use them in photomontages. I was wise to not take many clothes, saving room for paper.

I'll be writing about the trip and posting photos in the near future. The one incredible impact on my life was observing the Japanese culture and comparing it to ours. We suffer in comparison. More about all this in time. At the moment, I'm unpacking, doing laundry, sleeping, organizing, and getting back into the routine of taking care of family matters as well as doing a bit of art.

So long for now . . . Hope you're creating a bit of art yourself!

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Good morning from Kyoto!

long journey, but I am here and it's already worth the trip. Rich Baker took a terrific photo of me which I posted on Facebook. Here's the link, and I hope it works. It's a lovely shot.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203984817278431&set=a.1112211683159.2018180.1162914651&type=1&theater

Puhleeze let that work.

In a time crunch, so must go. But all is well and I look forward to this upcoming week.

Carol Leigh

"Fancy Feast Jury"

I leave today for Japan, but before I go, I want to show you a photograph that one of my students, Carol F., created.

The assignment was "Faces in Unlikely Places," and students were encouraged to go out and just look, look for anything that resembled a face, no matter if it was a rock, bark on a tree, the front end of a car, etc. And this is what Carol F. came up with. Isn't it cool? She calls it "Fancy Feast Jury" and it made me smile.

Carol saw the "face" in a catfood can lid and, with this project in mind, saved enough lids to create a "jury" and a "defendant." She kindly gave me permission to share it with you.

Coincidentally, and originally unbeknownst to me (and to her), she is also in the same Japan photo workshop that I am, as is her friend (and current student), Ann. What a great bonus for me -- to meet two of my students finally in person.

Must go finish packing . . . Sayonara for now.  -- Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Latest works: "And the Rains Came" plus "Desert Dunes Number 1" and "Desert Dunes Number 2"

I posted all three of these this morning to Fine Art America. As usual, they're rather strange. And, as usual, I tend to like them very much.

Will they sell? I don't know. But if I created images only because I thought they'd sell, that would be a barren, lifeless existence, don't you think? I make these images for me, and if there's one person out there who "gets it," that's great. If not, well, then, I just keep on creating. For me.

I remember, many years ago, when I was actively submitting my work to a stock agency, one of the agency's other photographers wrote that he wished he could just put objects on a conveyor belt and shoot them as they went by. His goal was to get as many pictures to the agency in as short a time as possible. And he did. And he is probably quite successful. And if he is happy with his photography and his pictures, well, what more could one ask? Who am I to question that concept and the resulting work?

The first picture I call "And the Rains Came." It makes me think of receding waters, drought conditions, and how a passing cloud, a spark of light, and a few raindrops can begin healing the Earth. All the individual photographs I used to create this one were taken in Santa Fe.

The second two are photomontages made with more pictures I took in Santa Fe. As I was playing with various images and combining them, all of a sudden I got the feeling of sand dunes, sand dunes in bright sunlight and dunes at night. Ta da!

Wishing you a few "ta da!" moments of your own today. ©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Almost packed . . .

I finished these two physical collages the other day and I'm appropriately posting them now because in a couple of days I'M GOING TO KYOTO, JAPAN! Hoo ha!

Toward the beginning of this year, I signed up for a photo workshop in Japan, and although I'm traveling solo (no, Chris isn't going, much to Abby's delight), I already know four others in the group (a small group of 12).

As you know, there's a definite Japanese vibe in a lot of the work I create, so this trip will feed my soul as well as my suitcase as I photograph AND collect interesting papers and other things for my artwork. It's almost funny how few clothes I'm taking so that I'll have plenty of room for whatever I find. I'm keeping the camera gear to a minimum as well, since my trusty sherpa won't be with me this trip.

When I registered for the workshop, November seemed so far in the future. Well, surprise! It's here and I am ready. The toughest part is going to be the long slog getting there. I fly from Portland to Seattle, then to South Korea, change planes and fly to Osaka, where I then take a shuttle 1.5 hours to Kyoto.

Kyoto is 17 hours ahead of Oregon, so even though I leave early in the morning on Thursday, I won't arrive at the hotel until nearly midnight on Friday. Yikes! More to follow . . .

©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Sold the second two weeks of October

Here's what sold during the second two weeks of October. Although my sales are way up from last year (doubled), this October wasn't as good as last year's -- but I am NOT complaining.

I'm also showing you the format each buyer used in their purchase. I think the matting on the crows photo looks rather rich. And the Alaska fishing boats photo looks good as a big canvas wrap.

I always wonder how my photos would look as cellphone cases, and why people choose the images they do. I would never have thought of using this buoys picture as a cellphone case, but a buyer from Texas thought it looked pretty good.

Another buyer bought one of my prayer flag series photos, choosing a canvas wrap format, but notice how the fishing boats buyer opted for a "mirrored edge" on his picture and the prayer flag buyer opted for a plain black edge. And then the turban snail shell photo looks pretty good within a simple black frame.

The top crows photo has sold a couple of times before, as has the turban snail shell photo.

So there you have it. Eleven photographs sold this month, for which I am very grateful. ©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!