EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

So apparently my external hard drive is full with only 24 kb left.  That's probably why my PC is running slow??  I don't know.  I'm heading over to Best Buy to talk to a GEEK and probably purchase a humongus hard drive to make my life easier - hopefully.

Well I am back from a 5-day excursion to the big City of San Francisco.  We had great weather - sunshine every day.  Hardly any people during the week - but WHOA come Saturday it was as though it were a great big ant hill with people scurrying all over the town!  Crazy!  If you're headed that way anytime soon or just any time, go during the week!  And if you want to go see Alcatraz Island, purchase your tickets way ahead of time online.  That's the only way to go.  I did that for us and I notice the sign said, "Next available tour date - MONDAY"!, which was almost a week away.

I stopped by the High Hand Gallery to check out the re-hang that went on while I was out of town - and it's really awesome.  I had two artist friends tell me how great it looked - specifically my black and white photos of The Getty Museum and Bodie Ghost Town!  They were right.  During the last two months of the year, the gallery puts up two Christmas trees to hang some art pieces on them.  I didn't do any small pieces as I have in the past, and it just doesn't work for photography - at least not for me.  I thought I would just make Christmas cards - people like cards, so that's what I'll do.

More pics later when after I install my new external hard drive and get things settled on my PC!!  Again, thanks for spending time with me and for your support!

Bodie Ghost Town 2012

Busy week amidst the smoke up here in the foothills.  I finished cutting mats and framing some of the new pieces for the High Hand Gallery's next re-hang on Monday.  These are all from the Bodie Ghost Town Series of 2012; all of which I have never printed.  It's interesting that I almost passed up some of these images, as I didn't (or couldn't) see their true value.  That happens sometimes.  Once they are enlarged, it's like WOW!  ; )  Take this one for example.  I had no clue about the colors in this shot.  They are so subtle, that I had to see the whole thing enlarged.  But then again, a lot of the time I really do see in black and white, so it takes me awhile.  These colors lend even more so to the antiquity of the whole image.  I love it!  These images were printed on 13x19 Museo Silver Rag and that paper just makes them so much more beautiful.

Of course, there's always the making of the labels and the inventory list.  Working at the gallery tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get it done manana! ; )  I will also be bringing home the majority of my European framed pieces, as they will be in the October Auburn Artwalk.  

I'm really looking forward to fall and winter as I am anxious to get back into the darkroom.  It's been way too long, but it's also been way too hot in my studio to close that door.

High Hand Gallery's Artstock Show!

I know it's been quite awhile since I wrote on my blog.  This summer has been crazy with trips to various places and for various reasons.  But I am here now and busy back in the studio.

Getting ready for High Hand Gallery's Artstock 2013.  It is a large format show with artwork at least 3' in one direction and larger.  I'm working today at the gallery, and several artists are in the shed putting up the artwork for this show right now.  My contribution to the show are three 2'x3' black and white gallery wraps of Bodie Ghost Town.  Here's one titled, "Bodie Beast".  It's a car as you can see, but I have had so many people try to tell me what 'make' it is, and I've gotten everything from Ford, to Chevy, to GMC, to Pontiac.  So I'm calling it:  BODIE BEAST!  It is a close up and the first thing you notice is the right fender with the black hole where the headlight used to be!

High Hand Gallery is also getting ready for the new re-hang inside the gallery for September and October, which means I need to print out a couple more prints of Bodie Ghost Town.  Color prints definitely; at least two large prints of 13x19, and then some smaller 8x10s of what I will have hanging.  Need to print now in order to give them time to dry before I frame them this weekend.

I've been on trips travelling around, but not necessarily for art's sake!  In October I will be on the Auburn Artwalk in Naturopathic next to Roper's Jewelry on Lincoln Street in downtown Auburn.  I will be having my artwork from Europe and I will be able to leave it there all winter until the first Artwalk next year in April I believe.  So that's a great opportunity to be able to hang there during the holidays and have greater exposure!!

Bodie Ghost Town 2012 Series

This heat has been so bad this past week - but this morning's coolness is a nice reprieve.  At least I can come into my studio and sit down for awhile at my PC.

I did complete my inventory for High Hand Gallery.  Haven't heard back from the administrator, so I'm assuming it was okay.  Next step is he will print out the labels and I will affix them to each piece of artwork.

Yesterday I finished matting and framing two new 8 1/2 x 11 (full frame) size images of Bodie Ghost Town.  These are for the Marketplace Gallery in Auburn.   I had planned on taking them down to the gallery, but I think it was closed for the holiday.

Last night I was trying find an image to match the theme "VIVID" for the Large Format Show coming up on the last day in August and runs thru October 6.  Vivid, I guess I don't really do vivid since I'm pretty much looking in black and white.  However, once in a while I shoot some colorful shots.  I need some opinions from some other people.  I asked my husband, but he didn't want to be the only person being asked.  I think I'll send out some images to a few artists and see what their opinion is -- eesh, do I really want to do that? ;)
Whatever I am going to do, I need to do it fast or I won't be in the show at all.

Here are the two images I just framed:

Bodie Ghost Town 2012 Series

Change in plans for the KVIE entry.  I tried to have a canvas gallery wrap made locally, and it came back a complete disaster!  It was purple and not black and white at all!  Then called my "normal" supplier for canvas wraps back in Wisconsin and unfortunately they would not be able to get the wrap to me in time.  After stewing for a few hours, I just told myself I cannot get upset over this.  So I graciously wrote an email to KVIE and told them I would not be able to participate this year.  And I just let go all of the stress in one fell swoop!

Getting back to prints for the High Hand Gallery, I printed out two 13x19 images from my 2012 Bodie Series on Museo Silver Rag, cut double mats and framed them.  I have to say these are two of my best works ever and I'm really proud of them both!  It's just a waiting game to see how my public likes them.  I think I am in love with this paper - granted it's expensive, but the results are amazing!

Yesterday I printed out more prints for cards and cut mats for several other Bodie prints from that same series, on the Museo Silver Rag at 8 1/2 x 11 size.  They too came out quite impressive.  Today I finished all the cards as well as putting the prints in the mats, wrapped them all in cellophane sleeves and took them to the gallery tonite when we had our meeting.

Earlier today I took the time to watch a series of videos from Epson which were free for starters.  The first two were interviews with John Sexton and Kim Weston, both well-known photographers.  John worked with Ansel Adams and Kim is the grandson of Edward Weston.  In addition to the two interviews there are four instructional videos for printing on Epson's Fine Art Paper using Silver Efex Pro 2.  Here is the link if you are interested:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Landing/black-and-white-printing-tutorials-expert-interviews.do?RMID=PI_20130601_BW_Launch&RRID=3167862 

Times are changing at the High Hand Gallery.  They are introducing a POS System (point of sale).  Each artist is required to enter their inventory into this new system and each piece of artwork will then have a bar code affixed to it.  It will make documenting the sales easier with less room for error - ??  Needless to say I definitely need to get busy on this project!

I will close with one of the new Bodie images titled, "Bodie Remains":

Museo Silver Rag

For a busy night last night, I didn't sleep in much this morning!  The Artful Bra event happened last night and all the tables were filled with guests.  The live auction went well.  Both my entry of the bra made out of photos sold in the silent auction, and the one my husband and I made sold in the live auction.  That was good - I was worried I was going to have to buy my own! ; )  Which I would have done.  I really like the photo bra.  I am resting today and all next week.  A lot of energy goes into an event like that one and I am pooped to say the least.

I don't think I have an ounce of any creativity in me at this moment.  But it will come.  Just not today! ; )  Here is another image from Bodie Ghost Town that I printed on Museo Silver Rag.  Hope you're having a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Studio 49, Auburn, California

Today was delivery day!  Delivered three framed San Francisco pieces to Studio 49 in Auburn.  Also, made the art signage for the rest of the pieces in her studio.  It looks fabulous in there.  Next I delivered the canvas gallery wrap to High Hand Gallery to replace the one I took over to the Arts Building in Auburn!

I am completely done with all projects for other people! ; )  Now I plan on cutting mats for the next hour until a TV show comes on that we like - Elementary.  A recreation of Sherlock Holmes.

I was going through the Bodie images from a few weeks back and am still marveling at the clouds that day.  I am posting one that doesn't really have any clouds in it.  It's just the transom over a doorway and the colors were pretty awesome.  Again, it was just a great day to take pictures.  The transom looks like it has curtains, but if you look closely, it's basically a curtain of years of spiderwebs!

I received an email the other day from a gallery in New York City:  Agora Gallery, located in the heart of New York's famous art district - Chelsea!  The Assistant Director of the gallery had come across my website while doing research and was apparently looking for new artists.  She told me she really liked my Venice images.  The gallery would represent me and I would of course pay them representation fees...  It sounds exciting, but I'm not exactly rolling in the dough.  As I said, it's a lot to think about.  So I think I will go cut mats for now! ; )

In the Darkroom!!

We returned from a week's camping in Bridgeport, California. What a great trip that was. Because California has had so much rainfall this year it was so green and lush all along Highway 395 to our destination of Bridgeport. We chose that area because it was so close to a lot of places we wanted to visit: Devil's Post Pile, Mono Lake, Bodie Ghost Town, and Yosemite to name the bigger attractions! The weather was great although it ran the whole gamut from 40 degrees in the morning, warming up to 95+ in the afternoons and back down in the evenings. Needless to say we made several clothes changing - at least I did! And we gave BLOOD in Bridgeport. The mosquitoes were loving all the fresh blood in town! US!!

We really didn't have much down time as we were so busy checking out the sites! Rode our bikes one day into town and went to the Bridgeport Museum that is located in the Old School House. That had to be the BEST museum with the most memorabilia we had ever been to.

The main reason of the trip for me was going to see Bodie Ghost Town again. This time we went on the Stamping Mill Tour which is the best part of the whole Bodie State Park. The first time we visited Bodie, the tour wasn't open at the time. Today I'm posting a couple of color digital prints I took at Bodie.

Needless to say I have five rolls of film to develop: two from Oregon and three from Bodie and Yosemite. I just finished mixing the developing chemicals - that's my plan of attack for today for starters.

Darkroom Day 31 and 32

Yesterday Ron and I spent the day working in the art room: me - cleaning and vacuuming up all the cabinets and the floors; Ron - taping off the cabinets and ceiling and walls so they could start priming the cabinets. Ron also finished off the caulking and puttying.

Today the boys finished taping off the cabinets and it took them only two hours to prime all the cabinets and shelving! A lot less time than if we had to hand paint them. So that was a good time saver.

Today while they continue to work out there, I am working on printing out five film photos for my upcoming show in April which is just a little over a week away. Then I'll need to mat and frame them. My show will be at the Kerry Terese Salon & Gallery in Old Town Auburn. I will be showing my Bodie Ghost Town Series, as well as some of my acrylic paintings of Hawaii. Auburn holds their Art Walks on the Second Thursday of the month.