Submitted 10-image series to Photolucida's Critical Mass. (Eeep!)

I think I have a problem with the practice of charging semifinalists $250 for the privilege of moving on to the final round of judging, but we'll just cross that bridge when/if. (I realize it costs money to run a competition, and it's certainly cheaper than attending Photolucida itself...)

The artist's statement & print info was limited to 28 lines. How they calculate that, I'm not sure (28 lines of 14 pt Courier with 2" margins?) but it did prompt me to pare things down. And after 2 weeks worth of conceptual art blahblah I decided I'm OK with being unglamorously primarily process-based. I returned to my original, less poetic verbiage and am pleased.

( process art blahblah... )

What was most helpful I think, was - after pages & pages of mind-numbing interpretations of Rauschenberg's work - to read a 2005 New Yorker interview with the artist:

"Rauschenberg wanted to be unfamiliar with what he was doing, to keep things open until the last moment and not to work 'schemingly.' He liked to think that he was collaborating with his materials, rather than trying to make them work for him, and he wanted as much as possible to keep his own feelings and tastes out of it. 'I don't want a painting to be just an expression of my personality. I feel it ought to be much better than that.'"

"Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense."

Official

This makes me happy - and not just because I love symmetry:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/processwhite/sets/72157594269023937/

Home yesterday afternoon. Bed last night @ 9:30. Only halfway through the workday and I'm ready for more of the sleeping. Am doing my best not to think about the mountain of thankyou notes we have to write. (One gratitude at a time...)

We are now on Day 3 of married life. So far, so good.

Watched the DVD of the ceremony last night, since neither of us remembered hearing any of the music (about which everyone else raved). We walked in on Scott Joplin's "Bethina" waltz and out on a swingy version of Gershwin's "Our Love Is Here to Stay" - It worked perfectly, giving a sweet, old-fashioned feel to the whole thing.

I think the only Oops! of the ceremony was the minister mis-pronouncing my maternal family name when mentioning those who had passed away but were with us in spirit. In his defense, he said when he's standing on the chancel and the paper in front of him has a H and an O followed by an L and a Y, well of course it's pronounced "Holy" (he missed the extra LE in there for "Holley").

And, yes, we did go to the Fair that night, after the reception and a nap. Friends, Fireworks, Fried green tomatoes, and a Ferris wheel ride - I don't think I could have asked for a better end to our wedding day.

Photos after we've returned to the left coast!


PS - A link to someone's MIDI file version of Bethina can be found on this site, for anyone who cares to listen.

...but skimmed-up, at least.

And that seems like a fitting way to end the day in which I reminded myself that the world does in fact keep spinning when I excuse myself to go get a massage and then wander around the gardens of the oil-baron-mansion-turned-museum where I took my first photo class some 25 years ago and where some 30 years ago I was the flower girl in my Uncle Johnny's wedding.

I remember the yellow pinafore with matching kerchief my mother sewed for me to wear, and I remember practicing how to walk up the steps to the gazebo and the blue X they drew on the floor where I was to next to them during the ceremony. I also remember the jelly beans they hid in my basket of flower petals (which apparently I forgot to scatter, so it took me a bit to find them). And I remember turning around at the end of it all and how high up it seemed and, oh my, how many PEOPLE were there, all looking at me as I concentrated very hard on walking carefully down the steps in my brand new white leather sandals.

I sat for a good long time on the bench in the gazebo, looking back at the comfortingly symmetrical gardens and villa that feel so familiar, breathing deep gulps of the end-of-summer verdant yum.

Waves 1 & 2 of out of town guests have arrived.

Tomorrow is quality time with dad; breakfast followed by a manicure for me and a "manly-cure" for him.

Oh, yes, and some quality time in front of the computer, writing up my vows before rehearsal time rolls around.

KS: "Hey there, how's everything?"

MOM: [cheerfully exasperated] "Flooded!"

KS: "Whaaaaa?"

MOM: "Six inches of rain in about an hour on Saturday night so the basement flooded!"

KS: "Flooded like, the laundry room, or the bathroom or...?"

MOM: "Oh, all of it. We've torn out the carpet, have fans and de-humidifiers running... Not at ALL what we needed just now but there you go."

KS: "..."


So, yeah. Flooded. Flooded like the downstairs guest/music room where Newfella & I were supposed to be sleeping as of next Wednesday night.

Fortunately, the new mattress they'd bought was still in the plastic & seems not to have gotten wet. Also fortunately, Stepdad's sizeable guitar collection seems to have suffered no damage other than damp cases. Panther, the family cat, has been tremendously enjoying curling up in one particular case as it sits open in the living room to air-dry.

Mom made all the right noises of concern & reassurance, though, and she's smoked one batch of the pork already and put it in the freezer so we won't need to worry about that. Aunt J.'s renovations should be done enough so we can stay at her place for a few days, or we might end up at Stepmom's new apartment (*ahem* Did I mention that Dad and Stepmom are splitting up?), or a hotel, or some combination thereof.

It seems in so many folks' wedding stories there is dress drama or relative drama or cake drama that, months or years later, ends up making for a highly amusing tale. I'm just going to keep reminding myself that as long as we both show up and if anyone asks "Will You?" or "Do You?" we say "Yes!" then it will all be fine.

Meanwhile, I have a possibly twisted urge to watch "Sixteen Candles" and any other wedding disaster comedy I can get my hands on.

The trouble with picking a nifty display font for the entirety of one's wedding invitation & RSVP cards is that it's nigh impossible to find a suitable typeface for the "info sheet" that requires a larger amount of highly readable text.

My "no-time-to-fiddle-with-it-any-more" solution is Chaparral Light Italic.

Harrumph.

Finally! - UC Berkeley Extension has put forth the details on their newly-revised certificate in Visual Arts, which is designed for people like me whose undergraduate degree is not in fine arts. (SFAI has something similar, but it's only for full-time students and it costs 5x as much. This one can be completed in 1 year full time, or 2 years part time.)

It looks promising in the history/theory areas, but pretty thin in the photography bit. But that might be OK as it's thick where I'm thin. I've signed up for the info session on August 23rd to find out more.


Those in the know re: SF Bay Area art scene - any of these names look familiar?

TERRI COHN, M.A., is a writer, curator, and art historian. She is a contributing editor to Artweek; writes for numerous publications, including Sculpture Magazine, Art Papers, Camerawork, and Release Print; and wrote about place-specific projects for Women Artists of the American West. She has taught at San Francisco State University, Santa Clara University, San Francisco Art Institute, and California College of the Arts.

DEWITT CHENG, M.F.A., is an artist, art writer and curator who has written for Artweek, ARTnews, art ltd., Coagula, Contemporary Impressions, and The California Printmaker, as well as for galleries and artists. He is a contributing editor of the online San Francisco Art Magazine and has published other Web articles at Slurry Magazine, Daily Gusto, Eye of the Art, Art For Real, Art Revolutionaries, and Shotgun Review. Recently, he curated "Hybrids: The New Surrealists" at the Peninsula Museum of Art and exhibited work at the Euphrat Museum. He is currently serving as juror for UCSF's Art for AIDS 11th Annual Auction.

HANNA REGEV, M.A., has worked with a myriad of cultural organizations and art galleries in San Francisco and the Bay Area producing cultural public programs. She is currently the director of marketing at 1212 Gallery, a contemporary fine art gallery. She holds master’s degrees in museum studies and modern European history.

SHEILA GHIDINI, M.F.A., has taught at California College of the Arts, San Francisco State University, and UC Berkeley. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States and produced a public art commission for the City of Emeryville.

If you think you need an answer from me on anything, it may be a day or two before I respond because it's CAMP CAMP CAMP ALL CAMP (and not the fun drag queen kind...)

I'm skimming LJ & my INbox, but have not much brainpower to comment or reply; am sending tender concern along with wishes of happiness & health to those who seem to need it most at the moment... and a rain check for tea and hugs and conversation.

Salmon out.

Wedding shoes appear to have been procured in one swell foop.

Also, fabric = boughten. First meeting with seamstress is next weekend.

This weekend: bakelite jewelry foraging, paint chip collecting, undergarment hunting, and hairstylist test-driving.

(Can you tell I'm trying to frontload prior to Mercury going retrograde in 2 weeks?)

Returned to Satin Moon yesterday with Cander & Crae in tow. (Their names IRL are so similar, I may resort to calling them C1 and C2 or maybe we come up with secret service-style nicknames, who knows...)

Anyhoo, it was good to have a 2nd & 3rd opinion - standing back and observing their discussion of the fabric choices at hand was much easier and more productive than when I went alone & tried to keep up with the chorus in my head.

RIGHT - now I remember - I'm an auditory processor who works best in collaboration with others.

The most useful point made was that, while the patterns I gravitated toward were indeed classy and beautiful, they were also rather dark and subdued. "Like something you'd wear to a graduation or someone else's wedding," noted Crae. Lovely, tasteful, very "me", and totally good for multiple wearings, but not so much about projecting a celebratory vibe.

I was reminded of high school shopping trips during which it was Bethm's duty to prevent me from buying yet another article of clothing that was either burgundy, navy, or forest green.

So, we revisit an eye-popping mix of red, gold, & lavender flowers on a field of aqua, interspersed with fans & drums that I'd been drawn to originally but passed by for reasons of practicality (too loud? too busy? too spring-y for a fall wedding? too likely to end up being a one-off outfit?)

We agreed that it was much more festive, still "me", and definitely lighter in tone... and somewhere in there someone mentioned red shoes and a lightbulb went off in my mind re: RED SHOES AND RED BAKELITE JEWELRY - AWW HELL YEAH!

So, I put it on hold until Wednesday and I'm 95% sure I'm going to forego revisiting Stone Mountain fabrics in Berkeley and just go buy this one because that's one less thing for me to do and because, well... because red shoes and red bakelite jewelry, y'know?

*evil grin*

I used that as my subject line when I emailed Newfella the Save The Date sample announcement.

He had a momentary freakout that I'd sent it to all the (eventually) intended recipients, and not just him.

This sound interesting - anyone care to join me?

Thurs. 5/31 - 6:00pm @ the SF main library - sponsored by photoalliance.org

Are we all photographers now?

A panel discussion

What does it mean to be a "photographer" when there's a camera in every phone and photos can travel the globe with the click of a button? Join this panel of artists and experts for a lively conversation about the art and practice of photography in the brave new digital age.

Moderator: Thom Sempere, Executive Director, PhotoAlliance
Panelists: J.D. Beltran, Artist; Caterina Fake, Co- Founder, Flickr; Deanne Fitzmaurice, Photojournalist /Pulitzer Prize recipient, San Francisco Chronicle; Derek Powazek, Founder/Editor, JPG Magazine.

I haven't quite got the colors correct in PhotoShop. It *is* a very dark navy, but those turquoises are actually darker and greener - closer to a muted teal. Really classy looking, but too dark for an afternoon wedding? The fabric store had a mockup on a dummy & yes, it is so simple a style that a bold kimono print is just the thing. I plan to check out a couple of places in Japantown, too. Comments welcome!
ETA: According to my copy of "Snow, Wave, Pine - Traditional Patterns in Japanese Design", it is an example of the bamboo-plum blossom-pine pattern ("the Three Friends of Winter"), with the addition of what I'm pretty sure are chrysanthemums.

	Dress pattern - purchased 1930's Hostess Gown From http://www.decadesofstyle.com/ Short-sleeved version with V-neck and possibly a train.
	Fabric A - early contender Japanese rayon from Stone Mountain & Daughter fabrics in Berkeley.

I feel much more "on-kilter" having replenished my serotonin stores.

Somehow managed to thwart The Ick That Got Newfella. (The neti pot rocks!)

( And a few other things happened, too... )

Took 100mg 5HTP @ 6:00pm + 100mg 5HTP @ 11:00pm.

As best I can tell, I slept soundly through the night (a rarity for me).

I'd call that a big clue re: serotonin depletion.

Now, breakfast, call Dr., get dressed, leave the house for a walk.

No dishwashing, no filing papers, no calling wedding vendors... this is not a day of productivity.



(Thanks, folks, for your kind words.)

March 31st, afternoon

April 3rd, evening