Is There Life Beyond Photojojo?

Yes - I'm still doing art besides Photojojo. I've been quite busy, actually, with all kinds of other non-photographic art and art related activities.

For example, this weekend, I moved all my art related supplies (painting inventory, new canvases and frames) plus some household stuff that was cluttering up my garage, er studio, into a new and wonderful little fence hugger shed I just bought. I was installed in my back yard on Thursday, and by today, Sunday, I had it fully in use. See all about it here.

Here's a picture of the little darlin' in the yard. It's 6x12' and I was able to get lots of boxes of various papers and mementos into it, plus a lot of other stuff. So, now everything is here onsite and I'm happier than a clam.

I also did a commissioned art project over the weekend. A friend of mine is giving jewelry to her family as gifts for Christmas. She wanted an art box to enclose each gift, so I did these boxes which have her mother's photo on them. There are eight in all - seven smaller and one larger for the client. I hope she likes them!


I've also been planning my next print effort. I'm thinking about see saws, my childhood and quilts. I did a pro-form of the piece I want to start with. The photos of the man, collaged on as would be the case in the final piece, are just placeholders. What is significant about them is that there are two different photos of the same person. The placeholder images I used were from carte de visites, a predecessor to our modern day business card in the mid-1800s. These carte de visites were signficant in that the photographers of the day, using what were then recent technological developments (ha ha, no pun intended) were able to get eight exposures of the sitting client onto one piece of photo paper. There was something about the camera that took two exposures at one time and a way to move the negative over so that they got another two slightly different posed shots.

Anyway, I am working with these ideas and hope to have more time over the holiday break to explore more.

My studio was transformed today by getting a lot of important clutter out to the Shed. Now there is room to walk around my press. It was functionally okay in its prior location, with one side up against the back of a shelving unit. But it seems important to be able to walk around it and interact with it when printing. So, now it can breathe and so can I. Honestly, if I had my way, I would have a 2,000 square foot studio co-located with my house with all matching and covered storage so that I could label and then stow away all my art-making supplies.

This is the next best arrangement. Nearly all of the garage is dedicated to art, except for the ironing board, and some cleaning supplies stored near the door from the house out.