Verbatim 2015: An art + text collaboration

It was a first for me, back in October of 2015; a collaboration of my photography with the poetry of Spokane's Christopher Cook. I was excited to be invited to participate in Verbatim 2015, an annual fundraiser for INK Artspace and Spark Center.

I first met Chris at the organizational meeting and found him to be open and receptive to working with me--my being a bit under the Spokane art scene radar--and to combining our respective talents. Chris is a long-time Spokanite, whereas I've only been here for about four years, and a rather reclusive four years at that.

He provided me with a lot of his published chapbooks and poems so I could get a feel for how he wrote, and he came on this blog site to see my photography. And so it began.

Chris is not only well-respected in poetry circles, but he also teaches at Gonzaga University and plays trumpet in the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. With his extensive background, he provided me with a list of visual resources from which to choose. He itemized places, which I then wandered around and photographed. Chris also pulled some strings, taking me through the Bing Crosby Theater and the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, where I sought to find some interesting behind the scenes shots.

This turned out not only to be great fun, but also an excellent means of learning how to get around downtown Spokane. Even though I've lived here for a time, I really had not explored much of the downtown area. Why not? Traffic is off-putting, so many one-way streets, abysmal parking, you name it. But, this experience forced me out of my shell, for which I'm most grateful!

It was quite exciting to work in this way. I am rather unstructured in what and where I photograph. This collaboration was awesome in forcing me to focus on the end product for a specific purpose.

I shared the photographs with Chris and he selected one grouping, a diptych of shots from The Baby Bar. This, as I understand it, is Spokane's smallest bar, located behind Neato Burrito on First Avenue.

Thus, the images were selected and the poet sharpened his pencil and went off to do his thing. I could hardly wait to read what Christopher wrote.

The evening of the gallery exhibit/auction and the corresponding performance of the written word came and went with great fanfare. Chris performed his farcical after hours essay, complete with musical accompaniment, and both of the photographs went to appreciative new homes!

Success!

A Featured Artist at Wild Wild West Show in Spokane WA

I'm excited to have been invited to be one of the featured artists at the Wild Wild West Show at Manic Moon & More Gallery in Spokane, WA. I'm SUPER excited that Ric Gendron will be one of the other artists featured. I've been a fan of his work since I first encountered it about four years ago.

As some of you are aware, I've been posting a lot of images of Rust and Decay to Instagram. This has been an offshoot of my Bondo Series of photographs started when I lived in Redlands, California during the 1990s.  My Instagram photos, however, are solely iPhone photography in a square format.

I thought it would be interesting to present these Instagram photographs as tangible prints. I wanted to do something a little out of my comfort zone, so I've had the rust and decay images selected for the Wild Wild West Show printed on stretched canvas. I'm delighted with how well they've turned out and am curious to see how they'll be received.

The show opens Friday, May 15, 2015 at Manic Moon & More Gallery on Augusta (just off Monroe) in Spokane. Besides Ric Gendron's paintings and my photographs, there will be many works of art by other talented Manic Moon & More artists. It's going to be a terrific show! Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 11:00-5:00.

I'm going to include several of my images that will be in this show. If you want to see the rest of my iPhone images in this show, just let me know. All works are for purchase! Please feel free to contact me at kweststudio8@yahoo.com with any questions about the Wild Wild West Show, or about the images themselves.

You can view my entire Instagram gallery of iPhone images @kweststudio8. Let me know what you think; I'd love to hear from you!

Memory Wheel 14"x 14" Stretched Canvas $100

Orange Peel 14"x14" Stretched Canvas $100

Chain Link Corrugation 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Elk Skull 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Frenchy's Corset 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Paint Shreds in Pink 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Curtains ...

I was included in another Etsy Treasury. No, that's not quite correct. Linda Hawkins was drawn to one of my photographs. She put together a treasury entirely of curtains. It struck me that me, myself and I wasn't chosen, but Linda's perception of story held forth in my photograph of curtains at an open window.

How many seemingly common things serve delightfully as metaphor? Some are universal and others very, very personal. Imagination is awesome, thank goodness for this!

www.etsy.com/treasury/MTAyNTAwMjB8MjcyMjkzNDI0NA/its-curtains-for-you

It's Curtains For You
Linda Hawkins, Curator
www.dragonswire.etsy.com

Waiting At the Curtain

Linda creates intriguing masks. It makes sense that a maker of masks would have an affinity for  curtains, doesn't it? Talk about metaphor!

Day 56 of 365 ...

Waiting

Today's photographic image is a view of a lone tree and an empty bench looking northwest across Semiahmoo Bay out beyond the bouy into the Sound. They looked to be waiting. Were they expecting you?

02-25-2011

OK, OK ... you know I can't stop at just one.  This was a really cool metal bin I found behind a building.

II, 3 and 12

Etsy site activity and Project 365

Today my photograph of peonies for sale at http://www.kweststudio8.etsy.com/ was selected for inclusion in another Etsy treasury. What a rush to be featured in these theme collections. Although these inclusions don't pay anything, it does garner more attention for Kwest Studio 8, which seems to be the name of the marketing game. Generate as much activity and name recognation as possible, or so I'm led to believe.

As for today's photograph, I'm a sucker for stairs, or the pattern thereof. This photograph includes all sorts of appealing patterns.

02-20-1011

OOPS ... Project 365

It always throws me out of sync when I forget and leave my computer at the office. So, I wasn't able to upload yesterday's photo.

Today's photo(s) AND yesterday's photo ...

02-17-11

02-16-11

Project 365

A busy day, didn't get out of the office much, but I did spy and photograph these "stains" on a concrete pad. The rust marks I think are dirt, so eventually the elements will wash them away. There's something engaging about photographing something so ephemeral.

02-13-2011

Project 365 on a rainy, windy day ...

The rain poured this afternoon, but I was out early before the deluge came down. I drive along Birch Bay Lynden just about every day. Electric poles are being erected, or maybe they were telephone. In any case, the hardware used intrigued me. The utility company has a temporary storage area where they keep all the hardware they've used in their work. There were just too many metal arcs and bolts and angles for me NOT to stop and snap some shots. Glad I got the photographs before the rain really came down.

Oh my! The stop sign out on Birch Bay Drive just fell over! Whoa! It's windy!

Anyway, here are today's photos and then I'm heading home. No way am I going to avoid getting soaked!

02-12-11

Project 365

Shazam! The day is done and I'm watching white and red of head and tail lights passing along Birch Bay Drive. Time to call it a day. But, wait! Have to upload today's photograph.

Most people have window blinds these days in this corner of the country. Seldom do I see drapery, and more infrequent to see lace curtains. Perhaps that's why I was struck with the way the light filtered through the lace and the graceful way the folds created a darker contrast. Curtained windows also look out onto imagination, if you let them.

The lace curtain window transported me back to an earlier time in my life, when visiting Auntie Vivian who had lace curtains. No matter if she didn't, I remember her having them, and looking through them out onto a white picket arbor covered with delicate little pink tea roses and bees buzzing in the summertime--the arbor, roses and bees she DID have. Auntie Vivian is long gone, so is the farm where she lived with Uncle Albert and their brood of 10 children whose names all began with "D."

Oh my! What odd things trigger memories. Here's today's photograph:

02-10-2011

Project 365

I went by Seaside Bakery in Blaine, and the patterns of the tables and chairs tickled my eye. Alas, the bakery was closed so I had to photograph through the glass window. I didn't set my camera to compensate for the lighting--that's what happens when I get in a hurry--but I loved the pattern. So, even though the clarity is missing, I threw a film grain filter on the image to enhance the yellow. It was a good learning experience. (I learned not to be in such a dangblasted hurry!)

02-09-2011

Project 365

There were a couple of images "clicked" today that I feel have potential, but this one particularly struck me. I almost wished I had shot a video of this landlocked sailboat in Blaine between two brick buildings. The wind whipped all around it and the canvas filled and moved with the air. It looked like the boat was trying shed its tethers to fly away. It was awesome. So, in this case, a static one shot doesn't do the scene justice. I would have loved to see it lift off and flap away over Semiahmoo Bay!

02-07-2011

Project 365 et cetera ...

I didn't go out at all today. I was busy with indoor tasks and accomplished a lot. However, I received notification of two more Etsy treasuries in which my photographs have been featured. Confounding me how my photographs are seen and found desirable enough to include in treasuries, but not one sale of a photograph. Hmmm. I have to figure out the whys and wherefores of selling photography on Etsy ... and elsewhere!

These two photographs were included today!

02-05-2011:

 And because I didn't go out, my photo du jour is of pillows in my boudoir. Ohh la la!

Project 365

I just had to get out on the beach today. I always think more clearly when I'm out walking, and walking along the beach is even better. A lot to think about. But I wasn't so lost in thought that I missed this tumble of sand dollars. They weren't in an area of the bay where I've seen them before, usually farther out from shore or in a muddy area of the northern area of the bay. I have a hunch someone gathered them up and then for whatever reason left them.  But, their loss was my gain, and now yours.

A sand dollar for your thoughts?

02-04-2011:

Etsy Site Update

This morning I checked my Etsy shop http://www.kweststudio8.etsy.com/ and found my photograph "Thorns on the Beach" was included in an Etsy Treasury yesterday. Unlikely candidate for a treasury, methought, but it just goes to show there are other "thorny" sorts out there!   Love and Thorns is the name of the Treasury.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d49a975a8a66d9157d7ccfd/love-and-thorns

I've been pleased with how many times my photographs have been included in these ongoing and ever changing Treasuries.

However, while on the site, I checked how many times each of my photographs had been viewed and it amazed me that a photograph I had snapped of a tree limb chair in front of A Lot of Flowers in Fairhaven, WA has been viewed about 8 TIMES more frequently than most of the other photographs I've presented. By far it has been viewed more often. I'm certain it is the title I gave the photograph that prompted the views: Hobbit Chair. Just goes to show how important a title might be, eh?

Project 365

I understand we're in for some more rain, so I've particularly enjoyed the last two days of sun. One thing I like about sunshine is the shadow cast where the sunlight is blocked. So many fun shapes, angles. There are often textures that happen outside of the glare of the light, but you don't notice them until there's a contrast; a bit of yin and yang. These two photograph of shadows cast illustrate just such a contrast. Today's photo(s):

02-02-2011

Project 365

Yesterday's and today's! I forgot my computer at the office yesterday and wasn't able to upload yesterday's photograph. I'm playing with neon and lights and reflections and I just couldn't make up my mind which to use. Fun!

01-30-11

01-29-11

Project 365

Another rainy day in Birch Bay. But I always find something in the street to pique my interest, although this photograph isn't in the street, but at the entrance of a parking lot. I like diagonals:

01-28-11

Project 365

I was working at home all day, but needed to drive over to the studio to pick up some materials. That was around 5:30 pm and when I came out I found the sky awash with color. I was missing a sunset extravaganza! The light was changing rapidly and I knew I'd never make it to the beach in time. So, I just stopped, whipped out my camera and clicked. I love all the branches--they look energized! Here she be, the photo for Thursday, January 27, 2011:

01-27-11

Project 365

Today was over and done before I could turn around, but turn around I did, with camera in hand, and caught this:

01-26-11

Project 365

After the staff meeting this morning, I walked a bit in downtown Blaine. Although it was a gray morning with a little drizzle threatening, I couldn't pass up the edge of this building overlooking the waterfront. What's not to like about aged bricks?

01-25-11



I uploaded a wide assortment of 10 new images to my Etsy store http://www.kweststudio8.etsy.com/. Some are floral, a couple of the images I've included in Project 365, some beach things, drapery, diner, and froggy comes a-courtin' ! Check them out when you have a moment. Let me know what you think. Thanks!