Openings Connecting: GARDENERS

Saturday, May 14, 2011

GARDENERS

   "Let us be grateful to people who
   make us happy:
   They are the charming gardeners
   who make our souls blossom."

   ~Marcel Proust~

6 comments:

The Artist Within UsMay 14, 2011 at 9:35 PM
Greetings dear Neva,

Life is way too short to hold grudges, besides forgiveness is very powerful.

I think this quote is rather wonderful, especially eluding that friendship is like a garden.

Thank you for sharing,
Egmont
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UnknownMay 15, 2011 at 8:08 AM
I am guessing that yours is in full bloom :)
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SethMay 16, 2011 at 7:23 PM
A wonderful quote to share. Thanks!
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layersMay 17, 2011 at 8:37 PM
I have not come across this Proust quote before-- gardens blooming and growing is a great metaphor for life.
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Renee HowellMay 26, 2011 at 7:38 AM
thanks buddy! beautiful get well gift!
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LauraJune 7, 2011 at 4:26 PM
:-) may we all bloom and grow with joy and peace!
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.