Openings Connecting: "I STILL HAVE EVERYTHING"

Monday, January 2, 2012

"I STILL HAVE EVERYTHING"

small bowl, feather, shell

one of my new photographs seemed to call for Naomi Shihab Nye's poems. here are two:

I STILL HAVE EVERYTHING YOU GAVE ME

"It is dusty on the edges.

Slightly rotten.

I guard it without thinking.

Focus on it once a year
when I shake it out in the wind.

I do not ache.

I would not trade."

and

HIDDEN

"If you place a fern
under a stone
the next day it will be
nearly invisible
as if the stone has
swallowed it.

If you tuck the name of a loved one
under your tongue too long
without speaking it
it becomes blood
sigh
the little sucked-in breath of air
hiding everywhere
beneath your words.

No one sees
the fuel that feeds you."

10 comments:

ooglebloopsDecember 10, 2011 at 1:45 PM
Fitting poetry for a lovely photo.
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Leslie Avon MillerDecember 10, 2011 at 10:06 PM
Great choice of words and image...no one sees the fuel that feeds you...I like that.
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LauraDecember 11, 2011 at 3:22 PM
ahh a magnificent trio of beauty. Your photo is gorgeous...so elegant.
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Poetic ArtistDecember 11, 2011 at 3:28 PM
Wonderful photo and the words seem to reflect.
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layersDecember 11, 2011 at 5:04 PM
The image is very Zen-like and minimal and up close and personal... and the words in the poetry meld with the image.
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Renee HowellDecember 12, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Hi!
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tess stiebenDecember 12, 2011 at 9:34 PM
I absolutely enjoyed this post. Beautiful image. Hugs!
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Blue Sky DreamingDecember 13, 2011 at 8:59 AM
The weight of things...this is a beautiful post!
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Caterina GiglioDecember 13, 2011 at 2:12 PM
"the little sucked in breath of air"... oh my ...oh my all this and your gorgeous photo too... xo
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rivergardenstudioDecember 17, 2011 at 8:24 AM
I have two weeks off, starting today and am relishing the time to read your words and look at your blog. Your photograph of the bowl is very stunning to me, and your new heading (!) AND the words on your sidebar...'time to rest, to be, to stretch' Thats me right now.
Happy winter to you, lovely one.

roxanne
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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.