We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.

-Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Save The Date: NYFA Swap Meet

Is this a cool idea or what? Also all profits go to keeping NYFA current up and running. If you live near NYC, RSVP, then get thee there.

Click Click Here. Click Click There.

So, I finally got a new camera. Well I ordered it anyway. I settled on the Nikon D90.

And actually, to be exact, my husband ordered it for me. I don't have an assistant, but I have something even better---a husband who is a total techno-geek. I let him pick a camera and order it for me. It should arrive in a week or so.

Don't get me wrong, I usually like the research and shopping end of stuff, but this time around I just couldn't be bothered. I was totally overwhelmed by all the possibilities and the prices. Oh god, the prices of these things! *gulp* I now only have one kidney to spare, having sold my 2nd on the black market to afford a lense for this baby.

Hey, remember how when you were a kid, when you got new tennis shoes you thought they made you run faster? In keeping with that sort of magical thinking, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that for this price, the D90 will make my photos prettier. (insert laugh here.)

Anyway, It's done. On with the show.

Friday Brain Food

"Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and go to work."

-Chuck Close

Putting Together an Exhibition Proposal Part 1

As soon as I published that last post I immediately got four e-mails from friends asking how I wrote my exhibition proposal. So I decided that I should probably do a few follow up posts. In this post I’ll explain what I included in my exhibition proposal and give you a few links to get you started if you’re attempting to write a proposal of your own.

My proposal for (Re)calling and (Re)telling includes two parts.

The first page is the Exhibition Concept. Basically this is a statement written specifically for this body of work. At only 3 paragraphs, it is short and sweet and doesn’t beat around the bush. It basically explains exactly what the work is about and how it was made:

“Each photograph in (Re)calling and (Re)telling begins with a single large-format negative. Once a print has been made from the negative, fragments of maps, drawings, or other found imagery are manually manipulated directly in front of the camera lens on a delicately lit three-dimensional set in order to arrive at a final image. Although the finished photographs are digital pigment prints, each image is composed and created “in camera” without the aid of photo editing software.”

I added this last paragraph in the middle because frankly it’s not really evident from looking at the images of my work how exactly they were made. Since the process adds another layer of meaning to the series, I wanted the process to be to be more explicit.

The second page of my proposal is called Exhibition Specifications. On this sheet I give all the facts and details about what is involved in showing this body of work:

Presentation: What is the work made of? How is it wired for hanging? How heavy is it? How many artworks are there? Do the works have any special care needs or instructions?

Required Space: Here’s where you list how many linear feet it takes to show this work. Or if your work is 50 meters tall, you might want to mention that here.

Insurance value: Self explanatory. If the venue burns to the ground with your work in it, how much money will the insurance company need to pay you in compensation?

Shipping and Expenses: If the venue asks for a detailed exhibition budget, obviously this would be a whole separate page of the proposal, but here is a good place to say something about shipping/budget guidelines or any special requirements the work needs.

And that’s basically a bare-bones Exhibition proposal. Of course in addition to this I will include my CV, artists statement & bio, a CD of images (or prints if they so request), an image list, and whatever else they reasonably ask for.

Random side note: I don’t apply to places that request slides. I’m just too lazy and slides are just too expensive and annoying to have made these days. I know I should be accommodating, but seriously, I can’t be bothered.

A website that might get you started on how to format your Exhibition Proposal---Exhibits USA specialises in pre-packaged touring exhibitions, but reading through the descriptions of their exhibitions really helped me figure out how I wanted to package mine. Also their exhibition catalog is a joy to flip through.

Good luck & Godspeed!

Installation photos the (Re)calling and (Re)telling series installed at El Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, May 2008. Courtesy of Kelly Doule Photography.

All My Ducks in a Row.

Well it’s that time of the year again. No, not Christmas, I mean application time. This week I assembled 12 exhibition proposals for my photographic series (Re)calling and (Re)telling. Yes, 12. I had actually already written up the proposal plus a sheet outlining all the exhibition specifications ages ago, but I decided that both documents needed to be revised and that some other critical information needed to be added. (Funny, how when you put a piece of writing aside for 6 months, when you come back to it you magically see how incredibly flawed the writing is.)

Now, I had been putting off doing this since the early summer. And spending an entire month gallivanting around Paris and then sneaking of to London just served to push the project even further back from any reasonable due date. In addition to all that, there are about 101 other reasons why artists generally go into full-on procrastination mode concerning applications, but I’ll just leave that for another post.

Today I just want to announce triumphantly that they are finished and ready to be shipped on Monday! At the moment they are all proudly displayed on my work table. And as much as I really need to move them out of the way to start working on another project today, I’m just so digging the sight of them all lined up. So there they stay. The expression ‘having your ducks in a row’ comes to mind.

8 megapixels and up!

I haven’t been blogging, but I’ve certainly been working. In fact I’ve been working so much that I now have new paintings I need to photograph. Problem? I think it’s time for a camera upgrade. My 8 megapixel cybershot is great for quick and dirty shots, but I’m really looking to get more control, different lense options, and higher resolutions.

I’m totally clueless on even where to begin shopping and price comparisons. I have no brand preferences. I just want something that’s easy to use, but complicated enough that I can grow into it. Aaah. Life was so much easier when I could just do everything I needed with my first true love--- my Pentax ME Super. *deep mournful sigh*

Does anybody have any suggestions? What camera do you have? How much should I have to spend for a decent work camera? What can I get for under $1000?

"Slide? What's a slide?"

One of my most daunting projects of the summer is to clean out and re-organise my studio. Storage space was getting pretty tight and then I realised that I hadn't done a good "sort and purge" in ages. Afterall, how many art magazines am I supposed to keep. Can I throw out the Art Forum magazines from 2003 yet?

Anyway, in process of dumping and shredding and filing things, I pulled out my slide binder. And dear lord it's enormous. Enormous and covered in dust. I literally cannot remember the last time I sent slides to anyone for any reason. I'm thinking the last time was back in 2007 maybe?

So the question is: Now that's we everyone has gone all space-age sci-fi with our imagery, what the hell am I supposed to do with this enormous binder filled with nearly 1000 slides that's just siting here clogging up my bookcase?

Wherefore art thou?

Well since I’ve been on "blog holiday" for 6 weeks I’ll give you the uber-quick run-down on what I’ve been up to:

1. Vacation in Crete:

2. Show Opening in Brussels:



3. 10-day Trip to London and Paris with one of my oldest friends:



4. Complete exhaustion. (No photo necessary. You know exactly what that looks like.)

Aaaaaaah. There really is no place like home. After a month of non-stop work and travel I can barely begin to tell you how damn good it feels to just be home. Sure, it was all great fun, but hot damn---travel is exhausting! Now that I am home, I may never leave my house again. I'm actually looking forward to doing laundry and re-organising my armoires. I am in full-on nesting mode.

Best of all, I have 3 glorious months of summer that are intentionally scheduled with absolutely nothing! No shows, no deadlines, no applications, no galleries, no nothing. Well nothing accept one little treat that I've arranged for myself: After more than 10 years of hemming and hawing, three weeks ago I started taking guitar lessons!


Now, so far I suck. I mean I suck really hard, but I am having so much fun. And some things are just worth doing because they're fun! I'm really excited, but also worried about how on earth I'll be able to acquire all the new musical vocabulary. Remember, I’m in France. I’m taking guitar lessons from a non-English-speaking instructor. Taking guitar lessons is one thing, but taking them in French is another.

But whatever, I’m up for the challenge.

The Gallery's Show Invite! Yippee!