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THE PROBLEM WITH JOURNALS

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  People have wanted to record their thoughts, art and records all the way back to the times of clay tablets. Even in the electronic age with all its blogs, applications and social media, the urge to record on paper is unmatched. The feel and senses of moving pen on paper connecting mind, body and thought is wonderful. The journal by nature speaks of perfection. You want your journal to reflect the best of your writing, poetry, occasional sketch or photo, and life thoughts. Problem is life is not perfect. It gets interrupted by random thoughts, notes from calls, travel expense records and even to do lists. The journal is all too handy to reach for when this randomness occurs. So you start finding odd entries into what was once a perfect set of blank pages. There is also the issue of number of pages. It’s hard to fill out all 100 or 150 pages with perfect work and thoughts. As you look over what now has become a not so perfect journal, your mind drifts to artists like Picasso, Joan ...
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TAISHO ERA JAPAN (from found art series)

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Sometimes you're lucky enough to find things that speak of art in every way. Some even have a history and legacy to them. Such was the case when I stumbled on a packet of Taisho Era letters, stamps and envelopes. They looked beautiful on their own, but I knew they could be made into even more artful items. The surprise though was learning the legacy they also carried with them. The Taisho Era was named for Emperor Taisho lasting only from 1912 to his death in 1926.  Despite being in ill health during his reign, he recognized that Japan must modernize and move beyond traditional ways. He had learned much from being exposed the West during World War One when Japan fought on the allied side. The Taisho Era was marked by significant modernization, cultural change, and the burgeoning of arts. However, it put too much wind in the sails of Japan, leading it toward expansion and conquest.  You ponder all this as you work with the items, thinking of the art. Realizing you can’t change ...
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OUT OF THE STUDIO - September 30

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  It's human nature to want to match things up, weave them together, even write a story about them. When you wander with your camera, magic doesn't always happen. What you see and experience lives only in isolation. Residing in your photos as unfinished business. Yet, these things call them abstract or not still have an art about them. While not encompassing a string of thoughts, they are part of what you find important in the world. Some you play with attempting to extract meaning and being. Most though just are.... Lancaster Tractor Trailer Reflection  Portland Mail Boxes and Poster Charlotte Hospital Awning Cotswold Village MarK - Charlotte Atlanta Wall
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STUDY OF A BLUE WALL

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  I have a camp chair in the trunk of my car. Sometimes, I carry a kit of watercolor pencils and always a camera. All to remind me to put the busy world on hold. To pull off the road and just sit, contemplating a found scene in life. You're never sure what that is, but you are always searching. It’s tough to block out the traffic, the phone calls, the blare of the radio news. Once in a while though, you find a place to pull over. You unfold the chair and just sit. What you are hoping for is the question. Maybe, something or someone entering the scene that would foster a story. Colors that would grasp you enough to sketch, applying a bit of water to make the hues sing. Maybe just a person stopping to talk about what you are doing or thinking. Most of the time, none of these things happen. You still take a photo though. When you get home, you look at it reminded that you were there and wise enough to stop...
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WANDERING WITH HOLGA

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  The sunny day found me out wandering with my plastic $53 HOLGA Camera. My other cameras were far more sophisticated, producing perfect pictures. But, here I was on this beautiful day with the HOLGA, a camera many regarded as a toy. Still, I would meet new people attracted by the look of the camera. None of which would stay around long enough to learn the mystery, history and fame of it. I also knew great photos would be only once in a while. The camera just had too many faults to produce anything consistent. That was in fact the great appeal to it, the blurs, light leaks, and film quality of the results. It had a cult following among Retro fans. Ones led by generation Z who had never known anything without the immediate feedback of a display screen. There was none of that with the HOLGA. A film camera the required processing and time to see the results. They were all different than anticipated. Sometimes you forgot to take off the lens cap or advance the film producing double exp...
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JUST ONE THING

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  It’s so rare these days to find the artful special item. One that is real, has traveled the world, and bares the marks of life to prove it. Too often you find yourself in a gift shop atracted to things, only to turn them over and find “Made in China.” So when you do find something of beauty that is special to your eye, you want it. A question lingers though, do you have a place on the wall for it?  As a collector of found objects, you often find yourself at this juncture. Should you take this wornderful thing from the world or leave it there for others. The travel author Paul Theroux once advised at each place, choose only one item to buy. That way you will remember the rest even more….
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THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL PLACES

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  Bringing back interest to our cities is a hot topic. Too often overlooked are the value of small unique places. Ones that set the place apart from others. Katarina Mall in her article “Capitalism in the Cracks” for Reason Magazine addresses this challenge well. She describes how Japan works with districts to promote all types of enterprise, especially in the small places including alleys often not possible with city planning in this country. Think back on a recent visit to another city, what do you remember about it. Was it the giant development that squashed a neighborhood just for another strip mall or ditto market. Maybe, but more likely it is for a unique place you found. Often, these are small places.  It mighr be Sun May Co. a tiny asian gift shop at 5 Canton Alley S in Seattle, or Commonwealth Used Books at 9 Spring Lane in Boston, or Daiso a Japanese variety store in the basement under an escalator of the old Woolworth building in Vancouver, or Collectors Nook a stam...
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