thank you, florida

Florida Fields and her husband lived in my house for fifty years before I did.  They planted about twenty-five azaleas of all different varieties around the house and the two oak trees.  From early April through May it's quite a show.

the first year

This still is from “Sweet Movie”.   I once used this image for a poster for a band I played in called Larryland.  I've never actually seen the move.  Little did I know that it's banned in “many countries to this day”.  For me, it’s just an image in my brown accordion file that speaks volumes about anxiety.  His nonchalance about the situation cracks me up.   

I got this film still along with a stack of others from  a mail order movie rental  company I worked at when I lived in Chicago.   They were the first Netflix, but with VHS.  It was mostly foreign and independent movies. They had every movie you could imagine (even banned ones)!   I’ve flipped through this stack photographs so many times over the years that I can’t imagine the accordion file without them. 

Last April I started this blog of images, art, my view of life through the lens of my studio with the intention of sharing my process.  In doing so and to my pleasure, I’ve discovered the simplicity in how I make art.  It’s about waking up, absorbing life, and hoisting it all onto the compost heap to see what breaks down.  It’s in the studio where I let the connections between what’s random and what’s not come together and land.  It’s here that I quiet down and listen.   

I look forward to another year of collecting, gathering, sweeping life up into a pile and having a look!

just this morning

The horizon line can be hard to come by in Memphis because of its thick canopy of trees.  (My city is so lush.)  The Mississippi River sets the stage for beautiful sunsets, but finding an open expanse of eastern sky is harder to come by.  Last week we were at Shelby Farms and there it was.  I turned to James and said, "We should come out here and watch the sunrise sometime."

Early yesterday morning I feel a gentle nudge.  "Remember when you said we should go out to Shelby Farms to watch the sunrise?"  We got there about ten minutes after the sun had hit the horizon, but it was still gorgeous. Mist was everywhere. The quiet of the city and early morning light was so amazing that decided to do it again this morning.  Today we got there right on time.