Hollyhocks

After the Rain by J. Binford-Bell

I love hollyhocks. But I have not been successful at growing them on my property. So I go off with my camera and seek them in my friends' gardens. I have learned a lot by attempting to capture them in digital form. They are not easy. First any gentle breeze sets their long stalks waving in the wind.

Bashful by J. Binford-Bell

And then the camera has a real challenge on where to focus. But you can wind up with delightful accidents like the one above of the shadows cast on a wall. And the flowers themselves have an incredible depth which becomes a focus issue. Then there is the color. Red, their most common color, is not known as an easy for photographers.

In the Spot Light by J. Binford-Bell

The structure of the flower makes them very tempting for a black and white treatment. It is a flower with veins and petals that filter the light.

Just the Facts by J. Binford-Bell

Looking away by J. Binford-Bell

While at the same time its very simplicity makes it a wonderful palate upon which to play digitally.

Enameled Hollyhocks by J. Binford-Bell

Next summer I am focusing my gardening attentions on successfully raising some of my own photography subjects.

When Women Were Women

Venus and the Sailor by Salvador Dali
Mag 135 prompt by Tess Kincaid

Before the days

of Twiggy

when tooth picks were in

and eating was out

women were women

Round.

Before the days

of plastic

and implants for boobs

liposuction for bellies

women were women

Real.

Before the days

of digital

what you saw

was what you got

women were women

unprocessed.

In the days of Raphael 

women were lush

Dali and Monet

painted women who were women

round and fully packed

human.

J. Binford-Bell

September 2012

Huh?

Fernand Leger - Breakfast-1921

Tess Kincaid, weekly on The Mag, provides a visual prompt for a group of avid followers that then have to pen something inspired by said prompt. Some of these visual prompts are a real spring board and some are agonizing. As a student of art history I find myself stuck on untangling the image. Let me say that Cubism is not my favorite of modern art movements. That said let me get to the task at hand, or is that foot.

Huh?

Her mind said

So loud in her head

She wondered if others

in the quiet gallery

heard.

She took a sip of wine

to occupy her mouth

that wanted to twist askew 

with the tortured

image.

Back ramrod straight

she avoided canting 

to an obtuse angle

in sympathy with

breakfast.

Why she asked

trying desperately

to not giggle

did it look more like

enema?

Wonderful isn't it?

her blind date said

sealing his fate with a

whisper in her

ear.

J. Binford-Bell

September 2012

The Creative Process - Setting up Static Pages

As an artist these days it is not enough to be creative with your art form, and to be up on all the latest mediums and products out there. You also have to be a great marketer.

Even if you are lucky enough to be in a gallery t hat is still afloat chances are they have cut their advertising budget to the bone. And they expect the artists they represent to market themselves to an increasing degree. It is all about interfacing your marketing with their marketing. Websites are seen as less flexible and less friendly so more an more customers are looking for the friendly interaction available on social media. You have to Tweet, Blog, Facebook and Google +.  Note that I did not say OR but AND.

And then there are the rack cards, QR codes, hot links, business cards, etc that all have to key into your net of social media.

As a former free lance writer I jumped on the blog bandwagon in a big way. I have three blogs and was considering two others when someone mentioned putting Static pages on my main blog - Creative Journey. What, pray tell, are static pages? They are pages that are not dated like your main blog page. They remain static at the date you created and/or edited them. They are great for contact information, catalogs of your work, bios and artist statements. They are really website pages linked to your blog. And if you blog weekly or more like I do the readers are invited to your main page with the list of pages right there in front of them.

Today, while avoiding the broken washing machine I watched a YouTube video on how to set up static pages. Really simple. And then dove in. Remember you can easily go back and edit any page at any time. Way more friendly than my website. So I set up four pages: Binford-Bell Studio and Gallery, Paintings, Creative Photography, and Back Country Photography. I can have 10 pages so I can also set a page up for my sister's photography since my gallery represents her work.

And Google allows you to immediately link every page update to Google +, FaceBook, and Twitter as well as e-mail customers to come and check it out. So much easier and less risky than e-mailing images to customers. So I am considering a page that is frequently updated with requests or special exhibits. Need to come up with a catchy name for that. Though even the name of the page is easy to edit.

And viewers that want to contact you about any items featured on a page can leave a comment, and you can comment back. Start a conversation.

I am very pleased. Thank you Google.

Red - From April 2012

RED - Magpie 113

Red Roofs by Marc Chagall

Red

The blood of martyrs

drenching our history

coloring our ethics

our souls.

We come in memory

laying our offerings

at the foot of myth

a crusade we do not want.

So much blood

the future cannot absorb

a jihad of our ancestors

we cannot escape.

J. Binford-Bell

April 2012

Prompt provided by Tess Kincaid of Magpie Tales

Creativity on demand?

Summer Night by Albert Bloch 1913 a Magpie Prompt

Creativity?

The visitor to my studio asked

How does that work?

Can you just turn it on?

Creativity?

I thought as he waited

How does it work?

No, and yes maybe?

Creativity?

Is there a switch

Sometimes yes

It is finding it that's the issue.

Can one just sit down

Pick up a brush or a pen

make creativity flow like magic?

No.

But a word, a phrase

A trick of the light

can turn it on at the least convenient times

Creativity is fickle.

Sadly, alas

This week's Magpie prompt

Did nothing for me

Creativity is temporarily lost.

J. Binford-Bell

September 2012

Thanks anyway to Tess Kindcaid, the mistress of The Mag

The Creative Mind and Organization

Painting space

I was having a special event at my studio today and so it seemed wise to clean the place up. Which may be sort of silly as my studio is open three days a week through the summer and you sort of get what you get when you walk in. Like tomorrow I will be cutting mats and framing my sister's photographs for the International Bank Show in Raton the 12th, 13th and 14th. I have three paintings in that show and last week the studio was devoted to cutting and making frames. So the studio was messier than it needed to be and also some cleaning had to be done to be able to mat photographs.

Mat cutting table and file

So it just seemed a good idea to go the whole hog. In fact I may actually schedule these special events periodically to motivate me to clean it up. This time it even included cleaning the jute rugs and washing the tile floors because I have been gardening.

Clean rugs

But the biggest issue was the painting area in the first photo. I have been opening folding tables and painting on them and using the table to "store" paints, and pens and sketches and pencils and sketch books, etc. It was a mess. Now my grand plan for the studio has shelves to handle all the things on the paint desk but they seemed filled too. So while I was killing time for my first visitors (note: art shoppers never come before noon) I decided to tackle the shelves so I could clean the painting area.

Cleaned and organized shelves

These shelves were the biggest mess. In part because they do not roll out like the shelves where I keep my watercolors and paint mediums. Things get shoved to the back and I forget what is in there like the three packages of steel wool that is now with framing supplies. Cleaning this area out allowed me a place to put the plastic box of oil sticks, my transfer paper, paints for frames, sealants for paintings, and spray adhesives for mounting photographs and mats. In short all the stuff that had been "stored" on top of the painting area table.

Will it stay this neat and tidy? I doubt it. Tomorrow when I mat all the matting stuff will come out and take up space on the flat surfaces. And then on Monday I will be back to working on the unfinished painting currently sitting on the matting table. And at some point I need to organize the mat file and the rolling drawers on the flat file but it is a beginning. And I am fully aware that as a creative person I am not neat and organized for long.