Magpie Tales 225 - Sweet Summer

Sweet Summer by John William Waterhouse
Mag 225

The summer of innocence

just newly spoiled

celebrating your sexuality

before it must to be hidden inside

the diary.

The summer of sweet love

before you knew its curse

and he left you for another

less innocent

more ripe.

The summer of awakening

of knowing why it is forbidden fruit

which all to quickly spoils

like an improperly corked vintage

gone sour.

J. Binford-Bell

June 2014

Week 24 - 2014 in Images

Day 162

A friend of mine posted a challenge in photography of ordinary objects. Seen through a camera lens I do not know any object is ordinary. Something about the medium takes it out of the ordinary. But this week I tried to focus on the ordinary images in my life.

Day 163
Radicchio in my garden

Frankly even the plants in the garden did not look that ordinary once in my view finder. Even less so on the computer screen. The camera makes you look at ordinary objects and see the extraordinary in them.

Day 164

Even the lowly snapdragon when looked up to became a giant. Okay I added the sun spot. But because it just seemed to call for it.

Day 165

And my dirty studio windows happened to be reflecting the most extraordinary storm clouds the day I took the picture below.

Day 166

Day 167

These were those clouds. I think the clouds that day were way beyond ordinary. But they are fairly common in my world because they build up over the mountains that surround my valley.

Day 168

And this fountain is an ordinary part of my routine. I stare at it and toy with how to capture it. Another attempt on Day 168. An otherwise ordinary day. Except I had my camera with me.

I daily post another photo on Binford-Bell Studio Page in Facebook. I also post progress photos of my paintings as I prepare for Meraki at Gallery Main in Trinidad, Colorado. Check out my page and my posts.

Meraki - Preparing for the One Woman Show

All My Pretty Ponies
19 x 29 Mixed Media
Currently on Exhibit at Angel Fire Visitor's Center

Meraki
A Greek noun meaning the soul, creativity, or love put into something; the essence of yourself which is put into your work.

I have done fairs before. And even an exclusive small exhibit dedicated to my work in the lobby of a framing shop. You learn to not pass up opportunities as an artist in a changing economy. My works are at the Chamber of Commerce in Angel Fire and the Visitor's center. My studio also serves as an exhibit space for my work. 

I have never spent almost a year preparing for occupation of a whole gallery with just my work. Fairs are 10 x 10 moving one woman shows and I have in the past done as many as eight in a year. A gallery is just four fair booths. Right? First question was did I have enough work to fill the gallery space. Yes. Second question was did I have enough work to fill the space without gutting my own open studio and the gallery which represents me in Cimarron and my venues around Angel Fire. Perhaps. Third question was would I mount a show acceptable to me.

That is when you stand in the middle of your exhibit space in your studio and stare. Then off to your computer and review your images of every painting in your inventory. Then upstairs to empty the boxes of stored works. Wise to remember that this opportunity has come after only just returning to painting after a two year hiatus. It was my first works after that hiatus which were entered in gallery exhibits that attracted Gallery Main to make the offer. They had no questions about the quality. But I had questions within me. And what artist or performer doesn't. Actors will tell you that stage fright can be used to mount a stellar performance.

Sacrifice
36 x 21 Mixed Media
Currently on exhibit at Binford-Bell Studio

I decided while I could mount a respectable exhibit with pieces on hand what I really needed was some magic to hold it together. I needed some larger works to speak for the others. I have now painted 13 such works and have one more just begun. If time a triptych I have dreamed of. There is something almost mystical about painting one painting after another. I understand how Georgia O'Keeffe died with 1000 works in her studio. How Salvador Dali's work plunged in value after his death because of what he had "horded" in his house. How Picasso had rooms full of paintings. Each painting seems to begat another. Which is good because while I have been painting for the show paintings have sold from my studio. Magic happens.


I have done bouts of extended painting before - binges for fairs. I quit fairs for several reasons not the least that I think it damped my creativity. The tendency is to cookie cutter out the subjects you know will sell. Whereas this time I was leaping from one inspiration to the next. Only criteria was they be larger works. I certainly had an ample amount of smaller and medium sized paintings. I was painting these paintings for me. They are of me. Meraki.

High Pueblo Dawn
Canvas size 28 x 28 Mixed media
Currently on exhibit at Binford-Bell Studio

Now there are just 15 more days. There is inventory and boxing and sending information to the gallery. And more painting. I did after all just begin that one more painting my muse has been whispering about. I have been back to Gallery Main a few times. Sometimes it looks entirely too huge to fill and sometimes too small. Some days I stand in my studio and look at those walls and the paintings on them and wonder what possessed me to commit to this. And other times I will walk into my studio to begin painting for the day and marvel at who it is who has painted all this.

Meraki

Opening Reception July 11th at 5 p.m.
Gallery Main
130 East Main Street
Trinidad, Colorado

Trinidad Area Arts Council

Week 23 - 365 Days of Photographs 2014

Day 155 - Cimarron, New Mexico

What is it about June which always makes me feel so far behind. And with a one woman show of my paintings in July I really do feel very far behind. Trying to avoid panic with photography. There is nothing in life which cannot be avoided for at least a few moment when behind a camera. Or in front of the computer immersed in post processing a photo. And if that photograph you are working on is of a place you visited on a leisurely afternoon all the better.

Day 156

And lacking a scenic spot there is always the morning light through the blinds and the patterns captured. Photographs can focus on a reality we missed in our busy lives or like the photo below, alter reality. Eagle Nest lake with the tiny pontoon boat looks healthy and full. Cropping deleted the yards and yards of dry shore line once covered with water. Eagle Nest lake because of the drought is at less than half of its capacity.

Day 157 - Eagle Nest Lake

Or the camera can point the eye to the deterioration of what we viewed as quaint. Thankfully the house below isn't mine. Sadly mine may have as much to be fixed but is less picturesque.

Day 158 - Sun room in New Mexico?

The green house/sun room above has added screen to protect the plants once raised there from the south sun in summer or from the hail of our monsoon seasons? No owners to ask. But it and the plastic and poly bow green house I built made me very aware of layers we apply these days. The window next to the green house is single pane and no screen but the window featured below is double pained and screened. The dog looking out is less visible than the remnants of sheer curtain in the photo above.

Day 159 - How much is the doggie in the window?

Double layered glass makes for some interesting images especially when you factor in reflections like in the self-portrait below. Selfies are easy with smart phones but more difficult with DSLR's. I liked the one below because it includes my camera and beyond the double glass a painting of mine layered in with the reflection of the aspens behind me. A friend said it seemed anxious. I am anxious currently. See opening paragraph about the one woman show.

Day 160 - self portrait

To wrap up on a more calming note I leave you with a black and white of a fountain in a pond set in the valley surrounded by mountains. In color it is almost too busy. In black and white it has a serenity which almost allows you to hear the soft sound of the water falling on the surface. And I remember the birds swooping over the surface beneath the spray making high pitched calls.

Day 161

Mag 223 - For the Record

Visual Prompt by The Mag

For the record

Taped conversations

in the Oval office

One maniac to mega-manics

recorded history

erased.

Gone from the record

Eighteen minutes.

One maniac or just the secretary

editing history

blank.

Hearings all recorded

in Senate chamber

One maniac on trial for months

over 18 minutes

erased.

J. Binford-Bell

President Richard Nixon

Watergate Hearings

Week 22 - 2014 in Images

Day 148

Day 148 was a very special day for me because on that day I was able to see clearly out of both eyes at last. The world was really puddle wonderful as e. e. cummings would say but all the images for this week were taken the before my surgery and through the use of modern technology scheduled to post on the appropriate day. Meanwhile I was out with my camera taking photos with two good eyes which will be posted this week coming up.

Day 149

But I had one good eye for almost a month and when these pictures were taken. What I noticed was my new found joy at the quality of light. Cataracts make everything too bright or too indistinct. Sunrises and sunsets become less than enjoyable.

Day 150

Day 151

Modern surgical procedures gave me back the light, and as I have said before, the edges. And the pleasure of spending time on the computer photo editing some of my previously taken photos.

The last three photos of this week were posted because they will be May 2014 for me: The May 13th snow storm, and the feverish building of the bow tunnel after that and before going under the knife again.

Day 152 - Memories of a May snow storm

Day 153 - Walking the Fence Line

Day 154

Regardless of my artistic intentions when out with a camera some photos are a recording of a time and place, a period of my life which I must mark. If I am lucky those images captured sometimes speak volumes to others. Sometimes they speak just to me. Image 153 - Walking the Fence Line surprisingly speaks to my of my childhood. No, I never lived on a ranch, but I have known lots of ranchers and spent time on ranches and farms as a guest laborer if you will. The work goes on whether there is 10 inches of snow or not. There is no calling in for a sick day or a snow day.

Let's Take a Trip

Lips supplied by The Mag 122

Just a little trip

You know I never lie

Come away with me

down the rabbit hole.

Trip the light

of wonderland

Just a tiny trip

to a land of nonsense.

You know you want to

escape this reality

trip among the stars

with Tweedle Dumb and Dee.

Take this magic pill

and come away with me

a short walk along the briny sea

with me and the Carpenter. 

J. Binford-Bell

June 2014