Protest Age-ism

A couple of things have happened recently which make me think that because of my "maturity" I'm being treated differently and I don't like it!

First of all, I'm going overseas to a workshop. The workshop requires that participants have International Travel Insurance. So, I went on line to buy it and I found out that in another three months when I am 80 it becomes almost impossible to buy it and if you can buy it, it is very limited in the total coverage offered. I know some people in their 80's may not be in good health but what about those of us who are still on the move? <sigh> I guess I'll figure out what to do when the situation comes up after my birthday.

One of my credit cards furnishes my credit score periodically. Today I got a notice that I could go on line and get mine. I've done it before and it stays about the same all of the time. But this time it had dropped 50 points. Whoa! What happened? I'll tell you what happened. My credit score dropped because I do not have a mortgage, car payment or some kind of loan so that how I pay that type of debt can be evaluated. Credit card payments are evaluated separately. Can you believe that? Because I don't have debt I'm less credit worthy. I would think that a lot of mature, retired people do not have a mortgage or a car payment. Does that make us less credit worthy than younger people who have credit card debts, two car payments, college loans and a mortgage?

Have any things like this happened to you? Who wants to join my protest movement?

The Universe Is Speaking To ME!

I had three of the weirdest things happen this week within about 36 hours. I wrote an inquiry about a workshop last March. I knew a couple of people who had gone to the workshop last year and it really sounded interesting to me. I didn't hear back and actually I was busy and I forgot about it. This week I received a reply from them and my inquiry was attached but it didn't show a date in March. Instead it indicated that they had received the inquiry on June 18th. I have no idea where it has been. I guess floating somewhere in cyberspace.

Okay, so that is one of the three things. The second one was that I happened to hear that Keith Carter was in SMA and I contacted him and I had lunch with him and some of his friends. Keith will be one of the instructors at the workshop. I've always wanted to take a workshop with him but it has never worked out.

And the third one is that I had been thinking about maybe taking a photography workshop but one with more of a retreat atmosphere so I'd been looking on line the day before I received the reply from the workshop to see if anything interested me. Nothing did. They all seemed too structured. Too much travel from place to place. I wanted something that gave me time to stay put in one place and dig deeper. Something that gave me time to work with images that I made. Something that gave me time to play with some ideas and techniques. Something more hands on.

The workshop is Spirit into Matter. The whole workshop takes place in a small village near Florence, Italy in a renovated Villa. The instructors are Keith Carter, Kate Breakey and Jace Graf--all people whose work I know and admire. The other thing that some people might not like but I love the idea is that participants are assigned some times to help out in the kitchen. I hear the meals are made with local produce and that they are fabulous. So in addition to photography I'll get to enjoy a "cooking lesson" or two.

When the Universe speaks to me, I listen. I'm going!

The photograph was taken in Italy when I was in Sicily in 2015.

My Photography Workshop

I didn't post anything last week because I was on the go from 8 AM to about 9:30 PM. I took a Santa Fe Photographic Workshop called Faces of Mexico: Environmental Portraiture with Holly Wilmeth.
It has been a long time since I took a workshop. I've been trying to think of when was the last time I took a workshop that was just about photographing and not about some technical aspect of photography. The last one I remember was a workshop with John Sexton back in the 1990's.

Sexton is an amazing photographer who shoots in black and white and knows more about the wet darkroom than most anyone. I learned so much about perfecting my black and white prints from that workshop but also a lot about seeing. Although he is still a working photographer and workshop leader, I found out how much the photography world has changed. When someone younger than me (well everyone in the workshop was younger than me) well anyway, she asked me about whose workshops I had taken, I mentioned Sexton. The look on her face told me that Sexton didn't register at all. She started with digital photography...in color, of course. Darkroom, black and white? Nope, Sexton's work didn't register with her. I had to laugh to myself. Times, they are a'changing.

The workshop was a wonderful experience. I met some great photographers, made new friends but most of all I learned a lot. Wilmeth was a warm and encouraging instructor and role model about how you work with people. It was good for me to have this time of concentrated work with my camera because I had gotten lazy about using it in various modes. I do want to shoot environmental portraits so my friends are probably going to get some requests to model for me. Now that I have put that in my blog, I hope they don't run when they see me!

If you ever have a chance to take a workshop with Holly Wilmeth, DO IT! You won't be disappointed.

The Workshop

Well I warned you that I couldn't draw....no, no. I think I should use sketch, not draw. Sketch sounds much more artisty. But regardless, I did warn you here that I was going to take a workshop on making artist journals. Well the workshop was this week. I had so much fun, even though my sketching isn't any better. I should have been embarrassed. There were some real artists in the workshop but what the hell. I wanted to do it and if I don't do it now, when might I do it? There will always be real artists in art workshops. So what if they think I could use some art classes. They are right but I refuse to let that take away my joy in the doing.

 

Susan Dorf was a great workshop leader. She made everyone feel safe about reading and showing what they were doing. She showed a bunch of her own sketchbooks and also some books about artist journals. She gave a bit of technical information but mostly it was about seeing and connecting and being able to put that in a sketch as well as words.

 

Doing photography and doing a sketch and journaling are similar but, to me, it seems to provide a different emotional experience. I'll just have to do some more in My Artist's Journal and see what happens. It could morph into some combination of Photoshop, digital paint program and words. Yesterday, I told an artist friend about the workshop and how I thought I might end up using it. She said, "Let 'er rip. Go for it."

 

This sketch was the first one we did in the workshop. We were told to spread out and find something. I loved the clump of purses sitting at the bottom of the steps and chose to sketch them. I didn't have the technical skills to really execute it but to me it is a lovely momento of the workshop.



Island of the Dolls

I went on a photography workshop with Jo Brenzo to Mexico City. Jo has been photographing in Xochimilco at the Island of the Dolls for many years. She and Eva Hunter published a book about the dolls and the man who collected them. The book, Lord of the Dolls, Voyage in Xochimilco, is now a collectible and can be found on Amazon.

A small part of the canals and islands that covered the lake bed of Mexico City at the time of the conquistadors still exists. On one small island way back on the canals where tourists do not usually go an old man collected dolls that he found and hung them in trees or stuck them up with stakes. It is a weird place. The dolls are in various states of decay. I elected to make portraits of some of the dolls because it is so chaotic that it is hard to make a coherent image of the over all environment.

It is a spooky place. I would not like to be left on the island at night.

If you would like to see the rest of the dolls I photographed, click here.

Serendipity, Or Not?

Over the last week or two I've been looking at netbooks and tablets on the Internet. The marketing for them highlighted the ability to draw and write with a stylus. That started me thinking about doing just that. Now along comes this workshop, The Artists' Journal. Scroll down to the end of the link and you will see a description of the workshop lead by Susan Dorf.

I've signed up for it,  I'm so excited about this.  In the past I have done a little life drawing and just a bit of sketching for fun and some oil painting many, many years ago. As you can see from this timed drawing in a class, I'm perfectly terrible in these mediums but I've had great times doing it. Also, I've kept the Artist's Way journal for years but never added any sketches to it. So I'm ready to explore something along the lines of an artist journal/sketchbook. It might be a creative stimulus to my photography. But at the very least, I think the workshop will be a really fun day.

Ask and ye shall receive. I am still amazed at how often this happens especially in my creative life. I don't think it is just serendipity. I do believe God and Ned are taking care of me and opening doors.