please&thankyou

pleasure

fear

a few of the fantastic trees of new york city.

during a recent family trip, my mother, sister and i had an amusing revelation about a little piece of our childhood.  when i was little, we had a play room sectioned off in our basement and on the back wall hung a large oil painting.  it was nice,  but kind of creepy, depicting an autumn wooded scene.  i believe there was a road covered in leaves and maybe a broken down fence along the way.  i don’t remember exactly how it came up, but i always was afraid of the painting because if you looked at it just right, in the midst of the trees there appeared to be a wolf.  ironically, my sister had the same view of the painting, but neither of us ever told our parents and continued to be creeped out by the painting, looking over our shoulders in our play space.  i think it’s an interesting description of how we hide our fears and consider them weaknesses, not wanting to admit to anyone that we have them.  my mother laughed when we told her and said that she would have gladly burned the painting had she known it scared us so much.  for whatever reason, we thought we had to live with that uncomfortable feeling brought on by that thing hanging on the wall.  i wonder why?  its good to know that there is someone who can share in my fears and help me overcome them, next time maybe i’ll take advantage of that.

nowhere anywhere

the joy of a simple task. letting your mind escape while your body simply functions.

lover’s lane

i was humbled today by the fact that i actually seem to be able to express myself as an artist and not just as an architect, which is how i kind of felt during the summer.  our Open Studios is coming up on November 18th here at Parsons, come if you are in the city!  i am excited to hang my work in a different context and get some outside reactions to the pieces.  this image is not one of them, but a sidetrack as we have the opportunity to submit to curated shows as well as hang our recent works for visitors to see.

i am really interested in subtle montage techniques that can create an impossible scenario for both the eye and the camera, but presented in such a way that the viewer believes it to be a true representation of reality.  but also i am interested in the psychology of space and the idea of the veil in an image, always  striving to emit an experience of space through a two-dimensional image.

jellyfish

searching for the path.

he who gave us our desires also provided us with the tools to make them happen.

come

e.e cummings

i am a little church (no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth’s own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope,and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

i am a little church (far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish) at peace with nature
i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring,i lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

dancing

sometimes one thing can become something completely different when viewed from a new perspective.

im glad my friend convinced me to walk through the traditional folk dancers to see the turtle pond up close in central park.  it looks like a tiny landscape viewed from a plane…i wonder what my life looks like viewed from above…

a rose or a thorn

ive been re-reading The Zahir by paulo coelho and been amazed, as always, at the insights within the text.  this is one of my favorites.

“‘…let’s supposed that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire.  Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean.  My question is this: which of the two will wash his face?’

‘That’s a silly question.  The one with the dirty face of course.’

‘No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him.  And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too.  I’d better have a wash.’

‘What are you trying to say?’

‘I’m saying that, during the time I spent in hospital, I came to realize that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved.  I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them.  They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves reflected in me and thinking that they were worse than they were.  Please, don’t let that happen to you.’

…

If I was to see her again, my face needed to be as clean as hers.  Before I could find her, I must find myself.”

getting personal

my final crits are this week.  the summer semester will then be over!  the past two months have flown by…slow start but now i can’t even keep up!  i moved into my new apartment last week, i couldn’t wait until after the final review.  i feel much more at home now. from chelsea to the east village is so different! now ill be taking public transport more often so…hello monthly MTA pass [price: $89]

the image is from a place i visited over and over again while taking photographs for my final project. i visited three locations over the course of the summer multiple times and at different hours to document the change in light.  i am making a little ‘guidebook’ as a document of this personal journey.  a few selected paths through the city.