Day 6

Amboy

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

I feel busy. Work has suddenly gotten crazy, and when it rains, it really does pour. I come home tired, but in a good way. However, I haven't done much in the evenings (like water my tomatos or basil or peppers....again....oops), and I think Netflix is partially to blame for this. Netflix and I are still in the honeymoon stage of our relationship. I've watched more films in the last two months than in the last two years, I think. I'm currently working my way through the first season of One Tree Hill. I began watching the show last September/October on Soapnet every afternoon as I worked in the kitchen on my upcoming exhibition, and I just couldn't understand what the hell was going on, and where all the non-crazy parents were. Now I'm totally addicted.

I've begun applying to exhibitions again. I'll find out next week if I was accepted into the latest one. I've never really thought much about it before, and I'm sure that the fact that I'm thinking about this one an awful lot has somehow jinxed me, but you never know.

I've also gotten shamelessly excited about music, in particular the recent release of Portishead's THIRD album. The first one in 11 years. Wow. I just think that if you are creative and it's what you love to do, you'll never actually retire from it. You'll do it til you die. And while you may take a break, and you may take years to return to it, you WILL eventually return to what you love. Creativity doesn't stop just because you want it to.

Incidentally, the above Polaroid is one I took after a two year break from photography. A friend and I just got in my car and drove to the desert, to Route 66, and spent the day photographing. Unfortunatelly, I think it was possibly one of the hottest days of the year, well over 100 degrees, but we managed. I had the air going full blast, a cooler full of water in the backseat, and sunblock in my backpack. It was an awsome day, and I can't wait for more. Maybe next will be Vegas at night with it's neon.

Day 2

Fresh Cut

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

The seemingly simple process of Polaroid emulsion transfers is not at all simple, in fact. The sheer ammount of crap I drag out to the kitchen from the back room and dig out of various kitchen drawers is unbelievable. The list is as follows:

Polaroid Daylab
Polaroid film
source photographs
contact paper
siscors
watercolor paper
watch
extra garbage bags
air duster
black jacket (my Daylab has a light leak so I take pictures with my coat covering the maching)
distilled water
brayer
paper towels
saucer
frying pan
wooden spoon
4 flat Correlware dishes of various sizes
did I mention paper towels?

And so, I worked for four hours, past the time everyone else decided to go to bed, past the time when the cats are in their night hyper stage and fight, past both episodes of the Golden Girls, taking a break only for chocolate pudding gone wrong. (How can chocolate pudding go wrong, you ask? By eating the kind cooked on the stove, left in the fridge long enough to get a crust, that's how.) All of this after a normal working day at the gallery. As I said previously, creativity does not understand a full work week.

The end result is the above image, "Fresh Cut", also known as my entry to the jurried exhibition at my work. And the pleasent suprise that I don't have to work every spare moment until Monday to frame the image - it was done today in our framing department. Now I can spend my Friday night relaxing with Sweeny Todd and Jell-o.

Day 1

Cedar Grove Park

copyright Jennifer Geisert

I tried writing a daily photo blog once before and predictably lost interest. In another lifetime I'd love to have the time to photograph interestingly every day and to sit down at the end of it and write about anything that comes to mind, but there just isn't enough time in the day. However, now my next big project to work on is a book of photographs, and I suppose this is as good a start as any.

Today was a day off for me, although I rushed around all over the place. I work in an art gallery that's putting on a jurried exhibition for the local art league, and I've been encouraged to submit something. The catch is that the image has to have been taken somewhere in the city, and I have no images that fit the criteria. Oh, and the deadline is Monday. So I spent my morning walking and driving from one end of the city to the other with the intention of getting some good images. But that typical thing happened, where you decide you're going to be creative and then the creativity doesn't come. One thing creativity doesn't understand is a full work week.

At any rate, I have images to play with over the next few days. Even if I don't get accepted, I'll at least have a nicely framed image.