Archives for July 2013

July 12, 2013 by Kat

A Sense of Place: Guest Post by Lynne Foerster

A few weeks ago we wrapped up the Instructor-Led version of the A Sense of Place eCourse. To encourage the participants to follow through and complete a final project, I offered up guest post slots on my blog. The content was wide open, whatever they were inspired by from the eCourse. I’ve enjoyed sharing the posts from class participants this week, and today is the last. Please leave lots of comment love for the guest authors!

A Sense of Place: Mesa Verde

The Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings in Colorado are some of the most intriguing places I’ve visited. Viewing and wandering around in these ancient dwellings gives one the sense of how this group of people lived from 500 BC to 1200 BC, how difficult life was, how challenging each day might have been for them. One stands in the midst of the ruins that have survived for thousands of years and marvels at the genius of the builders, to have their creations survive for so long in the elements. It’s truly an awe-inspiring place.

You can find more of Lynne Foerster’s work on her Flickr photostream.

Would you like to share an A Sense of Place guest post? You can too! The only requirement is that you’ve taken the eCourse, either the Instructor Led version or the new On Demand version that is now available. Contact Kat for the rest of the details.

July 10, 2013 by Kat

A Sense of Place: Guest Post by Carolyn Phillips

A few weeks ago we wrapped up the Instructor-Led version of the A Sense of Place eCourse. To encourage the participants to follow through and complete a final project, I offered up guest post slots on my blog. The content was wide open, whatever they were inspired by from the eCourse. I’m excited to share the posts from class participants this week. Please leave lots of comment love for the guest authors!

Influenced by A Sense of Place

I have always said that photography was not only a hobby, but was inspirational for my textile, felt and mixed media work; however until recently I would have been hard put to provide concrete examples. It wasn’t that this wasn’t true, just that whilst I knew the connection was there, it was rather nebulous. It has also been clear for a long time that my favourite subjects for photography are nature and architecture, and I have slowly dawned to the realisation that I am drawn to taking photographs that are about odd little details; close up or different angle shots; vignettes; or whole subject; rather than landscape or postcard images. I felt that Kat’s ‘A Sense of Place’ course would not only encourage me to develop my own style and interests in place, but would challenge me to look deeper and see how I could use that to approach those things, like the aforementioned landscape, that I find much harder. I also hoped that I would start to see a stronger and less tenuous link to my other creative work.

A Sense of Place got me thinking much more about the images I take and why I take that particular image as opposed to a different one. It encouraged me to try different ways of looking at a subject, but to follow my heart and instinct. It also made me think much more about themes and similarities between photographs taken in different places or at different times. This has inspired me to go and take more thoughtful photographs and ones that have meaning for me. Kat is excellent at making us think, at bringing creativity rather than a technicality to photography and this is what inspires me. I think that often there has to be meaning to an image, layers of possibility, the hint of a back story, the element of mystery or a sense of a pause in time for an image to become something more and to ‘grab’ me and I feel this is where creativity comes in.

For our final project Kat asked us to take on a ‘pulling it all together’ project, taking a series of photographs and thinking about the whole series and how it was to be put together. She mentioned photo books, videos, slideshows, blogs, and exhibitions amongst other ideas. This came at a crucial time for me as the day before I read the final lesson I had been taking part in an art fair. During this I spoke to lots of people about my textile and mixed media work. Later that day I then spoke to some friends about where I wanted to go next and was pushed to widen my vision! When I read Kat’s email and pdf the two suddenly jumped together and made a much bigger whole, and I saw a project that is much bigger than anything I have ever attempted and both exciting and frightening at the same time.

I have been taking a series of photographs that look at derelict and decaying buildings, both in rural and urban settings. There are still a few places I want to visit and photograph, although my ‘decay inspiration’ file of edited photographs currently has 65 images in it. These are all currently feeding into some planned textile and felting work which is at sketchbook and test piece stage. I want to end up with a selection of 24 printed and mounted images each named with a haiku. These will fit alongside a series of 2D and 3D mixed media and felt pieces, such as this test piece…

The art work for the project is all inspired by the colours, textures and themes I am seeing in the photographs. Themes of rejection and abandonment, revelation and reclamation and much more. This is not going to be a project that can be finished in a month. I suspect that it won’t be finished in 3 months. It is very much still in the planning stage, although the photographs are the first step and some of them are the ones I have included here.

Carolyn blogs at Mess, Muddle and Fun the title of which sums up her attitude to creativity. She is an everyday creative, a felter, an artist who still feels odd using that term, and believes that everyone has a creative seed somewhere inside and the best thing to do with it is enjoy it – covered in paint if possible.

July 8, 2013 by Kat

A Sense of Place: Guest Post by Ghita Katz Olsen

A few weeks ago we wrapped up the Instructor-Led version of the A Sense of Place eCourse. To encourage the participants to follow through and complete a final project, I offered up guest post slots on my blog. The content was wide open, whatever they were inspired by from the eCourse. I’m excited to share the posts from class participants this week, and today is the first. Please leave lots of comment love for the guest authors!

A Sense of Place: Sorø Abbey Church

Kat Sloma has generously suggested her participants in the wonderful class A Sense of Place to make their final project into a blog post on her blog. The idea inspired me to go deeper with a bunch of photos from a certain place and try to put together the knowledge and inspiration, I’ve got from the class.

Recently I visited Sorø Abbey Church and was impressed by it’s beauty and age. Sorø Abbey Church is one of the largest medieval churches in Denmark. It was built by the Cistercians in the last part of the 1100s. The church remains an excellent example of early brick Gothic architecture.

Walking around on my own with my camera, I was drawn into the atmosphere and the presence of history. Three Danish kings are buried here. For centuries it has been a center for the influential noble White-family, including the famous Bishop Absalon. He was engaged in the building of the church, but died in 1201, the same year the church was finished. Of course he is also buried here.

My attention was especially drawn to the choir seats. They put a smile to my face, because they are full of engraved names and images dating hundreds of years back. I can imagine bored pupils and monks making the graffiti of that time. Guys like Jacob and Sveno Mathhiae from 1694 suddenly felt very present.

Experiencing a place like this through the lens always make me look for small details, a fact the class clarified for me. And this huge church is a haven of details. For instance I noticed angels in several places. Below are some from the altar and another one on a very old carved wood door, quite similar in style.

The fact that this church has been here for more than 800 years is awe-inspiring. It has experienced the transition from a Catholic abbey church to a Lutheran parish church. There is a timeless feel to many of the objects, which I tried to pass on in the images.

I actually visited this church some years ago, but had no memory of the place. Bringing a camera this time made a huge difference. I had a deeper connection with the place and explored the place in a much more focused way, allowing myself to be drawn to all kind of images, I’m sure will stay with me.

My name is Ghita Katz Olsen. Since 2011 I’m head over heels in love with photography. I live in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, Europe. You can view more of my work on my Flickr photostream.

July 5, 2013 by Kat

Looking for Your Input

On Wednesday I wrote about my shift to offering my eCourses On Demand, but I’ll still be teaching Instructor Led eCourses too, just not as frequently. I’ve decided to teach one of the Find Your Eye series eCourses this fall as Instructor Led, and I’d like to get your input on which one!

** CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT SURVEY **

Class registration will open late July for the chosen eCourse, which will run in September-October.

Which do you think it will be?

Will it be Journey of Recognition? This one was the first in the series, and the first eCourse for me EVER. It was written while I was in Italy, in the early flush of discovering myself an artist, which makes it dear to my heart.

Or maybe it will be Journey of Inspiration, the second one written in the series, which captures my transition home. I had shifted from the amazement of recognizing myself as an artist to finding my inspiration.

Or will it be Journey of Fascination, the most recent in the series, which really captures so much of my journey of transition, finding myself “home” and developing my ongoing fascination with photography.

Each Journey eCourse has it’s own flavor, energy, and focus since they are based on my personal journey at the time they were written. I can’t wait to see which one is selected!

July 3, 2013 by Kat

Untying a Knot: eCourses On Demand

Last week, when I wrote about unraveling my identity sweater and running into a knot, I was working through some personal attachments to the way I do things. (If you didn’t read the original post this won’t make sense, so quickly visit the original post here.)

When I started Kat Eye Studio two years ago this week, I had just moved back from Italy and had plans. Big plans. I already had two eCourses written and plans for more. I wanted to fill my schedule with eCourses, connecting more people to the heart and soul of photography, running non-stop. I wanted to interact daily with participants online, creating a supportive learning environment.

And I did! I did everything I wanted to do when I started Kat Eye Studio. I knitted a new piece of my identity sweater and was enjoying the fit.

But then, this year, I ran into a problem. I had created enough eCourses that my schedule was full. I could teach them all year long with very little time, maybe a week or two, off in-between. Wow. Suddenly what was fun and invigorating got a little overwhelming. Teaching these courses takes both energy and time, and that doesn’t leave much energy and time to create. Not to mention the energy and time to take care of myself, getting out to exercise and fuel myself visually, which I had been pretty much ignoring for much of the last two years.

So I ran into a knot in my identity… There was the identity I had created for myself, around being very present and active in ongoing instructor-led courses, and the identity that I wanted to create, continuing as an instructor but also as someone who continually develops artistically and takes care of herself physically too. To loosen the knot, I had to let go of one thread and work through the other threads to unravel what was important to me.

So I’ve come out on the other side of this knot with a new plan: eCourses On Demand. I want to continue to share these ideas and materials I’ve put together. I believe in what these courses have to offer, and deep down in my core I know they are valuable and should be put into the world. I just can’t always do it side-by-side with my students, real-time. I need time to create, time to hike, time to write, and time to develop new ideas.

In the future, I plan to teach two or three eCourses per year as instructor-led. My eCourses will be available On Demand the rest of the time, so that you can take them on your schedule, without having to wait a long time to get the material. They will be missing one dimension, the group interaction, but you can get that in other ways. Ask a friend to join you and take the course at the same time, perhaps. And I’ll always be available by email for questions as needed.

It’s amazing how the knot I had been struggling with came undone once I had committed myself to this new path. It was as if the threads just came apart. I can see it was knot of my own making, through my attachments to how I should do things or had done things in the past.

It was a reminder that much of what we struggle with is internal. Our own concepts of identity can hold us back or move us forward. How is yours working for you?

No matter where I go, I capture two-wheeled transportation. Bicycles, scooters and sometimes even motorcycles catch my eye. I can’t begin to explain my excitement as I came across this scene on a forest walk in Pulau Ubin, an island of Singapore. This scene allowed me to express my own interest, with a subject that has become a common thread running throughout my photographs no matter where I am in the world, but also expresses the uniqueness of the place itself. I’ve never seen a sidecar full of coconuts before. Have you?

A Sense of Place is one of the eCourses I’m excited to offer On Demand. This eight week eCourse helps you with everything from preparation for exploring places to effectively photographing what you see. It goes deeper into the concepts of place, looking at themes across your photography and through time. If you really want to dive into exploring places, whether near or far from home, this course will help you. Find more information and registration here.

Fuel Your Creativity is a quick, one-week boost that will get you going and creating! This eCourse is for anyone, regardless of medium or artistic background. We use creativity every day, all the time in our lives. To get the most out of creativity, we need fuel and energy. Now On Demand, these daily prompts are available to give you the boost you need to break out of a rut and start something new. Find more information and registration here.

More eCourses On Demand to come this fall!

July 1, 2013 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: June

A continuum. That’s what time is, color is, life is – a continuum from one end to the other. If you can even tell the end, that is. It’s often hard to tell where the start and end of something really is. Defining “the start” can be the source of great debates. Does life start at conception or birth? Do you start counting from zero or one?

All I can do is choose is the best place to begin the story I am trying to tell.

When did I become the artist I am today? Do I start the story in childhood, with my fingerpaints? With my love of painting watercolors and Georgia O’Keefe in high school? Or do I start with the desire to capture moments on film, or the shift to an iPhone and abstraction? Where do I start?

Realizing all of life is a continuum – moving from one thing to the next to the next, sometimes in big steps and other times in tiny shuffles – means I’m not required to “start” anywhere. I can pick the story up anywhere I want. I can go backwards and forwards and skip around if I choose to. Someday at “the end” (however the end is defined), someone can put the continuum in order and figure it all out. Until then, I don’t have to worry about it.

So let’s pick up the story where I am right now… It is one of color, of shape, of mixed up, as-yet-undefined media. It is a story of someone who is experimenting and discovering what works and what doesn’t, both in life and in art. It is the story of me, in pictures and words.

The story changes daily… even I don’t know what happens next. Stay tuned for the next episode. I will be.

Wow… I didn’t expect that to come out when I sat down to write about the image I found as this month’s Photo-Heart Connection. 🙂 I guess it comes out of the continuum of color in this piece – where does the yellow end and the green begin? Which parallel the recent thoughts about my art – where does the photograph end and the painting (or whatever you call this art form) begin? Where does representation end and abstraction begin? Thinking about it can make my head hurt. But the idea that I don’t have to pick a start or an end to anything is liberating to me. No need to worry about being “one” or “the other.” It’s all a continuum and I can move back and forth as I please. That’s really nice. I’m going to keep that idea with me.

How about you? What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? Review your June images and see what comes up as the strongest connection for you, write about it, then share with us here. The link up is open July 1 through 7.

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