Kat Eye Studio

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Heading Out

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Isn’t it interesting how one word or phrase can mean so many things?

I’m heading out today…

… for my morning hike.

… for my usual workday.

… for a trip to Ohio, to visit my grandmother who is ill.

All these things, all true, one phrase.

I don’t know how much I’ll be connected while I’m gone. It will be a time focused on family, but I plan to take walks in the woods where I can. Hopefully, I’ll get to walk in the same woods my father walked when he was young, in rural Ohio. I get my love of being in the forest from him, and I’m going to where he first spent time among the trees. It should be a special place.

I wonder, will it feel like home?

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Prepping for the Fair

Two things have been taking most of my time lately: Hikes in the forest, and prepping for my first Art Fair. Last fall I decided that I wanted to dip my toe into the art fair world, and I was accepted as an “emerging artist” into the Salem Art Fair & Festival July 18 – 20 at Bush’s Pasture Park in Salem, Oregon.

So… lots of work to do. I’ve been spending a lot of time getting work ready to sell as well as planning my booth. I did my first test run setting up my canopy in the driveway a couple of weeks ago, to see how all of the elements in my head would come together in the real world. Not too bad so far!

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Can you envision framed work filling the walls? Matted work and greeting cards nicely displayed in baskets on the tables? Me there, smiling and greeting you? I can! Setting up the canopy made it that much more real, along with the realization that now it’s June, and the fair is NEXT MONTH! Oh my, lots more prep work to do!

If you’re in the Salem area in July, come visit the fair and see all of the amazing art from 200+ artists. You will find me and my art in Booth #50.

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Photo-Heart Connection: May 2014

I am lucky. In so many ways. I am lucky to see the sunrise most mornings. I am lucky to live where I can be in the forest within ten minutes of leaving my house. I am lucky to be able to fully enjoy the moment, the light, and share it through my photography.

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But then I think, is it really “luck” or is it by choice? “Luck” implies I had nothing to do with the situation I am in. And that’s just not true — it’s an accumulation of choices that bring me to where I am today. Choices made 20+ years ago, 15 years ago, 5 years ago, a month ago, yesterday… They all bring me to this moment. This morning. This opportunity for more choices. What will I do with my time? My money? My energy? My heart?

I remember realizing long ago that you make your own luck. I believe “luck” is really just being prepared to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. If we leave being lucky to random chance we aren’t going to be very lucky. We have to put ourselves in the right situations to enable the things we want to happen.

I wouldn’t see the sunrise if I didn’t choose to get up early. I wouldn’t have my favorite forest paths to walk if I hadn’t gone looking for them. And I certainly wouldn’t be able to share the wonder and beauty of the forest with you if I didn’t choose to take a camera with me.

So yes, I am lucky. I have a wonderful life, filled with beauty and opportunity. And it’s through the choices I make, and continue to make, every day.

 
What a difference a month makes, huh? Last month I didn’t even have photo in my Photo-Heart Connection, as I was examining where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. My choice to hike every day have really driven my artistic and personal work this month. Revitalizing my connection with heart through art and through my time in the forest. I am reminded this month that it’s the choices I make that create opportunities for me. A good message, don’t you think?

What does your heart have to share with you this month? Share it with us through the Photo-Heart Connection. The link up will be open through May 7th.


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One Week Left!

There’s one week left in the open call to artists in mobile photography. This is a great opportunity to liberate your art out into the world and share your work with a new audience. Have you submitted yet? Don’t delay! Deadline is June 2.

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Expanding Vision: The Contribution of Mobile Photography

 
What: Call for photographs made with mobile devices (phones or tablets)

When: August 21 – September 28, 2014

Where: The Arts Center, Main Gallery, Corvallis, Oregon

Deadline to Apply:  June 2, 2014

How to Apply:  Online

Artists have embraced technology as an art-making process since photography became available in the 1800s. Each new technological advance increased the tools available for creativity and artistic expression through photography and mobile photography is no exception.  This method of image making has the potential for the greatest widespread influence of any type of photographic innovation. People who would never have considered themselves an artist, or even creative at all, now have the means to be just that with mobile device camera technology at their fingertips.

We are looking for the full breadth and depth of what mobile photography has to offer. While the chemical darkroom allowed some latitude for expression, the digital darkroom increases the possibilities for manipulation of images even more dramatically. Mobile devices have a myriad of programs and apps–all on the device itself–that give the photographer an incredible opportunity for creative expression. Mobile photography ranges from the representational to the abstract, from street photography, still lifes, portraits and landscapes to fully abstracted impressions. We hope to see examples of all these approaches, highlighting how mobile photography contributes to the expanding artistic vision of photography.

Eligibility:

  • The Call is open to all individuals using a mobile device to take images.
  • All images must have been taken in the last two years.
  • Work previously exhibited at The Arts Center will not be accepted or presented to the jurors.

Terms and Parameters:

  • The original image must be created and edited in its entirety on a mobile device, either phone or tablet.
  • The submitting artist must be the owner of the image.
  • All submissions must be via digital image uploaded via the submission form
  • The $10 application fee must be received by the deadline. Applicants may submit up to 5 images for this amount.

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Painting with Photographs

There is nothing like a new challenge to spur creativity. My morning hikes have been wonderful, and giving myself the goal of creating and sharing one photograph per hike has given me the motivation to try something different.

In recent months, my photographic style has been very spare, with lots of open space. I love the simplicity and peace that space brings to an image! But open space is rare in the forest. Western Oregon’s forests are dense and verdant, so I’m learning to fill the frame again. I’m retraining my eye to see lines, color and space a new way.

I’m also playing with new processing techniques, on mornings when I have a little more time. My latest favorites have been created by blending multiple different photographs together. Maybe an app or two to shift colors, but otherwise created by layering and blending multiple photographs to create a rich tapestry of forest impressions. Here’s the first, called “Can’t See the Trees for the Forest.”

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And, after several attempts that haven’t quite gotten where I want them, this morning I created another piece with a similar feel, called “Left Light.”

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This technique is new. It’s as if I am painting with photographs. It’s not just altering the photographs with painterly techniques, which I’ve certainly done plenty of times, but using the photographs as the structure; the paint with which the final image is created. Layering them and combining them to create something new and unique. Look close and you will see the bits and pieces of the individual photographs. From far away it’s an impressionistic whole.

It’s a whole lot of fun, and frustration, at the same time. It’s a new way of approaching the creation of a finished piece. And this creative challenge comes only because I’ve given myself the goal to go out and hike, and capture and share a photograph of the forest each day.

Where are you challenging yourself these days?

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Two Days Worth

Have you ever gotten stuck? You know, the can’t-move-on-until-you-make-it-work stuck. Try-just-one-more thing stuck. There-is-so-much-potential stuck.

The last two days I’ve been working on a single image. I thought I had a brilliant idea. I kept trying and trying modifications and it never lived up to its potential.

What to do? At some point, I have to call it good and move on. I abandon ideas all of the time. New things are always worth a try, or two, or ten. But at some point, getting unstuck and moving on is more important than getting this one thing perfectly right. I’m sure all of that effort will come in handy someday.

Here’s the image that had me stuck. It came out ok in the end, but it wasn’t two-days-worth good.

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Why is it sometimes things are effortless, while other times they take so much work? If you have an answer, I’d love to hear it!

I was over at Mortal Muses yesterday, writing about my start with mobile photography and how it led to the upcoming exhibition that YOU can submit to! The Call to Artists is still open, you can submit through June 2. All the details can be found here.