Kat Eye Studio

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A Favorite Sign

Today we wrap up July’s Exploring with a Camera: Signs. It’s been quite fun to investigate how signs crop up in my photographs and to see yours too.

I’ll leave this exploration with a favorite sign of mine, from Venice. All over the island of Venice are printed signs saying “Per San Marco” or “Per Rialto.” Since Venice is such a warren of walkways, bridges and canals, it is very easy to get lost. Often we found ourselves wandering and the only way to figure out where we were was to go back to Piazza San Marco or the Rialto bridge and start again, so these signs became a lifeline. My favorite sign image is this hand-painted sign, found off the beaten path in a back alley. There were none of the “official” signs around, so someone took matters into their own hands and created this one. They were probably tired of the tourists asking for directions. 🙂

You can still link in today with your sign images. I’d love to see how you use signs in your photography! Do share.


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Continuing the Search

My Market/Wheels exhibition came down a week and a half ago, but my quest for Market/Wheels images is not over. This has become an ongoing project for me. It’s a way for me to find a thread of similarity in disparate places around the globe. We’re discussing “Seeking Differences, Finding Similarities” this week in A Sense of Place, and this project comes to mind.

This image from San Francisco is a great addition to the series. What a wonderful scene it was! The painted brick trying to hide the graffiti, the broom and dustpan and the haphazard signs all make this a “real life still life” with some serious place personality.

I found the urban environment of San Francisco a perfect place to get Market/Wheels images, since the markets are often rolled out onto the street every morning and rolled back into the store at night. Revisiting this image reminds me that market season is gearing up here in my agricultural valley and it’s time for me to get out and seek new Market/Wheels images near home.

Do you have an ongoing project you are working on? It’s fun to have something to seek, and oh so satisfying when you find a new image for the series!

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Filling the Void

If there is a void, I want to fill it. As I work on letting go of old expectations, I’m discovering how hard it is to leave the void alone. My personality wants to fill it with new plans and new expectations.

What I recognize I need to do though, is sit with the void. Discover the texture and feeling of the open space. Let something new evolve to fill it over time. Yes, I can have plans. Yes, I can have expectations. But let’s set the big, long term ones aside for a while, I tell myself. Leave the void alone. Leave that space.

I’m not so good at that. It seems as if I’m always clearing space and filling it up again. Clearing space on my schedule. Clearing space in my expectations. Only to find a month or two later it’s just as full as it was before.

How about you? Any tips you can share, to help me keep the space I’ve cleared?

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Lost Words

What do you think this wall once said? OWL is all I can read. I wonder what that refers to, what else is buried under the words. They have been lost in time.

I am lacking in words today. I woke up without them. Not in a frantic “Where have the words gone?” kind of way, but in an observational, bucket-is-empty kind of way.

Perhaps it means I’ve been using too many words lately, and it’s time to take in more. Perhaps it means it’s time to listen.

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Subtle Reminders

The sun and moon come together in this tiny little bit of graffiti. The curve subtly breaks up the the lines of the bricks, the door, the strong shadow. If you aren’t looking closely, you will miss it.

I’m not sure why I like this simple image so much. It is an image that calls for the balance of shapes, as we’re studying now for Exploring with a Camera, so that is one element. But it’s more than that… There is something in the quiet whisper of the graffiti, something usually meant to be loud and bold. It’s as if it was put there especially for the observant. A test of sorts. And if you notice, if you pass the test, you are rewarded with thoughts of the cycle of the sun and moon. The never-ending nature of time.

All from a tiny bit of graffiti on a brick wall. Perhaps I’m reading into things this morning… it is an hour earlier than usual, after all. Here we are, we humans, trying to shift the cycle of the sun and the moon by changing our clocks. It must seem laughable to the universe.

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Making a Mark

What am I trying to say as an artist? Where is it that I want to go? Those questions are swirling around in my head after taking a one-day class called Preparing and Presenting your Photographic Portfolio from a wonderful instructor, Chris Eagon, at the Oregon College of Art and Craft yesterday.

The question “where do I want to go” is an important one for us as artists. Having goals and direction are what keep us moving forward, learning and growing. It’s through the continued journey that we figure out how to make our unique mark in the world.

I’ve known since living in Italy that the next step for me, upon moving back to the US, would be to bring my photographs into the real world. I needed the foundation I gained while in Italy: Confidence in the creation of my images, sharing them with others online, and identification of my unique vision. I’m building from there now, learning how to print and exhibit my work. Even harder, learning how to talk about my work and myself as an artist, with people face-to-face. I did not expect it to be such a challenge, with all of that confidence and knowledge I had gained. But it’s a new realm, and the challenges are different. The fears are different. It’s the next step I need to take in my creative journey, regardless of the resistance that comes along.

I am starting to understand that there is the journey that is “Kat the blogger and teacher” and the journey that is “Kat the artist.” The are separate yet inextricable. If I did not continue on my own artistic journey, separate from blogging and teaching, I would have nothing to share here. I have to admit, the journey of the artist feels a bit more scary and lonely. It’s the one I have to do on my own, in order to be true to myself.

So I’m letting my thoughts swirl around the questions: What am I trying to say as an artist? Where is it that I want to go? Only by answering these for myself will I figure out how to make my mark as an artist. I thought I knew the answers, but they have changed. It’s time to answer them again.

How about you, do you know the answers to these questions for yourself? Do you know where you are headed next?

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