Kat Eye Studio

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You’re Invited

To an exhibition of my Market/Wheels series of photographs at The Arts Center in Corvallis, Oregon

The Arts Center Corrine Woodman Galleries
700 SW Madison Avenue
Corvallis, Oregon
Through May 3, 2012
Gallery Hours are 12-5pm Tuesday-Saturday

It was exciting to visit my exhibition yesterday! Ten prints from my Market/Wheels series are on display in a joint exhibition with another local photographer, Phil Coleman.

The Main Gallery of The Arts Center is showing “Extreme Clay” with works by Katie Swenson and Brad Mildrexler. Beautiful colors and textures! I hope you will stop by if you are in the area.

Brad Mildrexler

Katie Swenson

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Hello… Spring?

We woke up to snow yesterday. Where we live in Oregon, snow is unusual. A bare trace of snow will cancel the schools. Snow in March? Unheard of.

But I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, capturing the mix of the seasons. I hope the spring flowers survive!

I found this guy, waiting at the bus stop. I wonder if his bus made it on time?

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Found the Words

I found the words! I’ve been thinking about where I’ve lost my words since Monday’s post, and it turns out they weren’t gone after all. They’ve only been channeled to a specific purpose.

You see, I have this great ability to focus. It drives my family nuts. I can focus so hard on one thing that I tune the rest of the world out around me. It makes me incredibly productive when I set my mind to something, but it also makes for some unwanted side effects.

Like losing my words, for anything other than what’s in focus.

Lately, around my photography, I’ve got a laser focus on A Sense of Place. I’ve been writing and re-writing and tying it all up in a bow. I’m on a mission to put together the best class possible. That’s where my focus is, my energy is flowing, and yes the words too.

So when I talk about the class here on the blog lately, it’s not because I’m trying to advertise. It’s just what I have words for right now. I don’t have a lot of space for anything else in my brain. I’m on a deadline, now. (A self-imposed deadline for sure, but a deadline nonetheless.)

My words are found where my focus is. Whether that’s buying a new car over the weekend or working on A Sense of Place this week. It makes it a bit hard for me to blog about other random and interesting topics, and for that I apologize. The focus will lift soon, since the class is almost ready.

And the words for other things will come back. Whew.

Does this ever happen to you? Is a great strength you have ever a great disability too?

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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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How do you spell relief?

Today I’m spelling it VW! After being a single-car family for the last nine months back in the US, for three years total if you include Italy, yesterday we bought a second vehicle, a used VW Passat. Today I’m feeling is a vast sense of relief.

It’s been harder than I expected to have one car in the US. It seemed so easy in Italy, but our lives were different there. It would be easier here if all I did was go to work and come home on a regular schedule. Or all my husband did was go to work and come home on a regular schedule. Or one of us was a completely stay at home parent. Or if no one in the family had any outside activities. Or if we did everything together. Or if all of our activities were accessible within walking distance. Or we lived in a big city with more frequent and extensive public transportation. Or we lived in a place where it was sunny all the time, where we could bike or scooter without getting wet. Or if we had all the time in the world to be flexible around transportation.

None of those things are true for us.

So lately it came down to either organizing and making tradeoffs based on transportation, or buying a second vehicle. Looking at everything, the answer was clear. It was time to get a car.

I worked so hard to make it work with one vehicle this long, I thought I would be disappointed. But I’m not disappointed in the slightest, only relieved. I’m surprised at how much relief I feel. I didn’t realize how much stress must have been building up inside me around the transportation situation. I’m happy we went this long, because I now know the tradeoffs I am and am not willing to make. I am confident that buying a second vehicle was the right decision for us, whereas nine months ago I was not convinced.

For those of you who live in the US and manage a family with one vehicle, I truly salute you! And you’ll find me happily waving to you with a smile on my face, from the ranks of the two-vehicle families again.

Cultural Reference Note: The question “How do you spell relief?” is from a 1970’s TV commercial for an antacid in the US. The answer was R-O-L-A-I-D-S. I wonder if equating this phrase with “relief” means I watched too much TV as a child…

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Continuing the Balance

We continue to study the balance of shapes in Exploring with a Camera this month. I’m curious what you all think of this exploration, since there haven’t been too many participants as of yet, which is unusual. What is holding you back?

Today’s image is from Portland, captured after I visited the Mark Rothko exhibition at the Portland Art Museum a few weeks ago. While visiting the exhibition I fell in love with this painting, No. 8. I sat and looked at it for a long time, wondering what it was that attracted me so deeply. It was partially the colors, but upon further contemplation I realized it was also the balance. This painting perfectly balances color, shape and line. Of course! I would love that in painting, as much as I love that in photography. Mark Rothko’s paintings distill this balance down to essential elements. With his paintings you are not distracted into thinking it is “of something,” as you would be in a photograph. You can see the balance for what it is. I love that!

So, how are you doing with balance? I would love to see. I would also love to hear what you are struggling with, if this topic doesn’t connect with you. Maybe we can explore that together.