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For no particular reason, I’ve been holding off on posting about Todd Deutsch as an influence, but it’s about time to send out some love. He was an important mentor to me at St. Kate’s and I have a great deal of respect for his work.
I especially appreciate his thoughtful work Family Days, which informs and encourages me in my own pursuits. I recall seeing work prints hanging on his office bulletin board, right about the time he was taking on family life as a subject. He encouraged me to make pictures of my own family, and I created work of which I am still proud.
Not only did Todd help me navigate my way to a degree in studio art, he’s also a really intelligent and cool person who quietly brought out the best in me and continues to provide an excellent example of a successful working artist.
Do check out his blog which contains a wealth of interesting and fabulous links!
I spent some time last night looking at work by Julie Blackmon. Particularly her series, Domestic Vacations.
I will definitely be going back to look some more. The thing that grabbed me last night was the backdrop of her home. Clean, sharp, antique, stylized. The house creates a playful, almost cartoon-like setting.
Fantasy. Juxtaposed with the reality of family members as subjects. Or as characters…
Why is it that I start writing in fragments when I look at stuff about which I want to have clear thoughts?
A big thanks to Laurie for pointing me toward the photography of Dona Schwartz. Her project, In the Kitchen focuses on the kitchen as a center of family life. She even used the phrase “place of physical and emotional sustenance,” which I have word for word sitting in a post that didn’t quite get published.
I was concerned as my family members have been lacking (except in Bedtime Snack) thus far in my images. And now that I’ve taken a look at Schwartz’s pictures I’m even more aware of it. Her family provides the color and action. My images are more background-ish. The aftermath of the gathering.
Her kids are older as well, which creates a different dynamic altogether.
Quite honestly, I’m so busy dishing and cutting up food for toddlers, pouring milk, buttering the bread, blowing the steam off the hot food, grabbing extra spoons to stir in the chocolate syrup and then trying to stuff my own face at meals that I hardly even think about taking a photo during a mealtime. A great deal of the non-mealtime action does happen when I’m not there to witness it. Homework, art projects, playdough…
Weekday evenings, Sean is at work so I’m on my own from 3 pm through bedtime. I guess I’ve gotten used to it, but I still miss him and have a hard time getting motivated to make supper sometimes because it just doesn’t quite feel official without him.
I’m torn about leaving him out of our family dinner shots. There’s a laptop computer situated at his spot most of the week. I guess leaving the rest of my family out evens the score somehow. Documented is the the evidence of our presence.
Birth of a new category (or two)! I intend to remind myself regularly that I already have many wonderfully talented people in my network.
I’ve been living a bit vicariously through Laurie McGinley for some time now.
I respect her work and love her dearly. I own two Laurie McGinley photographs, purchased at her silent-auction-going-away-party thrown before she left to work in the Peace Corps in El Salvador a bunch of years ago. At that time, she shed nearly every one of her earthly possesions. I wonder if she can sense my awe and admiration.
