tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53589407446387952322024-03-05T11:38:14.128-08:00Landscapes of My SoulPersonal reflections on the art of Katarina SilvaKatarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-71126671701742500792012-08-17T07:11:00.000-07:002012-08-17T11:23:18.856-07:00Like an InsectThere is a space. It lasts but ten seconds.
I place myself within it like breath enters lungs.
I flow in and out of it to deliver life to every other part of who I am.
This ten-second space sustains me in its impermanence.
It feeds me everything the other spaces don’t.
And at the same time, when I am in it, there are no other spaces.
There is only that space in which I am born and I die in a little fraction of time.
Like an insect.
It is short, but it contains my whole life.
And it is a life that is woven into the fabric of all life here on our planet.
Its expression inevitably results in my self-portraiture art.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUzpxXLCLl6pZcRVIXD3v-ij_d1dazqKBrKfBXH0ibNSQe1WzklZFA5WPhQWODJZOFeKjySLcKnDc1pf6vDw9gokCpM97bV7cAaED3kQ5pBj706Bxa19vaCWvhUIPXg5OU4QpfSK01VI9/s1600/Illumination.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="318" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUzpxXLCLl6pZcRVIXD3v-ij_d1dazqKBrKfBXH0ibNSQe1WzklZFA5WPhQWODJZOFeKjySLcKnDc1pf6vDw9gokCpM97bV7cAaED3kQ5pBj706Bxa19vaCWvhUIPXg5OU4QpfSK01VI9/s400/Illumination.jpg" /></a></div>
Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-87937562861190438932011-04-13T13:42:00.000-07:002011-04-13T14:15:01.399-07:00The Princess<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprn0xrKXmxjyDG6NrWm7XWG_3fwP7moXajMvruM3b9wJTgd-Q9tVpisL0bmMPYCe6h7d-uQCa8qY0SoNdUiDuP86bcYM0N-j4o7ZpJ0BxGeCOkooPNOtdBuiUqJUm6Lsdw7arZjtHUCsd/s1600/feather.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 283px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprn0xrKXmxjyDG6NrWm7XWG_3fwP7moXajMvruM3b9wJTgd-Q9tVpisL0bmMPYCe6h7d-uQCa8qY0SoNdUiDuP86bcYM0N-j4o7ZpJ0BxGeCOkooPNOtdBuiUqJUm6Lsdw7arZjtHUCsd/s320/feather.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595179065685992482" /></a><br /> As a result of mingling in the larger, international community of artists on the internet, I have had the privilege of meeting many wonderful people with whom I share mutually supportive and inspiring relationships. One cannot underestimate the positive effect of open and genuine feedback from other artists! For me, it has moved my creation process into new, interactive levels within which I learn much about myself and my own potential. Sometimes what I am capable of in art becomes much clearer to me when another person notices it first. This then works as a foundation from which I experiment with new artistic techniques or styles. <br /><br /> Being a self portrait photographer, a big part of seeing myself in a new light, is seeing myself in the eyes of others. When a fellow artist engages a work of mine to create their own rendition of it, or incorporate it into a work of theirs, it challenges my own perspective of limits, and takes me beyond them. I have been honored to have had several artists invite me into such collaborative experiences over the last two years. <br /><br /> Today I would like to introduce you to one such artist by the name Rajdev Singh, from Sydney, Australia. Raj is a self taught photographer and a romantic painter whose work plays with light and form. Recently, I was most pleased to have one of my Eastern-themed, self portraits used as a guide for one of Raj’s lovely oil paintings. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYqHFuY3oCYkhyphenhyphenMmCOneGGqFXRawkCsuh8JHi-CubIdqE22IH79FZL4DGaXY9UGUDMy9-xjg1uP3K5dRwGrWtXtlturB_3MK1WDlCC7pU-RIiB9tHsKEim24PZb_b-BUf11xNQOd8rn9U/s1600/bliss+10.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYqHFuY3oCYkhyphenhyphenMmCOneGGqFXRawkCsuh8JHi-CubIdqE22IH79FZL4DGaXY9UGUDMy9-xjg1uP3K5dRwGrWtXtlturB_3MK1WDlCC7pU-RIiB9tHsKEim24PZb_b-BUf11xNQOd8rn9U/s400/bliss+10.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595176391382163650" /></a><br /><br /> It is exciting to see my art be transformed into another medium, through the creativity of another artist! In Raj’s work, entitled “Princess”, I was especially moved by what I experience as a sense of anticipation and wonder. As the princess looks out her palace window at the broad horizon full of endless possibilities, she feels the anticipation of all the experiences the world has yet to offer her. The window is a wonderful symbol, as is the vase: emblem of femininity, the womb, growth and development. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdznaQvjbYapMa88OFNL6vP4fiQnG75nLTB_J8YXu7DNZ38mkPCxvE1pCtvVfuIpcnudjdTtwD27ERqBW59ad1mjPQqnWxrA5cueowRxiGqwAr5a-GQnfAPNJf2rxwg6CLw6AJWlvP-kV0/s1600/Rajdev+Singhjpg.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 304px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdznaQvjbYapMa88OFNL6vP4fiQnG75nLTB_J8YXu7DNZ38mkPCxvE1pCtvVfuIpcnudjdTtwD27ERqBW59ad1mjPQqnWxrA5cueowRxiGqwAr5a-GQnfAPNJf2rxwg6CLw6AJWlvP-kV0/s400/Rajdev+Singhjpg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595176086549868834" /></a><br /><br /> To me, the colors my fellow artist chose also beautifully capture this sentiment, for green resounds with the openness of the heart chakra, or energy center, in Eastern thought. It is a color of fresh grass, beginnings, trust and hope. The orange border on her veil bright with the colors of creativity and expression, as the princess prepares to step beyond the boundaries of her palace, and interact with new environments and individuals, which shine as a white, welcoming light before her. <br /><br /> The warmth in Rajdev’s painting is inviting to me, just like the spring season that is now upon us! I encourage other artists to adopt the sentiments of the princess (as I experience her), and step beyond your previously perceived limits, into the wonderful world of creating collaborative works with other artists. It is a definitely a thrill that compares to flowering landscapes after a long winter! Enjoy your creativity during this spring season! <br /><a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/rajdev73">View more of Rajdev's art here</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_zE9Dc-ZiJzBwQtc_VdOy6UGaTrsxMlSB9eEYsrFI7fEnxfzLBd65tcntrKF7ig8MAWZlDzXaAMY1QSamRCQiN4fRvuXxzbQM-QCvZDQUApm5YW7sAxVPinfRteiy5FCxMZqVZMNFHlkf/s1600/ARt+by+Rajdev+Singh.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_zE9Dc-ZiJzBwQtc_VdOy6UGaTrsxMlSB9eEYsrFI7fEnxfzLBd65tcntrKF7ig8MAWZlDzXaAMY1QSamRCQiN4fRvuXxzbQM-QCvZDQUApm5YW7sAxVPinfRteiy5FCxMZqVZMNFHlkf/s400/ARt+by+Rajdev+Singh.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595176649861293106" /></a>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-49542564465384542832011-02-25T07:24:00.000-08:002011-02-25T07:56:45.464-08:00An Early Spring!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6FbBrXb2hdKWeFRtmX8sswbWyMdDZp2okQ40nuAcMy5vcpdjiHTKROusnpVIqLSoJz0Bgkvn0MBt6YeVzBudIrDpaW3Yg2w8tzFU5s_nd111hz-y7BXSUU15FIJurYBBGczJhC8_JD7W3/s1600/Hopeful.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 182px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6FbBrXb2hdKWeFRtmX8sswbWyMdDZp2okQ40nuAcMy5vcpdjiHTKROusnpVIqLSoJz0Bgkvn0MBt6YeVzBudIrDpaW3Yg2w8tzFU5s_nd111hz-y7BXSUU15FIJurYBBGczJhC8_JD7W3/s200/Hopeful.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577652472217279170" /></a>The spring season always seems to rouse my creative spirits. The warm breezes begin to roll in and everything starts sprouting again. It stirs my creative juices and lures me outside. Suddenly I feel myself a part of the natural surroundings, the sounds of the birds, the blossoming energies all around me. It arouses me artistically! It calls me to capture it’s beauty and share it with others. It takes me into explorations of my surroundings and my self. I love the interplay between the two, and I attempt to illustrate that dynamic in my photographs. I begin by jumping a fence to enter into the wild and untamed parts of the land which surround my home. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAW45R6gMjLqPnTeW6Ij0BaYAhXNd-7iZiBgEiJIDUu5DIp5SN3KtxGQPZeYaUxurxQnm33HaV5iv2NFLXB-cqULiNwyT2eJdFf34qROmGbj7ytdOXhvJn-bfW0E_UIGZ5SwAUMMvQrfZl/s1600/Tresspassing.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAW45R6gMjLqPnTeW6Ij0BaYAhXNd-7iZiBgEiJIDUu5DIp5SN3KtxGQPZeYaUxurxQnm33HaV5iv2NFLXB-cqULiNwyT2eJdFf34qROmGbj7ytdOXhvJn-bfW0E_UIGZ5SwAUMMvQrfZl/s400/Tresspassing.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577651574126295730" /></a><br /><br />Fortunately, I have always inhabited a geography that knows mild winters and early springs! Tropical weather is the climate that suits me best. It is conducive to spending time outdoors, in nature, which nourishes my being. In my self portrait photography this season, I aim to show you how spring affects me at this deep, soulful level. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoluRo3J8cmUvnPwKib5sXdyBYMh08aGc1HealxlXbj2854gP8TBV5iEch8HBG0FrNef-nMsOJe280JPuNGo_hotiTO3DzkMC4Zd-HxWmG89fSlBhbFz5z31bSTFsndwGoPQOISdeBdLKX/s1600/Pond.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoluRo3J8cmUvnPwKib5sXdyBYMh08aGc1HealxlXbj2854gP8TBV5iEch8HBG0FrNef-nMsOJe280JPuNGo_hotiTO3DzkMC4Zd-HxWmG89fSlBhbFz5z31bSTFsndwGoPQOISdeBdLKX/s400/Pond.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577651352390713506" /></a><br /><br />Because I find no words to adequately describe the way spring arouses my artistry, I leave you to my images, which hopefully tell the story of a woman in love with nature, with beauty, and with the interplay between these and her very self. In the springtime I find myself, and I ask facets of my persona that have been hibernating for too long a winter, to emerge as uninhibitedly as the flowers that have begun to blossom on my property. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMflKhs-PxzFw4KhrHfW-gogZZ0yABjtzDS4NnW807s8MqmFukT1fMbwwYWsEuJBwOdJSr4g7gKYR9-nJ0bTN9nT7A26m3Lmukm8fll6V9nuViqfeU4vSAeLd51R31gtpZWnG8NhKdMZoq/s1600/floating+flor.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMflKhs-PxzFw4KhrHfW-gogZZ0yABjtzDS4NnW807s8MqmFukT1fMbwwYWsEuJBwOdJSr4g7gKYR9-nJ0bTN9nT7A26m3Lmukm8fll6V9nuViqfeU4vSAeLd51R31gtpZWnG8NhKdMZoq/s400/floating+flor.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577651077376433442" /></a><br /><br />Perhaps in the loveliness of the spring season artists find reflections of their own beauty, and renew their faith in life’s regenerative prowess! As an oriental proverb states: “No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow”. Even when things appear to have met their death during the winter months, spring revives everything! For me, as an artist, I feel it reviving a certain enthusiasm in the way I express myself. A vitality. So spring seems to be a time of awakening. It has it’s own poetry. Maybe I can capture a little bit of it for you in my photographs. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhziBS2ayeZMlWQ9nSR4tsW8sTRCJ51LMSQRLBqMmXVdsDwGrDiCWBFk3u7GpumywHbLL5JLfTiETu6J2ncwvky2oEqv2IsCyFbEynFJCSgK6hid30hRrgZPiWvTq936RhzupPBO5Z8Yo6l/s1600/Warmth.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 383px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhziBS2ayeZMlWQ9nSR4tsW8sTRCJ51LMSQRLBqMmXVdsDwGrDiCWBFk3u7GpumywHbLL5JLfTiETu6J2ncwvky2oEqv2IsCyFbEynFJCSgK6hid30hRrgZPiWvTq936RhzupPBO5Z8Yo6l/s400/Warmth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577652240114440434" /></a>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-5071118978245535582011-02-13T03:18:00.000-08:002011-02-13T05:00:21.162-08:00Liberated in Ten Seconds<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh0Te1TaGPqMGd8SwJLouTOmY6MU7Zk-rRqj0J-NNymaxtneIsYWVLKgznjc01Mz7sALK-o6V_5RohqN_zbg_GZIrDG2FyFdPP_kVnZmlyPmX5693KYovJBAF-USRIIX35aSHb-3Qpmg5b/s1600/Amor+morte+2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh0Te1TaGPqMGd8SwJLouTOmY6MU7Zk-rRqj0J-NNymaxtneIsYWVLKgznjc01Mz7sALK-o6V_5RohqN_zbg_GZIrDG2FyFdPP_kVnZmlyPmX5693KYovJBAF-USRIIX35aSHb-3Qpmg5b/s320/Amor+morte+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573137618238431074" /></a><br /> Imagine, if you would, that you are a photographic artist, but you have only ten seconds in which to take each shot, you use yourself as the model, and you never show your face. These are the three distinct signatures of my work. They mark each and every one of my images. And they challenge me in ways most photographers will not be able to imagine unless they have attempted this feat themselves. <br /><br /> Using myself as the model means that before each photo session I need to prepare myself to be photographed. It is not just a preparation of wardrobe, but of attitude as well. I have to feel confident that I will be able to express what I seek to in my art, through using myself as the model. This often challenges the kind of relationship I have with myself, and my with body. I don’t always feel like photographing myself, but that is inconsequential, as I engage my feelings in the image, no matter what they are. My photos, after all, are always reflections of something I am experiencing in my life. What better person to illustrate that then myself? So, I inevitably become my own model.<br /><br /> In using oneself as the model, you cannot see what you are creating until after you take the photo. You have nothing to look at except what lies in your imagination. You cannot direct the model to pose in accordance with what looks good to you through you camera’s lens. The composition is something you can only estimate. The exact aesthetics of the model’s form remain a mystery until after you have taken the shot, and return to your camera to see how it turned out. And you use no remotes, so you only have ten seconds once you set the timer on your camera to run back to the spot, and assume the desired stance, or pose. And don’t forget, your face must always remain a mystery. <br /><br /> These self imposed artistic disciplines usually force me to run back and forth between my camera, and the area my camera is aiming at, many times. I position myself in front of the camera, I wait for the signal, I listen, the shot is taken, I get up and return to my camera, then I look at the shot. Perhaps my face was tilted to face the camera? I need to reshoot. I set the ten second timer on my camera, run back to the spot, and do it again. Perhaps the lighting changed so my settings did not work? I do it again. Maybe I ran so fast back to the spot, I accidentally pulled the backdrop curtain down. Another reshoot. Sometimes, when I am aiming for a particular result, I may run back to my camera over 75 times. This is the number of shots it took me to come up with this image here: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyEHVMHCuUDXWTPp7cQFXdnncL-5Fc_aGIiaUhbwcnVeQknscv4mtFHdXh2wdCqF8KEPfltZNS1ufnQWjsUcR3xKg-7COtT9c7ZK7plJd94dDAPgbLSNEpIxGCXdxdRoLdTNzele8Wxig/s1600/Amor+Morte.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 329px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyEHVMHCuUDXWTPp7cQFXdnncL-5Fc_aGIiaUhbwcnVeQknscv4mtFHdXh2wdCqF8KEPfltZNS1ufnQWjsUcR3xKg-7COtT9c7ZK7plJd94dDAPgbLSNEpIxGCXdxdRoLdTNzele8Wxig/s400/Amor+Morte.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573137182413763634" /></a><br /><br /> With each photo shoot, I usually end up with close to 100 raw shots I upload to my computer for editing. That means I ran back and forth over 100 times. It is always interesting for me to see how many pictures I end up with, as I am often surprised by how many they are! For, when I am in the middle of a photo shoot, I am so energized by my own creativity, and the excitement of seeing the finished photos, that I rarely notice the passing of time, or the labor required involved in being one’s own model. <br /><br /> I believe that the most powerful art comes from a timeless, effortless dimension of sorts. Why don’t I set my camera to take several images at once? Why don’t I use a remote and give myself more time in which to settle into the pose? Because I like cultivating that timeless, effortless force in my art. As a result of this original, creative process, I’ve found myself developing a very tight relationship between time and space, and the way I fit into time and space. Instead of limiting my creative expression, I’ve found that my unique, artistic disciplines have challenged me to expand the ways in which I see myself, and my very existence. Thus, the ways in which I make art. Consequently ten seconds in which to find myself, and turn myself into art ends up being most liberating!Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-81402279578508604462011-02-08T07:30:00.001-08:002011-02-08T17:14:09.131-08:00Art's BreathRudolf Steiner believed that a healthy lifestyle was one which mirrored healthy breathing, as one moved in and out of one’s activities in life, like the inward and outward breaths flow in and out of the body. Art, as I experience it, seems to have these two components to it as well. There appears to be an inward journey that connects the artist with what longs to be artistically expressed, and then there is the outward journey of expressing it. <br /><br /> Perhaps a work of art flows out in segments, as the artist inhales and exhales his or her way through the creative process. On the other side of the finished work is the audience. Continuing with Steiner’s poetic metaphor for life, perhaps the longest exhalation then, is represented by the sharing of one’s art. It’s when one’s art, or life breath, touches someone so intimately that it mingles with their breath. I think that, maybe, it is within such spontaneous creative fusion that lies the secret to making more art.<br /><br /> Recently, I had the opportunity to have my photographic art amazingly transformed into another medium: that of hand-painted images. It is wonderful to see another artist breathe new life into a work of your own! It always inspires me to connect with other artists and expand the perimeters of our own creativity. It is like expanding one’s breath to go deeper and fuller. When I collaborate with others, it makes me feel more alive! It is a special dynamic that perhaps connects us with that unlimited well of creativity that exists beyond us, and all around us. It is like that cosmic breath that is everywhere! <br /><br /> I invite you to breathe in our creations here. The first is a hand painted image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/binkie9/">Gwen</a>, a retired teacher, now art student, who uses soft pastels and is doing a study on figures. Here is her adoption of my self portrait titled “Silk”, followed by my original photograph taken on a ten second timer. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPc-ATJeviyRfi-KWEMXC5q8sDdqB9K43xbaEF4ej0n7L3pVeTnPgcsN1Iha4Iijzc7nR8qJotDBoiZiBdrMIU1aZ9hRqimhTqmqZ00SjC3avhQK1DpmJGG0fGVFHvT8GIhf0hZG3v_iya/s1600/Gwen%2527s+painting+2011.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 391px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPc-ATJeviyRfi-KWEMXC5q8sDdqB9K43xbaEF4ej0n7L3pVeTnPgcsN1Iha4Iijzc7nR8qJotDBoiZiBdrMIU1aZ9hRqimhTqmqZ00SjC3avhQK1DpmJGG0fGVFHvT8GIhf0hZG3v_iya/s400/Gwen%2527s+painting+2011.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571343551699102370" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQdM2hNQgZevcQHouu4WP4mlZWPWfN6kh19GSaHU7MYFaPNFDq7evHacBzD4nuUP77VbElnjeoWmpYWaFfOLa6bf3hxrfMyw4H3IVatTuSmh9hK5UPCbnWxbK-cQO5UY_E2o67GrjO6Xg/s1600/silk.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 387px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQdM2hNQgZevcQHouu4WP4mlZWPWfN6kh19GSaHU7MYFaPNFDq7evHacBzD4nuUP77VbElnjeoWmpYWaFfOLa6bf3hxrfMyw4H3IVatTuSmh9hK5UPCbnWxbK-cQO5UY_E2o67GrjO6Xg/s400/silk.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571344130852636082" /></a><br /><br /> This next image is very special to me as it represents many things to me, and was created by the wonderfully talented artist and jazz singer <a href="http://solitairemiles.deviantart.com/art/Belle-Odalisque-196587087">Solitaire Miles</a>. She produced this work of art by hand, through digital painting techniques, in only two days! She titled it “Belle Odalisque”, as we wished to capture some of the sensual beauty and exoticism surrounding medieval courtesans who were often used as models for the great masters. I see it as a symbol of feminine power, grace and freedom. Below is her gorgeous creation followed by my original self portrait, taken in ten seconds, my signature spontaneity. Please let me know how you like them! Hopefully they will take your breath away! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrp4tCSjF2qHC2zwxH2EF2F6-TXUc7H0RE3cj5e1YtBJN_yfEHkgeMbMOjb6RzfmTmxuhuXZ5xzbtCsEMGCFsjvDdLxiIOigS_q_X3HSMY3BiLmM1CtoOKZiLiDwHoJBJjcC8P08_mQQnu/s1600/Solitaire+Miles+FINAL.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrp4tCSjF2qHC2zwxH2EF2F6-TXUc7H0RE3cj5e1YtBJN_yfEHkgeMbMOjb6RzfmTmxuhuXZ5xzbtCsEMGCFsjvDdLxiIOigS_q_X3HSMY3BiLmM1CtoOKZiLiDwHoJBJjcC8P08_mQQnu/s400/Solitaire+Miles+FINAL.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571344750160302402" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5w2c8DyFvm6EzbakcihpS-9RYxVgPO5u1tbv2jJZLwHFhilBIhiHKexAXpzvURXMtuPr072hqba36mM6IWbdfn7Qm9V8-Jl5B91cHttyraCC-IWf4t4H-qogH5fgYFzGFcvjTOxuZc42Q/s1600/Katarina+Silva.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 323px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5w2c8DyFvm6EzbakcihpS-9RYxVgPO5u1tbv2jJZLwHFhilBIhiHKexAXpzvURXMtuPr072hqba36mM6IWbdfn7Qm9V8-Jl5B91cHttyraCC-IWf4t4H-qogH5fgYFzGFcvjTOxuZc42Q/s400/Katarina+Silva.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571344946864498658" /></a>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-56239787248518179422010-11-23T05:44:00.000-08:002010-11-23T06:12:38.874-08:00Appreciating Pain in Art<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtP-rQ2atYuNCoyC4zVoI3j2pp2mOZ46gkee1xcqdNxFgdlCoUlgu5azddzFRshZs1aPFLdNKjE0vQw3HGAqJRlpW5Qebpu4c-UqjN83x5t2KVGcT0ppNrduLoKV-WME4Foj7xKjxfVnmv/s1600/Her+Grief.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 241px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtP-rQ2atYuNCoyC4zVoI3j2pp2mOZ46gkee1xcqdNxFgdlCoUlgu5azddzFRshZs1aPFLdNKjE0vQw3HGAqJRlpW5Qebpu4c-UqjN83x5t2KVGcT0ppNrduLoKV-WME4Foj7xKjxfVnmv/s320/Her+Grief.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542744652601174786" /></a><br /> Many of the most recent self-portraits I’ve created have sought to express melancholy and grief. The art I make today has depicted uncomfortable sensations, like feelings of being overwhelmed and loosing hope. Because I engage my art as a journal of sorts, the photographs I create accurately chronicle one dimension or another of my life experience. They are by no means complete pictures, and they will often venture into dramatic extremes to illustrate the intensity of a particular emotion or event that is impacting me at the time. Nevertheless, each image I create, to one degree or another, consistently reflects facets of my immediate existence. Investing this emotional charge in my art invigorates my creativity, even when illustrating the darker sides of my life, as I have been doing of late. <br /><br /> In sharing such dark photographs with others, I’ve observed that this darker range of human experience appears to receive as much appreciation, as the former, brighter images did. These dark portraits seem to contain their own type of lure: perhaps they represent a world others are all too familiar with. After all, we have all had our dark nights of the soul. Or am I being too presumptuous by holding onto the belief that every one who appreciates the pain in my art, has themselves known pain, at one time or another? <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaT3pTLxC4C-vc_y0mMzqI-CmqSr2Qd3WIrMpW57Bs3QUzArBLKu_yDWq7NaAvO-DYfvnfcHevY0hgiSMvUo5XdYSv5NsbM0cWYBHXGG02qQI09CHmYZwz5D1Cbt9NZGFj1IUwcy6iRpe/s1600/FINAL+train.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 333px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaT3pTLxC4C-vc_y0mMzqI-CmqSr2Qd3WIrMpW57Bs3QUzArBLKu_yDWq7NaAvO-DYfvnfcHevY0hgiSMvUo5XdYSv5NsbM0cWYBHXGG02qQI09CHmYZwz5D1Cbt9NZGFj1IUwcy6iRpe/s400/FINAL+train.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542744129084207394" /></a><br /><br /><br /> What relationship does pain hold to art appreciation then? Does one have to be themselves familiar with pain, to recognize and appreciate it, in the work of the others? Or does one’s familiarity with pain, make artwork which depicts pain repulsive? Naturally, that will vary from person to person depending on their own relationship with pain itself, I imagine. <br /><br /> If we are drawn to creating, or appreciating, darker works of art, what does that say about us? Might there be a part of us that is actively engaged with pain? We may be either experiencing pain, facing pain, exploring pain, processing pain, or even at peace with pain! We may also be afraid of pain. Sometimes those who are too uncomfortable with pain, avoid facing it, even in art! It could be that aversion to such artistic creations will reflect this very discomfort. While those who are accepting of pain (and it’s role in human development), will, in turn, feel comfortable when exposed to art which reflects pain. Yet the opposite might also hold true! <br /><br /> Some may be drawn to art which depicts pain because they are subconsciously trying to face the discomfort of pain within themselves. And others experience a waning interest in such darker images, precisely because they have recently put personal pains to rest, and are making deliberate efforts to move beyond it. Then there are endless other possible reasons why one’s personal preferences in art may include or exclude “dark art”, as I’ve been calling it here. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgett-CWv0GYsVoJfIYlFWEwBRL17RYEy47mQvvRgV4ipGO2jIl523XO_QvnT3MXAxpGCkdDXT_BZjJ9p56YIZEXU3uW68SIOQV1aVn4q1vys1Z6YFxba0OebeBHCpYYt6Q4eQkoqt_m765/s1600/Forlorned.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgett-CWv0GYsVoJfIYlFWEwBRL17RYEy47mQvvRgV4ipGO2jIl523XO_QvnT3MXAxpGCkdDXT_BZjJ9p56YIZEXU3uW68SIOQV1aVn4q1vys1Z6YFxba0OebeBHCpYYt6Q4eQkoqt_m765/s400/Forlorned.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542743847535598178" /></a><br /><br /> With that in mind, as an artist, I always live in constant curiosity about what exactly moves others to appreciate my dark art. I can think of nothing more exciting then when someone takes the time to tell me why they have fallen in love with an image I’ve created. Why they appreciate it? What is it that it’s communicating to them? Especially with the darker portraits, I would like to know, what parts of human beings become engaged when admiring images into which I’ve injected loneliness, hopelessness, sadness, etc. <br /><br /> Perhaps it takes a certain kind of personal strength to appreciate, and even find beauty in art that illustrates the aching of a human heart. Today, I personally extend my gratitude to all those who do, as it inspires me to express every aspect of my being in my art, no matter how dark I may feel at the time. Every part is worth listening to and expressing. Thank you to all those who have reconfirmed this to me through all your wonderful appreciations. May we continue to include everything in art, even pain. I would love to hear your views on this subject, if you care to share. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsogMq6-uEw64iQnfBFCVk1KrMQZ_uqx6Trd9G8GdjezZDuFQS0hZZhBa0ennhc9diUcEd9pwIGPDkY4eQ3motjsq6R8s-lsn-6XPrlnztPuLBTparIGG8-UsUk65qASklsiV83NPeq5U/s1600/Lost+Artist+in+NYC.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsogMq6-uEw64iQnfBFCVk1KrMQZ_uqx6Trd9G8GdjezZDuFQS0hZZhBa0ennhc9diUcEd9pwIGPDkY4eQ3motjsq6R8s-lsn-6XPrlnztPuLBTparIGG8-UsUk65qASklsiV83NPeq5U/s400/Lost+Artist+in+NYC.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542743518743883042" /></a><br /><br />To read more of my reflections on Expressing Pain in Art click <a href="http://theartofkatarinasilva.blogspot.com/2010/06/expressing-pain-in-art.html">here</a>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-75235986771941638542010-10-05T18:43:00.000-07:002010-10-05T20:29:39.982-07:00Art Auction for Cancer!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhWuz6x5HCp0MFTOFH4Mmge7BSwrnYrUEGupy5ZzYCp4HN5NOBPcMq0w_a272tkz8m3bCFhZ4S-O6W6I_yFicXEAozx_4jGPBeOCxwCRyHoV2rKzHriJLoEb44PDE9kIK5oby7LL2ZYSC/s1600/komen.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhWuz6x5HCp0MFTOFH4Mmge7BSwrnYrUEGupy5ZzYCp4HN5NOBPcMq0w_a272tkz8m3bCFhZ4S-O6W6I_yFicXEAozx_4jGPBeOCxwCRyHoV2rKzHriJLoEb44PDE9kIK5oby7LL2ZYSC/s200/komen.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524747186153382914" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Art often takes intense emotional experiences and translates them into colors and shapes. An artist often does this intuitively. An artist’s creations can often serve as a diary of sorts through which they illustrate their inner, emotional landscape. What often fuels an artist’s emotional landscape are the people they love. Thus an artists creations can be closely connected to their loved ones: those who inspire us and touch our hearts unlike anyone else. But what happens when a loved one’s life is severely threatened? How does that color the work of the artist who loves them?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Today I would like to tell you a little secret about my artwork: It is greatly influenced by the love I feel for my little sister, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">who has been diagnosed with a serious, incurable illness. Lulu was just beginning to blossom into a career of modeling, music and dance, when the illness struck. It nearly took her life twice. I will never forget the night my mother called me from a hospital in Paris to tell me that Lulu’s condition was unstable. I could not entertain the thought of ever living without her. Not for a second! My sister and I have been very close our entire life and I love her so deeply.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Over time, I have watched my sister brave her illness and show an amazing strength and hope that greatly invigorate my own practice of gratitude in life. Lulu has been such an unshakable inspiration for me! She has motivated me in both my art and my life, which are very closely linked. Lulu’s spirit often shines through my images, as I focus on themes that are dear to us both. Although Lulu can no longer model, or dance, due to her illness, I attempt to keep this part of her alive by exhibiting it in my self-portraits. This is one reason I never show my face; so that Lulu can feel free to imagine herself in my artwork whenever she wishes to! I try to create worlds in my art that Lulu and I always dreamed of living in together. Worlds of music, and beauty, and magic!</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I believe that it takes nearly mystical abilities to face life with a smile on a daily basis, while struggling with an incurable illness. Well, my sister Lulu is a true mystic, because this is what she does! She has been a tremendous influence and inspiration for me in my life. For this reason, I was especially touched when my friend, artist <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq-qBuQXLcs&feature=player_embedded">Jared Knight</a>, informed me that his sister, Tamara, had also been a huge inspiration to him, and that she also suffered from an incurable illness. Jared then invited me to donate one of our artistic collaborations for a cure for cancer! What a wonderful idea! So we did!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqs82x1sFZMetEdt8g8zdxvVecW8BPgSQ5ivcZKLXxT7YmdEFHcxTvjtT60Wnm4KsrcaKE2oufgcEvzgERk4wYkhL6pLp2NdmLvjy0iS9u5mHJclzzijjZVtgssIpvHmMIG__QcwFjcZ1v/s400/jared+fire+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524746835452509826" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We decided to wait until this month of October, as it’s International Breast Cancer Awareness month, to launch our art auction. The colorful art piece, entitled “Hope”, is on auction for ten days only on </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><code style="font-size: 1.2em; "><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200527286091#ht_500wt_1156"></a></code><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200527286091#ht_500wt_1156"><code><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ebay</span></code><code style="font-size: 1.2em; "></code></a><code style="font-size: 1.2em; "></code></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">, sponsored by the</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><code style="font-size: 1.2em; "><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"></a></code><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"></a></span><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"></a></span><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"></a></span><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"></a></i><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"></a></span><a href="http://www.komenmiaftl.org/"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;">Susan G. Komen for The Cure Foundation</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><code style="font-size: 1.2em; "></code></span></span></span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><code style="font-size: 1.2em; "> </code></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. I excitedly invite all of you to visit it! Here is a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq-qBuQXLcs&feature=player_embedded">video</a> Jared made which tells all about it. I feel so very privileged to be able to participate in projects like this one, as they celebrate people like Lulu and Tamara, and all those whose beautiful spirits triumph over incurable illnesses, fueling the work of artists like Jared and I. Thank you for your inspiration! </span></span></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-31131115962506240582010-09-14T15:40:00.000-07:002010-09-21T07:08:28.476-07:00Honoring the Female Form in Art<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BN-LPyfVOlQcVR5jLHvxJgPhPKYUyytzHULoykrDVSJqA1UNhex0tF7rMmou4FD8X_kg_9rccbsw03V_CqP8dg0xbEY-OQX3nNIWL0-fPCQjG8gGcL1LHbne4FlJmuvYkdF5_REjY4Z1/s1600/Nets.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 194px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BN-LPyfVOlQcVR5jLHvxJgPhPKYUyytzHULoykrDVSJqA1UNhex0tF7rMmou4FD8X_kg_9rccbsw03V_CqP8dg0xbEY-OQX3nNIWL0-fPCQjG8gGcL1LHbne4FlJmuvYkdF5_REjY4Z1/s200/Nets.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516920124653527586" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Throughout the ages and across cultures art has been inundated with depictions of the nude female form. From stone age sculptures of fertility goddesses to Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, all the way into twentieth century photographers like Julian Mandel, femininity has been a powerful theme that has consistently inspired creativity in artists. But what is considered a respectful artistic presentation of a woman, and what is considered an offensive one? I believe that there are as many answers to that question as there are people on the planet! This is because the way we each interpret art is so very unique. The diverse reactions people have to nude females in art never ceases to amaze me! What one culture may consider a most sacred depiction of the goddess, another culture may call indecent and exploitive. Is the nudity itself a cause for shame?</span></span></div><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I grew up on a hill overlooking the sea. A short walk through a canyon behind our home led down to a nude beach, which I frequented as a teenager. I was introduced to nude sunbathing by my aunt when I was a young girl. My aunt was also a student of photography who created beautiful nude self-portraits. My mother, however, though a lover of art, became visibly uncomfortable around nudity. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For some, the depiction of a nude, or semi-nude female, seems to elicit a type of nervousness. Even if the female is presented outside of a sexual context, her mere nudity seems to trigger discomfort in certain audiences, perhaps stemming from fear that such exposure of the female form might be exploitive of women, or encouraging of such exploitation. Others cheer at the sight of the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">same </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">work of art, because they see it as </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">countering</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> the exploitation of women! And then we find the multitude of var</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">ying views that rest between those two extremes.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid36-KK9w30DM1iGvSgJaffIMc72RycfKmglzpOL_McVnhvTLj2T9jR10t4OMN0vlhEwbk4S3SDsqNJSe_nBwu1KNZ3HvHipWK3A9LBy6OmFPs29KjYnTBD8t5ShqXI8y9wdfwiDZAWmFM/s400/Guitara.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516919714799014002" /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">As an artist who engages her own female form in her artwork, I can personally attest to the wide variety of reactions observers have to art which focuses on femininity. It swiftly becomes obvious to me how reacting to a work of art is a very personal experience indeed, into which we each import our own individual sets of beliefs, cultural influences, conditionings, emotional associations, etc. Is it, therefore, the role of the artist to anticipate how others will react to their work and share their work accordingly? I don’t believe anyone can predict with 100% accuracy how another person will react to their art. How do we know if our artistic creations will become objects of admiration or scorn? We can never really know until we share them. I will always give great value to uninhibitedly sharing art.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In sharing art and receiving feedback, I believe an artist can potentially learn as much about his or her own works of art, as they can about their audience. If a person is offended by the way a woman is depicted in art, that might give us more insight into the offended viewer than into the work of art itself. It opens up a dialogue that could hold potential meaning. Maybe it assists the viewer in coming in touch with why they hold particular perspectives. Does an artist still create art in the knowledge that it may offend the perspectives of others? As the nude female form continues to grace works of art today with as much zeal as it did in the past, we can surmise that history tells us that they do. Artists create whatever art they are inspired to! So what responsibility does an artist have to their audience?</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span></span></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 392px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuhUM427YJZLN_z_iw0yfFjFgT7SB0XE5zD7vNg_l5OhSzxggm8PE-ng7tkDSeyzLkqnTZiHw94xU42vtnuGQUr2qZMbLkMCC_cKMQ74zNaDF3Nmc0dEEyTHzBrQnJlVtOtzKHBFcepORE/s400/Poetry.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516919363984948866" /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">To me, an artist’s responsibility lies in being loyal to their own artistic visions and inspirations regardless of what reactions they may elicit from others. When it comes to making an artistic contribution to the ever growing celebration of feminine beauty and sensuality in art, it appears that the only prerequisite is the artist’s sincere eagerness to do so. I have been reflecting on this, as I embark on my first artistic collaboration with my very thoughtful friend and colleague, photographer </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/foto_by_messina/4984397893/">Michael Messina</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia; ">, with whom I have been pondering the age-old inspiration of presenting the female form in art. May the feminine always be honored in art without restrictions or shame.</span></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-48905039019776141092010-09-06T04:51:00.000-07:002010-09-06T05:44:42.723-07:00Lost and Found in Art<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODeRtwjVW5gIpKWIweQNCXTOCGA4IN706PF4tzM5vTy8ASG5DBVc3n625_ot5wtUa4k__mnTbBv74vsnAdARnwOothwK_qKbQAJPJFeVi__4BP6p5NQtchK0Y60BV-u96_gKxRkE8Tx1D/s1600/Inferno.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODeRtwjVW5gIpKWIweQNCXTOCGA4IN706PF4tzM5vTy8ASG5DBVc3n625_ot5wtUa4k__mnTbBv74vsnAdARnwOothwK_qKbQAJPJFeVi__4BP6p5NQtchK0Y60BV-u96_gKxRkE8Tx1D/s200/Inferno.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513769887539564306" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I think I engage my art as a means to finding parts of myself that had become lost, or temporarily misplaced, or forgotten about. Maybe they are parts of myself that were alive when I was a child, and then lost their vitality somewhere between growing pains and adulthood. Maybe they are parts of me that were suffocated by challenging circumstances or relationships. Maybe they are just new sides of me that spontaneously appeared as a result of expressing myself through art, and are looking for their first outlet. Or maybe they are old parts that are being resuscitated, and the photograph is acting as a medic, bringing them back to life.</span></span></div><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In creating a photograph I feel as if I am creating a safe space in which to express myself as freely as I’d like to. It is an arena into which any parts of my being can feel welcomed into, and find a voice. Yes, my photographs are like my voice! It is a voice that has a lot to say, and is grateful for the opportunity to do that that through my art. I am most grateful, also, for those who hear my voice; those encouraging others who have appreciated my photography and thus inspired me to create more. This is especially meaningful to me, as I contrast it to times in my life in which I did not feel the expression of my voice was that supported. Through making and sharing a photograph, my voice is found, my voice is expressed, and it is </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">heard</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. We all n</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">eed to feel heard in life</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 297px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPpNExe3V73nkSLkypIMMDaELH9vA9J6Pf84Lt7JCxB_DmDFmHy1PyBk6zXT7JN2pFbpEm9Hn3DhPlzK1leOK8eJKrLTmf43OKQcCE5FzhC1vjmgfgfo3-JO6oH0cmRIVZ4o-4ZdfH-cq/s400/Lost.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513769513252479506" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>To me, sharing art is a way in which human beings openly hear each another. Existentialist philosopher, Paul Tillich once wrote that “the first duty of love is to listen”. I believe that in creating and sharing art, we come in touch with the parts of our selves, and others, that are most desirous of participating in a loving relationship. At least for myself, I experience the creating of a photograph as my traversing a path that aims at reaching my very core. I believe everyone’s core is love.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Maybe I engage my art to explore this belief that we are all made of love. To reach a part of myself that is unshakable. In attempting to do so, I inevitably encounter other parts of me that aren’t as solid: fleeting emotions, changing perspectives, temporary wounds. And I offer each and every one of them a release through the images I create. Once expressed, I find they are much more peaceful, and move out of the way so I can connect with something deeper. It is almost as if some parts of me need to be lost, so that others can be found. </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In a single photo session then, I can potentially both loose and find myself. Sometimes over and over again. This is the creative process I am so addicted to! And what I find when making art is truly unlimited! I think this holds true for every artist: our creations are like doorways that open into an endless world of discoveries. Perhaps we just need to remember to loosen our holds on those parts of us that relate to limits, so that we can experience the boundlessness before us, each time we make art. In this context loosing takes on a positive meaning. As Henry David Thoreau once wrote: “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” It is this deeper understanding of self that I find each time I lose myself in my art. </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxP7JrMBhb3R-k30CUnjg6sWajqdZoWYO0lCuJzypcXoDlBsb0Cc0erbypkoIxwkDlqc0P-VJyxhHZF8J2KF81QJ32_GuwxPvJYYY4TZ5IqD3mXNjIdD9JjN0sTWnzSh-UCEKCkOcvQM9J/s400/Snow+seeds.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513769215622884962" /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-2174310577981448262010-09-01T08:09:00.000-07:002010-09-01T11:04:18.555-07:00Hearing a Painting or Photograph?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7V4dfIENkj32KBL2ISWDYeR5KB0PHelQkekznqQ5P1l2haSXqPzFtHMBUXe-sQ31IVbRylo-C2HQEHm_HUmAPeT11TmlZAz2z4vvgwN0HmVrVHwlVQoqSvPyqBTB-fbRpOBpRS7jK4DSe/s1600/Pagan.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 172px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7V4dfIENkj32KBL2ISWDYeR5KB0PHelQkekznqQ5P1l2haSXqPzFtHMBUXe-sQ31IVbRylo-C2HQEHm_HUmAPeT11TmlZAz2z4vvgwN0HmVrVHwlVQoqSvPyqBTB-fbRpOBpRS7jK4DSe/s200/Pagan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511968867526748946" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>What does it mean when a painting or photograph </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">speaks to us</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">? It is a common expression engaged in the English language that indicates when something impacts us in a deep and meaningful way. When a person tells me that a photographic creation of mine has </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">spoken</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> to them, I take it as a great compliment! The expression itself suggests that one’s experience of a visual work of art was so overwhelming that it seems to have engaged</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> all</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> their senses, and not merely the sense of sight.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> What does it mean then to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">hear </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">a photograph, or a painting? I think it means that one’s perception of it is so profound, it deepens the ways we interact with it, moving us beyond the visual and into subtle auditory, and emotional levels. When we see a dramatic image of a waterfall, it might trigger sonorous memories of what a waterfall sounds like. Suddenly, we are not only </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">seeing</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> the waterfall we are </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">hearing</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> it as well. Or a pastoral scene of flowers and trees rouses the melodies of bird calls in our mind, the reflected trees in </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">the ripples of a lake cause us to hear their leaves rustling in the wind. This happens to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">me quite often!</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4cllO4PzjcKTe0oIsVQ_XjqyO5IH-oBnxBp4VwsunxPAE23weRK5qMUdOdi7RJQSvB8d0Sf0Rbj3Lr7N722sJ1jTzBuGJXjhANJ-MucFAQgU898oRHzGHQi_6mpOm1maAwFCGdz343z65/s400/Rivermirror.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511967915746827698" /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Visual stimulation is so potent, it can instantly act as a key to a variety of sensations within us. It is interesting to note, however, that the expression which describes a meaningful connection with a visual work of art includes, (of all senses) the sense of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">sound</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">! When a photograph or painting </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">speaks to us</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, it is understood that it has really moved us and touched our hearts. I think this might </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">speak to the fact</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> (no pun intended), that sounds greatly intensify our experience of art. As when we watch a film with the mute button on, it tends not to have as great an impact on us. Sounds certainly add a whole other dimension! When the sounds are not externally provided, the audience will often add them, in a most spontaneous, nearly unconscious manner, and suddenly, a photograph is being </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">heard</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, in addition to being seen! </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So what does art </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">say</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> to us? What does a painting, or photograph </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">sound like</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">? There are, of course, as many responses to these questions as there are humans on this planet! When the sounds are internally generated, they are as varied as our DNA stands! I most enjoy when others give me feedback, and translate for me the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">specific ways</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> in which my photographs speak to them. Perhaps nothing could be more enjoyable to an artist than to hear about how their work has moved the hearts of others. I aim to move hearts with my art, and create photographs that not only speak, but sing! </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 393px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUR6QQbgyNC8-dHAK8I3OohB33inK-I7088PcNoa36s6KtXo2vb4PpP4I2Sp5ZSCe_BcR5lEgUrHjwJnW82RT0h2q4kYl4wEZh2gsw7tJwMKPDHDV7VAabQ8BeNC52OCKEwGKjUQXfh0jj/s400/Light" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511966266241736962" /></p><p></p><p></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-70868215867927152052010-08-24T03:06:00.000-07:002010-08-24T04:01:55.662-07:00Eastern Lure<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXtFMZmnF3azlh0b0QVGSii98PULQrBvOcmCsiQ3A2vmgnzvkiOifIOIWGJA25m9LcVCAscW4BlId2JNNKRaU4kiOfTksx2Y2iqXeGUT0WiTMijfXn-adZwsrwLBCfRrO2JaTLaaZAb9fq/s1600/Tamboura+Song.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 197px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXtFMZmnF3azlh0b0QVGSii98PULQrBvOcmCsiQ3A2vmgnzvkiOifIOIWGJA25m9LcVCAscW4BlId2JNNKRaU4kiOfTksx2Y2iqXeGUT0WiTMijfXn-adZwsrwLBCfRrO2JaTLaaZAb9fq/s200/Tamboura+Song.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508924088088386642" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlBdXAn_K5gZtqZSRtexABhSdkEhz5RcXZevHq6PtYP8-56SVU-WttfxlGX43rXmM8KIZhVnvlej84wvc5XfCim07sXLro2epUdj2BJSpAsPNfZlBs_cMIePFT_56cUkHOfo-9e7Mzp7z/s1600/Tamboura+Song.jpg"></a><span><span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Today I feel the fullness of the moon beckoning me into making more art! It's almost as if I can feel it pulling me into energetically creative spaces, and asking me to express myself artistically. The way the full moon affects my creativity is as clear to me as the way it affects the ocean's tides. It is an experience I share with other artists, and one that has been written about since antiquity. Eastern cultures especially have held a fascination with celestial bodies and the belief that their movements in the skies directly affect human behavior. This was but one of the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">many</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> perspectives offered by the East that resonated with me as a little girl. But I think, more than anything it was photographs of life in the East that spoke to my sense of self the loudest.</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lotus flowers, women veiled in vibrant colors, ankle bells, decorative henna, exotic goddesses with many arms! I was first introduced to this enticing imagery from the east as a child while turning the pages of National Geographic magazine. Even though I had been raised in America, such scenes drew me in with curious familiarity. I wished to jump into the photographs and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">be</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> them! I felt spontaneously and strongly emotionally wrapped up in them.</span></span><div><div><div><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 351px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnNLP0b13EXMLPrTlC0bFmD6_Z2139Fg6vTzUwstBpDnfXwGimyYty9h8daQDphIQ2D7eAjUnNrhmDYg5MDurQoEtAzUEI1RrYzrvxL65Gy2jmIDbyNMVrP6G_a8JLAErIzm4gV8bwCFhx/s400/Flower+Offering.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508919826212425810" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My art has always originated with an emotionally rich place within me. I need to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">feel</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> my art before I express it, translating those feelings into images. Recently my art has reflected the spell eastern cultures have cast over me throughout my life. From tales of Arabian princesses to those of Indian mystics, my last series of self portraits has begun to reflect the ongoing romance I’ve held with the east. It has been a very enduring, passionate one indeed! And it has spoken to my heart in deeply informative and even comforting ways. I offer you this first series for your viewing pleasure:</span></span></span></p><div><br /></div><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rk6zqMdz-UE?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rk6zqMdz-UE?fs=1&hl=en_US" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div></div></div></div></div>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-24418019609391964622010-07-04T18:24:00.000-07:002010-07-04T22:14:33.597-07:00Supporting Artistic Freedom<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirCUV2BLzCWkoMs78KOID4Wzvz5rRAecOx_bk0pWlvch3GCkmF_T987o7EmZOTaaACwdq1_x0QBxQqfLTfeZYUn_Q2yxqgde5CuIh44aPCet4s8KfVZDNj71VJjWKU-fHleJCljkG5cQtA/s1600/Letting+Go.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirCUV2BLzCWkoMs78KOID4Wzvz5rRAecOx_bk0pWlvch3GCkmF_T987o7EmZOTaaACwdq1_x0QBxQqfLTfeZYUn_Q2yxqgde5CuIh44aPCet4s8KfVZDNj71VJjWKU-fHleJCljkG5cQtA/s200/Letting+Go.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490231605147712178" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Countries which encourage and support artistic expression have my great appreciation, as it is my belief that humans best thrive in environments in which the arts are allowed to flourish. The arts are the universal language which communicates to every human heart, inspires individual creativity and breathes life into healthy communities. How a group of people relates to the arts reflects a lot about the collected consciousness of that group: their values, their sensitivity, their courage to relate to one another on deep levels.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The largest art festival in the world is held every summer in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. Established in 1947, this festival aims at creating a nurturing a supportive environment in which artists can express themselves, and have the opportunity to share their visions with large audiences. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;font-size:16px;"><a href="http://www.edfringe.com/" target="_blank">The Fringe</a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">as it is called, has been reproduced in other countries around the world, including the United States of America.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia"><span style="font: 13.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Today, Americans celebrate their independence and freedom. These are values upon which all artists rely: the independence and freedom to express ourselves creatively, whe</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">rever we live on the planet. As </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">former American President John F. Kennedy stated, "</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his/her vision wherever it takes him/her</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">."</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On this day in which freedom is celebrated, I feel honored to have been invited by American director John C. Bailey, to contribute several of my artistic photographs to the Capital Fringe Festival (an offshoot of the Edinburg festival), held annually in Washington DC. I am especially thrilled to participate, as the images I’ve created will be engaged in illustrating a controversial theme which has occupied artists throughout the ages: that of suicide. It is a timeless tragedy that many avoid addressing, and that gets beautifully and compassionately presented in Evan Crump's creative play, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Genesis <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">as directed by John C. Bailey. </span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></i></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 357px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZH4pjpVQMW6y_TneXwL1TYAayX2tcaxMui2_EjuDgX1Q4L20s02rc6RZs1RjJf8cebGWoSP2_VynTeFkL7v_HLjdTjRfDakaAIDzhAe9Yf2G2IXVYpqg6g4TRRb6nhhD_8MRheyN4hkdE/s400/Mary.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490231021457104626" /><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The role of the artist then, often becomes that of the communicator of uncomfortable, taboo subjects. The artist creates an acceptable, approachable setting in which the audience can safely examine these subjects, and experience their own hearts entering into valuable dialogue with them. </span></span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As the famous classical composer </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Robert Schumann so aptly put it, "</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The artist's vocation is to send light into the human heart</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">." </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Effective art touches our heart then, and familiarizes us with its contents. Groups of people who thus support artists are inadvertently giving to their own hearts. This is, in essence what John C. Baileys’ play is designed to do, and I feel privileged that he chose my art to illustrate it, for "</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Every great work of art has two faces, one toward his/her own time, and one toward eternity</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">." --Daniel Barenboim</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For more information on the Capital Fringe Festival please click </span></span><span style="font: 16.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.capfringe.org/" target="_blank">here</a></span></span></p><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimT44qW05xwml7A30_3nep9WzI7BESEpSyMtVTu5qAU9NgSQvkLYdTCowLgXFd5UX9fnwnRu1Nkm1D2W0bIlrloBFyi0Omkjt8hZffgXGYPF66GT0ob59zt9RvHAJelMz0C0AGQurQzNZQ/s400/smcapitalfringefestival_000.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490230030408855602" />Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-72987667123707899882010-06-25T10:00:00.000-07:002010-06-25T14:31:10.194-07:00Abstract Art meets Form<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I was recently invited by abstract painter </span></span></span><a href="http://www.jaredknight.com/" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Jared Knight</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> to work on some collaborative pieces together. It was the first time I had been asked by another artist to fuse our creations and I instantly accepted! Especially exciting to me was the fact that Jared was a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">painter</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Oo-la-la!</span></span></div><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-xMQcBTKp1LSc5UYBWt9C8OedpGzrClLoWHYyigGz_6esb2-k-ojj_Gu4W0gmu2MWrVZa8nW4y838jc2x0P9LFZ4OeuKk8l7fERGnIiecrg6RF9VoIT4l6tY9polosd4bRb1VZLK1lAH/s400/jared+fire+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486760743674776994" /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> I hold painters with special awe and admiration as that is what I wished to be when I was a little girl: a painter! I always loved painting and as a child I used to identify myself with famous artists. The year I turned sixteen my sister gave me a wooden easel and some very fine brushes. I would lock myself up in my room for days and paint! I imagined my paintings hanging in art galleries and communicating meaningful messages to people’s hearts. Needless to say that dream never fructified. Although I was given an art scholarship to Parson’s School of Art and Design when I was a teenager, I opted to travel around India instead, never returning to painting. There was something almost </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">godly</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> about painters, which I felt set me apart from them, oddly enough. All the more reason that I felt particularly privileged to be invited by a painter to work on collaborations!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 301px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkaNpYKxXSUQeczsQq8iqsR-Y1j7nc-eQ9-KUvrEu_AUTPdFXK_ziCGqCDme9TbnbTVSJdQepIKqacN20sYqw48X3LGtSyXvuTm5hs5TyUxHcfInyhyphenhyphenPuhYdajwaUwcolvjL44xnf6hTF/s400/Female+Cyclone.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486760523483689298" /> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">In fusing my photographic work with Jared’s gorgeous oil paintings, I found that a part of the little girl in me who always dreamed of being a painter was vicariously indulged. Mixing mediums via todays computer technology makes such collaborations between artists so easy, even when living at a distance from one another. Sharing these pieces over the internet has also contributed to that spontaneous gratification. There is something so satisfying to me in seeing my photography merged with an artists paintings! Especially fun has been the mixing of our two apparently opposing styles: Jared’s abstracts with my form, which I think together produced something unexpected and original. Both Jared and I were pleased with the final outcome. We hope you enjoy them as well, and we look forward to making more!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjOUGqa7ihyphenhyphen82ySxai6I_bohjTDZG4GBzFwlp_8N7MKlNspzLc4I7dJaaMZTlJ7oDzl8N-RVi3T1oaf23g542RcOO6hx1zDnxV659AqLUbyuPDn_7DPj5F8VgEud4sKxGYAxkloZBfoVI/s400/Goddess.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486760287053804354" /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-29586568616720766972010-06-20T08:31:00.001-07:002010-06-20T09:27:31.971-07:00Summer Inspiration<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;font-size:medium;">Seasonal changes inspire me to make art! The grasses around my home grow wild and lush as the summer sun infuses them with a beckoning green florescence. They are so tall now I need to lift my long-skirt tails as I weave my way around them on my morning stroll to the pond. When I need to relax, I gently float flowers on the water and watch as the warm breeze moves them to the sound of frogs, and crickets and song birds.</span></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4BP5xwdig7BmDIRKwz0OAQXpppxNYA6FtEWkK6qixDXW-50SvnamCWJjPvSvpOagxXCNQgtDrjdhCN1ED5RzBcblxrUOYVpBiIGwZ8sGF6Jywr5OL2bDMBsETWrk7m-AdsZjnZlChLf6/s400/summer+4.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484882742049706130" /><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I would like to wear one of my renaissance dresses today and take photographs of myself in the grasses, surrounded by the soft pink blossoms that decorate the southern meadow. But the blackberry bushes have grown so thick in the pastures that I can’t roam freely without the thorns catching my skirt. Maybe I should take the canoe out instead and delight in the beautiful overabundance of the earth that is summer! I echo Henry James sentiments when he writes: </span></span></span><span style="font: 16.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#310000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">“Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="font: 16.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#310000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p color="#310000" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Georgia; min-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtyvlYiisWX49X7bSXmLG4CpWT0sVQ3eLLl_8imcoqFgHCjiN_lnlhwZ62hsxVMvXODxY4-cHxYgSTXcU93NvqI9DHP59s8YD0SsT1ZqISshompPv5-GPJ-31VB_vL6Ya1_IQlkvz3ufV/s400/summer+1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484882462514861074" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0pxcolor:#310000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color:#310000;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I’ve spent most every summer of my life barefoot and outdoors. This year the summer has given birth to so many little frogs, they leap out of my way as I walk near the creek. The air is filled with intoxicating scents of honeysuckle and magnolia, and fuzzy seeds that glide magically before impregnating the rich soils. I intend to acquire a proper camera lens to capture all these tiny details of beauty as it paints itself into this most glorious season! </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;">Sometimes all one can do is lie down and breathe in the loveliness in gratitude, lest we miss this most festive of seasons. Then again, as Shakespeare says: “...thy eternal summer shall not fade”.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color:#310000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 399px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx093KoY_oeKCzQK-fDDQbzFxtv1t5KmBd1xGNX1Yb6UU5tzefjLTKoYlRj-SS_cucurNAcyJoyBbaCz3VWvcXGQPjJR8muhIBPy6CqT0f611uRyejl5Nu50vNC5n-VD-k_CttvGxTmcW_/s400/summer+7.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484881588030907138" /></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div></span></span> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Summer is the season I was born in and therefore I connect it to a celebration of life itself! It fills me with new inspiration and prospects, and a feeling that all of life’s little wrinkles will eventually iron themselves out. I think Ada Loiuse Huxtable may have sensed something similar when she said: “Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world!”. May each of you enjoy your summertime and let it move you to make beautiful art!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 388px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTe94U1ZGqTLLTn2ObTeES8L25cZVNXUZO_nMFDoEf9dgVHhX8bJGEQxbr3am86mUA8EuGad88gyfjaCDYshyhUDxBY1zifKTAlNhDihZgKwKZGO6gRmCSigQEfNeV3B0sK-GYHc4yIPwe/s400/summer+3.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484879232484808370" />Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-13028157342708138052010-06-19T14:17:00.000-07:002010-06-20T09:18:39.659-07:00The Risk of Being an Artist<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQ76gL8asY5f9of7B3ROwLhhz-hntKrZS96sIWSE6ZyEDGGhklRty6Y5BeQQQSLtXvvt63ggxvXIMH1UZLgfvBhbzPsk0xRC3uKMOZ2LcACi1CmzF0qi9g1zwW2d8WLSeq4hJX9xETHsG/s1600/Shield.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 165px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQ76gL8asY5f9of7B3ROwLhhz-hntKrZS96sIWSE6ZyEDGGhklRty6Y5BeQQQSLtXvvt63ggxvXIMH1UZLgfvBhbzPsk0xRC3uKMOZ2LcACi1CmzF0qi9g1zwW2d8WLSeq4hJX9xETHsG/s200/Shield.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484610367404905778" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Art is powerful as it can evoke such passionate responses in others. It also evokes such diverse reactions! Some people may feel elevated and elated by a work of art, while others may feel offended and threatened by the same piece! Today I was reminded of the ways in which people may find certain artistic creations offensive. But offensive enough to kill!?</span></span></div><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> Have you ever looked at a work of art and found it offensive? Feeling uncomfortable while regarding a work of art is one thing, but taking personal offense is another. Would you find a work of art offensive enough to kill the artist who created it? And, if you were an artist, and knew that your art could put your life in danger, would you still create it? It might sound incredulous to have to weigh the production of art against life and death scenarios, but for much of the world, it is indeed a tragic reality.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 329px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv14MIYitQWFgHZY8tUPLoWx9Za6pEGNyBjsE9ukoL5dj_CkJGZnIvXMLhIAAEfOnoiJVmwt-ISUeoMJuUV2AvTb9NxoI7YK3tkOXSFMSkDxfsfcZr0cRTrp4bnJacc70lBPWs1Gf2PXdn/s400/Mask.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484609336752142834" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I grew up in a developing country in which freedom of expression was regulated by the government and it’s underground branches. If the power at hand determined that your art, (or your book, or your lectures, etc), were a threat to their power, they would issue death threats and then assassinate you. When I was eleven my father’s colleague was killed in this way. He was killed because his work felt like a threat to those who killed him.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Undoubtedly, artistic expression (as with every other means of human expression), can feel threatening to some, depending on how they interpret what is being expressed. If one experiences a work of art as directly challenging or threatening one’s lifestyle, or beliefs, or positions of power, they may simultaneously experience that work of art as a direct threat upon their very self. The most primitive response then is to eliminate the threat by destroying it at its source. It is an impulsive, fear-based, defense mechanism. Needless to say, it is also violently barbaric. Unfortunately, history is full of individuals who were killed for voicing their opinions. Artists were certainly not immune to this. In fact, artists are still being killed in contemporary society for expressing themselves through their creations.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMV6BGmrd00wX86dVA2N0QuPd4tMtkHmKJGaCKtoRbSbSj_aPW8sGqjn9VXSrfE4rlilScpcFQ9fzhSi55tUJCes9VTzOdpafc6AO5sxlRm95vFvkPnJ3jFJveXcgLYC6oI2X-hHMJfTFP/s400/Clown5.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484608729606694194" /><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Personally, I have never received death threats for making art. And, thus far, I have not had anyone tell me that they found my art offensive or threatening. Even when engaging erotic and religious themes in my photography (which are the ones which spark the most violent reactions in others), I have yet to encounter an individual who openly objects to my creations. I am most thankful for this as my art is my voice, and silencing it is just not an option.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Perhaps, it is easy for me to say that silencing my artistic voice is not an option when my life is not being threatened. Recently others have congratulated me for finding the courage to express my personal pain in my art, and I deeply appreciate their recognition of how vulnerable an artist makes her or himself when doing so. While this does indeed require bravery on the part of the artist, I cannot imagine how brave an artist must be to continue expressing their views through art, even when doing so could endanger their very life. Ultimately, how important is what we communicate through our art to us? Are we willing to risk our lives for it? Perhaps something to ponder as I create my next photograph.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 354px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhII_yBDY3vv2AYNmbrKRdo5PZZCjtzDwM4hlfq7XKhNocD4gZDcAF-qORLqFxpASYua5JwrahaDnmDiiZ9bGQBkTD26ZXhwVjajmCABLUpuMjeB_v7i5wxZHepXzZd49hTKvaEkv-pj1Ku/s400/Clown.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484608252672584130" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="font: 14.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I thank </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(255, 0, 0); line-height: 15px; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.jaredknight.com/">Jared Knight.</a></span><span style="font: 14.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">,</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font: 14.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> a wonderful abstract painter and passionate supporter of the arts, who inspired me to write this blog by reminding me of the senseless death of artist Theo Van Gogh (</span></span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">great grandnephew of the famed Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh), who was brutally killed in 2004 for his film “Submission”, his final and most controversial artistic expression, a collaboration with Ayaan Hirsi Ali.</span></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p></span>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-76622153950867652102010-06-17T11:53:00.000-07:002011-03-14T21:56:37.622-07:00Expressing Pain in Art<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHziesZHFk-GIfArXqoR-p16Wi8_s7fjfFYml9UQlYVAqGOgQqwkDUVHLqnTOd_XBtmf4zRnW5p91eFiGVr4G3SHxTLuarzd3WhDo0OBWy66JUMofk5AhT0iXlrUaTClpQdwUPnfMpi4x/s1600/Silent+Scream"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 163px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHziesZHFk-GIfArXqoR-p16Wi8_s7fjfFYml9UQlYVAqGOgQqwkDUVHLqnTOd_XBtmf4zRnW5p91eFiGVr4G3SHxTLuarzd3WhDo0OBWy66JUMofk5AhT0iXlrUaTClpQdwUPnfMpi4x/s200/Silent+Scream" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483823022448282370" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, serif; ">The human experience, by definition, includes pain. Not a single one of us is immune to it. For this reason, I have deep respect for pain: it seems to be an inescapable part of what shapes us. Pain is part of life. And everything that is part of life, is also an inevitable part of art.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">One of the most powerful lures art had over me as a child was it’s brutal honesty! It did not try to conceal or deny pain and suffering. Instead, within photographs and paintings, musical compositions and dances, film and theatre; within the many forms of art through which human being express themselves, I perceived a raw exhibition of pain. And I loved this rebellious freedom to express pain through art! It seemed terribly constructive to me; certainly much healthier than keeping all the pain inside.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">There are so many different varieties of pain! What would each one look like as a work of art? For each person pain would look differently, for how each of us experiences and expresses pain is as unique as our own original, artistic creations. To me, each such creation, even when birthed out of pain, is an extremely valuable one. Such art isn’t always visually pretty, but it is real, and I deeply appreciate it’s straightforwardness.</span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I have had my own share of pain in my life, like every person. Interestingly, emotional pain seems to stir my creative juices unlike any thing else. I might even say that I have been the most artistically productive in my life when I’ve been hurting the most. Pain seems to act like a war cry within me, challenging me to rise to the occasion and make something beautiful out of it. Not necessarily aesthetically beautiful, but beautiful in the sense that in expressing my pain artistically, I seem to engage that pain as a vehicle that eventually transports me beyond it. Pain turned into art then becomes a transformative tool that reconnects me with my own inner peace.</span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">When I pour my pain into my art I am instantly comforted and calmed. Ironically, art that perceivably expresses deep hurt doesn’t have the same effect on the audience experiencing that art. Quite to the contrary! The observer may become uncomfortable. Most of the art I produced as an adolescent had this unpleasant effect on others, for my artwork was an honest reflection of my pain. Nevertheless, I chose to continue to express my pain in this way, as art seemed to help me process and understand my pain.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 362px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2520U6XPiCvXHN6DIh15_dFWixXihZPsrzoPyt_PABN6VMlsAvRQsucdEtcocmneek2Dz-L_fWtRrYnRD56Ete5frkkmhY5dAB3yrc909m-vZM29gTqaRNPPo7bvmtKXJYN5S7zFte047/s400/Hurt.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483822514547105602" /><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Through releasing my hurts into artwork, I explored taboo emotions the way astronomers explore the stars, and found the journey a very valuable part of my own self development. I also found that my own artistic displays of pain also proved valuable to others, as it seemed to help them connect with pains of their own, which they had been repressing. Giving voices to our pain is not easy, even when done through a painting or a photograph. Expressing pain through art requires that one become vulnerable and open. It also engages trust and courage.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br />Today, I honor periods of pain in my life the same way I treated them when I was younger: I give them a voice in my art, in my photographs. Why should I silence my pain and pretend it does not exist? Instead, I echo William Faulkner’s sentiments when he writes: “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.” At least when we hurt we know we are alive! Or as the poet Lord Byron says: “The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.” Since pain is indeed such an unmistakably unavoidable sensation in life, why not extract value from it? As I experience it, pain holds a beautiful value when married to artistic expression. In fact, pain has been the fuel throughout history for many of the world’s greatest works of art! May we turn our pain into artwork, and have them shape us, and others, in ways we never imagined possible. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 312px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KZacc3LbE9qRB_DmyHYozWyIma1B4f_XpR7kqXydGoGqy63tN7_c2BV3E9plApQIAxu_7o3BZePKRYMV4HP4fPv1Y3RRVdeb9JVxnzP_2dQiJdBd-7aETxHer5EOhiAgCD0V4qPJVIgq/s400/Winter.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483821289788926914" /><br /> May we each communicate our own hurts in constructive, inspiring ways.</span></span><br /><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-12751649643083621962010-06-13T14:10:00.000-07:002010-06-13T14:46:20.035-07:00Can I call myself an artist?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuR_eGBgxGTL2q5pT2BVk3mKUCGmoznkSAn1Hz1RnNlAhSZ-ORN-ySNznUdKZnsZ_l5Jj6soydV6iDtI7O2DpB83u6LmVZ6C11Dh8094bj0SOzN5OjMbCIkNT6WQslanBdC2roaLo1IUqz/s1600/My+Life%27s+Canvass+.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 158px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuR_eGBgxGTL2q5pT2BVk3mKUCGmoznkSAn1Hz1RnNlAhSZ-ORN-ySNznUdKZnsZ_l5Jj6soydV6iDtI7O2DpB83u6LmVZ6C11Dh8094bj0SOzN5OjMbCIkNT6WQslanBdC2roaLo1IUqz/s200/My+Life%27s+Canvass+.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482371291628007298" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I am by no means a professional photographer, or artist. I have never been commissioned to create anything artistic for anyone. I have never had my work exhibited or published. I have never sold any art for profit, despite having a few of my photographs up for sale on the Internet. I have never received formal training in photography, or art, except a few painting classes I took in high school. I am an unknown, and yet, I define myself as an artist. Why?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></div> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> I identify myself as an artist because it has been the one most consistent way in which I have related to myself most throughout my life. It was the one identity I felt I could depend on. Before thinking of myself as a sister, or a daughter, or a female, or a student, or as belonging to a particular nation, or ethnic pool, or economic group, or religion, or occupation; before any of these I have always considered myself an artist, first and foremost. It seemed to be synonymous with my nature. </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">What does it mean to be an artist? For me, it begins and ends with an insistent, utterly unquenchable, nearly compulsive desire to create. Creativity wakes me in the middle of the night and won’t let me rest until I give it my undivided attention. It can make me restless during the day and pull me from my schedule. The urge to create art, as I experience it, is a rebellious one that knows no timelines, or pays any mind to anything else going on around the artist. It seizes the artist with a passion and carries her away to where she can make more art. I equate being an artist with the sheer irresistibility of this force. It is a force which I feel originates within me, yet is simultaneously part of a greater field of being which is beyond me. Perhaps I have always most consistently identified myself as an artist because, in creating art, I feel myself connecting with something beyond temporary designations of self: with a part of my existence that is eternal. At least this is how I experience it.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 344px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIhxwDqb3S-DtLacvYnLZqzB49hV1ok8fo54Q-HBvAoGXuAX42Wffjn2KAiNGQFqwLyQ6iPzWaLM78tGtQXETE6oGfzIbawtUWsnN2RBZZtiT8DzcKrQZ0KTG3fsuXqyg1A5V2E5G4u7t/s400/Encounter.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482370409003243906" /> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Just before a work of art emerges from me I feel myself absorbed in a heightened state of sensitivity. Not just sensually, but emotionally. It visually conjures up the image of a dam gate within myself that has been opened, suddenly flooding my imagination with raging rivers of visions, and ideas, colors and shapes; but above all else feelings. My work is always emotionally charged. These emotions are fluid as they move me in my creations, never ceasing to surprise me with the final form they eventually translate themselves into as my art. I become a love-slave to the feelings that move me to create art, as each creation is an inevitable outpour of my heart.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Within the chambers of the artist’s heart (as known to me), is the limitless universe we draw from. Sometimes, in the drawing-out process, I enter into a rhythm that overcomes me at the expense of all else! Forsaking sleep and food, an artist who is caught in the flow of an emerging creation, will know nothing else but the creation before her, or him. The meditation is so absolute, some may relate it to a spiritual experience of sorts. I would like to say that there is even a certain sacredness to the creative process an artist becomes absorbed in when creating. </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Art is sacred in the sense that it speaks to the soul, and crosses barriers of time and culture. Art is it’s own language. It is it’s own power. And I believe that art is something, without which, the world would not be as desirable a place to be in as it is today, for art nourishes our spirits. In this sense, perhaps artists, function as reminders of the divine, within us, and all around us. Defined in that manner; don’t we then all have the potential to be artists? I imagine it’s just a matter of what kind of art each of us makes. Thus, through this blog and my art, I hope to inspire others to find the artist within themselves and encourage us all to make more art!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 355px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQGiO04vMx7SUuvZbe7O_MBUR1jurU_A1rH9WGjOmgf_Nyed1MceUaGPaf-B-wJzyopK3uLrt249D6RVWde6iQ2cVZPXJeS4inY8RLO19oulXu0RRchW5hYvbF5XecGw_YKV1C0AP1pAw/s400/Diary.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482369683659462994" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-75743035760419310102010-06-08T08:50:00.000-07:002010-06-08T16:59:49.403-07:00The Unfolding of an Image<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LHJIQdcjyuhAAINwKRXRZQn0w_cKRyiBTrBOczCV1PUwWgdt7J773Or2SeEeK-OPLsGtjI12rwtCJhQcOKA_dKV5S_ruzj-t957Eke0ukPIJ8toebM_hifdntM0lKxhTgHS7IXHfJT1r/s1600/butterfly+2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LHJIQdcjyuhAAINwKRXRZQn0w_cKRyiBTrBOczCV1PUwWgdt7J773Or2SeEeK-OPLsGtjI12rwtCJhQcOKA_dKV5S_ruzj-t957Eke0ukPIJ8toebM_hifdntM0lKxhTgHS7IXHfJT1r/s200/butterfly+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480443114910981874" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">In this blog I attempt to offer a little glimpse into the technical process involved in creating my photographs. It is a process that continues to develop gradually and organically, and primarily independently of any formal tutoring from anyone. The subject for this blog is inspired by Jearvi, a very talented female photographer with unlimited creativity and a wild imagination, and it dedicates itself to supporting the larger virtual community of photographers I have had the pleasure of meeting online, of which Jearvi is a part.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> Perhaps I’ll begin by stating that I have never received any formal training in photography. I am self-taught, mainly through trial and error. I jumped into photography about two years ago, after my closest friend gave me a camera for my birthday. I had always wanted a good camera and was thrilled! I read through the manual and instantly put it to work, experimenting with the camera settings and familiarizing myself with it’s capacities. I reserved hours every week in which to give my undivided attention to my photography.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I seemed to be instantly moved to use my camera as an instrument for my voice. This naturally led to my creating self-portraits. The discovery of the ten second timer on my camera was enough to get me hooked! At first I lacked a tri-pod, so I used stools, counters, and chairs as stands for my camera. When shooting outdoors I usually carried a wooden stool with me, or balanced my camera on fences, or tree limbs! Finally I acquired a tri-pod.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I use a MacBook Pro computer, so when my photographs were uploaded from my camera they went directly into my computer’s photo software: i-photo. There I discovered I could adjust the colors on my images, and play with crops. About a year later, I became excited about what I was creating and wished to share it. I decided I would open a flickr account, though I was not very familiar with what exactly that was! The feedback I received from other flickr memebers proved to be most valuable, as I had unwittingly tapped into a whole network of professional and amateur photographers, eager to support one another. I began to feel as if I were a part of a photography-club of sorts, in which the members all offered one another encouragement, constructive criticism, lessons, challenges and, on rare occasions, even friendship.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Through my exposure to the other photographers on flickr I learned about photoshop and had it installed on my Mac. The potential of what could be created in this “digital darkroom” excited me tremendously! I taught myself to use other artists textures and then began experimenting with creating my own. Paintbrushes and textures opened up a whole new wold to me, as did the techniques required to create a composite image. </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">On Jearvi’s request, the following is a tutorial on how I create such images. I have chosen my latest image titled “In the Clover”. (There may be more effective, efficient means in which to do achieve this, but this is what I arrived at through my own uneducated efforts.)</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">First I began by taking this picture of clover growing on my front lawn. The sun was beginning to set behind them and I lay tummy down on the grass and used my zoom lens.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94VilWlA3xdxg49R1wZPhFP8JwqWImuUm4j8qBzWYEKQIdf3ZgwmKHTFC5u2DHKKOP4TLZlZvIrb8VrRxU6PN8tyqCyAXHMK6wvnpv-eHlkv58OqxYFqutqwAHDlR5IF6GxhYxhESbXER/s400/clover.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480442678890882306" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The next morning I took this picture of myself with my tri-pod and ten second timer. The sun was rising behind me.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 376px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGPV1Y5cFWs0dxr7jtIJRCk3kdYUrxMPFXggxIf0DHDm0HZQ1KThq1wp5AAlMIyZHvwBXaevGceYwxDZpGmFiHXnGFd95K_mpOTffZJH5pNOnpuCevZ-hYc6JSQE3W1ZOqmJxU0MmF9Dk/s400/dress+2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480442271379068498" /><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">In Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended I opened the image of the clover as my first layer, or my “background image” and gave it a little color boost. Then I opened the image of my self, and using the “quick-selection” tool I drew an outline around my body. Then I refined the edge, and copied and pasted it onto the background image of the clover and adjusted it's size. I also had to cut and paste some extra clover flowers around and in front of the edge of my dress, to create the illusion that I was standing amidst the little flowers.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRZhpL4Xdf8jMsB5qvqcBJE-P0EvF0BWW9vPPLafJ1OR5kgMuaiVFJrlu8IPCibBGskiAYqLnhCJ3shEju0aWvJE9y8b6WjWuHgQZm5BSQGomO5d7kTaxaKPr_ng0YB2ImgrRNADJsYde1/s400/Dress.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480441830540257138" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> I then took three butterfly images and cut and pasted them into the picture in the same way, duplicating them as well, to make a total count of six butterflies. Lastly, I adjusted their size and moved them to the places I wanted them in.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GiUVmuZYAvf9v6DLJwCG-byInOR2wjuxoU9ZZEYnO115rFUisew4qxl9jGo8dynsyLK1F83J2BLDTv7_7LpTLHJep-TrvDb_860kya4CSs4QBd-xpGoSMRrne7lMimW9KiZXvoEjhxp2/s400/Original+3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480439044296021778" /><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Next, I gave my image an antiquated look by adjusting the color temperatures and tints, favoring yellow.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5eqOu439UjEQoxSUmMl3NETp44yZEAMrcIlfC70zPNJhLDDcPd4KfjNTTIEXhVl-UOYGfbObEr48yBmQJJicao_KC6BeufzsQf_dbCrNFN3nvu3FiEOdK86mA-q222OHum1FcebnUDRH/s400/Original+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480438148725026994" /> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Finally, I selected my photoshop brush tool and set the tip to 300% size with an opacity of 38%, color black and played around with darkening the shadows and giving the edges somewhat of a vignette look. I did this until I felt I had achieved the look I wanted. The finished creation consisted of a total of ten layers: </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7216d01lKpuTs8chagz46NqhqtPkGqbuU9hwCIR0pX2pX6BYtvtLR7vLJP56N2dsJPZ_bcpXBf-xZlrZFd-laBn0Hq-f62vUjU90mTnWHc4x3_RuUtpriAHRq1OWbegW_V94-42U9OdR6/s400/In+the+Clover.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480436162219489282" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I made this particular image on a day I was not feeling well and lay in bed a bit frustrated that I could not go outside. I had that passionate urge to create, so I plopped my computer on my lap and looked for photographs I had already shot the week before, hoping to somehow piece them together into some kind of art. The end result was the image you see above. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I am very new to this, so there may be easier ways in which to do this, but I share with you what I have taught myself thus far, in the hopes that it will inform your own creations in a helpful way. You can see the evolution of my art, if you wish by visiting my flickr photostream. Lastly, I thank Jearvi for suggesting this blog to me and I refer you all to her beautiful photostream for an endless flow of imaginative creations of this type, involving composite images, and lots of original and inspiring ideas! Click here: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jearvi/">Jearvi</a> and enjoy! </span></span></span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></div>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-40783419231630439582010-05-31T10:11:00.000-07:002010-05-31T11:10:33.645-07:00Haunting Murals<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfFMW3QleeFsf3VDfMDcqwxcqa7spRTeEtbI1b8zLbyXOVT5Lta7K_bfyL7n4zTxG86ULSv0c2P6l2qJgmnUIuDNzzZDVSw-GPkIje7wrg-i-M5g7jVmSHpp9K9mHPksndWzyebu2kUaYq/s1600/Diego.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfFMW3QleeFsf3VDfMDcqwxcqa7spRTeEtbI1b8zLbyXOVT5Lta7K_bfyL7n4zTxG86ULSv0c2P6l2qJgmnUIuDNzzZDVSw-GPkIje7wrg-i-M5g7jVmSHpp9K9mHPksndWzyebu2kUaYq/s200/Diego.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477486855837541778" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The works of art that screamed the loudest to me throughout my childhood, were the intricate and enormous murals of Diego Rivera. These colorful historical accounts impressively towered over my childhood self like mountain-faces, as they graced the famous walls of museums and buildings all around the city I grew up in. Even on my daily drive to elementary school, I passed by one of his impressive mosaic creations.</span></span></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TDA6-5qFRWKZm5SLa5KLHInHqat4xK2h_-TSs3fMNykGEFZowOSKrmr4q8p4bHioVXTAgWs63CCA_iuChICSx1nUOs_QoqIf_q0OL5K4ujzccKm7h5ApC_3q97c4ZNBjuWc7piCej_v0/s400/insurgentes+mosaic.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477486617085530178" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">When we first arrived in Mexico, my family lived in the same neighborhood Diego Rivera and his wife, Frida Khalo once lived in. One of my earliest childhood memories is looking out my bedroom window in Coyoacan onto a sky of fireworks that lit up the plaza next to which Frida had her tragic accident. After her bus accident, the constant suffering Frida endured became a way of life which she expressed through her self portraits. This honest unveiling of pain and injustice fascinated me as a child, and Frida and Diego’s art dripped with it!</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">How much does the art an artist is exposed to as a child influence their own artistic creations? Today I awoke contemplating this question, particularly as I reminisce on the paintings and collages I produced as an adolescent, which reflected some of the same tragic themes as those engaged by Diego and Frida. My photography today is quite tame in comparison! Perhaps this is because I still feel like a novice who is experimenting with this new medium. The acquisition of my camera, also arrived at a new phase in my life which included a different environment; far from the political corruption which fueled much of Rivera’s work, and saturated the beautiful city we once called our home.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLs9nZxSnr1WUIV3VPojDEptfliVtjlcWhNo7sSEV7frDbmz6qLAiiQj1v1cq9bPSJ4w_3tUFcYwU94jHBVXQc7fxuv6OtfENaXV5gqcPFbzJT4ks-3abqRz8S7ziX3_ulMxBP3-9mM6k/s400/mosiac+up+close.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477486254579246786" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I was twelve years old when my family felt forced to leave Mexico City due to death threats my father received in response to efforts he was involved in to expose government corruption. After the sudden assassination of one of my father’s colleagues, my mother had had enough, and we fled the country. My childhood self thus associates a certain political upheaval with Mexico City. There seems to be something almost intrinsic to the valley itself that has has colored it’s history with a passion for politics beginning with the Aztecs. This passion was certainly shared by Diego and Frida.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">As artists are usually very sensually attuned to the world which surrounds them, I believe the environmental tapestries an artist lives in inevitably seep into their work: either by their total absence, or by their unmistakable presence. Both Diego and Frida certainly presented the ethos and history of Mexico City in their paintings! They also made faces prominent. In contrast, my photographs are faceless, and leave the observer with little -if any- hints to my upbringing in Mexico. For now, this seems to be what I am most moved to create. In the future, however, I have a dream that I return to the amazing city I grew up in, and capture myself in it with my camera. I see myself seeking out the very same murals I stood before as a little girl, hoping they will affect me the same way; injecting me with awe and inspiration. Yes, Diego’s work used to overwhelm me to the point that I utterly lost myself to everything and everyone else around me! My surroundings would disappear and all that would remain would be Diego’s mural and me.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqo9GGcVs0nu_B2PFBL9wftW_73rRTu4hva1QS0_gyvZGYCAQXWSocaC9GYyhivaCqAcG-tSaqJAmv8zfhBt9sVtcuq4bT7W0KSn2XymnZeS62DPozhVyKno2lpQ143H76WETlnQozSb5/s400/Diego+and+me.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477485545860933490" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">From this childhood experience I seem to define good art as that which creates an overwhelming effect in another person. Perhaps because when one emerges from losing oneself in a good work of art, one tends to feel more found then they were before; more connected to the core of their being. At least this is what I felt when I was a little girl after ingesting any of Diego Rivera’s murals. And that feeling never failed to impregnate me with an irresistible urge to create more art! What could be more satisfying to my artistic self, (I asked myself as a child), than to make another person feel what Diego’s art is making me feel now, through one of my own creations? Sometimes, I think this same question lives on as a subconscious influence of the past upon my photo sessions: The subtle residue of a child standing in excitement before the work of a master, secretly seeking to extend that excitement through art of her own. The journey before me is long indeed! But one I look forward to, camera in hand.</span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></div>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-6984501163672253842010-05-30T09:16:00.000-07:002010-05-30T12:45:22.821-07:00Faceless Self-Portraits?<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Most people’s idea of a self-portrait conjures up the image of a face. For the face is usually the most identifying visual characteristic of a person. When we experience a person’s physical presence we drink in their unique countenance; the eyes in particular. The eyes on a face are said to tell volumes about a person! They are often referred to as “the windows to the soul”, and are passages for intimacy. As an adolescent who expressed herself through paintings, I developed a habit of painting in the eyes in last. In doing so I felt as if I was finally infusing life and personality onto the canvass. A successful self portrait frequently gains it’s force from the presence captured in the eyes. So, how does one set out to effectively capture their own presence without ever showing their eyes?</span></span></div> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">In my personal communications with others I love face-to-face dialogue and lots of eye contact. It is therefore quite challenging for me to communicate through my self-portraits without ever facing the camera! I often end up deleting many of my photographs because in the urgency to express myself I look straight into my camera lens, and forget to look away before the ten second timer goes off. A fruitful photo shoot is usually one in which I’ve taken all communicative energy that naturally exists in my face and eyes, and moved it into my body. As most of our communication relies on kinesics anyway, I do not experience this as a sacrifice. Instead, I have found that in facilitating my desire to give my audience a powerful sense of my presence, without ever showing them my eyes, I inevitably stumble upon new means of visible expression. Expressing myself in this way, I offer others a visual experience of me.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 390px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7fd6j4vfIIFHdvnPf-5DE17Z5CUjl7BkjI8zkvSBha5kCzIpy8RKq7XrMpTvl9SndA8W8HUHG470-ygSQcUm8sfEqLv2AOryGuh06uq1nW2Q0Mw73ifI0uJpu3zzX1LMA5zTpJLifBQK/s400/Light.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477102737867506994" /><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">What does it mean, then, to offer someone a visual experience of oneself? Must it include one’s face and eyes? Although a handful of observers have asked that I include my face in my self-portraits, most appear to gain a satisfying sense of my person through the appreciation of the other ingredients in my art. I contemplate this as I create my faceless self-portraits, and concoct recipes that will allow me to do so without entering too quickly into the classic image of a face. That is something I’d like to gradually work my way towards. Reserving my eyes for a grand-finale self portrait of sorts, seems to make the photographic journey leading up to it as enjoyable as a pre-climactic ascent of sorts. Not just for me, but, hopefully, for my audience as well. </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I most delight in imagining that perhaps my photographs are like bridges connecting me to various audiences all over the world. Sometimes the connection can be very intimate, as when a person identifies with my work. I am told that the potential for this seems to increase as a result of my hiding my face and eyes. The vagueness of what I look like acts like an invitation for other women to see themselves, and their own emotions in my self-portraits. I find this merging of the artist with the observer very exciting and mysterious! How can one be certain they are regarding a particular person’s portrait unless it includes their face? Maybe my self-portraits are really portraits of something beyond myself, which includes everyone. Maybe in the undefined lines of my very exclusive, identifying characteristics, I open up my art to an inclusivity that embraces all women. I would like to think that I do: that in my faceless portraits I may actually be exhibiting the universal female face, at least to a tiny degree.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwpaM3-JHSp_r-T2ZTX5SkBpX6hgRx25tjCKkfT8OtycOqoa2IATTDgKreTaKp2ZfINpMq6Oom-bkfe69lZyQjy0LVLq6KJwdEIEcaMYqZaEu8g4NEDLOrDtusyWhfg4Ie8v-fbkJlaD_/s400/Doorway+to+my+soul.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477102386720616370" />Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-819812937022249552010-05-29T10:45:00.000-07:002010-05-29T16:04:34.223-07:00Emotional Landscapes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhuxJEdhiISjOsJivczY7WalF7NfccnzOLanmLD1GozT_TmvzI0mtxCkHdsh9t65Q7JKInKuAf0W3YEnETI8lJCTdYirawPQiGn3LM7Ec1Ui0_32UdvkMQF2FbITpm3HJNIE4jzR5QlgyK/s1600/Despair2.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 184px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhuxJEdhiISjOsJivczY7WalF7NfccnzOLanmLD1GozT_TmvzI0mtxCkHdsh9t65Q7JKInKuAf0W3YEnETI8lJCTdYirawPQiGn3LM7Ec1Ui0_32UdvkMQF2FbITpm3HJNIE4jzR5QlgyK/s200/Despair2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476783707252232082" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">From the time there were photographic portraits, there have been self portraits; that desire in humans to capture their own essence. And perhaps not only a desire to capture oneself, but an unmistakable desire to share one self as well!. In a sense, a self portrait is a desire, therefore, to be experienced by others.</span></span></div></div><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I create a self portrait I often ask myself this question: “Which part of me am I eager to have others experience today?” I’ve noticed that the parts of my being that feel the most unattended or unheard are often the ones that rise to the surface in my photographs. For example, if I am feeling sad one day, and unheard in my sadness, I may set out to create a rather melancholic, dark image of myself. I believe that in sharing that image, I invite others to validate the very sadness that drove me to create the image in the first place. In this context, I’ve found that it is almost an existential urge that drives me to create one self-portrait after another.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjopLWtqDA3Sj_9QeXqx-82FLglWDw9pH7HQ3RSe5HEyJ3Fu9MEXaANtgjRMuh3bCB99Z4b5dyH4wmRPnSgwR1Ro3IZnBDh-VN5TK_64qXEHnrG1zop-YuODJXKN8Qa0g3CVuTarUaeG1QH/s320/Unsheltered.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476783409197765698" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span><span></span></span><span><span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In exploring with sharing my self-portraits, I’ve uncovered a rather dynamic and even seductive dialogue that exists between the artist and her audience. I can’t think of anything more exciting, for example, than sharing feelings of mine through the creation of a photographic image, and having my images elicit equally strong emotional responses in others. Admittedly, I find something nearly addictive in this!</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Especially satisfying to me is when I portray challenges or struggles I am feeling in my life through a self-portrait, and then, that portrait is amazingly appreciated by others. It is almost as if I am being told that my life’s struggles are worthy ones; and even beautiful ones at times!</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This reminds me of Hippolyte Bayard’s famous self portrait entitled “Drowned Man”:</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmHhHVBL_YmEXoZbyb1q6lkXJeWrTLUvknLTtkEwTvXxVqCYVdVsIeJNWt9V-uBp9Ypz5cS_6U61LrFgBd-BsCI4yIyM_gN77FWOB4I_M7cjTSs05cWnmvw_waCG4l7ekRlaHLakk-idU/s320/bayard.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476783005278935634" /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Taken in 1840, it is the first known self-portrait ever created, and interestingly narrates the tragic story of the utter desolation and discouragement he was experiencing at the time, as it depicts him dead. In it Bayard successfully paints an emotional landscape of himself rather than showing the external spaces and settings he lived in. Bayard manages to take what he was feeling on the inside and communicate it on the surface of his famous photograph. Although his self-portrait is one of feigned suicide, the public instantly found it beautiful! Perhaps in appreciation for the vulnerability an artist offers when they give themselves fully to a self-portrait.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I can certainly relate to Bayard’s need to express the inner world of feelings and emotions through images, no matter how disturbing those feelings may be. To me, being able to reveal what is normally invisible, through the creation of a photograph, can feel quite empowering! I aim to continue to reach deep inside myself and translate my feelings into images; hopefully adding to the history of self portraits that communicate the essence of our human experience, no matter how difficult it may be at times.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGGSM6SLbN8SoUK2Z0FM5M10LOJF37X3y9OnaamGvGd-qYu_y2bQj7lKU2GJOImq9SODnMZ_T46ac47gLOYa04iBEdIu_MPpV2mEKsL5oFiXc6EBLTX0jxCzCFFRnYPqa0z8cBgGKuwD3b/s320/To+be+at+Peace.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476780717149136690" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-63496853379676507622010-05-23T11:16:00.000-07:002010-05-23T12:39:30.694-07:00My Aunt Lori's Influence<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgufPq1-utZq9_efLxN2WzBKVIRXDNpKxlAKXCg23I3WHcdYOqCiuYokCT5_9x62nk8eFsA17sIuh7Bhe8ziWaQVHfRaMrD44Bf-QA1DnSx4tGftcj2NM1-aNjvf6aI8wXjPHqqph9mOg/s1600/Nana.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgufPq1-utZq9_efLxN2WzBKVIRXDNpKxlAKXCg23I3WHcdYOqCiuYokCT5_9x62nk8eFsA17sIuh7Bhe8ziWaQVHfRaMrD44Bf-QA1DnSx4tGftcj2NM1-aNjvf6aI8wXjPHqqph9mOg/s320/Nana.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474533421446381026" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If I were to trace out how my interest in photography begun, it would all stem back to the summer I turned eight, and my Aunt Lori introduced me to her dark room. She had set up a corner of my grandparent’s dark basement to function as her developing lab by stringing curtains around it and installing a red light. I was just tall enough to watch the black and white images gradually appear on the photography paper as she swished them around under the clear chemical fluids with plastic tongs. Then I’d watch her hang them up to dry, like my mother did clothes on a clothesline. To my childhood mind, the process of turning negatives into prints was pure magic! And I wished to be the same kind of magician.</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I especially recall the day we developed the series of black and white portraits my aunt created of my great-grandmother. Aunt Lori had my old Nana sit in her rocking chair by the open window and photographed her wrinkly face in the natural light, as she impressed upon me the value of engaging natural light in portraiture. In my own explorations in self-portraiture I have also come to favor natural light, and often set up my tripod by the most ample windows, drawing from that memorable day. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One bright morning that same summer I stepped out onto the back porch to find my aunt draping sheets up to serve as a back drop. She had strategically hung them to reflect the most sunlight, and left them deliberately wrinkly and creased to catch shadows. My Aunt Lori positioned her camera on her tripod and aimed it at the backdrop. Then she set the timer on her camera and rushed in front of it. Too excited to sit, I stood and watched her pose as the sun reflected off her curly brown hair and into her green eyes. Her dancer limbs moved gracefully as her eight year old niece was instantly enchanted. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone create an artistic portrait of themselves and it created quite an impression in me. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Three years later, on my eleventh birthday, my Aunt Lori gave me my first camera. I carried it around with me the entire summer and shot several rolls of film. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I chose to engage a camera again as an instrument of my personal expression. And I haven’t put it down since! </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My aunt was the survivor of a near fatal car accident in which she nearly lost her leg. Her whole life as a photography major in college was derailed and it took her months to walk again. Although no one died that day, I feel my aunts passion for photography did not survive the experience, as she eventually chose another career. Today, many years later, I delight in knowing that my Aunt Lori is resuscitating her passion for photography. What I would give to have her invite me up to her attic and look at her old, artistic photographs! The very same ones that fueled my desire to create some of my own. I have a dream that perhaps one day my Aunt Lori and I will exhibit our photographs together. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(Thank you to my photographer friend Jearvi for making the inquiry that led to my writing this blog. You may also ask me a question if you wish at: </span></span><a href="http://www.formspring.me/SilvaKatarina"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">www.formspring.me/SilvaKatarina</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, and I may write a blog to answer it!)</span></span></span></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-89416006715692034732010-05-11T08:38:00.000-07:002010-05-11T09:03:02.691-07:00Sunken Sea Treasures<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyfG0YXcrWf9ftQI6I5OUcc2jCiZTi_qzmd3CxZmOM7143Y9QMrwHvSBq7WpHaFsBHkiC_5-R8IVNgQbeZUnIEjTj_03FINdMNTghMhNzxCRViELHHWEjBZh2uwrfclA6vy0Ux0rkwuZYh/s1600/Wet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyfG0YXcrWf9ftQI6I5OUcc2jCiZTi_qzmd3CxZmOM7143Y9QMrwHvSBq7WpHaFsBHkiC_5-R8IVNgQbeZUnIEjTj_03FINdMNTghMhNzxCRViELHHWEjBZh2uwrfclA6vy0Ux0rkwuZYh/s200/Wet.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470039535359449938" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana, serif;">Every time I set out to create a new photograph, I feel it’s as if I am embarking on a journey out into the sea’s uncharted waters, in search of a sunken treasure. Although I always take with me specific preconceived ideas and aims, most of what I encounter once I enter into a photo shoot remains oddly unpredictable. Variables, such as sudden changes in the natural lighting conditions, (which I always prefer) or weather, can act like waves that inevitably cause me to redirect my vessel’s course, changing the whole predicted outcome of my photography session. For this reason I prefer to take pictures without any rigid expectations of how they’ll come out.</span></div></span></span></span></span></div><span><span></span></span><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The vessel which moves my photographic creations is my imagination. Fueled by my emotions, it begs to bring back evidence from the new territories I’m exploring within my self. Like the sailors of antiquity who brought back gifts for their queens, in executing a self-portrait I hope to bring back proof of my own preciousness. What I return with is nearly always such a surprise, I rarely make maps of where I found it. This secures that each time I set sail on a photographic journey, it feels like a maiden voyage to me, preserving a certain level of excitement and spontaneity I draw from when I create.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As a little girl, I spent hours watching my father artistically craft beautiful replicas of ancient maps. It was his hobby and he delighted in it. Much of his pleasure was derived from the fascinating narratives he uncovered while researching the details in each map. These were intricate tales of the legend and lure the sea held over many cultures, for extended periods of time. So, as I watched my father mark the nautical courses of legendary mariners in elegant calligr</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">aphy, I learned about Neptune and Yemanja, Atlantis and mermaids, sea serpents and giant squids, pirates, Medusa and sunken ships full of treasures. As a result I could think of nothing more exciting than exploring the mysterious seas!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 310px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUSlL7YcufInwfdUkxNxi159zdqUtMOQ6LDOyGFacXXVJQgSxJtpOfAdOYS4lF4ha2xOonPs18mQ4uDYMPyR30OWmaoK56CQ6RsteNv4oaHSs5PFxXRcsBqExoq-k04wCo7ACHK7AwdFq/s320/Voyage.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470039333022575298" /><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It is said that the depths of the human psyche are oceanic in proportion, and as unexplored as the sea’s canyons. I believe that every self-portraiture artist is a pioneer upon this terrain, and I like to think of the camera’s lens as an instrument of navigation, which might point us towards new discoveries about ourselves. Like the Jacques Cousteau documentaries I used to watch with my father when I was a child, beyond the right equipment in any expedition exists the proper attitude. As I understood it then, it was one of bravery. The importance of risk-taking was thus instilled in me. There was a need to cross frontiers no one had ever crossed before, and do so in spite of any initial fear or hesitation.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hundreds of years ago, when Europeans erroneously embraced the view of a flat Earth, sailors were cautioned not to sail too far from the shore lest they sail off the edge of the Earth itself! To this day I can clearly see the drawings in my mind my father adeptly sketched to illustrate the preposterousness of this idea to me: a flat surface sustained by four giant elephants, standing atop the back of a gargantuan turtle. He then drew water rushing off the edges with little boats falling into a bottomless precipice, followed by an enthusiastic speech on Galileo and his expansive views. I remember being struck by the way Galileo had drawn inspiration to prove that the Earth was indeed an orb in motion by his observations of the ebb and flow of the sea’s tides. My father always taught me that we have a lot to learn from the seas, and everything surrounding them. However, to explore a new idea, one often has to be willing to relinquish an outdated one. This is where the risk factors come into play.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzr-xVvkDXgoXBjWqVPG_p5Gs0pvLoq3mFVYZ94u0lY3i32g5nBz6T7Q0vhtNtmarSg1uSXQvpsmvqQwAn8J7o1hlEAj_1WCRRvoFJvBueOuXsJipptRYxRt2ChIwCLL73WorGYtPgWSig/s320/Calypso.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470038995921624658" /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I feel myself getting too comfortable with one style of photography, or too set in one approach, one technique, one method, I make a conscious effort to set sail for new, unexplored waters. If the journey feels a little bit threatening, I ask myself questions like these: What exactly is being threatened here? Am I scared of sailing off the edge of the world? Am I scared of getting into the submarine? Or encountering sea monsters along the way? When the process of expressing myself through a self portrait stirs up such nervous energy, I play with it (through poses, and camera settings, lighting and shadows, photoshop brushes and crops), until it turns into raw excitement. And until there is nowhere else I’d rather be than creating that photograph, no matter what perceived risks I associate with that experience. Who knows! I might yet return with some sunken treasures! </span></span></span></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-88880431900169600852010-05-08T04:45:00.000-07:002010-05-08T05:48:30.819-07:00Butterfly Freedom<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj942rHGErP6umj9i5VZ2ISza1f2L4wCYBmYWdyoRNxKMy4lGLawnIld3RyYPBqIdF-ZyL6yjNuJJnD0CZ6lvb6sYu5ruiAJvdghPGDShu-zCtTaK421rYvE3T-swdvNT6J35FWlHcSF2yV/s1600/Fallenangel.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj942rHGErP6umj9i5VZ2ISza1f2L4wCYBmYWdyoRNxKMy4lGLawnIld3RyYPBqIdF-ZyL6yjNuJJnD0CZ6lvb6sYu5ruiAJvdghPGDShu-zCtTaK421rYvE3T-swdvNT6J35FWlHcSF2yV/s200/Fallenangel.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468867197595699298" /><br /></a> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"></span></span></span></p><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Symbols and images are a very powerful means of communication because they can extend beyond the boundaries of particular languages and therefore reach broader audiences. When we create a photograph we speak in symbols and images. Shapes, shadows, flowers, postures, animals all say something. Although different people will interpret what they each see differently, there are always basic archetypes that extend beyond cultures or even time periods. I like expressing myself through such archetypes when telling the visual narratives of my life through the photographs I create. Today I will write about change and it’s symbol, the butterfly, which I portray myself as in one of my self-portraits.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">It appears to me that human beings are naturally disposed towards those actions that will allow them to arrive at their goals without much effort. We prefer the smooth roads to the bumpier ones. However, there will always be those goals in life that demand our laborious involvement. In fact, who hasn’t worked hard in order to achieve something they deem valuable in life?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I once read a study that listed freedom at the height of human values, as we all long to be free to design a life of our own choice. Liberty, therefore, appeared as a reasonable prerequisite for experiencing happiness, peace, love, etc. But freedom from what? </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I suppose there are many potential sources of oppression in life. There are those that are internally generated, such as destructive and limiting perspectives we create within our own minds. And then there are the many external forces we can all feel restricted by. Oftentimes to free oneself from limitations, change is in order. We change the way we do things in life to achieve different results. If we don’t like a certain aspect of our lives, or selves, we have to make a change somewhere: either externally or internally. </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">To me, life is about change. With each mastered change we reach a new level of experiencing life. Many people are resistant to change because it is often accompanied by discomfort of some sort or another. We tend to give little value to discomfort, but even designs of nature incorporate struggle and discomfort into making successful changes. The perfect symbol for this is a caterpillar, having transformed into a butterfly, trying to break out of it’s cocoon.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpn3TaPUdL50daR24lO1F10C8ciiirsXmJ6x9PdgEmNSKv0wt2rLxAfxscEwpvuK3tj_G9slmqJlF9htzmgP1sFg_dBUsV2FVZOSNmK7PV6H2a4qQZ8thDDQJ3VtEHf7ich8DyhyLvUSMG/s320/Butterfly+Dreams.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468866809064297778" /> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I recall the first time I understood that butterflies need that period of struggling -while breaking out of the cocoon- for their wings to be strong enough to fly. I was sixteen years old and had read it in a book. I marveled at how when scientists helped the butterfly remove the cocoon, their wings remained underdeveloped and useless, leaving them as easy prey to dangerous predators. But when the butterflies were allowed to go through the struggle to achieve their own freedom, they flew high and beautifully afterwords! It seemed to be nature’s way of informing us that uncomfortable,</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> laborious effort contained a certain value when executing a major change in life. That struggle, oddly enough, leaves us with extra assets we would not had otherwise.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> I have had to contemplate such subjects over the last few years as I have been orchestrating major transformations in redesigning my life. I call it my metamorphosis period, as it has somewhat mirrored the way caterpillars turn into butterflies. Perhaps the image feels a bit cliche to many of you, but I have experienced myself going through a series of phases, that, curiously, resemble the same ones necessary for such a change to occur: sensitivity to timing, a period of labor forming the cocoon, then stillness, withdrawal, a hibernation of sorts, growth, a shedding of the old form, then a breaking out involving discomfort, struggle and the building of new strength. Whew! </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">So here I am, still freeing myself from my cocoon, looking towards spreading my butterfly wings and soaring. My photography has functioned as a recording of my metamorphosis. It also depicts my reemergence into life. I illustrate this in this photograph by giving myself butterfly wings and surrounding myself with lush, fertile grounds. I am not there yet, but this is my vision of where I am headed. It is a powerful symbol I draw from when the fight to emerge from the cocoon leaves me exhausted. It is freedom, and it’s lure is most seductive! </span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana, serif;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcSkT4z3x1oDBHxSPvrYpTJ_g0vYGZypxYe2U5XFxFOerepB2sYCPMxSlFlp08N10EvYjddT9E4IQZrQxs3xPkCeEgFk2nwcQTGKoZwporFpGa3BiAIemGoqHtLQGu7rkHgCZZB_lbXE_/s320/Libertad.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468865915648556978" /></p></div>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5358940744638795232.post-75731376528869824942010-05-05T03:40:00.000-07:002010-05-05T04:02:17.816-07:00Natural Settings<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> Nature surrounds me. I live on twenty acres of pastures and trees. A small creek runs through the western side of my property and a little pond sits on the southern side. I am usually awakened by the sound of owls communicating to one another just outside my bedroom. My neighbor is a tree farmer, and adjacent to him rests a wild-life preserve, behind me is a horse stable. Most of my visitors are deer.</span></span></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XFr9hfZkbz_nt3GZ-QgTVFpwIbjw4YW6Almt_fzPKfxZtosVVDF-uANfSiTwzhuG7XnNj6OYeWoE4P9lm-2Ym0YTLBWn-np7W5thSYtevTGO82k45Y00K-JDrcj2yqf6tU1ZyQ7twTXF/s320/Deer.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467737412255296962" /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span><span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; "><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">After living in urban areas most of my life, residing in this rural setting was no accident. It was a deliberate plan that I worked towards for years, as I’ve always had a very intimate and dynamic relationship with natural beauty. Consequently, natural landscapes have greatly influenced my photographic art.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> I believe I owe much of my sensitivity to the natural environments around me to my maternal grandfather who was an avid naturalist. He would wake my sister and I up at dawn and take us on nature walks, pointing out flora and fauna to us, identifying bird calls, giving us tastes of eatable berries and leaves. And he taught us to do all this quietly so as not to scare away the woodland creatures, which we spotted and observed, from a respectful distance, quite often.</span></span><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 288px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEH-pbnQS5KuDylMVTuCQERm7qk9JUYMCcDW4hgEDz41Td_DvufdSbOs8ZJ0t7CniONb7OgzoVjwhzW0aLP7fZzqrVwLLzii0_0q2yA4O8UBrfUE8xv9gJTf21inkGUwYqPF8_sJ3Bh-YZ/s320/Playful+Earth.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467735602334413106" /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">My Grandpa also taught me about the tides of the sea, how to detect them from afar by the scents in the wind, how to walk on barnacle-covered rocks without getting cut, how to swim in the sea for hours without ever tiring of it. As a child, I spent three months out of every year at my grandparent’s home. My visits there were most nurturing. Since then I have always associated being in nature with feeling safe and loved. I feel most comfortable in nature and seek it out often. In the outdoor images I take I attempt to communicate this. Most of them are shot on my own private property. </span></span></span></p>Katarina Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10377043577446593790noreply@blogger.com0