Meet with my mentor on my birthday last week to review my projects. Natasha is a great lady. Her enthusiasm builds off mine. I left energized, gained perspective from some constructive questions and returned home eager to continue the momentum. It was an exciting session sharing my personal work of storytelling and my exploration into instillation through collaging issues of land use. This is a good term. I am doing what I love and pushing myself into new terrain. The portraits and interviews portray the living landscape and timelessness of the North Woods. This narrative of space has revealed new knowledge on this place I call home. The details of family tress, employment, means by which person landed here, why a person stays, how seasons define personal experience especially surviving the winter and on and on. Lives are lived. This is a space I am eager to explore and understand. The Humanity of this place transcends the smallness of numbers and isolation on the map. Folks come here because they love the wilderness. All the stories share strong characteristics of individual strength and passion for experiences connected to the landscape. These factors may be in common with rural American life in other places but the distance to city centers and the edge of wilderness makes Moosehead unique. It is a different and special place. At least for me it feels like no where else.
Horrid writing is my curse. I do not like writing; actually I hate writing. The word syntax is evil and throws me into a tailspin. I enjoy the readings, love the process of making art work and debating ideas in the process of seeing how it all relates to my work. Writing is like nails on a chalk board, irritating to the point of distress. I have never liked to write. Actually that is not true. As a child of fourth grade in Mrs. Carter's class I loved writing folktales on the animal characters and plants of my world. My writing was surely horrid than too but she encouraged me to keep me engaged. I have to embrace the process...It is a tedious process to write a paper others can access. I need to read everything aloud, I need an editor who can stomach my lack of syntax, and I need lots of paper for edits. Any volunteers?
A walk is not just mechanical motion but also a space for critical thinking and creativity. My practice values narrating the geometry of my relationships. My photographs, as well as everyday items, souvenirs and interactions serve as frames that engage my life’s “open spaces” and areas of interest, including land use, domestic identity and social policy.
Moon Rise
View of White Cap Mountain
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