The Ranger Publishes Article about Expressive Class

The AC Ranger just published a great article about my Expressive class. I think Kendall Kuehler did a wonderful job of capturing the vibe in the class this semester. They are just an awesome group of students and I feel fortunate to be their teacher.

This quote describes the class: The music rocking and the students rolling in the lab creates a mood as they prep their tech books and get ready for critiquing. The students are alive as they let their work communicate to the viewers for them.

Thanks Kendall, you really managed to capture the essence of this class. Keep up the good work.

Recycle Arts Festival

I totally forgot to mention the Recyle Arts Festival at the Amarillo Museum of Art on my blog before the event. This is the piece that I had in the show. When I went to pick it up, Alex Gregory told me it sold! Yeah! It's always great news to hear a piece as sold, but I will miss the cuckoo bird harvested from an old clock that has sat around my studio for several years waiting to find a nest. I hope the next owner loves her as much as I did.

Image Credit: Rene' West, Time to Fly, cuckoo bird and mechanics, wood, cyanotype, paper, 2012

Giant Wetplates Attack Yosemite

SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter on Vimeo.

This is an awesome video about a guy who is making giant tintypes in Yosemite with a camera truck. I love it.

Customizing Inkjet Negatives

Step by step instructions on how to customize a digital inkjet negative, establish a color for the mask and a specific curve, for any alternative process. Warning: total geekland.

Patti Smith Interview

This is a wonderful interview with Patti Smith on CBS, Sunday Morning. She covers a lot of ground and it is worth spending an hour with her. As always, I feel inspired and want to go make something.

Edit: Transform

A short film about photography by Zack Arias.

Imagine

Today is the 9th anniversary of our unprovoked, pre-emptive invasion of Iraq - more than twice as long as WWII lasted - 4486 American soldiers have died, 1,455,590 Iraqi's. A moment of silent contemplation seems necessary, and simultaneously futile.

I opened my set at the Black Dog Tavern with this song the night the World Trade Center was hit (9-11-01).

I prayed for peace then, and now.

More statistics at Anti-War.com

Francesca Woodman

There is something about looking at pictures or movies created by someone who has committed suicide. Perhaps there is a searching for some clue as to how or why they took their own life. For this reason, I think Francesca Woodman became a cult figure in photography, but the images have managed to hold their own over the course of time. Recently, her work is getting a new buzz - Partly because of the documentary made about her family, The Woodmans, and also because of a traveling exhibition complete with monograph of her images. (Currently at the Guggenheim) The New York Times has a review and describes her as: From first to last, her photographs play out a high-low struggle between innocence and experience, the spiritual and the carnal and the angelic and the demonic.

Francesca made more than ten thousand negatives, which are maintained by her parents. Fewer than 150 of her images have been published or exhibited in public. (Sunday Salon) This is an astounding number of photographs considering she died at the mere age of 22. There is a beautiful surreal quality to her images that are oftentimes reminiscent of Man Ray. The images seem so sophisticated and yet, many were made for assignments while studying at RISD.

I would love to see this exhibition, and be more informed about her work. Hopefully it will come to a city nearby....

Photo Credit: Francesca Woodman, Polka Dot Dress, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976

Songwriters in the Round

This is my first official gig in Amarillo - naturally I'm excited. The radio station has played several tracks of This Town over the past week promoting the show. They are playing songs by some of the other songwriters too. I'm looking forward to tonight - it should be a good time. Here is the blurb from the HPPR site:

HPPR proudly presents our first Songwriter In The Round show on Friday, March 16! This show will be at Chamber Music Amarillo's Fibonacci Building, located at 3306 SW 6th Ave. We will be presenting this format 3 or 4 times a year, with High Plains Morning's Mike Fuller as the host. Joining Mike this month will be Yvonne Perea, Randy Palmer and Rene West. The doors will open at 7pm, and the show will start at 7:30. This intimate type of setting is a great way to hear songs and the stories about how they were written by the writers themselves, and we are excited to add these shows to our Living Room Concert lineup.

Rick Allsup speaks about homeless in Amarillo

I'm so excited to bring Rick Allsup to campus for a brown bag luncheon (bring your own). He will speak on Tuesday, March 6th, at noon in the CUB Oak Room about his project on display in the Southern Light Gallery. The exhibition entitled, Perceptions, is a series of closeup portraits of homeless people in Amarillo. Each photograph has an accompanying story of how they became homeless. Rick will speak about what led him to make these photographs, stories of the homeless people he has encountered, and expand on this compelling project.

This should be a fantastic talk ;-)