November 16, Monthly Visitors

A continuation of last month's menstrual blood paintings,  this is the November 2016 edition of "Monthly Visitors"

I'm finding that the amount of "paint" each month is it's own limitation.... I'm balancing this with life, which is to say I have a full time job and other things going on, so I have to work within those limitations. Perhaps I'll try to work on one single piece vs. smaller pieces to see what I can do within those parameters one month...Since you're only working with a single color of non-ideal formulated paint substance, this definitely requires layers and patience to build up colors, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

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Hcuot

Touch the plants! Touch them all!

All shot during Holga Week 2016 with 35mm film Holga.

Chi Sunrise, 11/16

Chicago Sunrise, shot with Instax Neo Classic 11/14/16

LA Decom 2016 - Instants

Due to a variety of factors we haven't had a decom(pression) event post Burning Man for a few years.... this year though, it happened! Joy of joys!! Of course I pulled my normal trick of missing the application deadline by a day (last year I got it in on time & was accepted, but the permits didn't come so the event was cancelled a couple days before :/ ), so I didn't show anything, but I did make it out there. One of the things I've grown to appreciate about decom is that I feel comfortable taking different cameras along... This time, among others, my Instax Neo Classic went out with me....

love this one! I forget the name of the woman that brought this, but it was a large hanging piece of fabric that was woven by people at various events! There were balls of various yarns and ribbon stuff that you could then use to add to the project! This is a double exposure of one of the women that was working on it!

I haven't figured out the name of this piece, but it was at Burning Man this year!!!!

Serving people at the Tea Party!

Sunset Bats at Carlsbad Caverns

I guess I'm in the mood to post sunsets right now! I scanned a bunch of random negatives a while ago from my stockpile of photos, including this one I shot at Carlsbad Caverns in 2003. It was the first time I took an actual vacation by myself (on my drive between Texas and California.) I had fallen in love with the bats at Carlsbad when I was very small and this was the first time I had gone back. I spent the day wandering through the caverns multiple times, hiking in the area around the caverns (and stepping into cactus....) and I managed to see the bats leaving the caverns multiple nights!

The intensity of this experience isn't something I can really fully convey. It was so overwhelming to watch the bats fly out over the open landscape and spiraling out and later dispersing. (bats are.. I don't know. They click with me. Their freedom of flight, their misunderstood nature, the ways they quietly make this world live and grow while simultaneously weirding people out when they don't take the time to actually listen....) I remember standing out over the landscape having this super intense moment and experience and trying to call my not-boyfriend at the moment, but future boyfriend and he didn't pick up. He was busy with another woman that thought he would marry her, I think. There's something significant in that moment of me trying to reach for him at such a time and him not being there and realizing I had to enjoy it alone, but I still  barreled ahead w/ that situation. We learn!

(When we went to Carlsbad in 2012, I learned that you're no longer allowed to take any photos at the bat existing each evening anymore. Supposedly the flashes on people's cameras and possibly the electronics mess with the bats. I think this is mostly the result of smartphones and people generally not knowing how to use their cameras. I want to see what I can do to get approval to shoot pics since I have a ridiculous number of cameras with nothing resembling an electronic component...)

Bats exiting in the evening at Carlsbad Caverns, August 2003

Burning Man 2016 - The Sunset before

A few photos I shot with my 35mm Holga on the walk out to see the Man Burn on Saturday night this past year at Burning Man 2016.

The clouds eventually brought rain and insane winds. I didn't bring enough clothing for the rapid change in weather, but I had the generosity of random burners that let me share their blanket as we waited for the sky to give us the OK for the evening's Burn.

El Pulpo Mechanico with the DaVinci Man in the background

Lord Snort, the boar