Land’s End

One of the images from the ” Emerald ” Exhibition upcoming at Irene’s.

Irene’s and Ireland

As a young boy my father told me the tale of Oisín in Tir na nÓg.   In the story Oisín meets Niamh of the Golden Hair who professes she loves him and takes him away to  Tir na nÓg, one of the Celtic otherworlds that was known as the land of the young..  After what seems to him to be three years Oisín decides to return to Ireland, but 300 years have passed there. Niamh gives him her white horse and warns him not to dismount, because if his feet touch the ground, those 300 years will catch up with him and he will become old and withered.  Later, while trying to help some men who were building a road his girth breaks and he falls to the ground, becoming an old man just as Niamh had forewarned.  This story was my first foray into the legends and mystery of the Emerald Isle. Ireland has always held a prominent place in my imagination to this day.

I have secured an exhibition at the iconic pub and restaurant Irene’s on Bank Street for the month of September.  The Exhibition is titled ” Emerald ” and is a collection of sculpted images gathered on my last trip to Ireland,the island my father is at his final rest.  These images are of the Emerald Isle in a way only I could see it.  I will post images as the date to the show opening nears.  There will be a ” Vernissage ” ( A fancy french word for Kitchen party!) held on the 4th of Sept from 7 pm till 9pm.  Come one ,come all and perhaps we could turn it into a Braeside Kitchen Party like the old days!  Below is the poster for the Exhibition.  Are you in?  Good!  See you there!

Irene’s

 

Mist, Mystry & Lamentation…

Well it’s been a while since I posted so forgive my tardiness.  Sometimes there is much to do and little to say. I have retired from Kellys Barbershop.  Many thanks to Kelly for the space!  I have changed out the images at the Kingsway Health Centre for different ones.  I have an Exhibition at the Adobe tower at 343 Preston on a summer theme.I had two images selected by Jury for the Shenkman Centre Trinity Gallery for the “Selections” exhibition in September to October.  Of 321 submissions, 106 artists they had to choose 60 images.  So to have two make it was good.  So “Silverfish ” and “The Wishing Tree” below will be hanging.

Silverfish

I’ve been contacted to do an Exhibition at the venerable Irene’s Pub on Bank street Ottawa.  More on that as it firms up.

 

I’m also submitting to the city to be paid to display work around the city for 2014.  I have had to rethink an artistic vision for they request a series of ten images within a theme.  It was challenging to go back and re-tool some of the images.  I decided on the theme “Mist Mystry and Lamentation.  Wilderness and longing within the Canadian Soul.”  I have tried to take images that evoke the relationship Canadians have with the wilderness and transformed them to an artistic rendition.  We will see how it goes ……..

Here are two renditions below

I’ll post all ten if it’s so desired.

The Power of Photograpy

No words can say as much as this photograph.

 

http://lightbox.time.com/2013/05/08/a-final-embrace-the-most-haunting-photograph-from-bangladesh/#1

Metamorphisis

I also hung a photo at the Goulbourn Recreational Centre for their exhibit Metamorphisis  called “Sea of Wheat”  I captured this on PEI one summer a few years back.  I saw this Cape Islander up in drydock in a farmers yard by a wheat field and passed it for a week every day until the sky was right.  I asked the farmer if I could shoot the boat and he was more than glad to let me.

Here is the image below.

The Cape Islander

A Gallery Exhibit

I have an exhibit at the Stittsville Public Library called ” Sugaring Down.”  It is a collection of images from a Canadian Sugar Bush!  Nothing more Iconic than Maple Syrup.  I will post the photos in the Exhibit here.  I also hung a photo in the Goulbourn Recreational Complex in Stittsville for their bimonthly themed gallery “Metamorphosis.”

The images for the Library are here below:

Early sunlight and smoke

The Eye Of The World

Making Maple Sugar in the Sun

Tonight the snow is falling and the wind is howling and the spring seems so far away!  But yet the maple syrup run is not far off.  Nothing to do but watch the snow drive at your window outside?  Come join us at the sugar bush in the sun!  The gang and I have made a few movies and have posted them to Youtube as the adventure begins!  If the weather is getting you down remember the syrup is just around the corner!

All music supplied by the Shanty boys.  Thats my old band!

 

Here is a photo I named eye of the world……

The Eye Of The World

The Coming Maple Season

The weather is holding nicely.  The snow is good.  There might be more snow yet!  The Sugaring down season is soon upon us!  I have been documenting the trials, travails, of making maple sugar for years but soon will add video.  For anyone interested in how to and other such thing I will soon post a link to some valley activities that we all have been a part of sometime before and soon to be again!  I enhanced this image to reflect the temple which can only be felt in a sugar bush…………….

Early sunlight and smoke

A Matter Of Light And Place

It’s amazing all the reading one can do about photography.  A myriad of books, magazines, web sites and opinions!  I have been buying just about everything I could get my hands on in the last few years and tilled in the garden of  knowledge.   I’ will try to render it down to the two most important facts summed up through a vast array of words.  It’s a matter of light and place.  I was putting a roof on a shed up at the lake in the morning and dragged my tripod and camera up on the shed as the sun slowly broke through the mist.  It was a small shed so it was work carefully so not to push me , my camera or my tools off the roof!  That resulted in this first image.

This next image was in the Valley of Fire outside of Las Vegas.  Instead of shooting dice I was shooting rocks in the high sun.  Had to make it work for me!

 

This last on was taken just past the village of Glasgow Station on the back road.  For those who love sunflowers! I went into a farmer’s field and captured the image on an afternoon.  As Ansel Adams once said, ” to take a good photograph it’s all a matter of where you stand.”  So get out and shoot.  If you are not there it slips away.  Now only if I took my own advice!

 

 

 

 

 

Words and Power

When I was a child we were asked to remember this poem in the Braeside separate school.

Indian Summer

Along the line of smoky hills
The crimson forest stands,
And all the day the blue-jay calls
Throughout the autumn lands.

Now by the brook the maple leans
With all his glory spread,
And all the sumachs on the hills
Have turned their green to red.

Now by great marshes wrapt in mist,
Or past some river’s mouth,
Throughout the long, still autumn day
Wild birds are flying south

Remember this poem?  It taught me that words can stay with you for a long time and unto themselves endure for centuries. This poem was written by William Wilfred Campbell in 1881 and has been passed around from one generation to another.  Certain words reach out through the years and become part of who you are.  I have taught this to my son and daughter and hope they pass it on.  I have tried to create a photo to do this poem justice.  Year after year trying to fit image to word.  I like this one.

 

 

Remember it?