The structure of the project is myself.

Saturday. Got out and shot more images.. wearing bug spray and sunscreen.
Thrilling to download the camera and see the results. My work can be seen on Arthood and Facebook, too. Not sure yet how to post images on this blog- or how to blog on my own website: www.andreafuhrmanfineart.com Comments / suggestions welcome. Thought about my absent parents, my distant friends, my life in art and the rehab of this building. I used to have difficult dreams about buildings that were undergoing renovation, with leaking plumbing, unfinished hallways, stud walls; chaos. I did not know that my life would be mired in building tasks, products, details, tools.
So when I am unable to cope with the structure that is imperfect, ugly, dreary, and seemingly endless, I reach for what I can do; which is to go out in the world and find images that can be captured, reworked into a kind of beauty. I feel that I am painting with the camera. So today I painted, and avoided mosquitoes- though there is a whole crop of crickets that have emerged from the holes in the sidewalk by the building. Have to look up how to handle that.

Read some of Elizabeth Gilbert's novel, Stern Men. How delicious to read about the ocean and islands, and lobsters; I can almost smell the salt air. I wish I could live near an ocean. Why not?
Tomorrow: getting blow in insulation and the blower. Ah reconstruction!

Today it's 96 degrees. At least there's air conditioning. A letter to write, photos to edit, exercise, and take more photos, weather permitting.

Browsed very briefly on the wiki leak site. Stunned and saddened by the war, by the losses people sustain here and there. What can I do? I'm an artist- can't nurse wounded people, I'm not a politician, though I do sign petitions, call my congressional reps, and attempt to do something however minimal.

Liked the film Pirate Radio. The music a joy: invigorating and fresh my favorites in one film; the sea and great music, and some chaotic anarchy.

Tuesday. Listening to Democracy Now about the BP oil spill and the dangerous dispersants in the water and air that will most likely shorten workers lives who work on clean up.
Reading My Guantanamo Diary c 2008, by Mahvish Ruksana Khan. Horrifying that so many people were kidnapped and sent to Gitmo because there was a phenomenal bounty (up to 5 million dollars!) for Taliban and al-Quaida members." Average people in America, and Afghanistan would have to work for 83 years to make that kind of money."

It's difficult to make art in the light of this sorrow in the world. Yet my teacher from grad school would say, "Make art, not war".
Why isn't this country working hard to free our dependence on foreign oil? Why aren't we pushing to use green bio diesel (see Hero BX) and save the planet?( See "Fuel"c 2010 a dvd that I just took out of the library).

Well, it is back to making a dvd that will loop my full images and display on an LCD TV screen. I've tried the 1080p as the height but it still didn't work so well. I will keep experimenting. Another hot day outside. The building repair at a halt for now. How can I have my work reviewed by museums? Is entering competitions the way? I resent / struggle paying the submission fees.

Back to the future

I'm back. After a few years! I've entered the Facebook fray, the Twitter talk and Arthood.
Stopped working with collage and began retracing my photography interests.

Showed work at Salina Art Center last fall; had a photo image used as design for an 11' x 36' Byzantine smalti glass mosaic mural for an aquatic water park (public art!). Still taking photos, and using super macro to create abstractions- using iphoto and photoshop.

The building has one small apartment that is improving. Sheetrocked ceiling with insulation, and HVAC and drainlines and plumbing and electric ready for wall sheetrock (after the window sills are installed- we had to pull out the old ones- they were rotted. We need to do the bathroom too: slate and marble and sadly the sink got chipped. I so look forward to living as a sane person.
Opening a gallery and having a place to live and have a studio. In these crazy economic times.

So I showed my work to a museum curator. I've been submitting to more opportunities both photo and public art. Walked in Kanza Flint Hills yesterday. Love taking the photos, and wondering how to put them out there as I am a shy introvert. Would love a way to take photos using a microscope- back to my childhood experience of looking through my father's microscope at his collection of specimen slides.