Self and Bob, Ocean Beach, 2010

Self in Bed, 2010

To Be Free

I have been working a little less. To the point where I've had just enough relaxation time to start being a real person again. I have some photo's to scan soon. Tons of idea's in my head. And I'm almost finished editing a new video piece (for an entry deadline! here's hoping) In the meantime I've been kind of obsessing over Dame Nina, as I do from time to time. My friend showed me a video that led me eventually to this one. I am always in awe of people/artists who can so succinctly say verbally what they are saying artistically. (which I think is something I address in my work..and have on here as well) And so I am, in awe.

P.s. Also, dust spots? Tear? 16mm?

For We Can Not Tarry Here.

And Again.

Don't ever forget:

Participation mystique. A term derived from anthropology and the study of primitive psychology, denoting a mystical connection, or identity, between subject and object. (See also archaic, identification and projection.)

[Participation mystique] consists in the fact that the subject cannot clearly distinguish himself from the object but is bound to it by a direct relationship which amounts to partial identity. . . . Among civilized peoples it usually occurs between persons, seldom between a person and a thing. In the first case it is a transference relationship . . . . In the second case there is a similar influence on the part of the thing, or else an identification with a thing or the idea of a thing.[Definitions," CW 6, par. 781.]

[Identity] is a characteristic of the primitive mentality and the real foundation of participation mystique, which is nothing but a relic of the original non-differentiation of subject and object, and hence of the primordial unconscious state. It is also a characteristic of the mental state of early infancy, and, finally, of the unconscious of the civilized adult.[Ibid., par. 741.]

A Year Ago.

A year ago this weekish I came to San Francisco. Scratch that, a year ago today-ish I came back from San Francisco.

A month ago I moved to San Francisco.

It took a little less than a year.

Simply reflecting. Time to leave the house.
Post office, Art store, Four Barrel Coffee, New Friends Via Pittsburgh, Bruce LaBruce. Hope everyone else has had a year as forward moving.

Time Past

I scanned this line of Negs in late Dec.
I shot them possibly in the spring of that year, 2008, though I can't be sure. These seem to be a result of the Mapplethorpe class and a moment of temporary insanity. It's nice to know that when the logical portions of my brain aren't working, that the mechanical and photographic portion goes into overdrive. These are straight from the scanner, unedited in any way. The prints I've made of them look just as incredible to me. Sometimes I surprise myself.

Eat Your Sharon Lockhart Out. (Today at Work I)

The other day at work I:

Black, White, and Gay......

"Robert Mapplethorpe knew something. He is my dead person I want to have a coversation with. I don't think he would tell me this "thing" he knew. He would just listen to me, to decide if I knew anything about "it". Whether I did or did not, he wouldn't tell me that either." -excerpt from my photo journal, October 16, 2006.

These images were done as part of a short course dealing with socially taboo images, focusing on Robert Mapplethorpe and Joel Peter Witkin. It certainly is interesting throwing yourself, literally, into something like that. We all draw on our influences, but I have never so directly tried to mimic one before. Very fun.