a little bit crazyy.

Like this picture, my roommate is a little bit crazy.

She loves chocolate covered coffee beans.

She can't get outdoors enough.

She either talks REALLY loud or ... laughs REALLy loud.

She gives the strongest hugs.

She's pretty much... amazing.

I love this shot - taken during her self portraits the other day in class - of her just goin crazy like she does. She makes me smile and I am so glad I have her here in my life!!

<3

Hylaea.Culture.Paper.

A multi-media installation at Penrose, what an awesome and new experience for me. Going with our fsem, tasting the yummy hor'dourves (which really made a great impression on all of us before looking at the pieces...), and hearing Timothy Weaver himself talk about this project that has been in the works for over a year was really interesting. 

Yet, what struck me the most was his use of extensive media. His interest for biology and how it collides with art was apparent and striking. Weaver talked of his passion for these birds that have gone extinct or are close to it, how we've driven them to be that way, how unnatural it all is. He used projection onto a screen at the bottom of the staircase (not only a different media, but a totally new way of viewing art while looking down the stairs), compiled printed squares of birds' beaks, feathers, necks... He had a video with the sounds of the birds in it as well.

His work was beautiful and striking. I quickly took this photo with my camera while observing his art upstairs. Near the pieces on the wall was also a smaller sculpture of a bird - I believe it is a permanent piece in the library, but it complimented his installation wonderfully. Just the thought and mastermind that went behind the project was apparent and really managed to affect me. The stillness of the library contrasted the birds' calls and the fact that many of them are gone for good from existence, alive only within the pages we read. Art... yet on a completely different plane... 

Art alive and flying!

Through the Trees...

This picture is cool, but it is more about the limitations of photography. This moment was beautiful - on our PLP retreat, the full moon shining through the trees, the fire crackling behind us, a feeling of togetherness. But a photo can't capture those feelings. A photo can't capture the brightness of the moon, the brisk cold hugging our shoulders, the happiness in my heart :) 

I still like the image, the looming, comforting moon...

Composits.

This weekend has been absolutely crazy!! I loved these few shots of things I love - nature, sunshine, smiles, my roommate, dressing up, blue skies, fall.... Life may be absolutely insane, it may never seem to stop going three-hundred miles per hour, but somehow we manage to continue laughing, to still enjoy those moments when the surroundings take your breath away... LiFe is wonderful: as long as you have those you love around you, how could you go wrong?! 

<3

StreetCorner.

Going on my usual Thursday night date with my friend from back home, this poster really struck me. I don't know if it is because I've been thinking about advertising and what works and what doesn't, or whether it was just simply eye-catching. Regardless, I think the advertiser did something unique with the colors and layout of the poster that really made onlookers look again. I thought the shot was interesting - a phone shot - with the lights disappearing into the background somewhat continuing the concept of the poster.. 

Masquerade anyone?

MuFFiN!

I look forward to these things every morning. The best part about it is that they are NOT a daily breakfast item on the Nelson Dining Hall Menu. So, the chocolate chip muffins that have become my favorite food here at the University of Denver have also become little special surprises in the morning. Some days they are there, more often not. The one that I enjoyed this morning not only made my tummy smile, but was great eye candy, too! Look at all those sugar crystals in that one spot - I just thought it was so funn... a surprise within my surprise :) I just had to CLicK it. 

mmm... Enjoy! 

hmm.. some light in this world.

So after critiquing everyone's Top Ten shots from this quarter the other day, I really got to thinking about light. Roddy, of course, is right. No matter the content of your picture, no matter how fascinating your subject, it just won't be memorable if you have bad light. I see light and notice light everywhere. I notice it in friends' eyes, I notice it through dorm windows. It's beautiful. And here, I personally think I managed to capture a moment when the light hit this tree just right. The light creating that orange aura, that golden glow... well, it just enchanted me. 

kiSs.

While researching Ralph Gibson, I found this picture on "Ronda's Word" Blog (http://collinrl.wordpress.com/ - it isn't exactly clear who took the photo) and it struck me. It may seem like a cliche shot to some, but the idea of the rain, the old cars and the romance just moved me. The water is alive in this photo - splashing the idea of a new relationship with new emotions and desires into the onlooker's eyes. It just captured me, it "CLicKed" with me, so I thought I would share. 

The blog also goes on to talk about how the writer is in a transitional part of their life and I really related. College seems to be a huge transition (I'm just now figuring out how to sleep around here) and it's quite refreshing letting the rain fall onto my face with this photo amidst the craziness of life. 

RalphGiBson.

Ralph Gibson.

A photographer and artist... Though personally I'd say they are one and the same. While on our Destinations trip for Discoveries Week, our lovely freshman seminar class went to the Denver Art Museum and visited the photo exhibit Exposure: Photos from the Vault. Out of a number of photographs, Ralph Gibson's "Woman's Face with Shadow" really captured my attention. It was one of the first ones I saw, but it's image remained engrained in my head as I continued to look at the other pieces in the room. What was it that kept that photo on my mind? Was it her compelling and sultry eye? Is it the way the photo embraces her expression? Was it the shadow that perfectly divided that symmetrical face?

I would say it was all of those things, plus the emotion the piece displayed. There is a hidden longing within her whole being, within the whole photo. Gibson manages to express endless philosophical ideals in that one shot - that every human is equally capable to long for something or to enjoy it, for one to have a black side, or a white, for good and evil, ying and yang. Gibson illustrates how within each of us lies a deeper secret that even the best photographer, friend or even perhaps ourself cannot completely figure out. We may have glimpses of it, slivers of the truth, but as the photo implies, it is impossible to fully understand the whole piece, impossible to really realize who we are and what exactly we are capable of. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities - "A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human being is constituted to be a profound secret and mystery to every other." Even within the eye of the beholder, there are mysteries in our lives that will never fully be understood. As Dickens delicately uses words to convey this idea, Gibson starkly uses contrast and shadow to get this thought across.

After looking at some of Gibson's other pieces and reading more about him, I have come to understand that there is a transcending message and visual throughout his work. Many of his pieces cannot just by themselves be fully experienced. Many of his photographs are compiled in books, which he has an huge passion for, where the flow and order of his photography is of upmost importance. His messages are fully complete with them compiled side by side. Spacing and layout within his works help to further the visual gift he relays to the onlooker. For me, Gibson's pieces truly are presents that we are given to enjoy and ponder over - that life will always be mysterious, so embrace it.

"I'm convinced that many of Gibson's images will live on. There's a kinetic disposition about them that transcends the printed image." -Claire Skyes, the Radiance of Ralph Gibson.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

Wow. 

I really cannot think of words that can express what Henri Cartier-Bresson's pieces encompass. Every one of his photographs appear to have been created in his mind before hand, perfectly placed and choreographed, staged and then shot. But they are not. 

They are the spontaneous moments that most of us pass by, the quick seconds that are so delicate and short-lived that our memory loses them once they occur. His images are the in-betweens, the sparkles of light that disappear quicker than they appear, and that quick intake of a breath you hear once they pass? Well, he manages to capture the second before - that split moment in time that caused the stunning reaction. 

Cartier-Bresson has an eye - an eye that sees beyond the light, beyond the subject of an image, beyond the technicalities of photography. No, his eye sees the intangible magic spun within every day of our lives. Not only does he see it, he feels it and anticipates it. In this way, he grabs those moments with an agility unsurpassed. This photographer has intuition for art, for what fills our days with the moments that take our breath away. And he takes a picture of it. CLicK. 

Magic.