things that inspire

I'm very excited to be included in the summer 2013 issue of Pimlico magazine!

you can read it here

Rainy Day Dogs

oil paint on canvas, 15"x30"

here

Vincent and Betty Jayne, Villa Fontana, Mexico - sometime in the 1950s.

oil paint on canvas, 11x14"

here

a touch of femininity

busting out

good good

Ladylike Production

Girl meets Boy

Girl and Boy have been travelling parallel paths in the same city for years, always hidden behind their cameras, intently focused on their own personal interests.   Girl tended toward human portraiture, the kind where people are not exactly captured at their best moments.  She was fearless in her approach with her extended lens and never cared much for posed shots.  More than once while photographing an arguing couple, the pair had ceased berating one another and turned their ire upon her instead.   Later she would always feel a bit smug about her role in their reconciliations.

Boy turned his camera’s eye towards inanimate objects, both manmade and natural.  He could see creatures in industrial pipes and metal fixtures. Often, there were faces comprised of knotholes in trees.  He caught what the ordinary passerby would never notice.   Though he was photographing things that couldn’t possibly be offended by his camera’s gaze, he was most respectful in his approach, bordering on timidity.

That night in their respective apartments, both Girl and Boy closely studied their photos from that day’s shoot.  In Girl’s photo of two children wrestling with their large happy-go-lucky golden retriever, she spots Boy in the background.  He is kneeling in the grass with this camera pointed straight down at the ground.  What he is photographing exactly, is obstructed by her own subjects which seem much less interesting to her now.    She looks through all her photos from that day and in nearly every one, there he is, always partially hidden behind trees, bushes, benches and in one, an ice cream stand.  If his head was visible, his face was either turned away or blocked by his camera.

Boy, looking through his day’s work, catches even smaller glimpses of  Girl.  He gets less of an idea of her than she does of him because his shots are generally finely focused close-ups.  Sometimes he does take a quick shot of things in the distance to remind himself to take more detailed ones when he gets closer.   These are the photos where he finds her.  In one frame, her sharp elbow, in another, just a small section of her face, camera blocking her eyes, mouth partly open in concentration.  Another, just a view of her long blonde hair.

Whether they will recognize one another when their paths cross again, is anyone’s guess but I think they will, and it will be a terrific match.  

Framed

Yesterday a friend generously gave me some cut mats and I've had fun doing some new collage work with them this morning.

Aloof

Hands Off!

In defense of the dandelion

In defense of the dandelion

(not that you ever needed defending)

dreaded

despised

chopped

mowed

poisoned

you persist

I always thrill at the first dandelions --bright yellow bursts in the newly greening lawn

announcing the arrival of summer

I try not to judge too harshly when I hear another exclaim “I hate dandelions” with such rancor as they lop off the poor dandelion’s head, leaving a milky neck-stem behind

I barely resist the temptation to proclaim “I hate begonias!” and rip the entire plant out by its roots.

Instead, I blow gently on each spent dandelion I encounter, dispersing the fluffy seeds---

ensuring that there will be even more next year.

Vivienne Strauss, 5.19.2013