something easy, just for the fun of it...

Milkflower:

Marissa Flies

Marissa, wing

thea. sand, earth

sighs

"sighs"

New Glass Image

"Rock and a Hard Place"

the lovely natasha

new piccie

new construction

here's the front and here's the back!

becky & leek flower

new construction

"the dream whisperers"

(front)

"the dream whisperers"

(inside)

new construction

"While the Blue Night Dropped on the World: 16 Barbs to the Back"

and i'm standing there in a gabardine suit, wondering wtf? and wtf with the briefcase, LOL!! when i don't even carry a purse? but most particularly, why am i holding what appears to be a cocktail? i put my nose down to the rim of the glass and take a sniff, but all i can tell is that it isn't gin. i put the glass down on a coaster and approach the woman who appears to be hosting this cocktail party.

i don't know what to say to her. i have no clue who she is...she is simultaneously thin & voluptuous (how does she do that?) her hair is pulled back all slick-like, and she's wearing a peg-dress that looks like this:



+ red lipstick and nail polish standing out against very white skin
+ cigarette holder
+ attitude
= ok, you win...

she clearly recognizes me from across the room. "oh ellen!! how fabulous to see you here! but don't you know? this is a COSTUME party, dear...where is your costume?"

and suddenly it's night time, and i'm standing, barefoot, outside in the mud in a drop-waist tulle dress. i can hear the cicadas & a crazy-croaking symphony of frogs in the marsh. i am worried about my costume...i MUST make one. yes, costume is at the top of the "to-do" list. and i begin collecting saw palmetto leaves, which have fallen to the ground...i tear them into pointed fronds and weave them into the tulle...i plaster them into place with mud and moss. it feels good.

i walk in my dress out to the night, i place my hands into the stream flowing, always flowing, and sink them into the mud all the way up to my wrists. and i can feel the wriggling presence of all the little things...i feel fish and salt and the phosphorescent mysteries of deep ocean. i feel the sun on my back at midnight. i feel rocks under my galloping hooves and my mother's teeth in the scruff of my neck.

i pull my hands from the river mud, and let them rinse in the running stream-water. and so watered, my hair begins to grow like vines, and i realize that everything on me and in me and around me is earth.

BIGGER (8 x 10) CAMERA!! YAY!

When I was 15 I got my first job. K, it sucked. But I was tired of being on my parents' leash and I wanted to be able to get the things I wanted without having to worry about whether or not they'd give me money for them.

My first place of employment was at a Red Barn burger joint. And my task for the whole first month I worked there was to shovel salt-laden, greasy-ass french fries into paper envelopes. I said it sucked, what did you expect? :P

LOL:


I did actually manage to save some money, but minimum wage back then was under $2.00 an hour, and I worked A LOT to save that money.

One day I decided to go shopping for school clothes. My mother gave me some cash -what she thought was appropriate to buy clothes for school. I went into this one totally kewl boutique, and immediately spotted an ankle-length purple velvet coat that was hung on display, up by the ceiling. I got the sales person to bring it down and I tried it on. It fit me PERFECTLY, and I totally fell in love with that thing. but it was a lot of money. mind you, I had the money, but to get that coat would've cost me everything I had saved and my mom's money, too.

I left the store without the coat.

And I went home and thought and thought about the coat. When I slept I dreamt about the coat. After a couple days how much I wanted that coat had only grown...and so I decided to go on ahead and spend all my money on it.

I went into the store and the coat was no longer hanging in its place by the ceiling. So I asked the sales person where she'd put it. And she told me that she'd sold it within an hour after I left the store. :( :( :( I never forgot the feelings associated with this experience, and 40 years later, if I recognize the "purple coat feeling" I will buy an item -even if stretches me financially.

Yesterday Mark showed me an ad on Craigslist for an affordable 8x10 camera... here it is:




and??? I thought all day at work about that damn camera...I came home and thought about it some more, and when I went to sleep, I dreamt about that camera... and so guess what? IT IS NOW MINE!

It's not a perfect object -there's a small hole in the bellows and it's a bit wobbly. but I already figured out how to stabilize the wiggle, and can make that stabilizing device in less than a day. and I can patch the hole in the bellows. plus, I can use my Schneider Kreutznach lens on there, so it's all good. AND, he threw in a couple of film holders, so I don't have to order them extra from ebay.

all told, this is a great deal, and the sassiness of my pix doesn't rely on having perfect gear anyway.

I AM SO HAPPY WITH MY NEW TOY!!
WWHHHEEEEEEEEEEE!!

from my shoot with kaylin

another plate...