A bit of house cleaning news today. 
I've rearranged the site a bit. 

Also!.....

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Stephen and I spent a great deal of time in Stokes Croft, Bristol this time last year whilst Stephen was on tour/performing/teaching in the UK. Our flat was in Stokes Croft and lucky for us, HERE Gallery was right around the corner.... such a great little bookshop/art gallery/neighborhood spot.




above:  "painting of my camera"  by Aaron Sewards for Tom Cops new book "MIDWEST".


More to the point, a great friend of a friend, Tom Cops has a lovely show up at HERE this month featuring portrait and landscape photographs he took on his My Two Toms' 2010 American tour with Charlie Parr.




There are actually only a few more days to catch the show, but Tom's book from the show, MIDWEST is on sale if you're interested. It all looks so wonderful. Wish we could be there to see it! If you're in Bristol, I'd pop in if you can.

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I picked up My Two Toms most recent LP from the shop last year. Our pal Joff has a bit of artwork on this one. It's really great.

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The kind people at "It's Nice That" posted an interview with Tom over here.


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A favorite around here, picked up at Quimby's a few years ago.

illustrations by robert a.a. lowe and rose lazar from gyromancy

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gyromancy n. : fortune telling by walking in a circle until dizzy; the fortune is determined by where the person falls.

thoughts on brooklyn

This is my mommom in her new kitchen. She's a Jersey girl (as is my mother)... but before she lived in Jersey, she lived in Brooklyn.

My great-grandparents (my mommom's parents) owned a Candy Store in Brooklyn during the roaring twenties, and during what I imagine to be the prime of their lives. Thoughts of them weigh heavily when I wander these streets and I feel like I'm tapping into something I never knew before.

It is really nice being closer to family, here, too and by family I also refer to those wonderful friends who feel like family... and we have so many of those incredible people here.

I've had a fun first few weeks here. (makes me a bit dizzy just thinking about it all.) I've been in town for nearly two weeks and already have a few photo shoots under my belt. (I'll be telling you more about this in the weeks to come.) But for now I'll offer you a little outtake below of a cutie I met last week.



Jen

One of my last projects in chicago was memorializing Stephen and Tyler's studio space which we called Wally's... once a bar named Wally's Lounge in Chicago later transformed into a studio for Cupola Bobber for many years. Wally's was their home....

A truly special place.

Jen

I'm packing/sorting and settling any last minute loose ends before I'm off to England for a month. So I'm feeling a bit scatterbrained this weekend. Best to leave you with a bit of inspiration. I'll be thinking about these images quite a bit over these next few days.

The top photo is mine but click on the links below for a better view of these other lovely photographs.

1. Untitled, by Katherine Squier 2. Untitled, by Stefano Marchionini 3. Untitled, by Joshua Whitelaw 4. Untitled, by Will Govus 5. autumn blues, by Jördis Anderson 6. northern expedition, by Rebecca Genet 7. Untitled, by Christian Pitschl 8. roadtrip, by Johanna

Campari Siesta by lottie

Nina by rebecca genet

Early Quiet by Lucinda Dodds

Orange by Soup & Sunday

Below are a few quotes by William Eggleston via jmcloberg

“‘A picture is what it is,’ he says when I ask him why he no longer wishes to talk about individual photographs, ‘and I’ve never noticed that it helps to talk about them, or answer specific questions about them, much less volunteer information in words. It wouldn’t make any sense to explain them. Kind of diminishes them. People always want to know when something was taken, where it was taken, and, God knows, why it was taken. It gets really ridiculous. I mean, they’re right there, whatever they are.’”

“‘I only ever take one picture of one thing. Literally. Never two. So then that picture is taken and then the next one is waiting somewhere else.’ Let me get this straight, I say, astonished: each image he has produced is the result of one single shot? He nods. And what happens, I ask, if you don’t get the picture you want in that one shot? ‘Then I don’t get it,’ he answers simply. ‘I don’t really worry if it works out or not.’”

"So I bring forth out of myself always more, always something further, an endlessly brighter shining, as far as love, which is everything, enriches me in this way and leads me to that which I am instinctively drawn, that I want to tear apart inside me, so that I may create a new thing from this state of newness which, in spite of myself I have perceived."

-- E. Schiele

Just a quick stop in to show you a few images that make me happy lately. Please do click on the links below to view each image bigger and to also see who each image belongs to!

1. that time of year, 2. Bubble boom!, 3. The sky is so shallow., 4. yes it's summer

I will be returning to this space Friday to show you more film from our trip last week.

While I was away visiting with family this past week my niece's first dance class happened! and I was able to be there to see her shy smile and twinkling eyes as she bit her lower lip tapping her toes to the music, gazing into the mirror at the other young boys and girls trying to keep up. The whole 5 minute long routine just about melted my heart.

I began my own relationship with ballet when I was about 2 1/2ish years old (my niece's age, too.) I actually remember those classes well. We would run and jump over this large, dusty, red, velvet pillow and always ate teeny tiny colored marshmallows at the end of every class. I trained for about 3 days a week with my ballet instructor, Mrs. Atkinson for years. Mrs. Atkinson loved to partake in snacking and sucking on mints during class, and she always wore a pink velour sweatsuit and bright pink lipstick. I trained until I was about 18 years old and haven't gone to a class since, because I think I'd insist my instructor to play the same piano tunes, wear pink velour sweat suites and suck on mints -- it just wouldn't be the same!

Maybe M will love ballet as much as I had? She was so quiet in the car ride home, daydreaming about the experience she just had. An aunt can dream too..

Above is a snap of my niece dancing in her first dance class and below it, my very first pair of pointe shoes. {To my surprise, my mom had them stashed away in her hope chest for me.}

Spring is officially outside our window. Its a beautiful day to be outside. We are off to this fine place for a week, more sun!. Happy weekend to you!

Above: looking out on lake michigan on march 15 and the landscape in my apartment march 16.

... It was a landscape exquisite beyond compare. In this prolonged avenue one was quite overcome, so singular was it, so beautifully haloed and touched around with the gold of sundown; the beauty of it even made one a bit frightened. The avenue turned me into a diffident little boy–whether that's possible or not. The lake and the entire world, this high dome where all things are, stood calm and still, no noise, no breeze passed by, it was like a song, it was like a gentle, solemn, joyful song worshiping creation, in beauty indescribable, and I'm trying here to convey it, as the painter tried to deal with the lake raked by the wind ...

The above excerpt is from Speaking to the Rose by Robert Walser.

warm

So nice. Spring is officially here and the warmth is wonderful. i am drawn to these muted natural tones lately... Some of my flickr favorites as of late.. 1. Peri, 2. Wonewoc mirror, 3. curtain, 4. fragile #5, 5. lines, 6. Untitled, 7. Untitled, 8. cracked, 9. antiquing

peeping

The Complicated Bicycle by Nick Butcher is one of the books i tend to frequent and ponder through this time of year. Its one of the first gifts id ever given to s, and even though it is indeed oh so very s, i love knowing its there to peep through and fondle from time to time. Its special for many reasons... see more of Nick's work here.

Adoring these mari balls from tortoise via ah yiyi.

squiggles

I love the black squiggles in these... this pairing just makes me happy.

Top: sculpture in the centre pompidou, paris.
bottom: looking up in berlin

Some inspirations here and here! Especially these.

two become one

Still looking at film from our time away in europe and seeing something new every time i peek in and scan over film and digital collections. Am loving pairings lately, looking at not just how one image translates on its own, but how another makes the image speak that much louder or make the story have depth, or be more interesting to tell. Also I realize I'm caught up on the smallness of things. If an image is cluttered, I don't see clutter lately. I find myself sinking into subtleties. Concentrating more on shapes, shadows or color. These images here are anything but busy, but I liked these moments and remember them so well. Fleeting moments in a park watching the sun setting in paris and standing, looking and watching patiently.. excited even, to see a storm brewing as seine bits float by in paris.