A New Way of Seeing
June 2nd, 2009 by Julia Taylor
Like most human beings I tend to measure ideas out against my personal experience and some universal perspectives–generally gathered in my post college years. This pic goes right back to a childhood of cows, farm equipment and that rural mess of equipment (the junk heap lot). This is where my life view began.
When I was a wee one, my most poignant memories are of art classes–in the lines, out of the lines, construction paper and awkward scissors, oil paint., clay, and color circles. Then I got a camera early on and all was lost. I LOVED sketching and photography. Two years into a college Arts Major degree, life intervened and I decided during one of those infamous down economic cycles to go to a more marketable major. There was this implicit promise that one could provide for our family needs through commercial means and support our artistic desires on the sides. I did buy in and I still do. I love photography, fine arts and performing arts. I understand the talent, the discipline and the sacrifice that artists need and make to survive on the side today. I also understand the mix it takes in a community to create the economic engine that drives all the cultural economies. It it is a two way innovation economy. Fortunately, I enjoy all the dimensions of regional economy . You need a very robust metro area to sustain artists economically on the strength of their art and there are probably three market areas in this country that can provide that type of catch-net. Given our strength as a second tier market, we have remarkable resiliency including the largest and oldest performing art fund in the country. It’s quite remarkable and we can say it because we have so many regional and global companies who passed 50, 75, 100 and even 150 years of accomplishments and have always supported the arts.
Its been a great business plan but now we need to fast forward to how we grow our market for innovation and creativity. We know that exposure to creativity can throw the switch for a innovative talent to grow. How do we keep our big tent of the arts open to all those children and young people to learn a new way of seeing, how to create and bring this talent to our everyday world of work and play.
Somebody else paid the entry ticket for us. They didn’t know us. They just paid forward.
It’s time for us to pay forward for each of those 400,00 children in our region that don’t even have the experience of of creativity outside of a TV set yet. They need the chance to learn a new way of seeing.
Keep the arts giving forward and thank someone who believed in each one of us without ever meeting any one of us. Invest in your future and region’s well-being.
Pay it forward.
http://cli.gs/UPAF
Lake Michigan in April
April 8th, 2009 by Julia TaylorToday it felt like spring. It was marvelous to drive down the lakefront and see the clouds skidding over the water sparkling under this spring sun. So I had to pull over by the yacht club and take this picture. The fishing boats were being winched into into the water and men in utility vans were watching the water with coffee cups on the dashboard.
Ghost Ranch HDR Photos from Santa Fe
April 7th, 2009 by Julia TaylorLast October a group of friends visited Georgia O’Keefe’s inspiration ground at Ghost Ranch several miles from her home. The beauty of the cliffs and the sky were amazing. I finally got around to working with the images and I love the landscape all over again.
#HDR Lake Michigan Below Zero
April 7th, 2009 by Julia Taylor
Shot by the Pier at the Yacht Club in January 2009 with an iPhone and created an HDR shot with Photoshop and Photomatix
HDR Photos
April 3rd, 2009 by Julia TaylorThis is a bit different than the public art debate with the Common Council and Janet Zwieg’s commision–but then again art is an individual matter sometimes.
Photography is my current passion artistically. I grew up drawing portraits at county fairs for $25 a portrait and sketches for display advertising for the daily and weekly papers. Two years of art classes at Ball State University was wonderful but I was lousy at design so decided to protect my GPA and scholarship and went for an English/Philosophy degree with an Art minor. Nevertheless, I paid my rent often with stained glass commissions from my own little second bedroom studio called “The Vitreous Works.”
Creativity is what provides the perspective in difficult issues–otherwise life is black and white and confined to boxes that we can’t get out of easily. Enough philosophy–I’ve had a lot of fun recently with both iPhone photo apps and HDR (high dynamic range) photography with a Canon Rebel XTi digital camera. So here are a few shots and a little creative breather in the life of art and social controversy!
My backyard
My Front Porch
Side View
Sunday Fireplace