Travel

It's still hard for me to believe that my image and National Geographic are next to each other in this screenshot photo.  Last December, I went to my first portfolio review in New Orleans, LA.  I was nervous about showing my personal series to top names in the gallery, museum and art world. What would they say? How would they react to my process? It's always a bit daunting to show your personal work to the world but as I am learning, it's the most rewarding thing you can do.  Sure, people might not like it and that is why it's "art."  It's subjective. I decided to participate in the reviews since my work was selected to be shown at the Ogden Museum of Art in New Orleans in conjunction with PhotoNOLA.  I felt that would be a nice opening line when presenting my series to reviewers.  I am a shy person so this is not the most comfortable setting for me.  I'm sure it's not for most...especially for the first time. The first review was exciting since ...

It's the first day of the new year! Normally, I would start to think forward (which I will after this post), but I wanted to take a minute to remember all that I did in 2013.  Thanks to Instagram , I can scroll through all of my photos and remember what I did.  I would usually do that in blog posts, but I haven't been making time for these posts as much as I have done in the past.  I am so grateful to all of my friends and loved ones in my life.  I am also thankful to the new friends that I met this year! Here are some of my most memorable moments of 2013. In 2013, I… Drove through Big Sur on Highway 1 Spoke about my work at Open Show, Venice Arts Awarded 3rd place for "Brothers" at Photo LA Started my new series, "Reflected Identities" Visited Death Valley for the first time Photographed the Cover of Airstream Life Magazine Hiked to the Hollywood Sign First Place Winner for Instagram Series in PDN's Emerging Photographer Magazine Images wheat pasted in...

When people find out about my current or past travels of living on the road, a lot of the time their response is, "you're living my dream!"  I am always flattered that someone would want to choose the lifestyle of traveling like I do.  Lately, I have been responding with, "you can do it too and live your OWN dream."  Most often, that is followed by, "I would if only..." If only. Those, "if only's" are choices. Choices we made in our life that we want to, or need to keep.  Maybe you bought a home that you feel you can't leave, or kids, or a marriage, or your job, or your pet... Those are all great reasons to stay put and not do anything different in your life (not that there is anything wrong with that life) except be envious by posts of other people living a life that is YOUR dream.  The question is, "do you really want to live your dream?"  If you do, what is preventing you from making the choices needed to pursue that drea...

I hope you are enjoying your summer!  So many things are happening around here that I haven't had the chance to let you know what has been going on.  I have been so fortunate to be selected for the following exhibitions and publications!  I am thankful for you for your continued support and I hope to see you at one of these events. Upcoming Shows: August 2nd - September 15th - Photo Center NW "Musings: 18th Annual Photo Competition"  August 2nd - 31st Black Box Gallery "Color Photography Now" August 2nd - August 31st Seities Gallery, Alberta Canada - Featured Artist October 4th - 26th - The Center For Fine Art Photography "Center Forward" October 12th - November 17th - The Art of Photography Show - San Diego, CA Recent Publications and Events: "Reflected Identities" featured in Square Magazine Featured in Museé Magazine Slideshow Selected for Slideluck Potshow in Ireland Seities Magazine - Featured Member 

For the past few months, I have been working on a new series.  I started taking portraits of my friends in the Southern California area with an idea in mind. As with a lot of projects I start, they tend to change and take on a life of its own by the time I am ready to show it.  That was the case with "Reflected Identities".  I began the series (I didn't have a title or direction) by photographing my friends for an androgynous series but the more I shot, the more I realized that the portraits were molding into a reflection of me. Last week, I learned that I was a finalist in the slide show competition at the Palm Springs Photo festival so I attended the festival and spent a few days there.  I was in disbelief when it was announced on Thursday night that I won the grand prize!  There were so many beautiful and powerful slideshows included and I was just thrilled that I was selected to be among the finalists.  When I submitted the show, I had less images than...

Recently, I was asked to be interviewed about my photography and life on the road for the photography podcast blog, The Candid Frame.  At first I was hesitant to talk about myself, but agreed to be taped live during an interview to be saved into a podcast for anyone to hear.  Ibarionex Perello was such a pleasure to talk with during the interview.  He made it very conversational and made me feel at ease with each question.  If you are interested, you can listen to the 45 minute conversation HERE.  Thank you Ibarionex!

I am not sure when I heard about The Big Picture and what Mark Sink is doing for the month of photography, but when I found out, I knew I wanted to be a part of it!  Being in a gallery is always nice but being outside for everyone to see is such a great way to showcase artist's work around the world. As The Big Picture describes on their blog, "This show of grand scale contemporary photography exposes the possibility of images as art via email instantly exchanged globally and blown up to large mural proportions.  Images gathered from photographers around the world will be expanded as large Xerox prints and displayed inside galleries as well as posted in approved outdoor locations throughout the city of Denver and sister cities around the globe." If you are in the Denver area, they are having a Big Picture Celebration on Saturday, March 30th from 12-5pm at the "Open Air Gallery" behind City O City for amazing images, refreshment and music.  I wish I could be t...

What a nice surprise to learn that PhotoShelter wanted to feature my story on their blog!  Sarah Jacobs started following me on  Instagram, learned that I belong to PhotoShelter, and then wrote about my journey on the PhotoShelter Blog today.   She did a wonderful job at summarizing the past few years and each time I read about my journey, it seems hard to believe that this year will be my fifth year on the road. Even more hard to believe that I lived out of a tent for two years!  I think the pop up van has spoiled me.  My only  wish would be taking photographs earlier on, but everything happens for a reason and I am just thankful that I made the decision to get lost, get sober and pick up a camera. Thank you to the new followers and for the ones who have been here from the very beginning.  I look forward to sharing another year of travels with you! Click HERE to read the article.

Nothing quite moves me the way that photography does.  This past Saturday I went to the LA Photo show for the day and it was and experience I won't soon forget.  As soon as I walked in, I felt like a kid in a candy store. So many beautiful photographs from today and throughout history.  Life shown on every inch of space on the walls of the Santa Monica civic center. As if it were the last piece of cake, I wanted to savor every moment I was there.  I carefully visited every booth up and down the isles, not to miss anything.  At times, I went outside to take a break and let what I just saw absorb into my brain.  What I am drawn to is not necessarily what others would love. This is what I love about art.  There is something for everyone.  I especially love documentary photography and photographs that are personal to the photographer.  I think all photographs displayed are beautiful but there is something about capturing a moment in time that was...

I've been lacking on the blogging lately.  Since I've been home, I have been slowly unpacking and making art.  Believe it or not, I still have my camping equipment in my car.  Everything in due time, I suppose.  As you may know, I have a hard time relaxing.  I am not one to sit back and relax and read a book.  I've read a few books in the past few months but they have to grab my attention for me to continue reading.  I need to be learning something new each day and doing something with art to fulfill my creative soul. That being said, I have been spending a lot of time working on some pieces for a few shows coming up.  I will be one of the artists at "ALLOW" this Saturday at the Avia hotel in Long Beach and my work will be included in the Sipology exhibit "Urban Pets"opening this Saturday and continuing through early February. I've stepped out of my comfort zone of mounting and framing photographs in traditional frames to mounting them on wood bo...

I love this city.  I came here last year on my trip and fell in love with the place.  There is art everywhere you look, the people are weird and there are plenty of places to eat out of a food truck.  What is not to love about that? During this short stay, I wandered around to several galleries on the East Austin Studio Tour .  The tour is pretty spread out so you won't be able to cover everything in a day.  I just stumbled upon several of the galleries, ate at some food trucks and met some amazing artists.  I loved finding The Wonder Craft .  It's an Airstream filled with handmade goodies that everyone loved.  You could see it in their eyes as they walked in. I know my face must have looked the same as I stepped inside.  It was the, "ooooo look at all of the hand made goodies!" face. Along the tour route, I was able to chat with many of the artists and a few photographers I particularly enjoyed meeting were Sarah Wilson and George Brainard...