Discovered Treasures

One year ago I purchased a house, a little bungalow in south Minneapolis. Me, with the help of my friends and family have done a lot of work on it. One of the improvements was creating access to the attic above the eaves, which, for at least the last 7 years was completely walled off.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the attic putting some good old R38 insulation up there. Hopefully my house will now heat more efficiently... but while I was up there I discovered a pile of old linoleum that was discarded up there. Of course warning bells went off, is it full of asbestos or other harmful materials... but at the same time it was beautiful... under the years of dirt and whatever else went on in the attic.

I appreciated the beauty and was ready to throw it away when my mother, who was helping me, made a suggestion. She is a big fan of HGTV and the other design shows and suggested I hang a piece up. I ran downstairs and grabbed an assortment of frames I had made years back that were just lying around, and brought them back up to the attic to see what would fit in them. After some sizing and cutting (all done by a flood light in the attic, might-I-add) I had a new piece of art to hang on my wall.

I have to say the historical concept is more exciting than the artistic concept, but it still does have a certain beauty to it.

78 Photography Rules for Complete Idiots

Taken from: 78 Photography Rules for Complete Idiots

Perhaps I should incorporate some of these into my curriculum!

Some of my favorites:


I have a student who does this ALL THE TIME, she's great, don't get me wrong. I think I've shown her the light though!



But what if I don't have a 4x5 camera? Just kidding, OF COURSE I have a 4x5 camera!



Oh come on now, everyone likes pictures when they have funky looks on their faces!



How very true... and deep...



KITTY!



There's almost ALWAYS that problem with digital... better stick with film! ;-)



Well, if it's about the Henry Cartier-Bresson and the Decisive Moment it's gotta be good!



Remember, the reflective meter reads 18% gray! Over expose by 2 stops and you'll be fine! My students groan every time I say this, but at least they remember!



I keep saying, "Vantage, vantage, vantage!"



As one of my students said while I was in grad school,"The meter shows you the way."



...or let's just stay away from flowers all together...



Oh come on! Now they are just taking the fun out of editing images!



With my photographer's eye and my extensive experience with color balance I would have to call that color Magenta, NOT Purple!


For all 78: 78 Photography Rules for Complete Idiots

Photo Illustrator

Early this year I had a show at the Concordia College Gallery with my night photographs in it. Well, some key people at the MN Historical Society Press heard about me by a fellow grad who did some projects with them. They liked my night photos and asked me to photograph a movie theater for a book jacket. So my endeavor with pleasing clients begins. I just got my copy of the book yesterday.

Here's the beautiful image I made of the Heights Theater one crisp Friday evening in March.


Here's the actual book jacket cover. They really de-saturated my image, but I can live with it... I really have no choice!



To further my commercial endeavors the Rake magazine found this photo on my MN Artists.org account and asked me if they could acquire licensing for it for their October issue. I don't think the story it was paired with is perfect for the photo, but the image quality in the magazine was good, and they are very good about giving me art credit and my web address is in the magazine spine, so great! And yes, my web site is up, but I haven't officially told people it's launched because it's not finished yet, yet being the key word!


"In the Case of an Emergency" 2005

More like what you're expecting...

Here's some work that I'm working on that is more recognizable as "Caroline Photos;" so no I have not gone the abstract route permanently! Actually these were just some things I was casually working on and hanging off to the side in my studio. While people were critiquing other work they saw these and thought they were more interesting than the stuff they were actually critiquing. Enjoy and as always, feel free to comment!



Tree with Crow



Towards Zero Deaths Safety Corridor

Feedback...

I have been working on some... very atypical art for me. I'd like to know what you all, as artists and non-artists, think about it. What do you see in them, what interests you, or perhaps what doesn't interest you. Also which are your favorites. Some of them are going in a show in Dec and I want to know which ones people respond to.

And you'll have to forgive the web site, the colors are much more vibrant and saturated in person. I guess you'll just have to come to my show at the Frank Stone Gallery, Dec 1 - 3 to see them for yourself. (There's definitely not any shameless self promotion here... no way...)
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My Artistic Career in Trouble?

I’ve been teaching away, every night of the week, well, I teach 2 nights a week and TA 2 nights a week at the U, both for Photo I classes, but I digress. Last night I was TAing and we had lab time, 4 hours of printing in the darkroom, and they were all printing because there is an assignment due in 2 days. The darkroom was full because there were also students from my class printing because their assignment is due tomorrow. So I was answering questions all night from students in both classes, which is fine, it’s part of my job and it’s one of the reasons I’m going to grad school, but by the end of the night my eyes were pretty tired of looking at photographs and I was having trouble giving advice, I couldn’t tell if the photos were too dark, too light, needed more contrast, etc. So I was exhausted, but did a quick e-mail checked before I went home. I received the forward that is below. Now I’m usually not so amused by forwards but because of my mood, artistically exhausted, it was hilarious to me, so I thought I’d share.


Coffee Bean Test - Read this First!!!

Find the man in the coffee beans.

Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in 3 seconds that your right half of your brain is better developed than most people.

If you find the man between 3 seconds and one minute, then your right half of the brain is developed normally.

If you find the man between one minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein.

If you have not found the man after 3 minutes your right half of your brain is a mess, and the only advice is to look more for these types of exercises to make that part of the brain stronger.

The man really is there. In fact, once you find him, you cannot miss him afterwards.

Time yourself.
Good Luck ...GO!





As I’m staring at the picture I’m thinking about left/right brain thought. Incase you don’t remember which is which, the left half of the brain supposedly controls logic, rational, analytical thought, etc, while the right half is all about random, intuitive, artistic thought. Since I am an artist, theoretically my right brain should be well developed… but according to this test, not so much.

I stared at the picture, moved closer to the computer, then farther away, looked, looked, and looked. I tried to find a shape of a man in the coffee beans (and was slightly concerned because I wasn’t sure if it was a dirty joke or not). I did eventually find it and now I can’t not see it when I look at the picture (like that double negative I used right there?). But since this was on the Internet and since doctors say that my right brain is not functioning at its peak I’d better pack in that protein to save my artistic career!