Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: becky corrigan, penn avenue unblurred, portraits
"Rebby"
This Friday’s Unblurred features acrylic on wood portraits by Rebecca Corrigan. rebeccacorrigan[at]yahoo[dot]com.
"Nick"
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My self-imposed photography/writing break is coming to a close, but I cheated a little and went back to the West Virginia archives to rescue the one above. I loved the red hair against green grass, and how the deep colors only intensify my paleness (I love my pale skin, even though I’m always surprised to see how pale I really am when I see it in photos). It is snowing outside now, really beautiful and soft, and Jeff is making tiny cheeseburgers with chili sauce, which, like the photo, is a tiny taste of summer on a cold winter evening.
Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: lisa toboz photography, penn avenue unblurred, studio 5013
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1,896 miles: Roughly the roundtrip distance that Jeff and I travel yearly to Ocala, and the title of my travel photo series for January 6′s Unblurred.
I’m especially excited about 2012′s Studio 5013 window installation series, featuring a year of talented local female artists: Becky Corrigan, Jody Perigo, Sarah Wojdylak, Sara Rekrut, Masha Vereshchenko, Kirsten Ervin, Kim Rullo, Kate Hansen, Paulette Poullet, Daviea Davis and Julie Skidmore.
Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: mundania horvath, penn avenue unblurred, reconstructing ideas
"It's For the Best"
The final Unblurred window installation of 2011 with collage and mixed media by Mundania Horvath. reconstructing-ideas.com.
"You Just Know"
Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: attic, b & w, collaboration, kim rullo, lisa toboz
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I spent Wednesday afternoon at my friend Kim’s house to talk about an upcoming project that involves a beach and an orchestra of fantastical instruments. But we found ourselves instead talking about life stuff over leftover pizza. I love when days take unexpected turns, and I especially love it when a friend lets me take photos around their home; I never know what I’m going to capture. Years before, I modeled for Kim and her creative partner Brent and their work inspired me to take my own photos. In this series, Kim and I passed my camera back and forth each time one of us had an idea, model and artist becoming one in the same.
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Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: imperfection, polaroid, softtone film, spectra
the abandoned building next to ours
Usually I’m not brave enough to post my crappy photos, but I thought this series would be a good exercise in exposing my creative vulnerabilities.
Last week, despite the onset of migraine, I insisted on taking photos. The days leading up to full-blown head pain were full of anxiety and confusion; I was irritable, trying to get everything unfinished on my desk completed and solve all my life’s problems in one day (of course!). I was really hard on myself for not doing anything creative lately, which I thought a photo session would cure.
I set up my Spectra on a sewing bench in the backyard to take self portraits, but I couldn’t think of any new ideas. I set the timer, then realized I forgot to eject the previous photo after I reopened the camera, which made a double exposure. I misjudged the distance between the camera and me, resulting in a photo that cuts off my head, making it look like the accidental shot that it is. The clouds shifted, it was windy and cold, there were moments of light, then dark and I wanted to cry for wasting a whole pack of precious Polaroid film. The shots here are the ‘best’ of the bunch. And after I stopped being a big baby, I realized moments of bad photos and no ideas are okay because really, who cares most but me. I’m allowed to rest and do nothing sometimes.
the 10th shot
the 7th shot - I love the color and light in this one, but I'm headless.
the 6th shot - an accident
Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: conceptual, dream, instant film, polaroid spectra, sepia
I am drawn to your dark place, your weird space.
The photos in this post are for an online art project based on a poem written by my friend, Kim Rullo. Certain lines shifted in and out of my mind throughout the week, and I used those lines to caption these shots.
Then in an act of photographic serendipity, my friend Juli sent me a most precious gift: a Polaroid Spectra and a pack of PZ600 film from the Impossible Project. For anyone who doesn’t know about the fate of Polaroid, they stopped making it forever, but Impossible Project sells Polaroid-compatible instant film in small runs. It’s not as easy to use as the original because the film is extremely sensitive to light. You have to master balance of shielding the shot from light, making sure the temperature is not colder than 60 degrees, while holding a camera, while pressing a button, while thinking of composition. The sun in those first 5 seconds is your enemy. The entire process appeals to my neurotic control issue tendencies, where I plan, where I am the director of my creative world, constructing shots ahead of time in my journal because I only get one chance. It also forces me to let go, because over time, the image will disappear from the frame. Like a dream that fades once we wake from it, these images challenge the idea that the photos we take to capture our daily lives will outlive us all.
What I needed was never here.
Are we all born restless?
I need to take myself.
Filed under: Art Gallery | Tags: kyle ethan fischer, penn avenue unblurred
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This month’s Unblurred features haunting mixed media by Kyle Ethan Fischer.
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Filed under: Art Gallery, West Virginia | Tags: grief, hallways, mystery, trans allegheny lunatic asylum
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These photos are the last in the asylum series; I don’t want to leave them. I mentioned in earlier posts about the light and space and how I loved it – and how much the history of this place affected me. It helped me to connect to something outside of my grief, which has changed me. Would I have experienced the mystery of these hallways in the same way had my mother not died this past January? Everything is different now that she’s gone. I feel things more deeply. I resonate with indescribable sadness, and when I’m happy, I am so filled with joy I can hardly hold it in my arms.
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Filed under: Art Gallery, West Virginia | Tags: trans allegheny lunatic asylum, windows
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Reasons for Admission, 1864 to 1889 (from the TALA archives): Bad habits and political excitement. Desertion by husband. Brain fever. Business nerves. Fall from horse. Deranged masturbation. Imaginary female trouble. Jealousy and religion. Immoral life. Opium habit. Over action of the mind. Bite of rattle snake. Asthma. The war. Uterine derangement. Rumor of husband murder. Medicine to prevent conception. Vicious vices in early life. Sunstroke. Fighting fire. Novel reading. False confinement. Greediness. Gathering in the head. Laziness. Loss of arm. Liver and social disease. Milk fever. Bad whiskey. Women. Disappointment of nerves. Grief.
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