Taking Aim.

It was a dark and stormy night…

Driving in the snow and rain (all the way to Athens), and then to Savannah, with Savannah (my daughter) and her new puppy, Sterling. Returning home last night to a just-missed evening with old friends that featured my personal bottle of absinthe.

Things happen…

The weekend in Savannah was pleasantly surreal and personally meaningful. I dropped Savannah (my daughter)and Sterling (the pup) at Garret’s (her boyfriend from Georgia Tech who is completing work-study with Weyerhauser in Savannah…) house. Whew, we should talk about that…

Anyway, about the review…

The graduate review went very well and merits a much more detailed conversation than can be accommodated here. Suffice it to say that my thoughts are forming and the work is being slowly polished with intensity and purpose. Elasticity is a virtue, particularly when it comes to controversial subjects. The faculty review was engaging and energized with ideas about the images ranging from-- casting the images of guns in chocolate, laying them upon a field of sugar-like substance or/cocaine. To the opposing end of another idea-measuring scale that terminates in a puddle of graphic-gore, but the most intense (for me) was the suggestion of illustrating/photographing the relationship of guns to religious iconography…. That night at dinner, Savannah drew the line—there are limits to my investigation and I found them. Serrano is safe for now.

Comparisons to Mapplethorpe and (my favorite) Irving Penn were good to hear and confirmed I have hit the mark, at least for myself, with this body of work. Now, I can try to push a little further and see what happens.

I came away from the review with more clarity of purpose. More importantly, I’m headed in a direction that will address the contextual ambiguity/ambiance of the piece. I’m very excited to continue the body of work in my final (online) class for the MA program this Spring quarter. I’m sure it will continue to change.

Regarding the issue about weapons…

Settling in for the evening last night, I began closing things down with one last cocktail and logged onto CNN for my last daily dose of information. There, I noticed the story about the rapper killed at a recording studio in northwest Atlanta. One I’ve been in many times, just a very short distance from the studio/building I recently sold. This part of the city was my backyard for thirty years. The Atlanta Police Department (APD) was reporting the story and it felt familiar almost like family—weird, right?

But it wasn’t.

All of this “universal timing” is critical in some abstract, and (potentially) aware way that is crowing in my ear, and must be heard. Perhaps it’s the spirit of Petey calling out with good advice. I like to think it is. “Petey” went somewhere last week, leaving absolutely no evidence that he was ever here, (except for the photo I took)—it’s probably a raccoon or opossum that carried him from the planter box I placed him in, but again—who knows? I already miss him.

I started this blog at the beginning of the winter quarter to look for answers to questions that are deeply rooted in my personal psyche, as well as how they manifest in societal issues. I have begun to make progress, and I look forward to where this project takes me, both personally and professionally. Time will tell, and I'm excited to listen.