Receiving the Call

Sometimes these little dramas come to me when I am working in the shop. I'll take a risk and throw this one out there. This is one side of a phone conversation with the creator. To all editor people feel free to contact me with any ideas on how to better use punctuation to make this work.
Image Title: I will, one day...



God calls and I answer:

God slow down, slow down
what are you so excited about
What?
Everything?
Oh great, I thought this was going to be a quick call.
I know
it's all terrific
Oh yes I love everything you've done.
Yes I really feel that way
Okay you're right
If you'd left that out I wouldn't have minded
I guess it's the smell
Sure, sure you could have let that go as well.
Well the problem is none of us can agree on how it should be dealt with.
Well it just makes it easier if we can all agree,
all be on the same page so to speak
what do you mean why?
it just seems like it would be easier if all our thinking was the same on the issue.
Yes, Yes I hear what I'm saying.
What?
I know you know me.
What do you mean you know me like the flowers know me?
How the H... I mean how can flowers know me?
I was looking at the flowers on Wednesday
I just haven't had time the last few days.
How are the flowers going to get to know me?
I don't understand.
No, no I guess I don't need to understand.
One more time, tell me.
The flowers need time to get to know me.
Okay
God, God
I, I get it. It's not always about me.
You're right it's the control thing again
I just get afraid, I won't...
You gotta get that?
No, no, I'm, I'm good
I know, I know, you made me that way.
Thanks for the call.
Later.

http://jlcarrollimages.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=8290355

Jeff disconected

Feeling on an Image

Title: I am Made Up


I am made up
I was once upon a time
Not here
And now I am
But not really
Cause I am made up.

I am like make believe
I pretend to feel
The things I feel
But they really belong
To the one who made me up

I think
But I am not sure
Cause I am made up

Because I am made up
I spend my time making things up
Things to amuse me
And please me
And to keep me from thinking
That I am made up.

Works for me
I'm just made that way


I've started working my drawings into my image creations, stay tuned for more.

I really like taking a fragment of my idea and googling it. Here is a link to a website that proves we are made up of 93% stardust. Check it out!
http://www.physicscentral.org/poster-stardust.cfm

Pretending to be Jeff

Mistake, Where?

One of the cool things I’ve learned from my father, while building things together, is that a mistake is only a mistake when we identify it as such to the rest of the world. The alternative is to make the project look like that’s what you meant it to look like in the first place. You simply go with the mistake and let it define the project. This works in wood because there are millions of ways to join, fill, overlay, widen, shorten, whatever with wood. I’m sure it works in other mediums as well.

What I love about the digital age is the ability to make use of almost any image no matter how bad. To the right is a photo of a leaf I took in haste and failed to get in focus. This is why I never delete photos when I am out, I only do that after I have them in the computer and have had time to play/work with them.
After sharpening the photo as much as I could, I then used the color wheel to raise the intensity of the photo. Next I ran through all the different filters I have in my software. I like the one called “Cut-Out”. This makes the picture look like it was made of construction paper. It looks at all the colors in the photo and reduces it to a chosen few. I chose 8 levels, this gave me a more interesting photo and made the focus issue obsolete. The second filter I added is called “Poster” this highlights the edges. The last thing I did was to over lay the shadow of a hand from another photo. This gives the image a bit more of a story.

Title- A Find

Okay, okay, as much as I’d like to say there are no mistakes I know there are times when yes the project or event is destroyed and we can’t make it work. For those of us who are good at making mistakes and yet still strive for perfection, we dream of the day when all the mistake-pointer-outers will say “ oh look you have a wonderful opportunity to go in a whole new direction, you are so lucky, I wish I could screw up as good as you”.
Until then keep your glue handy, your eraser clean, and your software up to date.

Juff oops!

See my latest Photos at http://www.jlcarrollimages.webs.com/

Why Build a Ladder?

Photo Titled "construction"

I am building a ladder to reach my soul

It is not made of wood or steel

But something much stronger

It is made of all the emotions

I have the courage to claim as mine.

I have been building all my life. First with toys and then scraps of wood in the backyard with hammers, nails and lots of band-aids. I also build with words, sounds, pictures, pencils, paper, etc. I like combining materials sometimes with a vision and other times just to see what comes out of combining different materials or media. This I guess is the job of the artist.

I think this is what we all do.The cook puts different ingredients together with different temperatures and time to create a new recipe. Those who combine numbers, space and time to seek understanding or organization we call mathematicians. Teachers bring together resources, tools and a joy of learning to inspire their students. We are always building, changing and hopefully growing.

One day when contemplating purchase of a software to allow me to do even more combining of materials, and lacking the funds to make such a purchase, I came to the age old question of, why. Why am I doing all this combining? So I mused poetically into one of my journals the short phrase above. Yes I asked why and jumped right away to my soul. Do you have a visual of your soul? The place or non-place that supposedly houses your very being. I've heard said that Leonardo da Vinci and comrades did all their dissections and drawings of the human body to identify the location of the soul. Okay I'll add that to Wikipedia. I'm sure it's real.

I am trying to get an image of the soul here but I need this ladder to get up or down to get a handle on it. For me the road (or ladder) to this is in emotion. So I go forward combining what ever I can to evoke as many different feelings as I can to add to the rungs of my ladder.

Enough for the moment!

Jeff building one rung at a time.

On the origin of the soul - From the notebook of Leonardo da Vinci http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Richter-NotebooksOfLeonardo/section-14/item-837.html

Branching Out

Whenever I need something to reconnect me to the cosmos, a creator, a higher power, a god (whatever word you use) I look to the tree. The tree for me is the ultimate symbol that the creator moves with me, through me and beyond me. The tree reaches into the earth and draws its energy and at the same time reaches into the sky receiving and drawing what it needs from the sun and atmosphere. At the same time it provides a place for life of all kinds to dwell and flourish among its branches, its roots as well as with in its own body at times. The tree does all this care giving while filtering our air and contributing to keeping the earth cool.


I have been incorporating tree images into my art work for many years. I must admit I live with a certain amount of guilt for cutting down trees to make images of trees, but I chose the mediums and then the images came.


For me the strongest aspect of the tree symbolism is that of "reaching out to connect". From the ends of the roots deep in the ground up through the trunk, out the branches to the tips of the leaves the tree is a complete story of connection. As we stand back looking at the tree we feel the sun beating down and see the branches reaching out to connect with the energy coming from millions of miles away. For me the tree holds the whole story, I am here to connect, and I am just beginning to understand that, as is the world. It is a little overwhelming and leads to more questions. So this becomes another topic for future thoughts (blogs). For now pay attention to trees. They will speak to you, but you're going to need to be connected to hear.

The tree wall
was an attempt to give an
office space an organic feel.







Wood Cut Titled "Reach"
This couple from my swathe collection are wrapped in a spiritual energy that I feel (I see) moving between all creatures.


Questions on "Reaching out to connect":

• Is the Internet real connection?
• How do I connect with out the Internet?
• How do I connect and not loose my sense of self?
• Do we all have to be talking to each other to be connected?
• Must we all be on the same page to be connected?
• Does true connection always need a spiritual presence?
• Which comes first connection or love? Do we need to love before we can connect or will connections lead us to love?
• I got more! But I'll stop for now.
  

Jeff can you hear me now?

Links to articals on the spirituality of trees

Trees are earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven - Rabindranath Tagore
http://academic.evergreen.edu/n/nadkarnn/cv/pdfs_new/Nadkarni;%20Dharma%20News%202002.pdf

Trees at my window, window tree

My sash is lowered when night comes on;

But let there never be a curtian drawn

Between you and me. - Robert Frost

http://www.uufhc.net/s001105.html

To see more of my tree images visit the link to my sculpture page. http://www.jkcwood.com/Sculpture.html

Light Play

Here is something fun to do. Take your digital camera, turn off your flash, and find a low light situation. This might be outdoors at night or in a dark room. Look around for focused light sources. LEDs on electric appliances, holiday lights, car head lights (I recommend you do not stand in the road). You just need to avoid areas with flood lights. With your flash off your camera should attempt to lengthen the time of exposure. In the dark it needs more time to capture an image. While you take the picture, move your camera around or side to side. Below is the kind of picture you might get. These are car tail lights and a green traffic signal. Once you load your pictures into your computer you can use the color wheel or sliders to enhance the color. You might need to read your help menu in your photo edting software to figure this out if you have not done so already. Then try overlapping the light images with other photos for some wild results. Below is the same photo as above with the color changed, intensified and a face dropped in. I love this stuff! Have fun.


Jeff in the dark
Please Note: This photo was taken with a simple point and shoot Nikon. A more advanced
Digital SLR camera will alow you to take much longer exposures and achive even wilder effects.

Here is a link to more info on extending exposure time and all aspects of digital photography.
http://digital-photography-school.com/long-exposure-photography