my greatest teacher is my life...from someone's daily om.

Life

Your Perfect Teacher

Many of us long to find a spiritual teacher or guru. We may feel unsure of how to practice our spirituality without one, or we may long for someone who has attained a higher level of insight to lead the way for us. Some of us have been looking for years to no avail and feel frustrated and even lost. The good news is that the greatest teacher you could ever want is always with you-that is your life.

The people and situations we encounter every day have much to teach us when we are open to receiving their wisdom. Often we don't recognize our teachers because they may not look or act like our idea of a guru, yet they may embody great wisdom. In addition, some people teach us by showing us what we don't want to do. All the situations in our lives, from the insignificant to the major, conspire to teach us exactly what we need to be learning at any given time. Patience, compassion, perseverance, honesty, letting go-all these are covered in the classroom of the teacher that is your life.

We can help ourselves to remember this perfect teacher each day with a few simple words. Each morning we might find a moment to say, "I acknowledge and honor the teacher that is my life. May I be wise enough to recognize the teachers and lessons that I encounter today, and may I be open to receiving their wisdom." We might also take some time each day to consider what our lives are trying to teach us at this time. A difficult phase in your relationship with your child may be teaching you to let go. The homeless person you see every day may be showing you the boundaries of your compassion and generosity. A spate of lost items may be asking you to be more present to physical reality. Trust your intuition on the nature of the lesson at hand, work at your own pace, and ask as many questions as you want. Your life has all the answers.

*sigh*

remember this?

dad.

phase one of dad's portrait...more on this to come.

what is beyond that fence, ronin?

some mother's son...

a recent self version

this is a more hopeful self portrait...i can't seem to get that darkness out of my work.

a few more...

Just a few more of the prints I spoke of in my last entry...

hybrids...

So... I just finished compiling a group of work that I have been toiling with since the beginning of last summer. My goal was to combine photography, printmaking and digital to create imagery similar to that at the beginning of photography... The project itself morphed a lot. I am really happy with it though. Basically I chased my poor children and husband around with my camera for months and months. I let the local photo shop develop my black and whites for me... I don't fair well in the dark room... I become obsessive. I scanned the photos into the computer and manipulated them in Photoshop. I then made xerox copies of the images I liked and pulled ink prints from these called xerox lithos... I used graphite ink on every print done on finely grained rice paper. During the drying process the paper takes on a very textured look... becomes almost rippled. I then scanned these prints into my computer capturing that rippled effect. I manipulated them further.... in some cases just contrast, in some I actually colored them in... and in some cases I blended the print with the photo... I then printed them 13x19 on my new Epson 1280 (Thanks for the recommendation Andrew!!!!!) on matte heavyweight paper... Wow. I thought I'd post a couple of examples of the digital files. All in all I have about twenty-odd prints. A bunch of them just didn't work or I would have had even more! I became adicted to this process for a while because I have a mini etching press in my studio that I borrowed from a friend. The thing weighs about 400 pounds but it pulls a lovely print.

works in progress...

more on the army of one camaign? a series of photos i have been working on to create a filmstrip-like image in ink. the print itself isn't ready to post yet, but these are the images i used.

portraits...

i love portraiture.

i remember in our final crit i was saying how in future work i wanted to include my children and that there was some fear that it could be kind of cliche. well, i'm not quite sally mann, but i do love and totally admire her work. i don't think that these pictures are in any danger of being in any children's or parenting magazine's though. i thought i'd post a couple of my favorite child portraits.feedback always welcome.

i have actually been planning a photoshoot with my kids in an old mill on the biddeford saco line. really industrial setting and i am really excited about it. i'll post those pictures if they are any good.