Digital collage

Today I found myself working on a digital collage, which is something I haven't done in a long time (probably not since I stopped teaching Photoshop classes). I had an idea of what it was going to be about but realized at the end that it was something I hadn't planned.

My mother-in-law died on Saturday morning at the age of 86. She was the last of her eight siblings left alive after her older sister died two months ago. It's a sad time because Doris is gone but also because it signifies the end of an entire generation of that side of my husband's family.

The collage I made expresses the idea of releasing one's hold on life and moving away from the world, our friends and families, and our identities. As I was making the piece, I started thinking about the Passenger Pigeon and its extinction. I found a newspaper article written by James Audubon about the abundance of the bird. The text that is in the background is that newspaper article. I hadn't connected all these ideas to Doris until I finished the collage and was pondering it. Strange what your subconscious will express when you're not paying attention.

Freedom flight

Blue trees

The area of eastern Washington near Wenatchee, is fruit tree heaven. Apples, apricots, peaches, cherries, pears. In the winter, the trees get a little break. Don't know why some of the trees are painted blue on the trunks, but it's a lovely shade.

Blue trees

End of the year

In honor of the ending of 2011, we decided to take a drive through Pierce County with our cameras. Saw lots of cool waterways that were hard to photograph and many many trashed and seemingly-abandoned houses (some should have been abandoned but actually had inhabitants). We eventually found ourselves tromping through boggy, mossy mud without slog-worthy shoes at Alder Lake. The best way to describe the location is "stumpy."

Alder Lake stumps

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark and I guess I was looking for ravaged and scorched earth to match the pictures in my head.

Leslie and Son

I've been pretty thin on my posts of late. I've got a little break so you'd think I'd be on top of it, but I'm preoccupied with working on photos. Haven't shot anything for a while so I'm feeling a little antsy. Hopefully, that will change over the next week.

Thought I'd post this picture since it cracks me up (I'm a little dorky). If I had a son and had a farm or a business, I'd definitely have a sign like this one. I love how bright the yellow is. If the farmer had been around, I would have bugged him to let me take his picture. I'm sure he would have been delighted.

In memoriam - Vaclav Havel 1936 - 2011

In memory of a truly great and brave man, Vaclav Havel:

Link to an article on the significance of November 17 to Czechs.

Abandoned phone booths

It's strange to call these things phone "booths" since there's very little that is "boothy" about them. They actually remind me of study carols from elementary school - three sides and the inability for someone to look at what you're doing straight on. Public phones seem to be disappearing. The cell phone has caused the demise of what was once a fairly ubiquitous convenience. It's unfortunate for those who don't have cell phones since they are left searching for a phone "booth" with an actual phone in it (Is this like a food desert in urban areas? A phone desert?). Many booths, few public phones. These pictures are companions to this one that I shot in Florida.

Puyallup

Edgewood

Crumpled structure

As you start to head north, away from Beverly, there is an old agricultural structure that looks like part of it was crumpled by a giant.

This is a satellite image of it and the flotsam surrounding it.