This flame was adopted by Rosei S, who has dedicated it to all the young emerging musical talent she enjoys. Rochester provides lots of opportunities for musicians, singers, and songwriters to get in front of audiences and try out new works, develop one’s performance chops, and promote one’s first efforts at recording.
Category: Uncategorized
Adoption Story – MN Guitar Society
This flame was adopted by Ben G of Rochester, who dedicates it to the Minnesota Guitar Society. Ben is a performing guitarist and guitar instructor, and he speaks of how he was influenced early on by MGS concerts and the musicians he heard. To this day, MGS brings world class guitarists to Minnesota. They also sponsor open mic-style jams at a St. Paul coffee house, where guitarists of all abilities can meet other players and also perform casually in a non-threatening environment.
You can follow the MN Guitar Society on Facebook, or by visiting their website. Please consider making a donation to support their efforts to foster guitar performance and education in Minnesota.
More Caffenol
There’s been quite a bit of experimenting going on since my last blog entry. I have had some success with my coffee developing, but I was not getting the results I hoped for. I developed quite a few rolls of film that finished with a very faint image in the negative. This would result in a very dark image when you make it “positive”, which would mean I either underexposed the film (I’m pretty sure I did not), or I under-processed the film (most likely the case.)
Caffenol Experiment 1
This blog entry opens up a series of blogs I’ll write as part of my “Light Chasers” project. Today, I discuss my initial experiment in developing film with coffee.
The practice of developing black and white film with coffee (“caffenol”, as it is known colloquially) is well-described. There is a group of caffenol aficionados on Facebook (click here), on Flicker (click here), and there is a full website dedicated to the subject (click here).
End of an Era
For a span of close to seventy years, members of my extended family have held an annual gathering on their farm. When my mother was a young girl in the 1940s, she would go to her aunt and uncle’s farm in Elk River, MN. In those days, the gatherings were called powwows. My mother was not a farm girl, but she still talks fondly of those visits to Uncle Mike and Aunt Irene’s farm.
Great News
I’m delighted to report that I’ve received an Emerging Artist grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) to produce a new photography exhibit. The project that I will fund with this grant is an extension of my earlier Light Chaser exhibit held at Gallery 24 in April, 2018. As part of the grant, I’ve set these goals:
First, I have the goal of producing at least ten new photographic works related to my theme. My current vision is that these will be black and white photographs shot with film, and self-developed. I have the materials and experience to do this already. The content of the photographs will feature landscapes, sun, moon, and stars, and will interpret written passages from historical scientific figures. Second, I have a goal of conducting two family-friendly workshops for parents and children in which I encourage them to mingle art and science with resources they already own or have at home. Third, I have a goal of holding an art reception capstone event that features my photographs and builds upon the experience of the workshops. Finally, I have the goal of building a companion website for my project that features the art and science results of the attendees of my workshops and reception, allowing the project to live on past the terms of the grant.
My capstone exhibit will be at the Rochester Art Center in July, 2019. Stay tuned for more info as the project progresses.
Your Photo on an Egg
Last year we brought you the photographic trend that swept the nation, “Your Photo on a Grain of Rice!” This year, we’ve outdone ourselves with our new sensation, “Your Photo on an Egg!”
Light Chaser Stories: Scene 2
One of my favorite colors in nature is the yellow of the goldfinch. When we visit Janet’s relatives in Brainerd, we have the chance to see a lot of them at her aunt’s house. She has a couple of feeders that the goldfinches love.
Making Mandalas
Here I explain a little about the process I follow for making mandalas, such as those I will create for backers of my Kickstarter campaign for the Light Chaser project.
Light Chaser Stories: Scene 1
Thanks for supporting the Kickstarter campaign for Light Chaser. Here’s a story that sets the context for the exhibit.
As a light chaser, it helps to plan ahead, as light is an elusive and ever-changing creature. I had been waiting for some months to go out on the weekend of a new moon to create a star trail photo at Kinstone, a favorite hangout of mine in Wisconsin. Each time a weekend would fall near a new moon, my efforts were thwarted by cloudy skies, it seemed. Finally, a clear weekend was forecast so I made the drive from Rochester to Fountain City well after sundown to start my quest.
