I’m getting exited about the upcoming workshop that I will be co-teaching with Liz Titone! It will be held online through the Los Angeles Center of Photography. The Alchemic Union of Text and Image starts on April 25th and there are still spaces available.
One of the perks of working with myself and Liz is that everything in the workshop is tailored to your interests. We start out by providing you with some exercises and a guided first assignment and the rest of the workshop is then created according to your needs. This is all about the student experience! We also work hard to make the online space friendly and comfortable. It’s been a few years since we all started using Zoom and many of us are worn out from sharing online spaces. Do not worry, we are doing our best to make the most of the platform and make sure you do not end up feeling tired from using it! Our goal is to enliven and inspire your creative process, not to wear you out.
Over the last few years, I have learned to organize my year around different types of creative production. The first part of the year is for writing grants and seeking opportunities. The second part is for creative production and the middle and end of the year are for showing work and getting ready for the next year. Keeping this schedule in mind helps to remind me that I am making progress, even if it sometimes doesn’t feel that way. It’s been seven years since I quit working in corporate jobs and while I definitely miss having a regular paycheck and some of the social interactions and support networks that come with working for large organizations, I am happy to have the opportunity to recreate my work life as an artist.
Here are some things I have been working on:
The above photo was made in March. Now it is April and if I went to this location, it would look almost exactly the same. We are currently in the middle of a wet, heavy, warm spring snowstorm. Maybe the last one of the season, maybe not. Having grown up in southern California, this seems strange to me. Not just a little strange but really really strange. I still think it should be warm and sunny this time of year.
Collecting facades is a thing that I do pretty continuously. They are interesting. I like the history, geometry and personality of buildings. There is a long history of photographers who do exactly this and I am happy to be one of them.
Quebec City is about a 4.5 hour drive from where I live in northern Maine. Just close enough to easily drive there in a day. Living next to a French-speaking country has been a revelation for me. Growing up in California in the 1970’s and 80’s, I had no idea that there was any place in Canada where English wasn’t the first and only language. I didn’t know about indigenous languages or the other colonizer languages, such as French. …Just clueless! It took actual visits Quebec to realize that not only is French the first language there, it is also not unusual for people to not speak any English at all. During my last visit, I learned that the United States tried to colonize the area along the Saint Laurence river. It is hard to imaging that part of Canada being American, but it wasn’t that long ago that all of it was being negotiated a.k.a stolen. The wall in the image above was built by the British to keep the Americans out.
This week is the solar eclipse and the weather is looking clear. Normally tourism is low in this part of Maine, as most visitors flock to the coastal areas, but there is a good chance there will be a very large influx of visitors here for the solar event. There are not very many Big Exiting Things that happen around here and swarms of people are definitely a Big Exiting Thing. I’m looking forward to actually being able to do some people watching, which is a form of urban entertainment that I miss a lot. The photo above is of part of the solar system model that goes along Route 1 in Aroostook county. It’s a sad model of our solar system that is made to scale. As far as roadside attractions go, it’s pretty disappointing, but also kind of iconic, in a failed public art kind of way.
Do you form relationships with places that you like to revisit? That is my primary creative process. Re-visiting the same places over and over because I like to watch the light and the subtle changes. This van is for sale (want a yellow van?) and doesn’t move, so it had become one of the places that I watch, waiting for the perfect combinations of light and weather. I like the feeling of the interactions of color, form and geometry. I also love the way bright colors look in the snow.
In other news: In May I will have two pieces in the spring show at Artemis Gallery in Northeast Harbor, Maine. In June I will have a show up at The Common Gallery in Presque Isle and in the fall I will have a show at the Northeastland Hotel lobby in Presque Isle.
Thank you for following along with my creative practice, I hope all is well.
XO -Morgain
I’ve been thinking lately about what I like to photograph, so I really enjoyed your thoughts on buildings and their personalities. They add character to a place and tell you something about the people/community at the same time. There is a sadness I feel when one of them disappears, like an old friend gone forever. I admire their structure or bones, wonder what goes on inside the walls, or what history they hold. Lots of interesting things.