Haruki Murakami on Writing

The problem with talent, though, is that in most cases the person involved can't control its amount or quality. You might find the amount isn't enough and you want to increase it, or you might try to be frugal to make it last longer, but in neither case do things work out that easily. Talent has a mind of its own and wells up when it wants to, and once it dries up, that's it.

From What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

How Great is This Kid?

Answer: REALLY, REALLY GREAT. A few weeks ago Oliver was helping me out in the studio-- for the first time ever I had him actually helping me with a shoot. I was struggling for space and places to put things as per usual, and probably swearing in a mostly child-approved way. Oliver then suggested that I take his room for my studio, and give him my studio for his bedroom.

I was blown away by his generosity. This suggestion of his was totally unprompted or hinted at. In fact I was reluctant to consider it at first. As it turns out, this weekend I primed and painted my studio to make it a nice clean space for Ollie's new bedroom. I'm going to have a much, much bigger studio now, with more light, in Ollie's old bedroom. And he's going to get a new bunk bed in the bargain, which seems only fair.

Photograph of Oliver Beck-Horne at his grandparents house in Winston-Salem, NC taken by his sister and talented SVA photo student Chloe Beck.

Moon Doctor

Entered the studio gingerly this weekend. I had lots of ideas, but felt really distant from them. I have a little book all about the moon in my studio--and I read part of one chapter about a "Moon Doctor" from the 1780's. He treated patients at night by having them hold their afflicted body part out of the window, towards the moon. His wife worked with him-- she used the south-facing window and he used the north-facing one. This I loved, and thought of various ways I might mine this scenario for my own purposes..

Caleb Charland Show at Michael Mazzeo

The show opening May 5th at Michael Mazzeo Gallery is Charland's first solo show, and it's about time! I'm a big fan of his work-- I was able have him shoot some very creative stuff for me when I was at Discover (some of those images will be in this upcoming show), a couple of times, which was exciting. I especially love the above of palms with ink spots. Michael Mazzeo gallery represents some of the most interesting contemporary photographers working today-- and I have to hand it to Michael for his risk-taking with new photography and curating. Mazzeo's gallery was a regular stop for me on my monthly gallery tours, and I've really missed it since starting at the Journal.

Barfing Salt

Here is a rough test. Working on refining this one. Need to get another backdrop- a black paper one. The fabric one I have keeps needing to be ironed, and it is 12x10 feet. I can't stand it when I end up doing tasks that are like housework for my artwork. It makes me crazy! SO. One black seamless coming up.

Hand in Glove

Working away at finding the best expression of this glove image I'm still struggling with. This one I like, but I don't think it is the most interesting of them so far. Need a female hand model for this weekend's shoot.

My Hedcut

Have begun blogging again in the big media-sphere, this time as a contributor on the Ideas Market blog for The Wall Street Journal. I'll be covering some of the same kinds of topics I covered with Visual Science, so I hope you'll follow my posts if you are interested. This week I wrote about the multimedia artist Aaron Koblin whose work I've been following with interest. It is amazing how much better I feel about life when I can do some writing. I just need it to keep things interesting.