Rhodes Scholar and CVA Holiday Show

First of all, I’d like to congratulate one of my current students, Ashley Nord. She was just named one of this years Rhodes Scholars! I will be the first to say that, being her Digital Photography instructor, I had everything nothing to do with her success. Here’s her bio in the official press release:

Ashley L. Nord, Rapid City, will graduate in December from the University of Minnesota with a triple major in physics, astrophysics and global studies, and a minor in Spanish. A pole vaulter who won fourth place in the Big Ten championships, she has conducted research in biophysics at ULCA and astronomy at the Universities of Hawaii and Minnesota. She has also been active as a tutor, and is writing a senior thesis on the drug trade between Latin America and the United States. At Oxford, Ashley will do a doctorate in physics.

I want to invite all of you to the College of Visual Arts Holiday Sale! Current students, faculty, staff, and alumni have work VERY reasonably priced at this holiday sale in St. Paul. The sale contains work that is all priced under $200! And there's a silent auction for more expensive pieces. The artists receive 50% of the sale, and the remainder goes to different scholarship funds at the College. Come check it out! I’ll be there for the preview party on Friday night, and then for the sale on Saturday.

173 Western Ave, St. Paul
(@ Western and Selby)

December 6th, 10 am - 4 pm



See you there!

The Minne Photo Show

Tonight was the opening of the “Minne Photo Show” at Fallon in downtown Minneapolis. It was a collection of great Minnesotan photographers, and I was honored to be a part of it!

You can see the writeup about the show here: http://www.fallon.com/minnephotoshow/

In case that site isn’t up forever, here are 2 screen shots. This is the little write-up about which art is on which floor (I’m the one with the church and the Clydesdales on the 25th floor):

And here’s my work on their site, right next to my friend Erika Ritzel:

I got a “private tour” of the show with their art buyer, Kerri, along with 2 of the photographers in the show: Brian Lesteberg (whom I’ve known since grad school) and Kristine Heykants (whom I met in Santa Fe over 2 years ago [even though she’s a local]).

I hope everyone at Fallon is able to enjoy the great local work on their walls for a few more weeks!

Lunchtime Lecture at CVA

Two days ago, I gave a “Lunchtime Lecture” at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. I presented the last few bodies of work from the last few years for the students, faculty, and staff. When it was over, Kelly Hulander (who sets up the lectures) told me that there were 3 times the amount of people at my talk than at any of the others! Great! I hope they liked it!

Show at Silver Eye Center For Photography

The 2-person show that I was just a part of recently came down. It was in the New Works Gallery at the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA. Here are 2 screenshots from their website:

And a close-up:

It's interesting how they paired me with another Mid-Westerner. I don't know how that makes me feel...

Anyway, back to teaching. Time to go push back the frontiers of vagueness...

New Work

I've finally scanned a few negatives that I made a few weeks ago. As always, here are some that have potential (these were all shot in the house, which is something new for this project):

“Dad's Stereo”


“Thermometers”


“The Back Porch Closet”


“The Basement Sink”


“The Canning Shelves”


“Holding The Freezer Shut”

Work at Fallon’s HQ

I was recently contacted by an art buyer from Fallon (world renowned design firm - among other things, they produced the famous “Cat Herding” Super Bowl commercial a few years ago). Their art buyer wanted to hang 2 of my pieces at Fallon’s headquarters in downtown Minneapolis (Fallon also has offices in London, Singapore, and Tokyo). I went downtown this morning to drop off the pieces.

Here they are outside of my car, ready to be delivered (I’m such a geek for taking a photo of this, I know). The smaller image is framed 18x22, and the larger image is framed 23x28:

I call this image “Two Photos and Wheel-Well Rust.”

I headed up to the 24th floor and dropped of the work. Then I took a minute to enjoy the view. Here are the fall colors in the distance from 24 stories up:

Out another window was the Foshay Tower:

After taking in the views, I thanked the woman who helped me at Fallon, and took a minute to walk along the farmers market down Nicollet Ave:

New images shortly. I promise...

Random New Developments

I’ve been BUSY. Here are some thing going on right now:

• Yesterday, I just sent some work off to the Silver Eye Center For Photography in Pittsburgh, PA. I’m going to be featured in a 2-person show in their “New Works Gallery.” (I’ll also be featured on their online gallery too, and I’ll post that link when it’s up.) The show will be up from mid-October through mid-November. Here’s some matted work in my studio that I was getting ready to box up:

All of these prints are (about) 15” x 18”, and their matted size is 20” x 24”.

• Today, I finally had some time to get caught up on some contact sheets. I had 3 “outings” to make photos in the past month, and I hadn’t had a chance to make contact sheets of any of those rolls. So I made 22 contact sheets at CVA this morning/afternoon:

I’ll scan some negs of some promising images shortly. Come on back for those.

• Finally, WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE PHOTO WORLD IN THE TWIN CITIES?? This is what I'm talking about:

- In July, the Minnesota Center for Photography closed its doors for good. Our biggest and best “photo-only gallery” in the Cities is no more.

- About 2 months ago, ProColor stopped processing film. I can’t go visit Dan anymore! Procolor was my place!

- Digi-Graphics still processes film, but only 3 days a week!

- I swung into the National Camera in Roseville a few weeks ago, and I learned that they stopped processing film at that location. It would take 10 days to get my processed film back. Today, I stopped there for some 8x10 color paper for contact sheets, but they don’t carry color paper anymore. So I figured I’d get a few Kodak Pro-Packs (film), but THEY WERE OUT! Why bother being a “photo store” anymore?

A Few New Scans

Again, here are a few new scans from an outing about 2 weeks ago. Have a look-see:

“Where the Tree Landed on the Chisel Plow Shed”


“House Plant”


“Windmill and Zinnias over the Well”


“Petunias by the Back Steps”

Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

And stop by again in about a week, because I have many more rolls that I’ll be dropping off to process tomorrow. I shot a lot this weekend, and I’ll get them processed, make some contact sheets, and scan some promising images shortly. I think I’ll have a few goods ones in that group. We'll see...

New Scans

I have some new Holga shots from my current project. I got the negs back yesterday, and I scanned some images before and after teaching at the U. Here are a few that I’ve been looking at:

“Clothesline”


“Hayracks Behind the Barn”


“Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Mom’s Lawn Chair”


“Dad’s Bean Field”


“Dad’s Corn Field”


“East Wall of the Baler Shed”

Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

More Daily Minnesota Publicity

Here are a few more photographs of mine that appeared on the website “Daily Minnesota,” http://www.dailyminnesota.com/. I was their featured artist all last week.

Sept 10th

It couldn’t have been an accident that on Sept 11, they chose to use a photo that I made in a Catholic School called “One Nation Under Bush” which shows 2 images of George Bush on the wall:

Sept 11th


Sept 12th

Please check a few posts below for some new work that I recently made. I’ll be picking up some freshly processed negatives soon, and I’ll be putting more work up here in the next few days. Please check back. Any feedback on my new work would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Daily Minnesota Publicity

Recently, some of my work was featured on a local photography website called “Daily Minnesota.” The address is http://www.dailyminnesota.com/. I had a piece featured yesterday and today:

Sept 8th


Sept 9th

New Images

Here are some of the newest images from the project that I wrote about in my previous post. I actually started working with a Holga. I’ve never really liked images from a Holga because I feel that the photographer is relying too much on the impact of the imperfect image (with how ethereal, out of focus, and vignetted it is).

BUT I think it’s working for this project. It’s about my childhood and my memories, and memories aren’t crystal clear. Please take a look. And any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

“The Picnic Table”


“Mom's Gardening Sandals”


“Garden Tiles”


“Dad's Auger”


“Clover Field”

New Project

I started a new project a few months ago, and it’s already taken a big turn or two. For now, here’s where it started:

My parents are building a new home. This is their “retirement house” as they are about "that age." The old farm will be rented out and eventually sold. This is the farm where I was raised. It is the farm that my Dad was born and raised. Likewise for my Grandmother. It has been in our family for about 120 years. I’m the eldest child in my family, and I’m the only son. It should be my job to take over the family farm. But here I am in the “big city” working as an artist.

This is the final year that they will be in the home when I was raised. I wanted to create some photos based on childhood memories of growing up on the farm. Here are some initial images:

“The three oaks”


“Juiced oranges in the cornfield”


“Receding frost line”


“Dad’s workbench”


“Holding the freezer shut”

I’m not sure why I’m showing you these because the project has changed quite a bit (or at least a little bit), so these aren’t “usable” images anymore.

I took one roll of film with a Holga, and here was an image that came from that:

“Where Ginger died”

The project took a bit of a turn here. I’ll be back shortly with some new images.