Last night I had the chance to go to Longwood Gardens again to see the light installation by Bruce Munro. This time I took my camera and tripod with me to take a few pictures - I went up to see the lights earlier this summer in June as well, during that visit I really took my time in looking and finding views that I knew I wanted to come back and photograph. The art installation consists of various fiber optic consturctions - adding a soft ever changing glow to some of the gardenscapes. The one that I photographed the most (and it's my favorite) was the forest walk installation, containing 20,000 glass spheres along the pathway.

My favorite image of the evening actually came from not from my favorite installation (the forest walk) but from the Water Towers - combined with the full (blue) moon.

The installation pieces will be on display at the gardens through September 29th, if you have the opportunity to get to Kennett Square to see it, I highly recommend it. Just to be able to walk around and spend time with these magical creations is quite the treat. I'm going to try to go back at least once or twice more before the end of the month. 

While at the Pennsic War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsic_War) this year I decided to do a little documentation of one of the somewhat typical severe storms that roll through. As the storm broke and the sun was setting we were treated to some wonderful cloudscapes.

it's kinda grey and threatening rain today so here's a little some color to add to your saturday. Enjoy! (Nina is a dancer in the baltimore area whom I've had the pleasure of taking a few classes from, she is wonderful and so is her troupe Aubergine)

I haven't posted any kind of updates in a long long while.... so I feel it's about time that I do so :)

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! I'm finding that my pace of work has slowed since graduating university and getting a full time day job, spending on average about a year on a painting (at least I work on 3 or 4 at a time usually). The trade off is that I feel like the work has gotten more elaborate and detailed and I've been really happy with where I'm going and I'm dedicated to continuing.

Lately that progress has been a bit derailed by circumstance, namely a major fire in the apartment that I was living in which lead to my current temporary living arrangements and gearing up to buy a house - at which point I'll leave my rented studio space and set up shop in my new basement. I have paintings (and eveything else really) to clean, moving to do, and 3 freshly stretched and gessoed canvases ready and waiting.... oh what fun I have in store for those clean white surfaces....

Jen

Summer time...

So I've been a bit absent from the internet over the past few months. Kind of hard to believe in this current day and age I'm sure... But we've had a beautiful spring here in the Mid-Atlantic and the summer has begun full force with a serious heat wave the past few days. I have to say it's just what I wanted after the cold fierce winter we had. Since my last post I've gone on vacation to San Diego, opened my etsy store, and finished a few paintings. I thought I would post a few pictures here so you can see what I've been up to. Enjoy!

Research

Research is a good thing... I've been moving towards Persian rugs lately. The motifs are often similar to the ones that I've found while looking at mosaics and illuminations, but the styles and particularly the history of carpetry seems a little more robust to me. I'm particularly drawn to the idea of the Tree of Life carpet designs - it could make for some interesting symbolism. But for now, I'm just beginning to look.

Mid-winter thoughts

The holidays are done, and a few days ago I saw a headline on the News Journal website that I hadn't seen in a long time. "Local Muslims Fear Backlash" I was a little busy with enjoying the company of my brother who came from out of town and just doing the normal holiday 'holy crap my brain can't take anymore work' relaxation thing - so I wasn't really paying attention to the national news until a while after the whole underwear bomber thing occurred. Was I surprised that someone tried to do something stupid? No - not really. I think it would make a really good Darwin Award actually.

What I was surprised to hear was the suggested methods for increasing our airport security soon after. I actually had to listen to a close family member argue in *favor* of racial profiling to prevent fundamentalist Islamic attacks. Of course this particular family member is a fundamentalist Christian. Not long after that, its body scanner talk all over the place. I'm planning on flying in about a month, and I will not stand in front of one of those stupid things. But I'm also blonde haired and blue eyed with very pale skin. My name is about as White Bread and Mayonaise as it gets. I probably won't be given any problems. All I know is that I think that the local Delaware Muslims who inspired that article are right to be scared. Because there are people out there who are arguing in favor of racial profiling.

When will other White Bread and Mayonaise people learn that its ok to have a little variety in your culture? Avoiding racial profiling is not being "politically correct" its an effort to find more accurate and efficient methods.

Carpet Miniature

gouache on paper

2"x3"