Author Archive
Things I Fancy: January 10
Image via the Guardian
Things that are striking my fancy this week:
- I always have about 10 projects laying around that I have abandoned because I think that they are “not good enough” (not counting the projects I’ve sketched out but am scared to try because they will not be perfect). This perfectionism streak is something that I have been trying to work on and Tara’s post on Scoutie Girl this week about Perfectionism is a Process is now in my rotation to read when I’m headed down the perfectionist path.
- A few years back I discovered salted caramels and they are delicious. My Baking Addiction posted these Vanilla Bean Caramels with Fleur de Sel this morning and the next dinner party I go to I’m offering to bring them as a thank you (hint, hint).
- These Pac-Man snow ghosts popped up a couple times this week in my RSS reader and each time they appeared they made me giggle.
- This YouTube piece about Scott Schumann, aka, The Sartorialist, came across my RSS reader this morning. I had not heard of him before, but he’s an ex-fashion industry guy turned street photographer. I popped over to his blog and poked around for about 20 minutes and was really impressed with the images I saw. However, the reason I am sharing this is for a quote that he said during the YouTube piece: ”I just started doing [photography]… The way I do it is just the way I do it.” This really resonated with me as someone who has no traditional training and just figures things out as I go along.
- Finally, the image posted above is one of many of the gorgeous images that are part of a new book “The Ruins of Detroit” by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre. The Guardian posted a gallery of images from this book and the images are a powerful voice to show the decay that the city has undergone over the last decade.
Destruction
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Destruction
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: some sort of construction equipment that created a huge mess while tearing down a building.
Raygun Gothic Rocketship
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Raygun Gothic Rocketship
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: the Raygun Gothic Rocketship that has been installed on the Embarcadero since August. I love the retro-aspect of this sculpture and attempted to emphasize it with my iPhone processing.
Dial
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Dial.
This image was taken on the same walk to the SFMOMA as the iPhone photo I posted last week. True to my photographic fascination for old objects, signs are no exception. I loved the colors of this sign (which I admit I have enhanced via photoshop) against the sky. I also find it amusing that the crop I selected resulted in the sign stating “Dial.” As always I enjoy hearing your feedback about new images.
Things I Fancy: January 3
Things that are striking my fancy this week:
- As soon as I finish the stirrup socks that I mentioned last time, I’m making this adorable aviator-style knitted cap.
- This petal origami skirt is so adorable, but I don’t know if my sewing skills is good enough to figure out how to make it.
- This image above is from April 2010, when Banksy fever hit SF after he visited here promoting his movie Exit through the Gift Shop. I finally got around to watching it this week. If you haven’t checked out this film, add it to your short list. My cynical side has concluded that this is all a long hoax perpetrated by Banksy, but the film makes you think about who is an artist, what is art, when is art legitimate, and what is street art. Regardless of whether Banksy created a documentary or a commentary on street art, it is worth watching.
- Speaking of street art, I love this photo collage project by Fabian David. The artist set up a photo booth on the street and then created a wheat paste collage of the images on a wall.
- Finally, my dear friends at Lightbox SF have launched a different kind of 365 photography project, entitled Creative Exposures Photo Project. It’s all about capturing the raw inspiration all around you on a daily basis, opening your eyes and seeing the things that catch your eye.
Cracked
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Cracked
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: my roommate and I walked from our house to the SFMOMA to check out the Henri-Cartier Bresson exhibit. On our way we decided that we would take pictures along the theme of ‘cracked.’ This odd little plastic thing implanted into concrete was my favorite shot. I like the pop of color in the gray background.
Last Thursday Food/Drink Inspiration
Image from Smitten Kitchen
Over the last few days I’ve been thinking about what my personal, artistic, and professional goals will be for 2011. About a month ago, I started a file of blog posts that I wanted to consider when creating my 2011 projects and goals for my website (including this journal). One of the blog posts I tagged was a post written by my friend Genevieve over on SF Bay Area Etsy Street Team about finding a theme for your blog. This is a topic that I had discussed with her and Shelly during one of my Lightbox SF consultations, but I feel like I’ve never really carried it out to the extent that I should (even though I somehow get mentioned in her post).
For those of you that know me well, you know that I am slightly obsessed with food. While I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, during law school this passion has reached a new level. Cooking has come to be a creative endeavor that I can accomplish everyday. While I may not be able to pick up my SLR for several days at a time, each day I can create something not only delicious and nutritious, but something that challenges me creatively. While I was pondering what my theme for my blog really should be, I was perusing several of the cooking blogs that I frequent thinking about what I was going to cook for dinner. I then decided that maybe this was a component that I should be including in my theme, since cooking is such a central part of my life.
To that end, I’m going to test out if this topic fits in with the theme that I have developed for this year. To start, I’d like to share some of the cooking blogs that I frequent, not only for the recipes but because they have fantastic food photography.
First up is Deb of Smitten Kitchen. She combines beautiful images taken in her small NYC apartment with delicious recipes. While I hardly ever follow a recipe, I usually stick to 95% of Deb’s recipes and I’ve never been disappointed.
Image from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Of course, no list of food photography blogs would be complete without mentioning Ree from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. To me, this woman’s life is crazy, she lives on a ranch in the middle of Oklahoma, gets up at the crack of dawn, teaches her kids at home, and somehow finds time to cook and create fantastic photo tutorials for all of her recipes. I’m not sure how she does it, but she’s a rock star. If that’s not enough street cred, she went head to head against Bobby Flay cooking Thanksgiving dinner and won.
Finally for baking, I regularly get ideas from Buns in My Oven and My Baking Addiction. Both of these sites I utilize not only as a jumping board for my own creations, but will often utilize their recipes almost in their entirety.
I hope you enjoy this new idea I’m testing out and as always please let me know what you think via comments below or via email.
Finals Week Inspiration
I just wanted to post a couple things that have helped keep me motivated as finals week approaches.
I’m loving these iPhone/iPad wallpapers available from Poolga, of course my two favorites involve an owl and a bike.
Speaking of owls, I keep trying to decide how to mix-and-match this 2011 Owl Calendar from My Owl Barn.
These stirrup socks that fit under boots are on my knitting list as soon as I’m done with finals and making Christmas presents, of course.
After reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer I’ve been wanting to send more letters and these cards are so dang cute.
Finally, I’ve been getting lots of photography inspiration from the Fraction Magazine Holiday Print Sale.
Hope you have a fantastic week!
Old School Bike Seat
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, Bike Seat.
Every semester I have grand plans of being able to keep up on both my art projects and my schoolwork. And every semester (about a month in) the art projects seem to fall by the wayside and school takes over my life. While I have more free time in my last year of law school than I did my first year, I still have yet to find the right balance of art time and school time. While that is no excuse for not updating the blog, that’s where I’ve been.
Earlier this week, I was avoiding doing some school work and looking through my photography archives. The main reason I started back through the archives was because I am craving a trip to Abbey Country. But in the process I came across this image. I took it when I was out and about shooting for the 200 Yards Show at Heart a few months back. While I ended up settling on another image of the bike for the show, there is something about this image that really resonated with me this week. In playing around with this image, I settled on a browner-tinged single tone image, rather than traditional black and white and like how it turned out. Hopefully, it resonates with you this week as well.
Rattlesnake Grass
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Rattlesnake Grass
This image was taken over the summer while on a fantastic camping trip to San Simeon with some good friends. I played around with it a bit and wasn’t sure how I felt about the image. To me, it was a little random, which I thought was representative of California Annual Grasslands, but I wasn’t sure the random-ness created a good image. On the other hand, I really liked the curves of the rattlesnake grasses and the processing technique I used (it reminded me of a photo that had sat out in the sun for the afternoon). However, I wasn’t sure how the viewer would react to the image, because I was mixed about the photo.
At the beginning of July, I joined an online photo community, Weekly Shot. When I heard about Weekly Shot the concept really appealed to me. I was looking for an online photo community, where I could get feedback on my photos but I wanted that feedback to be done in a manner that was less about if they liked me and my style and more based on the image itself. Weekly Shot seemed to fit the bill.
Last week the theme for Weekly Shot was Ground Level. A few weeks back, I decided that I was going to submit images not in the hopes of getting “featured,” but shots that I really wanted feedback on how the image worked. Since this shot fit the theme, I submitted it. The feedback on the shot was mixed, but somehow it got featured. So now I open the shot up to a wider audience. Does it work?
P.S. It’s easy to leave comments on the new theme, just click on the comment link on the line right below the post.
Jars and Canisters
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Jars and Canisters
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: the final shot from the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple Fair. Near all the old machines they had this table of objects. I’ve been in a bit of a mason jar collecting phase as of late and I love the colors of the food canisters.
Maytag Washer
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Maytag Washer
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: another one of the machines I found at the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple Fair. This old Maytag washer was well used and I liked the textural component of the “Maytag” label on the side of the machine.
37.751151, -122.420147
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, 37.751151, -122.420147.
This is the second image that I’ll be featuring at the 200 Yards show opening tonight at Heart (24th and Valencia). The other I posted a few weeks back. If you are in San Francisco please stop by tonight and say hi, or stop by Heart anytime before September 20th and check out the show.
Joni Sternbach
©Joni Sternbach
This week my inspiration post features Joni Sternbach. I first learned of Joni’s work via the 500 Photographers project. What makes Joni’s work unique to me, is the fact that she focuses on methods less commonly used in the digital age. All of the photographs I’ve chosen to feature with this post are part of her SurfLand series and are one-of-a-kind tintypes (thus the reverse lettering). All of the tintypes are made on location with a portable darkroom. To me these methods have a textural component that is impossible to create in the digital darkroom and creates an added layer of interest.
©Joni Sternbach
Joni currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and primarily photographs in areas close to her home. In addition to being a photographer Joni has been an Adjunct Instructor in Photography for more than 20 years and currently teaches wet collodion photography workshops with ICP and the Center for Alternative Photography in New York City.
Joni entered art school as a fine art major, but after dabbling in photography for a year and a half decided to change her major and has been working in the field of photography ever since. After art school she worked as a professional black and white printer and was able to print for Mary Ellen Mark, Dennis Stock, and Danny Lyon.
Joni’s work has evolved over the years. The past ten years Joni has been making landscape-based photographs, capturing landscapes, seascapes, and the human imprint on these areas. She uses both large format film and wet collodion, either as a tintype, ambrotype, or glass negative. Joni works in an intituve way, and doesn’t aim for a specific style. She has found that her more successful photographs have a minimal amount of information, with plenty of space for the eye to travel through the photograph.
The ocean is a huge inspiration for Joni. She has returned regularly to the same locations which has lead her to examine the land and sea juncture, a subject matter in a constant state of transition, with surfers playing a pivotal role. Joni is facinated by both the physical and poetic way that they reside on the seascape. She is inspired by the people that she meets on the beach and photographs and the lifestyle that they choose to live. As a city dweller, the idea of coming to the beach several times a day, sometimes just to look, seems impossible to Joni.
©Joni Sternbach
©Joni Sternbach
I hope that you are also inspired by Joni’s work. Please scoot over to her website to see all of her amazing photographs.
Red Machine
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Red Machine.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: a section of old machines at the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple Fair this weekend. I was enamored with the whole section of machines. You could see exactly how each of them worked and they seemed logical to repair, unlike so many modern machines.
Shelly Kerry
Before meeting Shelly Kerry, of Em’s Studio, I don’t think I wore earrings for more than 10 years. But I love Shelly’s style (and it doesn’t hurt that she is a fantastic person) and over the course of getting to know her, I’ve learned more about her craft. This knowledge has made me appreciate the art of jewelry making and has translated into the beginnings of a handmade jewelry collection based on pieces by Shelly and other local artists.
©Shelly Kerry
Shelly grew up with really crafty women in her family and she can recall making projects with them during the summer months and vacations. Some of Shelly’s earliest memories are of spending days entertaining herself with a pencil and crayon, drawing and doodling on the floor of her living room.
She dabbled in many art forms before she fell in love with jewelry making. This love affair started when she realized that she could make jewelry better than a lot of the cheap pieces she was purchasing in chain stores. She learned by deconstructing pieces, taking them apart and figuring out how they were made. She then took questions to her jewelry maker friends and after taking a few classes, began selling pieces at local shows. For Shelly jewelry making satisfies her love of manipulating little things – twisting wires and playing with delicate pieces. Her style often leans towards big and raw, but there are always small, precious parts to each of her pieces. Her pieces often contain the juxtaposition of a raw, rough stone with a glitzy chain.
©Shelly Kerry
Shelly draws her inspiration from color and textures. Something as simple as the pattern on a dress or the color of an unknown plant are examples of items that have inspired a new line of pieces. She also takes 30 to 45 minutes each day to look through art and design blogs and magazines in order to get external inspiration. From personal experience, I am inspired regularly on Shelly’s ability to draw inspiration from the most unlikely places. She has the ability to keep her eyes and mind open to the possibility that anything could be inspirational. Another important aspect of being creative to Shelly is to live each day creatively, not tucking away things at 5 pm, but living every second of life as an opportunity to express yourself. She fosters this by surrounding herself with creative and supportive people and maintaining her home/studio in a visually and mentally stimulating way.
In addition to making beautiful jewelry she is one of the owners of Lightbox SF. Lightbox SF is designed to be a support system for emerging artists. They offer consulting services to these artists to assist them with things like marketing, public relations, social media, or line sheets. Their eventual goal is to create a workspace and gallery that will create a creative community for the resident artists. They also organize two art event series, The Crafty Hour and 200 Yards. The Crafty Hour is a combination of a craft show and happy hour, that features about a dozen artists who sale their wares right in the bar. While 200 Yards is a gallery show where all pieces have been created within 200 yards of the host location (yes, this is the upcoming show I am in).
Shelly is another fantastic creative person that I feel lucky to know and I hope you will take the time to investigate out her work.
37.754252, -122.421015
©2011 Kiffanie Stahle, 37.754252, -122.421015.
I want to apologize for my absence from the blog, I’ve been busy and have let my posts go to the wayside. While that is a lame excuse, it’s the best that I’ve got.
However, I’m excited to let you all know that the above image as well as another will be featured in the 200 Yards show that opens on August 18th. All the featured images have been taken within 200 yards of the host location (Heart near 24th and Valencia). This project was a challenge for me. The first challenge was the fact that 200 yards is not a large area (about one city block in either direction). The second was a creative process hurdle. While I have shot images on a theme previously, I’ve never been totally happy with the outcome. I’m still trying to figure out the creative process that works for me with themed shoots. Luckily this time around, there were lots of little details, some of my favorite subjects.
Both the images that I’ll be featuring are textural black and whites, because of that I chose a method of printing I’ve been wanting to use for a while, aluminum. I had them printed at Bay Photo, they arrived yesterday and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I’d love it if you would drop by the show and let me know what you think.
Geraniums in a Row
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Geraniums in a Row
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: These pots were on the windowsill of the lighthouse in Monterey. I love the texture of the wood in contrast with the clean lines of the terra cotta pots.
Window of Owls
©2010 Kiffanie Stahle, Window of Owls.
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: One of my all-time favorite window displays in San Francisco. It’s located right near Dolores Park and is an entire collection of OWLS!
Dump Trucks
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: A little hidden playground in the Mission that I happened upon. I love the primary colors of kids toys.
Weathered Gate
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: another photo obsession of mine, taking photos of objects weathered by time and nature.
Jill Allyn Stafford
I was really honored when Jill Allyn Stafford said that I could write a post about her art. I’ve known Jill for several years now and am lucky enough to have one of her pieces in my house (plus a little ATC card that sits in the corner of my mirror). Jill somehow has the time to be the artistic director of Vox Sacramento in addition to being a mom, an artist, and working full time as a legal assistant. What I admire most about Jill’s work is the way she utilizes negative space, which is something that I struggle with.
Jill began creating art in her mid-30′s. She started realizing that she had images in her head that she wanted to place on paper. Claiming that she had no natural talent for drawing or painting. Jill started by cutting images out of magazines using them to create a new story. Jill’s work has now evolved from using recognizable images, to tearing up paper and creating a piece based on colors and textures, to creating everything by hand and using images from photographs she’s taken.
Traditionally, Jill has focused on one image and using that created a piece that worked around that image. However, Jill’s latest work is inspired by her friend Jennifer Hoffmann, who died of breast cancer last year. From Jill’s description of Jennifer it sounds like she was an amazing woman and I can see why she has been the driving force in Jill’s work the past year. Jill describes Jennifer this way:
She found the strength to leave an unhappy marriage, met and married the man she was supposed to be with, and almost immediately discovered she had stage IV breast cancer. Her diagnosis didn’t deter her from living life completely and fully and with all the deepest love and affection she could have possibly wanted.
Dragon Knocker
Another iPhone capture of things that catch my eye. This time: the contrast of the brass on the red paint.
Fine Art Photoblog Guest Contributor
Guess what! I’m today’s guest contributor over at Fine Art Photoblog. Today they are featuring one of my favorite images, A Study of Rhythm and Feet No. 6. Head over and check out my photograph and all of the other photographs on their site.