photography

Bonjour 40 on Amazon

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Bonjour 40 Paris Travel

 

I’ve done it. You probably have, too. I’ve Google searched my own name to see what comes up. This week, I searched Amazon under Bonjour 40: A Paris Travel log. Typing in various words and phrases from the title, I wanted to see what other items might come up. I found a plethora of fun things from teapots to paintings. So, I gathered of few of them to share.

In just a few days, there will also be one more item. A print version of Bonjour 40! Readers who bought the e-book containing nearly 40 images, begged for more. Fans without e-readers begged for print. Those who love to armchair travel holding something tangible, asked when they could get their hands on it. So, here’s the gift I’ve personally designed to bring to all of you.

With over 100 photos, plus a few extra tid-bits, this new expanded version, is an 8.5×8.5, full-color, paperback walk through the streets, markets and delights of Paris. It still has all the content and stories of the original travel log, but now, so much more.

I’m reviewing the proofs now, so stay tuned for the big launch just in time for the holidays! In the meantime, you can click on the image above and find other ways to hold Paris in your hands (my favorite is the My Duckie Paris, black bathtub rubber duckie.)

My proofing copy of Bonjour 40. It’s 132 pages of over 100 full-color photos, journal entries and more! Coming soon to Amazon!

Got Creative Milk?

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What does a dairy farm have to do with the creative process? Nothing. And everything.

I recently toured the family farm of fellow designer, Candace Monaghan. Beaver Dam Farm has about 120 dairy cows. Naturally, there are boy cows who are also born, bred and sold, but the farm primarily produces milk. We wandered over her family’s property hearing stories about how Candace and her sister grew up crawling around inside of hay-lofts. They rose early along with the sun over rolling hills tinted with fall gold. They worked alongside animals and nature. It’s a magical American youth that is lost to most of us. There’s even a goat, Fred, who was simply dropped off on their property one night. He now happily follows workers around like the family dog.

While the tour was a social visit in many ways, my creative process is often enriched when I experience things that have nothing to do with what I do. I saw colors and a view I rarely see. I smelled things both beautiful (air, hay) and foul (manure) that educated my sense of smell.  I saw how this life influenced Candace, and it explains why her photography is so stunning. Her eyes see things through unpolluted, beautiful air.

It’s important to step away from what we do, so we might find new stories and new perspectives. Or, as Monty Python says, “…and now for something completely different.” As for Fred, he just might make it into my book.

First Friday: Sandy Fakes

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At the beginning of this week, the world watched and waited for glimpses of what was happening as horrible Hurricane Sandy swept into New York. We had plenty of warning, and consequently, many designers with Photoshop had plenty of time on their hands. In light of what happened, they are silly now, but I wonder if perhaps some of these images didn’t help those of us who could do nothing but wait.

Did the fake photos allow you to feel compassion for what was happening by providing visuals that made you then search out real ones? Did some of them give you a silly moment in the face of worrying and concern. For me, yes, to both.

I give you a gallery of the Photoshop fakes. The best of which I believe is Chris Henson’s. A designer and copywriter in Virginia, he reworked an image he had posted earlier in the day–a trampoline stuck on wires. I think it’s the best because it was obviously far from reality, but it gave his friends a break we needed. Then we all went back to waiting.

After having now seen all the real images, they are in fact more dramatic than the fakes. We’re stunned. I hope you’ll be spurred into action. Our fellow humans need us. And so do many pets. 

If you took the time to read this post or look at the pictures, I hope you’ll spend five minutes more to send help.  NBC has posted this ‘How To Help After Sandy’ list.

 

 

First Friday: Matt Flowers’ Landscapes

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A Matt Flowers Landscape

Imagine a mountain top. Way up high. With old craggy rocks springing forth with glorious evergreens reaching for the sun. The above artwork is part of a collection by Richmond artist, Matt Flowers. But all is not as it appears. It is not a photo of place. It’s a place created by Matt that and your interaction with it makes you feel huge while at the same shrinking you in an Alice in Wonderland kind of way.

Using driftwood, rocks, moss, enamel, paint and detailed hand work that is surely going to give him early-onset crows-feet, Matt is a sculptor of landscapes that are driven by his photographic eye. In taking pictures of Matt’s work for this post, I quickly realized I was not capturing one of the most essential and remarkable elements of his sculptures. Scale. So I included a frame of reference to help you comprehend the size through a series of images.

Using the found elements and adding in tools like magnifying glasses and backlit screens, Matt engages the viewer to discover life-like imaginary worlds. Some of his pieces use antique lenses tucked into handcrafted boxes mounted on vintage tripods to create small dioramas that make the viewer feel as if they’ve dropped into an H.G. Wells-like world where nothing is as it appears. His tiny details create landscapes that upon closer inspection feel larger, giving the viewer a magical glimpse into another place both of this world and of Matt’s imagination.

This gallery of images of his sculptures better explains the work, and for more information visit Matt Flowers’ website.

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Celebrate the Flag

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A properly hung American Flag in my neighborhood in Church Hill. Photo courtesy of Worthington Photography located here in Richmond. Worthington-photography.com

I’m a Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR), which means I’ve proven I have an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution. Today, the DAR helps share knowledge about our country’s history, including information about the American flag, which is very appropriate for the upcoming Independence Day celebrations. In case you don’t know, there is an official US Flag Code, and it may alter your July fourth party plans.

The flag should not be put on an article of clothing or anything disposable (paper plates, napkins, etc.). Should you really be wiping BBQ sauce off your face with the flag? It shouldn’t have anything beneath it or touch the ground, so no flag table cloths. If you do hang the flag (stripes down), it should be lit at night if it stays outside and come down during bad weather.

Can you burn a flag? Section 8k states: “When it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, [it] should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.” The Girl Scouts is one of the organizations that performs official retirement ceremonies.

You can read the Flag Code in it entirety, or for a more fun review of wrongful uses go to the Flag Wall of Shame. It’s also a great what-not-to-wear guide.

An interesting note: Betsy Ross didn’t design this flag we have today. Our current flag with the 50 stars was designed by a 17-year old, Robert G. Heft, who in 1958 designed it for a school project. He got a B-minus. When it was chosen out of 1500 entries to be the flag, the teacher changed the grade to an A.

Bonjour Bread Festival

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Bread. In Paris. Mais oui! Especially the baguette. Yummy, crunchy-exterior, and soft air-filled morsels of yeasty goodness made by artisans using only four ingredients–flour, yeast, salt, and water. Now, imagine a whole pile of artisans together, under one giant tent filled with ovens, surrounded by flour, linens, rising dough and free samples of bread (and cheese).

Each year in Paris, beginning the Monday before May 16th and lasting for a full week, they celebrate Fête du Pain. May 16th is the day of Saint-Honoré, the patron saint of bakers. I just happened upon the celebration while I was there last year. My nose found the massive tent near Notre Dame before my eyes did. Drifting from it was the rich smell of fresh baked bread like my mother baked until I was sixteen. That same delicious scent would greet me coming up the walk from school, so my nose knows what it’s doing when it comes to eeking out fresh baked bread.

The festival, however is more than just a collection of officially designated artisans. It’s in part, a competition. So in addition to baguettes you see them forming the most remarkable feats with dough. Faces. Brie baked inside. Flowers formed with it. And you can witness the whole process. Oh la la. It’s so decadent.

There were so many great pictures from the festival last year, I’ve put in the gallery below – just click to enlarge. There’s also this little YouTube video so you can feel like you are there. Sans smells, of course.

First Fridays: Bonjour “Paris in Color”

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This month’s First Friday artist sticks with the Bonjour Paris theme: Nichole Robertson is another writer, photographer and Parisian-lover. She has a delightful book out called Paris in Color. Yes, Paris is definitely photograph-able. But Nichole takes it to a lovely work of art level by gathering her images together by color.

Before she moved to Paris for a year, she began a site called Little Brown Pen. The name and the site are adorable and it links you to the book, a bit of info about Nichole and the photography collection she dubbed “The Paris Color Project.” After moving to Paris, she would head out with her camera, and when a colorful item grabbed her attention, she’d take photos of that color for the day. As she says in the book, “Nothing sharpens your senses like a new address.”

Upon returning home each night, she’d post the colorful images. Now those images can be found in her book. They can also be found in The Paris Print Shop. It’s a site Nichole and her husband set up to sell the images, postcards and more. And her work has gone on to be featured by Martha Stewart, Real Simple, and The New York Times among others.

Are you green with envy for that little Vespa you saw near the market? Now you can own a collection dedicated to the color. Are your skies gray because you miss Paris terribly. Or perhaps yellow is how you are feeling today. This yellow image is downloadable for your desktop wallpaper from her publisher’s facebook page at Chronicle Books.

The Color of Spring

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Although Spring has come early this year, I can’t say I’m disappointed. I tire easily of the somber gray and black that seems to saturate my wardrobe and the skies during winter. So bring on spring and all it’s wonderful bloomin’ color.

For designers, spring means that Pantone®, the world-renowned authority on color, is releasing it’s spring color suggestions. While the colors are focused on fashion, they’re also a marvelous tool to help guide graphic designers, product developers and even consumers in their choices. Rather than simply setting a trend, the color guide is more of a reflection of the mood or psychology of society. We’ve been “occupied” under drab tents all winter in a recessed economy, and what the masses are primed and ready for is optimism. So hello “Solar Power” yellow. Spring in “Tangerine Tango” orange. And when all else fails, drown yourself in “Margarita” green. Here is the Pantone Fashion Spring Color Report.

If that’s not enough fun for designers out there, how about this new online tool from Sherwin-Williams. My friend Jennifer (a First Friday artist previously featured on my blog) sent me this link for “Chip It!”  Let’s say you find a photo online that you love? Chip It! and the little program will pull a color palette from from their 1500 paint chips. That’s a handy little tool for picking room paints, but I can think of a multitude of reasons to use it to pick colors for client projects, too.

Spring in my neighborhood in Richmond, and the Chip It! color palette made from it. Ironically, it's mostly grey. I'll have to find Pantone 224 pink trees somewhere.

Prompts for Reluctant Writers

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I read a quote by Gene Fowler that said, “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

That’s not writing. It’s writer’s block. That nasty thing is like Beetlejuice: I try not to say it too often or it will show up and it won’t go away. So, how do you get over it? Writing prompts.

I can watch ten minutes of a movie about a writer (Shakespeare In Love) and I too pick up the pen. Sometimes I read back over what I wrote the day before until I have to continue the story I’ve begun. Inspirational quotes help.  “I will write my way into another life,” by Ann Patchette is among my favorites.

Christina Reeser, the programmer featured previously here on Compositions, gave me another great idea. She calls herself a “reluctant writer.” Her daughter is encouraging her wordsmithing. Each night she tells Christina to write only one sentence. Who made her happy? What sucked about the day? A quote she heard. Something. Anything. One simple sentence. It doesn’t feel like writing and it’s not overwhelming. It’s a brilliant idea.

To exorcize that writing demon, try writing just one sentence and go from there. One sentence prompts the thinking. One sentence leads to another. Christina may be a reluctant writer, but in a year she’ll have 365 sentences. For novelists, that’s a heck of a great beginning to a full manuscript.

 

Based upon George Clymer, the man who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the photo of this statue in Philadelphia helps inspire me–especially in writing my historical fiction novel about the Declaration.
Although this statue from Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris is of a Greek actor, it still makes me feel like writing. - Photos by Karen A. Chase

 

 

 

Fun with Barbie

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This week both Barbie and I had a birthday. The ultimate blond is 53. I’m thankfully, a little younger. Without going too much into her unrealistic proportions, and her on-again, off-again relationships with Ken and GI Joe, I was stunned to discover I actually have a few things in common with miss size-zero.

• Barbie has changed careers as often as I’ve changed jobs and clients
• Her hair has been whacked, curled, primped, fried and dyed about as often as mine
• When she left Ken, he kept the house, she got the car. (Untrusted “news” source)
• We both bought a bad outfit in the mid-80s based on Moonlighting (see images below)
• At our age, we both have nice legs
• Pink (224) is our thing

Things we don’t have in common? Mattel’s marketing budget, blonde hair,  boobs, and the ability to change nationalities.

I bring up Barbie, because More magazine–a publication for aging women–put together a fabulous birthday photo montage of “Barbie’s Careers Through the Years.” Hilarious, right? More magazine featuring Barbie who never ages! Despite that, the photos are a lovely time-waster for a Friday, and while looking at them I did indeed learn a few things:

• Our children are playing with dolls based upon what women are currently “known for.” (’59 she was a fashion model, ’85 a business executive and ’04 a presidential candidate)
•  My Barbie’s legs wouldn’t bend like they do in the article, so even Barbie gets “Photoshopped” these days
• Barbie clearly likes being a ballerina, as she’s done it more than once
• Maybe Barbie is fit because she works out so much (ballerina, gymnast, Olympic skier)
• Barbie doesn’t stick to doing just one thing, and perhaps that’s what keeps her young

I’ll apply a few of those thoughts to my own life. Enjoy the photos of Barbie’s Career changes and have a great weekend.

Maddie and Barbie dress similarly in the mid-80s. Moonlighting image: mptvimages.com
My peach outfit based on Maddie's shiny one. Yea, those bangs were a good idea, too (insert eye-roll here). Image: © Lions Gate Home Entertainment

 

 

 

 

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