H20
Friday, February 20th, 2009
Archive for the ‘Art Play’ Category
Long lost footage and a re-emerging hobby
Sunday, February 1st, 2009Procession of the Species in Olympia, WA
After I studied non-fiction film at Evergreen College for a year, my camcorder, which had been an almost permanent appendage of my hand until then got put into the closet. That was almost three years ago.
My life never seems to go on a straight, sensible path so perhaps there’s a reason why the year I went and did what was supposed to be an incredibly good non-fiction film program was a year when the program was not so good. The whole year was very chaotic and it felt like every little step gained came at a huge cost. The joy of shooting video and working with it was quashed for the time being. Unfortunately the student loan bills were vivid and real.
I know from other events in my life that hardship or a little mandatory hibernation away from something we love can be a revolutionizing thing in the end – so I’m hoping the urge to pull my camera out last weekend is the beginning of my starting up this hobby I loved so much again.
When I turned on my camera to check the tape last weekend – I found the footage of the parade above which I hadn’t captured and had forgotten about.
So there is one thing I enjoyed alot while I was in Olympia – the Procession of the Species.
The community spends many weeks preparing nature costumes from scratch. Sounds in the parade are allowed but no words or signs. Just drums and music. About 10,000 people come to see the parade and its magical!
In honor of magic anytime and anywhere I edited together some of the footage and here it is.
Encebado Fire, Taos, NM, 2003
Friday, January 23rd, 2009Forest Fire in Taos, NM 2003
[The white speck moving across the smoke at the beginning of the clip is a fire fighting plane.]
Video taped in my backyard during the Encebado fire that burned a 5,400 acre tract of the Taos Pueblo’s reservation land including watershed and areas sacred to the tribe. The Pueblo has been continuously inhabited by this tribe for over 1000 years. It was remarkable watching the tribes response to this natural disaster which they considered to be . . . . natural. I found the spectacle which lasted for eleven days both fascinating and disturbing.
Needlepointing
Friday, January 23rd, 2009My partner and I spent 2 and 1/2 months in Greece in between a move from CA to NM in 1992. We tried to find little out-of-the-way places we liked and then we stayed for awhile – 4-10 days before moving on. On some of the smaller islands or more remote areas of larger islands there were worlds that had nothing to do with the "modern" world. In all the smaller towns, women came out onto their porches in the early evening with their needlework. I too had brought along my needlepointing and I’d sit out on the veranda of our pension listening to the women calling out greetings and news doing my needlework too.
I put down needlepointing a few years later but then recently I had a strong urge to start up again. The Greek women would always ask to see the back of my canvas – to see how neat my stitches were. I don’t think I scored very high then and probably still wouldn’t but I do notice that my whole mindset of "trying to finish" is gone. I just enjoy stitching without any sense of wanting to see the end result. So I’m needlepointing a large (18" by 20") canvas which wiill probably take me forever but that’s OK. It’s a relaxing way to get some down time after my work as a web developer. It’d be kind of neat actually if everyone in the neighborhood came out to greet the early evening with their needlework, calling out greetings to each other and enjoying the closing hours of the day. I think I’d like that.
