THE BLUES

Peter Simpson, the arts editor at The Ottawa Citizen,
asked 12 local artists to each do a piece at the local
Blues Fest. The project is called: “Portraits of Bluesfest“.

The idea was to get another take on what goes on
there, at the Bluesfest. The resulting work is going
to be published in The Ottawa Citizen and then
auctioned off. The proceeds going to Blues in the
Schools, a local charity.

I happened to attend the festival the nite KISS was
playing. Bad planning, seeing as how I don’t really
like big crowds. The scene, too, as you can imagine,
was pretty chaotic.

The last thing I wanted to do was pictures of people
dressed up and/or face-painted like KISS. There were,
like, a million of those published and on the web the
next day. So I didn’t. Although, ironically, that’s what
I ended up with. The image I’m submitting to the auction
does, actually, feature KISS paint. But that’s not really
what the pic is about. You’ll have to wait until all the
pieces from the project are unveiled to see what I’ve
done.

In the mean time, a couple of out takes.

The Blues, out take

The Blues, out take

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VALUE AND DOLLARS

I ran into this quote from craaaazy-man rocker Andrew W. K.:

“I don’t know if every decision (I make) is
based on money. There’s a value that isn’t
related to dollars and comes from a spiritual
value, an emotional value. There’s the value
of experience…..”

He’s not so crazy after all, if you ask me.

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COMMERCIAL

A month or so ago I was asked by the good folks over
at Banfield Seguin to shoot 4 musicians who play with
the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The idea was to,
well, if you’re interested you can read all about it on
Brainstorm, the Banfield Seguin blog. (You may need
to scroll down some to see this particular post, titled:
Getting Bums in Seats.)

I’ll just show you the posters here, and one of the many
applications that they’ll be used in:

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THE LAST BIT OF THIS WEEK’S POST CONTAINS SOME
IMAGES THAT MAY NOT BE SAFE FOR WORK

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OTTAWA MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Ottawa had a foto festival two years running: Festival X.

A bunch of local, and not so local, folks have been asking
me about this year’s programming and schedule. Seems
that people are getting their ducks lined up and bodies of
work whipped into shape, planning exhibitions to coincide
with Festival X.

But there’s some confusion. If you check the Festival X
web site you’ll see that it’s not happening this year. It’s
supposed to resurface in 2010. Who knew?

Anyway…..Guy, down at Gallery La Petite Mort, has decided
to call September the “Ottawa Month of Photography”.

He’s planning two photo shows on his main wall that
month and, as I understand it, will also be showing lots
of fotography on the other wall, as one day shows.

The first show consists of some riveting and disturbing
photos by Tokyo-based photographer Tim Porter. That
show opens September 5th and runs until the 17th, titled:
STILL LIVES, Portraits from the Collection of The Congdon
Anatomical Museum, Bangkok.

Tim Porter. From STILL LIVES

Following that will be an exhibition of the work I’ve been
shooting called: APRIL + ERIC. Opening Sept 18th, running
until the 24th.

Invitation

This thing called “The Ottawa Month of Photography” isn’t
really a thing at all, it’s just a bunch of foto shows at LPM.
But Guy encourages anyone who is interested in or who
generates photography to think about it and maybe (just
maybe) to find or to offer a venue and show some pix. I’m
willing to offer whatever puny platform I have (drool), to
help publicize this concept. Let me know. Keep me posted.