SoCal tour of Homie UP: Stories of Love and Redemption, April 21-24

You can watch the trailer--now with Spanish subtitles--at https://vimeo.com/jennifermyhre/homieuptrailerwithsubtitles.

Ai WeiWei @Large inspired and delighted me...

With Wind, in the New Industries Building

My streak of amazing art experiences continued today with the series of Ai WeiWei installations at the National Park at Alcatraz.  I didn't know that Hopi prisoners were the first political prisoners at Alcatraz, because of their refusal to send their children to boarding schools.  I loved the installation about voice and the way that Ai WeiWei forces us into the cells to experience the variety of political expression he has collected.  When I turned over one of the postcards in the Yours Truly installation and realized that the postcard was already addressed and just awaited my message to a living political prisoner, there was nothing else to do but to sit down and write.  And how about the exquisite kites seen above in photographs I took through broken glass on the gun walk? Ai WeiWei may not be allowed to leave China but his art reminds folks all around the world about the importance of freedom of expression.

New Orleans is a feast for the eyes...

Got away for a few days to New Orleans for a conference and, in addition to delighting in the colors and shapes of the architecture and the wide range of street styles, I caught some amazing art at the Contemporary Art Center and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.  I especially loved the toned cyanotypes of Jaime Erin Johnson, heartwrenching silver gelatin prints from Katrina-damaged negatives by Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, Mark Steinmetz's portraits, mixed media pieces of Benny Andrews, moving installations by Radcliffe Bailey and the whimsical fiber art of Chris Roberts-Antieau.  And how about stumbling upon the duo of street musicians on violin and guitar, Tanya and Dorise?  Gotta go back!

Sometimes ya gotta get outside...

I have spent literally hundreds of hours in front of my computer screen over the last six months, editing Homie UP: Stories of Love and Redemption.  It is all I think about and all I want to do, most of the time.  Still, I know that my best thinking happens when my feet are moving and my eyes can see the horizon.

The trailer is coming soon and the film will be shown for the first time near the end of April.  I'll post details soon.

I want to be Julio Salgado when I grow up...

I bought this poster by Julio Salgado at the Facing Race conference this fall and finally framed and hung it above my workspace.  I am knee deep in editing on the Homie UP documentary and find it comforting to look up at it when the material feels very heavy.  He rocks a deeply intersectional and social justice approach to artmaking, plus a sense of humor.  And he works across multiple media, including film, comics and the visual arts.  I aspire to that.  Go buy his stuff!  If you like what you see, you should check out Culturestrike, Just Seeds, Dignidad Rebelde, Artists against Police Violence, and Favianna Rodriguez.

When many of your subjects are incarcerated, you have to think creatively about how to visualize things.

The Homie Universidad Popular team and I recently wrapped up production on our documentary, which is scheduled to be screened at the end of April.  It is a challenge to do a film about a education program happening in prisons through correspondence, because of the lack of visual materials to work with.  We have great interview material, of course, but have had to try out a lot of different strategies for trying to show and not just tell.  Which is how we come to be trying our hands at white board animation:

December 16, 2014

Check out Working Films...

A few weeks ago, I attended the Facing Race conference in Dallas, TX and one of my favorite sessions was called Reel Justice.  It featured two great organizations that use films as tools in community organizing. 

One organization is called Working Films.  They help organizers and activists identify and effectively use film screenings to generate more long-term commitment from constituents and they help filmmakers connect with organizers and activists to have more lasting impacts.  They have projects on education, the environment, sustainable energy, race, the economy, and aging.

The universe responded to my call for photos of aging...

Just a few weeks after I wrote about photographing my own hand every year, and the dearth of images of human bodies changing over time, a friend of mine sent me this link about the work of Nicholas Nixon: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/03/magazine/01-brown-sisters-forty-years.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1

Nicholas Nixon, 1975, New Canaan CT

Nicholas Nixon, 2014, Wellfleet MA

Vellum!

I saw a glorious cyanotype on vellum by Emily Gomez at the Altered Views show at Lightbox Gallery in OR and promptly ordered some vellum to try.  I like how translucent it is, but it will take a lot more practice to figure out how to maximize it.  I didn't manage the shininess of the piece I saw in the exhibit, but I'm thinking about layering it over another kind of paper to get a holographic effect.  You can check out Emily Gomez's work at http://www.emilyjgomez.com/.  Her cyanotypes on vellum are so luscious.  Check out the Altered Views show at http://lightbox-photographic.com/exhibitions/AlteredViews/.  My own piece is #49. :)

I'm thinking about photographing one of my hands each year

I met a photographer at a conference recently and we were talking about how rare it is to see images of people aging over time.  We talked about the buzz over the movie Boyhood and she mentioned a friend who had been taking self-portraits every year for over thirty years.  We both wished *we* had thought of that.  I'm not much for the self-portrait but I thought it might be useful to take one picture each year of my left hand (I'm righthanded).  I'm not saying that this photograph should be the "one" for this year, but you have to start somewhere, right?

I received an e-mail with the following news:

Hello Jennifer,

   Congratulations!  Your work has been accepted into the

   "Altered Views" exhibit.

                         "Winged 1"     

Image file has been attached to this email for verification

      We are very pleased to have your image  accepted as part of our 

           "Altered Views" exhibit. Congratulations again on being  

                    one of the finalist chosen by  juror S. Gayle Stevens.

I couldn't be more thrilled!  Check out Lightbox Photographic Gallery in Astoria OR for more information about the exhibit.

I've been trying to get the exposure right on this for months now...

I developed this cyanotype today.  I've been working with the digital negative for this image for a long time now and have had to dodge the bottom of it in order to capture the front bumper, but the dodging left the image a little bit ghostly.  What is it about an old truck? 

I'm the documentary filmmaker for the Homie Up project

CA Humanities just announced its 17 new Community Stories grantees, including Homie Up: Life Beyond La Vida Loca, Stories of Love and Redemption.  This is a project of the National Latino Research Center.  I am fortunate to be part of the storytelling team for that grant, as documentary filmmaker.

It is an honor to be able to contribute to such an inspiring project.

How much do I love Minor White? A whole bunch... →

I happened to catch the Minor White retrospective at the Getty Museum in LA.  I found myself welling up in front of several of the photographs.  He captures an object in such close attention that the image is almost an abstract until you are able to step back and realize what its context is.  I love when artists are able to make you see something new in something ordinary.

Minor White, Peeled Paint, 1959, MOMA Collection

This image, which is also part of the MOMA's collection, is a great example.  I stood in front of it, captivated by the composition for several minutes before I realized it was peeling paint.