It was a rainy day today in Nashville. We needed it, but it certainly did nothing for my mood. To cheer myself up, I decided to walk over to the library. The main library branch in downtown Nashville is so beautiful, and I'm lucky enough to work only three city blocks away from it. It's the perfect place to escape mid-work day.

I was especially excited to check out the latest exhibit, which was supposed to open today:

Poet and master calligrapher Huang Xiang will be turning the library’s fine arts gallery into a larger-than-life work of poetry as he paints his words and feelings on walls and banners this week. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to watch art in the making.

When I got there though, I was disappointed to find that the old exhibit was still displayed. (Not that it wasn't good, but I've seen it twice already and was looking forward to something new.) I think I may go back tomorrow to see if they've started yet.

On the upside, I buried myself in my favorite spot, the fine arts room, for an hour. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a copy of Strangers: The First ICP Triennial of Photography and Video. What a find! I've just started reading through it, but already I've been introduced to photographers who have me captivated. A few that have really stood out so far are Bill Henson, Justine Kurtland, and Shizuka Yokomizo. If I get the chance to go back tomorrow, I'm going to check out a copy of Mnemosyne, which is a book entirely of Bill Henson's work. (I was so excited to see on their online card catalog that our library has it!)

This evening, I decided to sign up for this class on BetterPhoto.com. Maybe it's cheesy, I don't know. I figured I'd try one class and see how it goes. It starts July 4th. I'm excited. I've just really wanted to learn more about what makes good photos good (beyond the old standby rule of thirds). I'm trying all I can to look at others' work and learn from it: on DeviantART, at local exhibits, by reading books. But I guess I really need some insight on what to look for, so I can really understand why certain shots are more appealing than others. I'm really looking forward to lessons and particularly to doing assignments and getting critiqued.

I've missed school in general, I guess. I want to be challenged. I want to think. I want to create. I'm hoping this will be just what the doctor ordered, or at least a step in the right direction.

So it's utterly and completely unrelated to anything else, but and I got to meet Hal Sparks after his show last night...


^^ L to R: Me, Hal Sparks (duh), ~junepath, and ~junepath's hubby, Alan.

As a result of our fabulous evening last night, we're on a total Queer as Folk kick. I just downloaded the season 1 soundtrack album from iTunes, and we're running out this afternoon to pick up the first couple seasons worth of DVDs.

Hopefully all the fun QAF-goodness will snap me out of the funk I've been in.

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Yes, I've been in a funk. Well -- I guess "funk" isn't even quite the right word for it. There's been some bad, and some very good things to come out of it all.

In the last three weeks, I've had my eyes opened and boundaries pushed. While I knew I grew up a small-town, sheltered little girl -- I had no idea the extent. The strange part of it all has been that these eye-openers have all involved about three main themes. And these same three themes seem to keep coming up -- in completely disimilar situations, with totally different people.

Either I'm reading into things too much or someone's trying to tell me something. I guess I just need to open my mind a bit more.

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I picked up a shiny new Wacom tablet (the Intuos3 6x8) the other day. I used to have one of their cheaper models several years ago (a baby blue Graphire I think) but I sold it when I needed money for college text books (haha, what a rip off). Anyway, I went with a nicer model this time, and I can't be any more pleased with it.

I've been working with it, Photoshop CS3, and several books worth of tutorials. I'm slowly learning new things, and re-learning things that I wasn't doing quite "right" (or could have been doing better). It's fun. I'm enjoying it. Maybe eventually it will be reflected in my work.

Last Sunday night, I had this dream where ~junepath was standing on a yellow fire hydrant, wearing her bright red Chucks, and there was a BRIGHT blue sky behind her. I was taking pictures of her shoes, and in my dream the blue, yellow, and red just looked so amazing.

... Yah, I have totally stupid dreams ...

So anyway, I IMed ~junepath the next day and was like, "Hey can I borrow you and your shoes?" and explained for what. I'm lucky to have such good friends because I think her response was something like: "Hells yah!"

Today I had the opportunity to finally start my new little project -- "Adventures in Chucks" (Ok, so it needs a *real* name but that's what I'm referring to it as for now). Here's a few shots I got this afternoon. I'm not all that pleased with any of them, but we'll see where it goes.