Art is Life is Art: Susan Reep Photo Art

Now that I’m retired and am supposed to have time to focus on art exclusively, I’m encountering the necessity of blogging for the purpose of marketing.  This idea is anathema to me as an artist.  I just want to create!  Oh, I don’t mind the idea of blogging – in fact, it’s fun as long as I’m talking about art, the process of art, or posting my short stories and essays and travel journals.

Me blogging

But did you notice how many times I had to use the words “I” or “My or “Me” in that first small paragraph? Those first person personal pronouns mean it’s all about me.  For someone who’s been married for 40 years (me),

Married for 40 years

raised three children (me),

Three children

and now has nine grandchildren (me),

Nine grandchildren

it’s hard to suddenly make it all about me.  For someone who has aging parents nearby (me),

Aging parents

sisters and nieces and nephews in the same town (me),

Just the sisters and brother

and who spent the last nine years of her career focusing on students (me),

Students on Talk Like a Pirate Day

switching the focus to ME

Me on Talk Like a Pirate Day

causes all kinds of inner conflict.

AND for someone who was raised by parents who were artists (me), whose father is a famous artist (me), I have the unique perspective of trying to connect an artist’s life with the life of a family.  Connect is not an operative word here because it’s far more of a disconnect.  How did my dad do it without being ripped apart?

To get a much better idea of who my dad is, read this wonderful blog post.  This blogger, John Foster gets it!

So I have entered the mysterious blogosphere and have discovered these things.

I can’t be an artist without setting out uninterrupted time for myself.

I can’t be a writer without setting out uninterrupted time for myself.

I can’t produce a useful and interesting blog without setting out uninterrupted time for myself.

I can’t produce anything unless I view it as a job with a schedule that is as inviolable as a “real” job that I am being paid for.

BECAUSE that is the ultimate goal!  As a retired person, especially a retired person who has suffered setbacks in the recession, I can’t afford an art hobby.  I have to pay for materials at least.

That brings me full circle – all I really want to do is create,

not market – and I have to find a way to think of this in some other way than me just being selfish.  I guess I have to find a balance and that is something I am decidedly NOT good at! I jump into things full steam ahead.

I’m not sure this entry accomplished anything -but it did put the problem into words, which makes it clearer, and is a start toward a solution.  I’ll let you know if I ever find a solution!

Funny how summer always starts out as a blank slate, two-plus glorious months with nothing to do, and all of a sudden it’s packed!  Makes me think of the Calvin and Hobbes book, The Days are Just Packed. Last week was a little insane, even for me, however.  We had the four fabulous days at the cabin – the Bakersfield Six and me – came home, rested a day, and on Saturday set off for three days at Disneyland!

Just a small group of us – 21 in all.

In front of Sleeping Beauty's castle

It’s me, my three daughters, two husbands, eight grandkids (plus #10 in gestation), both my sisters, my three nephews and one niece, my niece’s fiance (wedding on Sat.). 21 in all.  In this picture, the two youngest in the strollers are not sure what it’s all about – they had just arrived, been plopped into strollers and wheeled down to a family picture in the midst of a sensory explosion!  They reacted the only sane way – by covering their heads and looking out slowly.

I suppose what possessed us is that my two nephews from Alaska, who are both in college now, have been going to Disneyland with us since they were very little.  This was the last hurrah in a way – in case we are scattered and the yearly summer visits stop.  As they become adults, we can’t expect them to come to Bakersfield every summer! So here we were.

It was horrendously hot.  Humid really. Sunday was not crowded at all but the humidity nearly did me in.  But as long as I could persevere I took photos, of course, and a couple I knew right off are going to end up as the background photos in some collages.

Paradise Pier is at California Adventure, and it’s like the midway at a fair, only a gazillion times better.  California Screamin’, a giant roller coaster, goes through that tunnel thing on the top like a giant speedy caterpiller.  Look how cool it looks:

I know this will be in a collage – I love the image and the ambiguity of it also.  It’s a roller coaster, right?  Or is it?  Well, it has to be…I could go on and on, because it won’t seem so obvious when I get it into whatever I get it in to.  How’s that for an almost illiterate sentence?  It makes the point, though.

This flower was floating in a fountain in Downtown Disney.  I love the texture and the color, the yellow petals with the red flower, and I’m pretty sure this will be the background photo of a collage.

Now this raft will not be in a collage.  I don’t think.  But it was one of the very fun rides in California Adventure.  This is me with one daughter, a son-in-law, and five grandkids.  We all got soaked!  And it was fun.

There is nothing quite like water as a dynamic medium.

This California sun, again at California Adventure, is another image I like.  Half in sun, half in shade.  I want to use it but I can already envision problems.  It’s going to give me trouble, I know it, but I will try anyway.  This is how a collage takes shape – I have an image, and it will float around in my mind for a long time, I’ll get the texture of it, the variations, and slowly other images will insert themselves.  Then I’ll print photos, go up to the cabin, start cutting and rearranging and creating. And sometimes trashing and starting over.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen with this one.  But it’s pretty amazing – this giant wheel, seemingly supported by two steel posts, and full of people in colorful cages.

This is here just because I like it.  The grandkids speeding along in this “highway patrol” car.  I remember when that was fun for me – going fast, screaming around curves, loop-de-looping; now, I just throw up.  Age takes away certain pleasures.

The next day arrived and we went into Disneyland itself for the day.  The Colorado contingent joined us, but the little princess had a temp of 100 and wasn’t so sure how much fun this was.  Her brother, however, was taking it all in.

As I was waiting for them to arrive, sitting on a bench on Main Street with two strollers, I looked at the bench opposite me and I think I found another background picture for a collage.  It’s an unconscious process in a way, because I don’t look around thinking “collage material,”  but I see things that grab me.  Here’s the bench.

And I know for sure that this next photo will be background.  Again, water.  I love water.  This is taken from the submarine porthole in the Finding Nemo ride – the old Submarines.  I love this one.

I’m thinking cows, peacocks, I don’t know – images are jostling around and something will settle out and I’ll try it.

And of course, Monstro, what fun it will be to make a collage from this!  I have always loved this – from the scary thrill we had as young children entering the mouth of the whale – with the scary teeth yet! – to the remembrance of that thrill.

It’s pretty thrilling to look at this even now.  Again, water.  Love photos of water.  And  I just used the word “thrill” or a variation three times in a row.  I would not have let my writing students do that!  But of course we learn the rules only to break them.

So we had a pretty awesome three days.  And an incredibly draining three days, what with the activity and heat and humidity.  But is it all worth it?  Of course, and this is why:

Seeing my granddaughter on her first trip to Disneyland – entranced by Minnie Mouses’s house (even though she had a temperature and wasn’t  feeling tip top), is all the reward I could want.  What I am really doing, I hope, is building memories both for me as I get older, for my kids, and mostly for my grandkids.  In an imperfect world, I’m giving them what I can of perfection.  Who knows what my granddaughter is thinking here, where her imagination is taking her, and when it will resurface in the future to help her on her journey.  It’s all about the journey.

P.S. It’s been pointed out to me that I did not take the photo of the flower in the water.  My granddaughter took it while holding my camera while I went in the restroom!  Dang, now I can’t use it!

This is me.  Bursting with happiness and also caught on camera by surprise.  Why am I happy?  It’s the third day of being in the mountains with six of my grandkids – just me and the grands!  We’ve been having so much fun that when we return we’re all checking into Laughter Anonymous.  As one grandson says, we need a laughter 12-step program – sometimes we laugh so hard it’s almost dangerous!  In a bit, I’ll explain – no, I’ll show you – why my Bakersfield Six have become my own six little Glamberts.  But first…

How can I be so lucky?  Three days, six kids, no disagreements.  Highlight of the morning was washing and drying the shirts we tie dyed yesterday and seeing how they came out.  I’m wearing mine – the least creative of the bunch.  Here’s the array.

Fantastic, huh?  We just followed the directions in the Tie Dye kit I bought at Michael’s.

The Jackson Smile

When I ask one of the Colorado Three (my grandson in Colorado, who is three) (the Colorado Three becomes the Colorado Four in March) to give me his very best smile, this is what he does.  So we are all doing The Jackson Smile.

The Two Boys - Geordi LaForge?

Look at the great job these two guys did on their shirts.

Here's some tie dye with attitude

So – the TREASURE HUNT.  I had given the kids supplies they could use to make clues for a treasure hunt through the woods.  I also supplied the treasure, which I found on clearance at World Market.  The first team set out to plant their clues.

Why walk when you can run - uphill?

The new motto:  Why walk when you can run uphill? Why indeed?

Oh no...

Is there really a clue near this forest service bug trap?  Only one was brave enough to get it.

We see another clue!

Follow the arrow.

Could there be something up there? Everyone's looking up.

By gum, there is treasure up there.

Where do we go next?

Found something marked "Boy." That's me.

Hurry up. Remember the motto? Why walk?

Into the ravine.

Treasure hunt successfully concluded with girls getting scarves and boys elephant banks.  I know my kids will love that – something else to sit around.

So what was left after a short rest?  THE GLAMBERTS!  Adam Lambert, move over.  (Well ok, no one can out-Lambert Adam) but the Bakersfield Six put on a show that anyone would be proud of.  Remember what I’ve been listening to hour after hour for the last two days?  “To the right, to the right, to the left, to the left…” and so on.  And on with the show!

This dance was intricate and entertaining.

I couldn't believe how great they were - six kids from 8 to 15.

Ok ok, I know what you are thinking.  They can’t be THAT good.  Well, you’re talking to a proud grandma here and in my eyes, they were perfection.

Have they been watching So You Think You Can Dance?

Fantastic.  We’ll be announcing tour dates soon.  Tickets will be available…ok, shake off the daydream, no tour.  No Glambertmania.  But I was so proud of my six little Glamberts.

Moving on to FOOD.  Food is always good.  The two biggest girls were chefs tonight.

Chefs du jour

They made a terrific beef stew.

Secret recipe.

Cow Patties

It was a “Cow” themed meal and for dessert we had cow patties.  Yum!  Made from chocolate chip cookies and Reece’s Peanut Butter ice cream.  Do you think this was a big hit?  A big hit with me was how efficient these two girls were – they cleaned, cooked, and cleaned up.  It was amazing.  I have to say I got off easy in the meal department.  I first decided that they should make the dinners because I thought they’d have a lot of fun planning and doing it, and indeed they did.

What would Jean Luc do?

Jean Luc would clean up, pack up, and go home as scheduled because we go to Disneyland on Saturday.  They’ll  be 20 of us – all family.  So stay tuned for news from the Magic Kingdom.

I don’t think life could get any better – really and truly.  I am blessed.

P.S.  The laughter part came from playing Catchphrase after dinner.  I don’t believe anyone could laugh as much and as hard as we did.

And tomorrow I’ll talk about a new collage I did these last three days.  Where did I find time?

The latest issue of McSweeney’s has explanations of many historical forms of literature with both past and current examples.  I was intrigued by pantoums – a poem originating from Malaysia from around 1400 AD, and possibly even earlier in oral form.  A pantoum is written in quatrains, and, according to McSweeney’s, “…in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza reappear (with small alterations) as the first and third lines of the next stanza, and the first and third lines of the first stanza return as the last and second lines, respectively, of the final stanza.  There is no set length, rhyme scheme, or subject matter for a pantoum…”

Well, this sounded fascinating and I loved the pantoums that were printed.  So of course, I had to write a pantoum!  Now I’m not pretending this is great literature or even good, and I’m not saying it’s profound, but it sure was fun to fool around with.  Click here for Busyness.

CHALLENGE – write one yourself and post on the blog.  It’s fun!

While I was writing, this is what  Beverly Crusher and B’Elanna Torres were doing:

Beverly and B'Elanna like the cabin but they sleep most of the time, then expend huge amounts of energy in lightning bursts.