I've Moved!

As I've been promising for a while now, I've moved my blog to my own domain and am running it on a different platform. If you've been following me here, I hope you'll make the jump to the new location at Studio6or7.com! 

Ode to Spring

I took these earlier in the year but never got around to posting them during the spring. Spring is so short in Colorado, but intensely pretty when it's lush and the sweet smelling flowers are all blooming...

It's a Blue Blue World

It was a rare, cool and rainy weekend in Denver last weekend. The best kind of weekend in my book and I spent nearly all of it inside listening to the storms and finishing up some paintings that I started last year, as well as working up several new collages. These are a couple that I completed over the weekend. Perhaps the rain had something to do with all of the blue...

The Early Hours

I drive by this lovely lit pavilion in Wash Park every morning on my way to work and never have my camera with me. This morning I was up at 430 and knew this was a perfect day for shooting this building. 


The best part of my morning was when two cute little old men that rousted themselves from sleeping on the benches to come check out what I was doing and marvel with me at how pretty this building is and how lucky we are to have the park.

Unknown Paths

  

Life doesn't always turn out the way we expect or anticipate no matter how well we think we've planned or how 'right' the path appears at times. I haven't written anything on the blog in the last few months because I haven't quite known what to say and I seem to have been flailing about in circles, stuck if you will. I know where I've been, but my life has been turned upside down and I no longer know quite where I'm going. I've always been one to embrace change but this upheaval definitely left me wondering if a clear path would ever emerge again. I can't say that it has, but it's time to get on with the business of living again. 

I've spent the last few months moving, starting a new job, doing some writing and planning a few new creative projects. It's given me a lot of time to reflect and a lot of time to think about where I want to go from here. I still don't know exactly where that is, but it's time to start peeking around the corner and try to find out. It's time to get out of this funk and get back to the things that keep me centered and fuel the creative fires.

On the creative front, I'm excited about the projects on the horizon. I'm finally finishing up a series of paintings that I started last summer and later this week I'm starting some collaborative paintings with another artist. I'm also working on a new collaborative photography project that I'm hoping to kick off in August, which will have it's own separate blog and involve other local photographers (email me if you're in the Denver area and have any interest in participating). And after 20 years of talking about it, I'm starting to write the book that I always knew I was meant to write. 

So I'm back and anxious to get back to blogging and sharing whatever it is that comes next in this thing called life.


Namaste.
Andrea

Vintage Stamps

I ran across this while cleaning out my studio last night. It was a small test for a larger series of collages I wanted to do.

Always fascinated by vintage stamps, I especially love the colors of these.

Things I Love...

I recently got an old Canon AE1 camera so that I could shoot this old Canon lens that I have (which I've been shooting on a different camera and LOVE it!). It seemed only fitting that the first roll should capture some of my favorite things on beautiful black & white film. 

SX-70 that survived the South Pole

I'm a sucker for a good street lamp...

Some kind of Magnolia found in a park in Auckland, NZ

Ocean!

My favorite flips that just died and were buried in Auckland.

Devonport, New Zealand

The other day I took a ferry over to the little town of Devonport across from Auckland, New Zealand, on the advice of a friend. It's a colorful little town with sweet cafes on every corner. Perfect for drinking wine on the sidewalk while people watching... And as a bonus, while wandering up the hill in the middle of town I found this fun row of yarn-bombed street rails.

Heading Home...

I finally left Antarctica several days ago. We flew from South Pole, a 3 hour flight, to McMurdo on the coast, where we spent a couple of hours waiting for our plane from New Zealand to arrive. Then we made the 5 hour flight to Christchurch, NZ, where we were greeted with humidity and the lovely smell of dirt and vegetation and the best part, a night sky. We haven't seen the darkness since we left NZ at the first of November. I didn't think I had missed it, but apparently I have.

These photos are from our flights. This is what happens when one ends a season at South Pole and makes their way back to the real world...

South Pole Botanic Gardens

Amusing myself on a Sunday afternoon. This was a quick installation I did outside last weekend at -17 degrees F, with the help of my friend Wendy (seen in the TtV shot).

I intended to recreate what I miss most here...

Twin Otter

I haven't had much time for shooting lately but last weekend I finally made it out to the Twin Otter for some photos. These small planes are used for flying all around Antarctica. This particular one is based at South Pole and flies from here out to the field camps that are within several hundred miles.