Mother & Daughters

This is a recent portrait of a mother and her two gorgeous daughters that I took while in California. I love shooting on location at people's homes. Some stairs and a wall in the backyard made a wonderful backdrop for these joyful portraits.

Belly

My beautiful friend Annik is going to have a baby boy in May. While I was visiting California a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph her. She is radiant and glowing as most pregnant women are, but she is definitely going to be good and ready when her little one decides to arrive. We had so much fun hanging out, laughing, and watching her belly rise and fall as the baby kicked inside. I wish I could be there to photograph the birth!

Profound Words

What are the most profound words that you have ever heard, read/seen, or thought --up to this point in your life? This was the question given to me as a participant in a public art piece at the French Embassy in Mexico City. The title of the piece is POLIFACETICA: ETNOGRAFIA GRAFICA which will be projected April 30, 2009. I am one of many artists/people who are contributing their image for this projected piece.

The word came to me easily probably because it is something that I hear daily. Assuming this new role and hearing the word spoken by my son for the first time completely changed my life forever.

What would your word(s) be?

The perfect wedding

...is when two friends get married (Seena Hassouna & Brandi Flowers), write heartfelt vows, serve good food, and even better cupcakes, and surround themselves with good friends and family. This perfect wedding also happened to take place at my father and stepmother's house up on Mt. Washington in Los Angeles! I photographed the ceremony and Shane Rymer created a unique video of the event....This is not your typical "wedding video." Shane is an amazing cameraman/writer/director/editor. I feel fortunate that he used some of my photographs in his piece...to view the video click HERE. (You can see me shooting in the video)

Not only is Seena a good friend, but he happens to be one my former students. Seena took the first photo class I taught as a graduate student at CU Boulder. At the time he was majoring in architecture. Seena was also instrumental in helping me create my MFA thesis exhibition. Without his help, I am not sure I would have graduated! I introduced Seena to my father, Craig Semingson, who is also an architect. They now work together at a firm in Los Angeles.

Seena and Brandi met on an airplane headed for Denver. The very sweet story is on Brandi's Blog. Look at her first post in 2008. Brandi is also an actress, so when she moved to Los Angeles to be with Seena she instantly had a job with my step-mother, Andrea Balen, in her film production company.

I would have to say that Seena and Brandi are definitely family! I wish them much happiness!

In response to Gaza...

From the series Black & Blue
Ink Jet Print on Paper
2009


I have recently joined an art group called Artnauts which was started at the University of Colorado at Boulder by Professor George Rivera. We have our first group exhibition of the year in Oaxaca, Mexico next month. The title of the show is Azag: Mirroring War and we have been asked to create work responding to what has been taking place in Gaza.

The piece I have created uses mutilated doll parts that I contact printed onto paper coated with Cyanotype. Unfortunately I am allergic to this wonderful process, so I have to limit my contact with the chemicals. I wanted to make an edition of the piece to submit to a political art show at Anderson Ranch and a possible exhibition with Artnauts in Gaza....so I headed for the scanner and layered the cyanotype imagery with a map of Israel and Palestine and printed it on my ink jet printer. Fortunately the scanned image still retains the quality of the hand applied emulsion.

The title of the series, Black & Blue, is both a reference to the blue printing process I am using and the terrible atrocities being committed to people on both sides of the issue. After I completed the piece, a friend commented that the body parts resemble milagros, which is fitting since the piece is about violence and healing. This is the second image in the series (the first is about nuclear power and the environment) that I have created and I plan to continue working with the cyanotype process, my scanner, and issues that are important to me.

The many faces of Cori.

My best friend Cori Chavez asked me to update her photo for her websites. Her friend Beverly Green, a professional stylist, came over and did her hair and make-up. Once the lights were set-up I started shooting away. After a few minutes of shooting, I showed a few images to Cori, and she said we were done! I persuaded her to have me shoot a few more, but it was still one of the fastest shoots I have ever had. The best part was trying to think of silly ways to make Cori's natural smile appear...we had some good laughs!

Self-conscious

Self-Conscious
3- 7.25” x 4.5” x 1.625”
Book Cloth, Plexiglas, Romance Novel
2009

The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . .

Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book,
the discovery of the book.
Jorge Luis Borges from a lecture entitled "Poetry," 1977

Reading is an act of translation and the “book” functions as a convenient package to present information, ideas, and diversion. While in the act of reading, our minds transgress the object delivering the message. I am using the self-reflexive structure of the book to create visual poetry. Instead of ignoring the physical properties of the book I am calling attention to them. By using familiar language or expectations I am asking the reader to consider the book as an integral part of their translation. The structure of the book becomes the poetry.

My newest piece titled Self-Conscious consists of three identical looking books each approximately the size of an “A Format” paperback novel (4.33" x 7.01"). Inside the books house folded pages from one discarded mass-market romance novel.

This piece has just been accepted into a show titled Words Works at the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver. The show runs March 6th -April 18th.