I can’t believe that it has been six months since our trip to Spain! My poor art blog is so neglected! I hope it doesn’t know about the other blog and how much attention I have given it!

Even though photography was really my lowest priority on this trip (I needed time to just LOOK and experience)  I did take a few photographs now and then. Here are just a few that I took our last morning in Barcelona, I think they would b nice printed on fine art watercolor paper.

The art of photography is very much alive and well in Mexico. I was happy to be asked to participate along with 4 very talented female photographers, Colleen Casey, Socorro Chablé, Patricia Martín and Karen Pullich in a photography exhibit at the Galería Mérida, a private gallery here in Mérida, Yucatán. My contribution to the exhibit are three photographs from a series of images entitled Nichos, 16×20¨ Cibachromes (printed directly from 35 mm slides, the Cibachromes have an emulsion that is almost metallic and I think very special.) I worked on the Nichos series images for at least 3 years, 30 were exhibited a few years ago as an installation as part of Fotonoviembre at the Olimpo here in Merida, Yucatan, and it was a pleasure to share a few at the Galería Mérida and another few here on my art blog.

The show is open to the public and runs from March 29 until April 19, 2008. It is open daily except Tuesday, from 10 am to 6 pm, the gallery address is Calle 59 · 452 (por 54 y 52), Mejorada, Centro, Mérida, Yucatán, México.

One of the things I find most exciting about photography is being able to use color as a means of expression. I love how color (or the lack of color) has a language of its own. I have always absolutely loved exploring combinations of colors, and can remember being 7 years and loving the way my light blue shirt looked with my rust colored jumper, even though they weren´t supposed to ¨go together¨. I still look for that combination of colors everywhere and it turns up often in my photography. A fellow photographer shared a wonderful website that MOMA has put together featuring the use of color, I loved looking at it, check it our if you get a chance!

Una de las cosas que me emociona mas en la fotografía es poder utilizar el color como medio de expresión. Me encanta como el color )o la ausencia del color) tiene su propio idioma. Siempre me ha encantado exlorar las combinaciones de color y me acuerdo de tener 7 años y estar muy contenta por la forma que se veia mi vestido color oxido con la blusa azul cielo, aunque se suponía qeu no combinaban. Otra fotogafa me mostró un sitio web del MOMA sobre el color, me gustó mucho visitelo si tienes chance!

MOMA Color Site

It was a great honor to have a photograph included in the group art exposition that marked the inauguration of Merida Yucatán´s new municipal art gallery. The gallery is in the very heart of historic Mérida, Yucatán, in the former post office (Correos) building and the exhibit hung at the grand opening in November, 2007 and into February of 2008. I was unable to attend the inauguration because of travel, but it was really cool to see the Diario de Yucatan’s (our local newspaper) write-up, which featured a photograph of the mayor, Cesar Borjorquez closely examining none other than my contribution to the exhibit…I will choose to assume he was commenting favorably on the piece, although he may well have been asking why on earth that one was chosen as part of the gallery’s first show. This photograph is one of my favorites, I printed it myself to 24×30¨ and I love how it looks in that large size.

Fue un gran honor ser invitada a participar en la exposción colectiva para la inauguración de la nuea galería de arte municipal de Mérida, Yucatán, México. La galería está situada en el corazón del centro historico de Mérida, Yucatán, en el ex edificio de correos, estuvo puesto de noviembre 2007 a febrero 2008. No pude asisstir a la inauguración, por estar fuera de la ciudad, pero me gustí ver en el periodico local, El Diario de Yucatán, al alcalde Cesaár Bojorquez estudiando mi contribución a la expo, voy a decidir creer que estaba dando un comentario favorable, pero posiblemente preguntaba por que motivo esa fotografía había sido incluido en la inauguración. Esta fotografía es de mis favoritas y lo imprimí a 24×30¨pulgadas, me encanta como se ve en ese tamaño.

One of the things that I really like about living in Yucatan is being surrounded by tropical plants. I made these images a while ago, I had started really observing the leaves and other forms in nature and was amazed at the wonderful shapes I had not previously paid much attention. I really liked being able to use the contrast of black and white and sought to isolate the shapes of the leaves within a square composition.

Although the city of Campeche is only a couple of hours from Mérida, it is very rare that people who live in Mérida we take the time to visit. We decided to take a little trip on New Year’s day and were glad we did. It was fun to just walk around the city, which is very well preserved and on the Unesco list of World Heritage cities and being right of the Gulf of Mexico Campeche offers the very best ceviche. I was lazy and didn’t take many pictures that day, but here are a few that I did take.

An architectural detail from one of the many forts originally built to defend the city from pirates, even though it is hundreds of years old I think it looks like a lot of the most modern Mexican architecture.

I’m sure that most anyone who visits the fort takes this picture, but just in case anyone would like to see the view from the top fo the fort…

The main square of the city of Campeche.

Algo que tradicionalmente ha sido un poco difícil de la fotografía artística es encontrar maneras de compartirlo. Participé el año pasado en una exposición de grupo, con mis compañeros del grupo local “Artquimía” como parte del evento “Fotonoviembre”. Se montó una exposición colectiva de nuestro trabajo en una sala de la galería “El Olímpo” en la plaza principal de Mérida. Mi contribución a la colectiva fue una instalación en forma de tablero compuesto de 20 imagenes sobre el tema del agua. Me encantó verlo montado en la galería, pero despues envolví los trabajos y los guardé en un closet (y la verdad es que se me están llenando los closets). Así que me dio mucho gusto cuando me invitaron amigos fotógrafos a participar con una muestra de mi trabajo en un sitio nuevo de fotografía, Fotoforo y así poder sacarlas a la luz, aunque sea de manera virtual. El sitio de Fotoforo tiene mucho de interés para cualquier persona interesada en la fotografía artística en Yucatan, ¡no lo dejen de visitar!

I was honored to be invited, along with a group of very talented visual artists from Yucatán to show my work at the Cervantine Festival in Guanajuato, one of the most important cultural activities in Mexico. The Institute of Culture of the state of Yucatan sponsored the exhibit, and chose two pieces from this series of images I created around the theme of memory.

Fue un honor para mi ser invitada, junto con un grupo de talentosas artístas visuales de Yucatan, para exponer en el Festival Cervantino de Guanajuato, uno de los eventos culturales mas importantes del país. La exibición fue patrocinado por el Instituto de Cultura de Yucatán, quienes eligieron llevar dos piezas de este serie de imagenes que creé con el tema de la memoria.

These two pieces were created for a group exhibit. The theme was the ocean and I wanted to do something a little different. I ended up combining a positive on 8×10¨film that I developed from a medium format negative in the darkroom, one of my polaroid transfers, two 35 mm slides, a slide projector and a digital camera, the final prints were made on watercolor type paper. There may have been an easier way, but that was how this little project evolved.

Sometimes I forget to take time out of the daily routine to do photography just for fun…this trip to Antigua, Guatemala was one of my favorites because there was no hurry and plenty of interesting things to look at and photograph…just for fun.