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After having tried just about every medium I can think of I'm still on the lookout for new avenues to explore within the constraints of limited funds and time.
Among my newly discovered interests are PMC Silver and other metal clay, a fascination with Japanese washi and scrapbooking papers and a renewed interest in digital photography. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these interests bleeding into one of my Etsy shops before the holidays. I guess I just enjoy making things!

Summer, 2011

This summer’s digital photography class was truly inspiring thanks to a professor and a group of students who were quite engaged in the experience of using a digital camera, even a simple, inexpensive point-and-shooter, to capture some pretty remarkable images. I was really impressed by the results and hope someday to own a “real” camera with a manual mode with which to make all of my own technical and creative choices.

The idea for The Past Pierces Through: Haunting Images of Superbia came to me some time in late July after having heard an older classmate in the over 60 program talk about how she has been all over the countryside photographing barns. Out looking for an interesting subject for a panorama assignment, I stumbled upon the site of an abandoned nursery in Avon, Ohio where we had purchased and killed our first potted Christmas tree about 27 years ago.

“If that doesn’t say dead…,”the professor responded to the partially-paved weed-seeded lot surrounding the rag-tag shell of an old brown barn.

The property stood out starkly amidst an overwhelmingly furious footprint of newly-constructed strip malls, office buildings, schools and churches, springing up and devouring the heretofore rural road.

The same thing has happened in Westlake, where I live. A simple farming community, where my husband hauled grapes as a teenager, has been riddled with exclusive shopping malls and multi-million dollar mansions.

On the way home from class I counted eight old, but well preserved, barns on the winding former cow path presently known as Bassett Road. I thought that it might be interesting to check out and photograph other remnants of the past around the bicentennial suburb, so I did and put it into a Powerpoint presentation for my photo documentary assignment.

The professor suggested continuing the project, possibly taking it to the local historical society, but I’m kind of busy right now with this website!

Winter-Spring, 2011

It sounds crazy, but it was exciting to work with the large format Epson printer in the classroom this summer. I have owned a number of printers and scanners, Epson’s and other brand’s, and I love Epson. I learned a bit (pun intended) about color resolution and bit depth on printers first hand during last spring semester. A page in an Intro to Vis. Com. Assignment had red on red. My Lexmark printed it as all one shade of red. My more capable Epson replicated the colors perfectly. Eighty-nine dollars can buy happiness if you’re into that sort of thing!