the resuscitator

this is the woman that saved my brother's life. i will spare you all the details, but i will say that it was a god-inspired resuscitation. i am so grateful that she fell madly in love with him, and evoked a mirrored sentiment that led them down the aisle and into the throes of family. she is a most pleasant, kind, generous, and loving woman, who has earned my total respect by being able to accept (and live with) my brother's indiosyncracies. i think that her beaming spirit is captured in these images, as is her love of sleep/inability to stay up late. these were taken on her birthday; i am extremely glad that she was born... let's eat cake.

two because of work

there are likely seven degrees of separation between me and a million people in relationship to my interior painting work. maybe somebody, someday with have a computer code that can put a "family tree" on such a thing. not that it would serve much purpose, but it would be interesting. the gentleman here signed his divorce papers on this particular day, and often when i hear this type of news these days, i feel inclined to say "congratulations." it seems so callus or cynical... but i have experienced so many acquaintances in my life that have married the "wrong" person, and to separate from them, admit the mistake, and move on is a life affirming decision. on the other hand, which may not be as strong these days, is the fact these unions were made to be "forever," and experience has now shown that many vows are empty. what do i make of this? nothing that i will espouse of here. these two folks don't deserve that. i hope that he is doing well with his new situation. i painted this woman's house many years ago, and then she bought some art from me; thanks again.

portrait Thing

this Thing was photographed on halloween night... she was part of a rambunctious front yard party, and they seemed about as excited as i was for the chance meeting. i was growing doubtful that i was going to get a good, costumed portrait, but i did. they were quite entertained by someone out of the blue wanting to photograph a member of their party. as you can see, she, like so many, was extremely willing to "turn it on" for the camera. i especially love how the background becomes blackground, making Thing 1 jump off of the page. personally, i think that Seuss should have gone with three Things... most likely, though, he was right.

all's well that ends well

on this eighth day of may, i am very pleased to share with you all that i have successfully gone 365 days in a row taking portraits of random people (every day.) it has been a curious adventure... sometimes challenging and always real. people have surprised me with their enthusiasm. it was extremely rare for someone to deny me my request to photograph them "as they are, where they are." there were often hesitations, but they were usually followed by a bit of humor, and then an easygoing series of portraits. i realized yesterday that i have blogged about half of my subjects, so, it seemed perfect that i now have an equal amount of subjects to post about to "finish" the project. also, over the next six months, i will examine the possibilities of creating a product (book) to physically document this project. i would also like to have an exhibit of all of the portraits (somewhere down the road.) i have another portrait project in the works... it seems that i have become "addicted" to approaching beautiful strangers and taking their photograph. i have no idea how it will all progress, but that is one of the things that makes it so exciting/enticing. i hope to get back into a little more "regular" blogging so that i don't get buried deeper in these portraits. i appreciate your checking in on this project, and i hope that you have enjoyed it so far, and please keep coming back to see the remaining cast of characters that i photographed. the portraits that accompany this post are the only ones that i took during the year where the face is not exposed... i sort-of think that it's fitting for this particular post. he is a local fine art photographer who occasionally incorporates this masked effect on his subjects. this was taken the day before halloween... boo.