Fine Art Exhibit Proposal for Spring 2009

Self-Portrait, January 30th 2008 

For several years now an idea has been tossing and turning in my mind. I’ve wanted in interview and photograph key women in my life about their ideas of strength, beauty, survival, love, loss, and self-expression. This year I’d like to finally realize this vision and interview women like Amy Rees on her wedding day, Rachelle Tyrrell with her young daughter, Sarah Albrecht with her charisma and celebrity, Carrie Marshall on travel and wanderlust, Jindi Mehat on desire and actualization…. I would also like to interview and photograph new firends and strangers who would like to participate in this project. Eventually I would like to produce an exhibit of 15-30 poster-sized black and white prints. From each print I would like the viewer to be struck by the individuality of each subject within the common theme of modern femininity. Most likely I will begin to photograph the project this summer. However, if you are interested in doing a sitting please let me know.

Photography is best when it tells a story. When it celebrates, documents, expresses, and proclaims.

Diary of a PhD Student: Week 1, spring semester

On Tuesday my PhD classes will begin and the new spring semester will officially start. However, it actually feels like the winter semester never quite ended with all the conference abstracts to submit and journal submissions to edit. This week I have to write one paper and finish editing another.

Last week I was made the international secretariat of the World Creativity Summit which is happening in Taipei this June in conjunction with InSea. This is a lot of extra work. There are documents to review, emails to send out, and important people to call- every day. Part of me is worried about how this extra responsibility is going to impact my life until the conference in June. Already the conference has taken over my entire weekend.

Last week was a trying week. At work there were renovations interrupting my teaching. I went upstairs to the office to find a repair man drilling into concrete right outside my window. Went to use the computers in the library but they were all full. Got lipstick on a new blouse. Discovered I can be too generous with friends. Met a professor at my art exhibit only to find the building closed. Spilled coffee.

I also find that in order to really write my head needs to be clear. I have to isolate myself and just focus on the subject at hand. All this is hard to do when you have about twenty emails a day demanding your immediate attention.

My photography has also not been up for a while because two of my memory cards have crashed and I cannot access the photos on them. The good news is that I’ve been asked to do cover photographs for Taipei Pictorial magazine. This is something that means a lot to me and I am going to make time for it and enjoy the process. That’s all for now…

Click this link to view Diary of a PhD student Week 7 the good and Week 7: the bad

Photo galleries in Taipei?

This week I would like to check out some contemporary art galleries in Taipei. The problem is that I have not heard of any. Does anyone know of any good local galleries that they would recommend? This week I’ve visited the Taipei Fine Art Gallery and I’ve been to the Contemporary Art Gallery. However I am interested in smaller galleries that feature emerging artists. Know of any good ones?

Thanks!

Photos of Taxi Cabs with my Mom for Discover Taipei Magazine

Here are some photos of Mom Rees for Discover Taipei Bi-Monthly.

Photos of Taxi Cabs in Taipei for Discover Taipei Magazine

Here are some photos of Carrie in Taipei taxi cabs for Discover Taipei Bi-Monthly.

Mom Rees Has Arrived!

Yesterday my mother arrived in Taiwan!  As we have not seen each other in a year and a half I have been really looking forward to the experience.  I bought a train ticket to take me to Taoyuan two days in advance and asked my Chinese tutor for advice on how to call a cab at 5am to make it on time for her 6am arrival.  However, some of the details must have gotten confused as yesterday morning I was woken up by a phone call announcing that my mother had arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Needless to say I felt quite horrified and it was quite a jolt to start the day.  I managed to make it to the airport in 40 minutes flat.  Mom had eaten some breakfast at Starbucks and was a good sport about it.  Upon reaching home I immediately started cleaning again in anticipation of my landlady who came over to bless the home and leave offerings at the Matsu goddess alter inside our apartment.  Our landlady is actually a very nice person and invited us over for Chinese New Year’s dinner so off we went.   It was quite the day.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the National Palace Museum.  But we will probably spend more time at the Carrefour  first.  My Mom likes to take it easy and does not like to rush herself on vacation.  Today we watched Juno and old episodes of The Amazing Race.  Mom also made sure we bought a heater for the apartment and dehumidifier.  We bought an expensive radiator heater with the brand name DBK Germany.  We expected a German brand to be well made with English instructions.  However, on returning home we discovered through a google search that DBK is actually a Taiwanese brand and the word Germany was placed on the packaging just to dupe people like ourselves into thinking it was of better quality.  Tomorrow we will be spending more time at the Carrefour  returning the merchandise.

I miss Ranjit

I do!

Photos from my exhibit opening at Citizen Cain

Carrie’s Birthday

A few week’s ago it was Carrie’s birthday. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful Carrie looks.  She is one gorgeous lady!  The evening started out o.k. with dinner and drinks.

Then we headed over to Luxy.  My God!  What a bad decision.  Carrie and I had been looking forward to the night but when I brought out my camera to take some photos four security guards approached me and demanded that I GIVE them my camera.  To me this was a bit unreasonable.  They cornered me in a section of the club and we fought for quite sometime.   I wanted to be able to put my camera in a locker and felt it was quite unreasonable to not be allowed to take photographs with my digital SLR camera when others could take photos with a point and shoot.  They also should have told me this when I entered the club with my giant camera bag.  Eventually I was given the “privilege” of locking my camera in my locker.    

So Luxy is crap!  Never again!

Compulsive cleaning

It is the start of my vacation and what do I do? Clean! Clean! Clean!

It seemed like a never ending job. That is also because I “deep cleaned” and scrubbed my heart out. At first I thought that cleaning my apartment was only going to take a few hours not a few days. But then again the place had not really been cleaned since the summer. My husband Range had also left a lot of junk everywhere which I had to throw out and organize. Now being at home feels so much better. I also think it will stay cleaner now that it’s just me here and no man around to muck everything up if you know what I mean. What’s next? Uh, those term papers that I have been avoiding through cleaning…. Part of the Chinese New Year custom is cleaning so I suppose I’m right on time!