My makeshift product photography studio.

I have been re-examining how I photograph my upcycled products for display in my online store.  Having done a bit of research of other successful online stores and paying attention to my own online shopping tendencies I realized my photographs may be a bit too much.  The backgrounds are distracting one’s eyes away from the product.

I have come to realize that the best way to show off a product is to show ONLY the product.

I do not have the money for a photography studio or even the proper lighting.  So, I am depending on my makeshift studio, natural lighting, my tripod and Photoshop in hopes it will do the trick.

Because I feel like white backgrounds are so atrociously boring (not in all photographs, just in my products shots) I have made a compromise with myself that the first photograph someone sees of the product will be the boring white background shot.  The rest can be detail shots and ONE artsy-fartsy photograph is allowed for each product if I feel the urge.

We will see how my customers respond to this makeover when it is complete!

A Transitional Period.

My art collaborator, Lisa Rasmussen, and I have been discussing the idea of change for a a few months now.  We have been working on a project called Art is Moving for 2 years now and are loving our success.  Lisa will be moving out of the area in September of this year so the dynamic of our collaboration will inevitably be effected.  We are attempting to practice having a long distance art relationship so that we can continue to be a positive force in the art world and community at large.  At this point we really won’t know what will happen to our project until it happens.  Luckily, we are both fairly easy going women that are not afraid of change.

It seems as though I am going through an individual transition as well.  My own artwork and art concept seem to be shifting.  As I am attempting to live a minimalistic type life I am starting to wonder where art fits in.  By minimalistic I mean, low impact, sustainable, eco friendly and the like.  As I try to limit the amount of new material I purchase for my house and life and increase the amount that I reuse and recycle, it has started to make little sense to by new materials to create art.  About 2 years ago I started a project called Significant Stranger, where I made a rule (as I usually do for my art projects) that all of the material I use for my “canvas” had to have been used by someone else before me.  It tied wonderfully into the concept of the art project, that those in the past have created the world I live in today.

There seems to be another reason my body and mind gravitated towards reusing material. This past week I starting having trouble using linoleum to carve because I cannot find anyone who will recycle the small leftovers that I create.  Although I can’t believe I am saying this, I am going to give up linoleum.  Artists are supposed to be creative, right?  Well it is time to get creative and find some used material to act as my linoleum.  Book pages that are stacked and glued together make great carving boards, old wood from the dump, old doors, drawers, lots of stuff.

If Art is Life and Life is Art it only makes sense that the two should mirror one another entirely.

I am becoming a photographer again.

This week, for the first time in 5 years, I scheduled a time during my day to go outside and photograph.  This used to be my life.  My camera came everywhere with me and captured my life and the lives of others I saw along the way.  I stopped loving photography during my undergrad studies and have had a shaky relationship with it ever since.  But, after photographing two of my friend’s weddings, I am beginning to remember why I loved photography to begin with.

It is almost like I need to practice at not taking it so seriously.  I had to go to art school to learn how to technically take photographs and now I have to almost unlearn all of that–in order to take away that pressure to take the perfect photograph.  The best advice I ever received from a photographer was (I am paraphrasing) “Take as many photographs as you can because you will be lucky if you get one image out from one roll of film.”  1 in 36 is apparently the average for a talented photographer.  The digital age makes it a great deal easier to take a ton of crappy photographs in order to find that one gem.  And, reflecting on that advice today, what I really think he was getting at was, just take it!  Don’t think, just photograph.

I could not just take it last week.  I had a really hard time photographing.  It’s like I lost my touch.  It used to be automatic for me.  I didn’t think, I just pointed and clicked.  It was straight from my gut.  That’s what I love about photography.  It can be so genuine and honest if you approach it correctly.  That’s another part of me I will have to find again.

Photography used to allow me to look at a scene as though I had never seen it before.  I was like a 5 year old at the circus for the first time.  Instead of pointing my finger in awe, I was pointing my camera and recording that composition I framed in my head.  Where did that photographer go?  And can I get her back?

Preparation

So, I have a solo show entitled, “Did you wake up this morning?” coming up in July.  It will be held at the Rogue Community College in Grants Pass, Oregon from July 3- August 27th.  For the last couple of days I have been preparing to ship my work out to the gallery for them to install.  This gives me sort of a silly feeling in my stomach.  One because I’m struggling with a control addiction.  I’ve come a long way in the past couple of years trying to “just let go” (that’s the mantra I use when I am being too much of a control freak).  And two, I have a love/hate relationship with the install aspect of my work.  It’s a huge part of the process, project and concept, so I feel strange handing it over to someone else to do.

On the other hand, I am so pumped to see what the curators and installers come up with.  The reason I always have one step in my work process that is sort of out of my hands is because it adds a sense of surprise for me and my audience.  It also forces me to let go of some control.

I will be showing 8 works from my Morning Picture Project, also known as I am a Terrible Morning Person.

Another aspect to the show is that instead of having all 21 pieces from the original project it will only have 7.  I am curious how this will affect the viewer’s reaction to the work.

This photo provided by chueynickels.

Oh won’t you be my neighbor

So, first and foremost I would like say that I am a total lame brain. I just received an awesome comment in my “comment box” here on my blog, but accidentally deleted it. If you are out there, person who commented on the Feminist bras and wanted to know if there was still time to be involved in the project—YES! I am still looking for some wonderful volunteers. Either leave me another comment, and this time I will make sure I don’t delete it. Or, if you don’t trust me, just send it via email to lauren@laurenusher.com and I will email you back with my address and bit more information on what I need from you.

So sorry that I totally approved your comment and then somehow deleted it. WordPress can trick you sometimes if you aren’t careful.

On to another more happy subject. I am happy to say that I have finished another piece for my Significant Stranger Project. As you might have read earlier on my post Neighborhood Piece I have been painting images from found photographs onto old photographs from CalTrans. Anyway, I was struggling with the look of it and I didn’t feel like it was really delivering the concept I wanted it to. So I sat with it a while and came up with this.

Certainly a whole new idea. But, I am much more fond of it and believe it delivers a much stronger concept and, let’s face it, it is much cooler looking.

I grew up watching Mr. Rogers and have always had a strange relationship with the idea of neighbors. My whole artistic endeavor is about getting people more involved with one another, but I have to say, I still want a tall fence around my backyard. Does that make me a hypocrite–maybe so. But, I’m sure there are more people out there who feel the same. I appreciate privacy and believe it is a right, but I do think that we should attempt to cross our own boundaries once in a while and get to know those around us.

Process–Original Owners Piece

So, another beginnings of a new work. I find these days that I am bouncing from one piece to the next every other second. I can’t seem to remain hooked on one work in order to finish it. Don’t know why that is, but I will share another piece I am in the middle of building on.

These two pieces will be combined with many many other pieces like them. I hope to fill a huge shelf with piles of containers holding products I have used. For now I am trying to print the original owners of the particular companies on the product containers. I may combine them with current workers, board of directors, etc. in the future, but I haven’t decided yet.

I also want to print larger faces on more than one container–make sort of a puzzle.

I will keep you updated on how this process goes and hope to get one of these done eventually.

–Lauren

The Shoe Piece

So, this is another piece that is in the works–It is as hard as I thought it would be! But, I think when I am finished with it in a few months it will look awesome.

This piece involves not only significant strangers, but a significant event. For this project as a whole I am attempting to use events that have occurred both before I was born and also during my lifetime in order to communicate the idea that the past has set up the world we live in today and we (as a collective whole) are, everyday, setting up the world future generations will reside in.

Photography has always been a significant art form and practice for me. I chose a particular photograph I remember being powerful for me the first time I saw it when I was younger. It was taken as Elizabeth Eckford entered Little Rock Central High in Arkansas in 1957.

I decided to use this photograph as my subject matter for my shoe piece. What I mean by “shoe piece” is I am painting on the bottoms of shoes that have been worn down by various individuals. I hope to conceptually deliver the message of “take a walk in my shoes.” Like most of my work this piece is about perspective and attempting to show the connections we all share.

Processing

So, I started a new piece and I don’t really know what I am up to. I found tons of photographs at the East Bay Depot and for some reason was attracted to people sitting on their couches. At the same time they had piles and piles of old CalTrans aerial photographs. I didn’t know the two would be part of the same piece, but I decided to purchase them that day. What has happened with them so far is this…

I’m not feeling it at the moment and I don’t know why. I love the concept. To fill you in I have decided to take these found photographs and use them as my subject matter and use the CalTrans photos as my canvas. I want to express the idea that we all have neighbors and most of us don’t take the time to get to know one another. So, these ladies could be my neighbors. It is just kind of crazy to look at all of those houses and wonder what kind of people live there. What do they like to do with their spare time? Are they happily married or recently divorced? Do they like their lives? How am I connected to them?

I’m tossing back and forth with painting faces or leaving them blank. Conceptually speaking, leaving them blank would make more of a suggestion that they could be anyone. And it would also express the sort of anonymity that a lot of us live in these days. We don’t communicate face to face so much anymore (this blog being an example). In some ways that is a good thing. There are people out there who would never get the opportunity to view my work if this blog didn’t exist.  But, then again, sometimes there is nothing like a face to face conversation.

Enough babbling, Just wanted to write a bit to clear my head. I’m starting on a new blank CalTrans photograph and using and older gentlemen who is sitting on a couch. We will see how this painting turns out. I think I might leave the ladies alone for a while and look at them again in about a week with fresh eyes.

Another thing, why am I painting? Why the sudden urge? I don’t know…

Lauren

September 11th Piece

Okay, so just wanted to give you all another glimpse into my “Significant Stranger Project”

I have a couple images to show you of what will end up being about 10 percent of the final product. I do not believe I will be done with this one until at least a year from now. We shall see.

This idea spawned from the events that took place in the United States on September 11th, 2001.

This project is about the connections we all share and I have picked September 11th, 2001 as an event that I believe reminded people of that fact. I do not believe there was a person alive on that day that didn’t feel connected in some way to the events or people that took place. In terms of my life philosophy and the concept behind this work, all of those who died on that day were effecting my life somehow. And them no longer being present on earth had another significant effect on my life.

They are all significant strangers.

Each face is approximately 2 inches x 2 inches. So far I am inclined to draw all of them in pencil. That may change in the future, but who knows.

This project has become quite surreal for me, if I am completely honest. While I am collecting the photographs I am reading paragraphs and paragraphs of loss. I know I will never feel what those who lost loved ones felt and still feel today, but I’m going to try. And I will most certainly try and communicate the connections we all share so perhaps more people will realize their own true significance and potential.

Let me know what you think.

Lauren