thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a weird holiday. For me, it consists of having dinner at my grandmother's house with every member of the family within a 40-mile radius. Keep in mind that I grew up next door to my grandmother. And I said 40-mile radius. so actually, these dinners are not rare. Thanksgiving for me isn't much different than the thursday-night extended family dinners we had every week when I lived in my parents house. Sure, there's turkey, but this is the first year since I was 12 that I've been able to eat it. and I guess there's more dessert than usual too. The thing is, we still all sit in the same chairs in Nene's dining room as we have our whole lives. If my cousins girlfriend's are present or someone is visiting from further away, we have to set up a card table in another room. We don't sit with them. My brother and sister and cousins and I still crowd around the "kid's table" we outgrew years ago and we still make fun of each other for things we did when we were 10. But we don't have some big family holiday cheer and we all duck out as soon as we can to go to a bar or a friend's house instead.
Christmas is great, and I understand birthdays, but Thanksgiving? really? Are we supposed to be celebrating something? What a weird holiday.. I mean, it's just dinner really.

Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth is a 20th century American painter. He comes from a family of artists and is one of the most celebrated American painters for his portraits and farm scenes. His paintings are very characteristic of his New England upbringing and of Puritan America in general.

Su Friedrich

I was most interested in Su Friedrich's work because it is so personal to her. And hearing her speak about her work and her thought process and the people and things that moved her to make her art drew me in to her films more so than before. Though I may not know her stories, I can read stories in her films, and I read a sense of history and the past. This overall feeling is something I strive to obtain in my own work, as well as her ability to make deeply personal work that is somehow at the same time completely universal. I was really taken with her videos, and even more pleased to be able to hear her lecture and know her life and stories that become the work.

old people houses

Kate Gilmore

Though I haven't been blown away by many of the artist lectures before, Kate Gilmore really impressed me. I was interested in her work seeing it for the first time, but I became increasingly more interested the more she spoke about her work and her ideas. She had a very personable, almost bubbly personality and I think that she is very successful in carrying that personality through her work. I could really relate to everything that she said about her videos and the characters and the moments that she creates. I could see a little bit of myself in those girls and in the embarrassing moments that we all have that no one is supposed to see. Gilmore brings those awkward characters and moments out into the open in a way that makes me want to cry, laugh, and cringe at once.

Square Dance

Mt. Airy, NC

old people are weird.

so weird. like, why are their freezers always way too cold? and why won't they let you pay for anything but they still only tip one dollar? and why do they make jokes about dying like they know it's happening and they really don't care? and why do they keep everything so that their houses and closets are full of really weird things? am I going to be that weird when I'm old? like, will I keep doing only the things I do now and never change even thought everything else in the world changes? old people are so weird.

Mt. Airy, NC

I spent the weekend on my family's farm in the mountains of North Carolina. I took the trip with my grandmother to visit her remaining brothers and sisters who still live on the land that they grew up and farmed on. It was definitely a change of scenery; I didn't see a single bar, 7-11, wal-mart, or even a grocery store that i had ever heard of before. It was actually pretty refreshing to pretend that civilization didn't exist. My cell was dead, there's no internet in the middle of nowhere, and i didn't even pack make-up or a hairbrush. I just hung out with my relatives, listened to stories about their lives and about what's going on with everyone that they know, and found a love for bluegrass music. I do admit that after 3 days on a farm I was longing for computers, traffic, and 7-11's, but it was still a great trip. pictures to come soon.

Chris Verene

Interiors

Chris Verene

I first saw Chris Verene's work when we showed his Galesburg series at ADA this summer. I was really drawn to it because of the kind of weirdness that his photographs have. In the series he documents his family in their rural hometown. His websites says about the photographs, "The simple color photographs are unstaged and reflect a plain yet beautiful side of American life that might otherwise pass by uncelebrated." His images remind me of my own family, in a way that is honest, embarrassing, and funny at the same time.

Mt. Airy, North Carolina

polaroids from my grandmother's hometown of Mt. Airy, NC.

Shanna Merola

I love Shanna's work because it contains so much history within it. She is interested in the same photographic style and subject as I am, and I think that her images are absolutely beautiful. Her work, much like Sally Mann's as well as early photographers, has a timeless feel to it that I want to be able to accomplish myself.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann's "Deep South" series is so interesting to me because of the history the land contains. Her images have the same sort of fogginess and spookiness that very old photography contains, which draws me to her work so much.

Gillian Wearing

I finally came to the somewhat obvious realization that maybe the reason I become so obsessed with my family's heritage and and with my mother and grandmother is because it is a sort of self-portrait. I focus so much on what my mother and grandmother were like at my age because maybe it will give me some insight into myself. Even though I don't ever use myself in my photography, I do see myself in it. Maybe what I've been struggling with is that no one else is seeing the "me" part of my work. This is a photograph of Gillian Wearing dressed up and mimicking an old picture of her grandmother. The reference to early photography is obvious, but does she actually look like her grandmother? I have no idea. I don't. But, My grandma and I are practically the same person in terms of personality and character traits. I don't think there's anyone else I would rather be like.

families are weird

so weird. it makes sense that i look like my mom, and that my brother looks like my dad, but then why do we look like the same person with different haircuts? and its weird how it skips around, like my sister looks like my grandmother but neither of our parents, and my cousin looks like our grandfather but his brother doesn't even look like he belongs in the family. and how do i look like a step-great-something that im not even sure is really related to me? also it's weird that my family used to do all of these crazy embarrassing things and i thought they were the stupidest and most annoying people on the planet but now those things make me laugh and i even sort of brag about them. and it's weird that you can be the most selfish person in the world and really not care at all about anyone else, but you'd take a bullet for family in a heartbeat and not think twice about it. weird.

Nene's 80th birthday

My Grandmother (Nene!) turned 80 this weekend. My mom and all her brothers took her to a bed & breakfast in Charlottesville for the weekend, and the rest of the family surprised her by showing up for a huge family dinner. I seriously have the cutest Grandma ever. My mom and my aunt brought some old family photos that I had never seen before, and I of course fell absolutely in love with them. One was of Nene wearing a grass skirt and bikini that her oldest brother had sent to her while he was stationed in Japan (she was such a hottie). Another was of the whole family in the late 70's I think. My mom was beautiful, and loved that I was dressed similar to the way she was in the photo. It's weird to have such a great time at an 80th birthday party.

more war photog

My family's old photographs are one of my favorite things in my possession. Whether or not I would still find the photos interesting if they were not of my own relatives, I have no idea. I have always only been interested in photographing the things that are important to me, but have never successfully made the things that are important to me become important to anyone viewing my photographs. I get obsessed with my own family history, and forget that it only contains history for myself. What is it to anyone else, and how do I make it become art to anyone else?

Mathew Brady

Not just Mathew Brady, but Civil War Photography. And not just Civil War photography, War photography in general. It's partly due to my interest in history, and especially American history. I'm also so much more drawn to the aesthetic of early photography, and war photography contains so much history.