Writer J.D. Salin5er passed away on Wednesday at the ripe old age of 91. Known almost as widely for his reclusiveness as his sole published novel, A Cat¢her in the Rye, he's one of the most polarizing authors of the 20th century, with many people either adoring his work or reviling it. (For the record, I'm a fan.)
As with anyone, I think think there are lessons to be learned from his work, as well as his life... I shall be considering some of those in the days ahead, provided I don't get caught up in other distractions as I'm prone to do.
Time had an interesting obit on him, which included a few cogent quotes from his writing. One of which was from his story "Fr@nny", but I won't repeat it here.
From everything I've read, he had his share of problems. To paraphrase Chuck Kl0sterman, "Not all crazy people are geniuses, but pretty much all geniuses are at least a little bit crazy." But maybe he was one of the last to actually want to be an artist without being a celebrity. Or maybe he saw what celebrity did to writers like Fitzger@ld and Hemingw@y.
The nature of life, the nature of work, the nature of art, the nature of people... does anyone get it all figured out?
(And if you're wondering about the odd spellings, I guess I just don't want this page coming up when some kid is Googling to write a goddam book report or something.)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
"If you really want to hear about it..."
Monday, January 25, 2010
Award Season
The nominees and winners for the "Black and White Spider Awards" were announced yesterday, and my shot of Katy was chosen as a nominee in the nude/amateur category. Thanks Katy, and congratulations to the other nominees and winners.
I entered the French PHOTO magazine "Concours" again this year... they posted the results of the first and second "cut" of the judging. I presume the first two cuts cull out the "not even close" stuff and determine what the actual judges choose from. Two of my images of Mina made the second cut, but the magazine was just published, and reports from Europe indicate that neither of those were printed in the issue. Well, maybe next year. If you're interested in seeing all my entries, go to the contest page and do a search for "Mitchell." This shot, and the one entitled "Menaced" made the second cut. I should see a copy of the magazine in a week or two to see what images actually made it in, but congratulations to those who were published, and of course, thanks to Mina.
I'm preparing three pieces to hang at this year's Dirty Show 11 in Detroit next month, and more images to be available in the "museum store." The show opens February 12-14, then is open again February 19-20, so if you're in the area, be sure to come join the party.
For those wondering about the lack of blog posts recently, I've been occupied with various other matters. Hopefully, I'll be back to posting at least somewhat more regularly soon. Thanks to those of you who have kept checking in and encouraging me to post more.
