Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Bookbinder

Last week I met
bookbinder and book conservator
Alison Kuller
generous with her time
and studio



and now I am hooked
and want to know more
so 
I'm taking a course
at Maine Media Workshops
in August.

A little more about Alison Kuller here.
More about Maine Media Workshops here.

xx

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Maine is Busting Out All Over


Four weeks ago
this was a leafless, bare, brown landscape
and now
what an explosion
of greenery
and flowery


so dense and lush
it knocks out
your eyeballs

you can't take it all in
at once

you have to focus
on small pieces


and even then
you can hardly believe
such bounty exists


so casually


so delicately



you could lie down here
and say
'ahhh. . .'

xx




Saturday, June 7, 2014

Story Focus, II


In the last post, I tried to compare shaping a story to focusing a camera, beginning, say, close up to a person or place and then pulling back to show the context or wider setting.

You could also do the reverse, as above: there's a stone patio, a stone wall and dense trees beyond.  What sort of place is this? What might happen here? Then move in a little closer:


The wall is carefully crafted, hand-built, hmm . . . who built it? Why is it important?  And if you go closer:


Well, well, well . . . look what was there amid those stones all along. Is that critter the subject of the story or a sign of . . . what?

Guess you've got to write the story to find out . . .

Mm?

xx