Each Little World

Wordless Wednesday

(Double click to see the detail on the bug).

Back to normal

Mark had a great crowd at his opening, despite the fact that the snowstorm that had been forecast for last Thursday arrived an hour before the party started. Lots of old friends and photographers. We closed down a bit early when it became clear that the storm was going to keep everyone else at home. We were glad we only live a few minutes away, so our drive home was short and safe.

We spent the next day doing nothing — after my cataract surgery consult. Then Mark was back at the gallery Saturday afternoon for more visitors. This week we have house guests, along with warmer temperatures and rain in the forecast. Should be a great week. 

Mark has coffee every morning with one of his photo buddies, Tom Schmock. Tom came to the opening to capture the scene since Mark was going to spend the evening talking. This is one of my favorites that Tom took of Mark. 

Thanks to all of you for all the lovely comments you left last week about Mark's exhibit and the local magazine article about him.

Mark's Ten Year Retrospective Exhibit

For the past ten years Mark has tried to answer the question: “What is a good photograph?” 

Through the exploration of various subject matter, photographic media, equipment, technique and, most importantly, photographic theory his images have evolved over time.

This exhibit at the PhotoMidwest Gallery consists of 77 framed prints, 27 self-published photo books, 100s of unmounted work prints as well as relevant quotes from artists and scholars who influenced my practice.

If you are unable to attend the opening (details below), PhotoMidwest is open on Saturdays from Noon to 4PM. We live only a short distance from the gallery and Mark would also be willing to provide access at almost any time. Just let him know. 

If all else fails you can view the images at PhotoMidwest. The books can be viewed at Blurb.com by searching in the "bookstore" under "Mark Golbach." 

TO

PHOTOGRAPH

IS TO

LEARN HOW

TO 

DIE

 

A TEN YEAR RETROSPECTIVE OF IMAGES 

BY MARK GOLBACH

OPENING RECEPTION

MARCH 9, 2023

4PM – 8PM

SATURDAYS FROM NOON TO 4PM

MARCH 4, 2023 – APRIL 22, 2023

 

PHOTOMIDWEST

700 RAY-VAC DRIVE

MADISON, WISCONSIN

CONTACT  MARK GOLBACH

TO ARRANGE FOR ACCESS AT OTHER TIMES

[email protected]

No place like home

Why not stay here forever and ever

enjoying this immortal rhythm,

in which both eye and soul are at rest?

— Virginia Woolf —

 

A Chinese necklace (probably bone) and a dried Magnolia leaf resting in our Thai Spirit House.

Look low

On Valentine's Day Mark and I drove out to Stoughton to the Abel Contemporary Gallery. We hadn't been out to visit and look at art in a while. The openings are so crowded that we've been avoiding them. A Tuesday morning was perfect.

Both the owner, gallery director and a new staff member were all there and with time to talk. After I caught up with everyone, I wandered off while Mark told them about his upcoming photo show.

As always, I am as captivated by the floor as much as the artworks in this 1891 building — originally a tobacco warehouse. Every step you take reveals new marks and changes in the wood. 

Eventually I looked up again and bought myself a necklace for Valentine's day and Mark treated himself to a tea bowl to add to his collection.

Holiday decor

Last month, a long-time artist/gardener friend had a big sale of his artwork at a gallery space he created in his home. Artists never stop making new work and eventually they need to move it on to make room for new work; thus the sale. Mark bought a large print and I opted for this painting. I found the scene very calming despite its intense coloration. 

I added this ornament being pulled by a toy farm tractor as a nod to the holiday. The big green glass ball already had the pink bow on it. Clearly it was meant to join the painting. 

We are starting to come out of our cold spell. I'm a bit worried that it may get warm enough and rainy enough later this week to melt the snow cover. I'm thinking of going out looking for a couple of curbside Christmas trees to bring home. I will cut the branches off and have them ready to put over new plantings when the temperatures plunge back into winter. 

Happy Holidays

Wishing you and yours a pleasant and safe holiday

and an improved new year.

IVOM: The perfect vase

Some vases are perfect because they are just right for short-stemmed blooms.

If you're lucky, they're equally good for long-stemmed beauties. 

But the very best vases look perfect even when they don't have any flowers. 

I love the glass vases by Richard Jones of Studio Paran in Madison. Given that I have three more of his vases in different shapes, sizes and colors, you could probably say I am addicted.

Jones is closing his studio and has been slowly selling his stock; first online and now Saturday afternoons in person at his shop. 

I bought this one knowing it was unlike any of my other black and silver vases. Mark suggested I display them as a group without flowers. I was thrilled he said that as that is exactly what I was thinking of doing!

I added a pot of Cyclamen to turn it into a Christmas display. Though I admit the flower color looked much more red in the shop than in my living room. Still, I am happy with my new purchase and love the group as a holiday display. 

IVOM: Halloween

Whenever I get bored, I change up the items on top of this pair of Chinese wine tables. Or on the glass shelves we added on the bottom to provide more display space. Recently I wanted something to punch up this room and bought this pair of lamps at a new antique mall in town. Mark is less than thrilled with them because they limit the size and number of pieces of art that can be put on the wall behind them — which is why I saved the pair of smaller scale lamps that had been residing here. 

I put this grouping of objects out at the beginning of October. I wanted something that felt like Halloween but didn't include typical items. This group showcases a Japanese incense burner, a squash-shaped box of unknown origin and a Chinese ceramic piece that was likely used as a roof decoration. 

I immediately fell in love with this piece when I saw it at an art show at a friend's farm the summer of 2021. It's an actual dried pumpkin covered with lead bullets and sculpt metal. It's called "Pumpkin Mine" and is a comment on the marine mines used to blow up ships. I'm still not sure why I am so drawn to it. I'm not a violent person and neither is the artist — a friend — who made it. But it certainly has that eerie Halloween feel. 

This big wooden bowl full of Honey Locust pods comes out every autumn. When we first lived here, we rarely got pods from our three trees. In recent years, we are buried in them. We fill a lot of big bags with them and send them off to the county dump. 

As a means of turning these lemons into lemonade, I saved the longest, shiniest, most velvety pods for display. They live in this bowl year-round in the basement except for their month in the sun every October.

Remembering Ravilious

During the Second World War, the War Artists Advisory Committee in the U.K hired 300 artists to cover the conflict. On this date in 1942, a plane on a mission off the coast of Iceland crashed into the sea, killing its pilot and 39-year-old passenger, artist Eric Ravilious.  He was the first official war artist to die in active service. I fell in love with Ravilious's work the first time I saw it. He was an illustrator, painter, printmaker and designer of commercial images like the one on this mug. 

This is one of a pair of large cups I have that were produced by Wedgewood to celebrate the coronation of Elizabeth the 2nd, the current Queen. Ravilious originally designed this one for her father's coronation and it was reissued in this colorway for Elizabeth. 

I'm not usually a fan of pink and yellow combinations but I think it works in this design. At this time of year, however, my garden doesn't as offer quite as many choices for pink and yellow blooms as it does in the spring. Still I found more than I expected. 

The provenance of the cup is printed on the bottom. 

The two books pictured are "Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield," edited by Gill Saunders and Malcom Yorke and "Long Live Great Bardfield: An Autobiography" by Tirzah Garwood, the wife of Eric Ravlious.

The first is a big, illustrated history of the group of artists who lived and worked Great Bardfield in England and the second is one of many superb books by the great Persephone Press in Bath, England. I am a huge fan of their books and have quite a long shelf full of them. In fact, they are listed as their own category on this blog!