Deer eye and ear
rimmed by morning light
early morning Marin Headlands
(400 mm lens and quiet steps)
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The A Woman’s Eye Gallery collective consist of 5 visual artists and a curator of the word.  The latter is Poet Kit Kennedy who has just published a book of 23 blink poems entitled “while eating oysters.â€Â A blink poem is a one or two line poem demonstrated by the title of the book.
One of my favorites in this neon lime green non-paginated 4×5 inched book is:
“I love tulips for their sexy insides† ÂPhotographically my sentiments exactly! At Pier 39 the annual “Tulipmania†is underway. Most of the tulips in the beds near the California Sea Lions statue are solid reds planted among the yellows of daffodils and various ground coverings. But on the boardwalk upstairs the barrels show purple, orange, pink, variegated and multicolored ones. And indeed their insides are “sexy.â€
On Valentines Day this past week 1 billion women and girls (and men and boys too) danced to protest violence against women and girls. They rose up all over the world. Some groups were large mobs and others were small quiet moments. Visit the herrising website for pictures, videos and stories.
When the wind blows the rising-tulips I am reminded of this incredible day when women were rising, dancing, and pointing to symbolize their solidarity to break cycles of violence from the Congo, to the buses of Delhi, to the girls’ schools in Pakistan to US work places and healthcare policies.
Celebrate herrising, plant a tulip!
*Kit Kennedy’s book “while eating oysters” is on sale at AWE Gallery for just $5 so please stop by and read the remaining 22 blink poems.
My second image was also taken in the winter vineyard. There is a particular small vineyard I love to visit on Fulton Street in St. Helena that is never pruned or harvested. Year after year the grapes tend themselves and end up as hardened parched beads upon the skeletal lichen-covered old knurled vines.
Contemplating all these commemorations I am drawn to the symbol of the Tree of Life and especial it’s historical connections to the divine feminine. For us in the bay area winter is a time of pruning and the plum tree next to A Woman’s Eye Gallery is being clipped by our gardeners. Her branches are being cut way back in the hopes that they will again reach toward the sun producing new buds that will promise spring blossoms.
After photographing one such tree in beautiful morning light I still wasn’t satisfied with the way the capture expressed my experience with the tree. So I inverted the color resulting in the image you see here (a simple step in Photoshop – control I). This rendering expresses what I image when I sing 
Since I am changing colors I might as well move on to removing color altogether. That is what I did with this familiar site on Haight Street. This area continues to recreate 1970 scenes and some limbs and legs, mostly belonging to people, are still planted there from that decade of love, peace and pot. I am not sure how long these legs have been sticking out this window at Haight and Ashbury, but long enough to be downright petrified.
Especially along the road to Dillon Beach you will find one cute roly-poly lamb after another. A telephoto lens between 100 – 400 mm will help you fill your frame with these wooly creatures. They are best photographed on an overcast day providing saturated colors and even light. And since they are testing their new legs be sure you have a fast enough shutter speed (at least 1/125th of a second) to prevent blurring.
In the Native American tradition, animals play a large role. They believe in the power of animals for healing and that they give messages pertinent to what we may need to learn either for that day or for our entire lives. Native Americans will meditate with their animal-spirit guides and seek their wisdom. Use these animal images in your meditation today.
Epiphany, today, follows the 12 days of Christmas in the Christian calendar. It is the celebration that commemorates the arrival of “Magi†who followed a star to find the Christ Child. It is a season of light which the magi first experienced as they (outsiders) were drawn to one who was said to fulfill the promise of bringing to all people divine liberating love.
This first set of epiphany images, I confess, were captured and created on my iPhone. For most of the year I will be using DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) captures, some traditional photograph skills, and optimization in Photoshop.
However in 1960 both concerned citizens and local government had an EPIPHANY:Â The loss of the Palace of Fine Arts would indeed be a great loss to the future and the people of the city. Fund raising and philanthropic donations resulted in the demolition and reconstruction of the palace in 1964, using plans by Hans Gerson, duplicating Maybeck’s originals.
Capturing humor with one’s camera is a fun self-assigned topic. I knew I had archived that goal when I saw a young boy pretending to be on a wild ride through the paths of his own fantasies on his father’s scooter still packed in their moving van.
The little wooden cob-webbed camper was on a shelf in an outdoor store called “You Have to Have It,†also in Princeton-by-the-Sea which is just north of Half Moon Bay on highway one between San Francisco and Santa Cruz.
