Pow Wow #1
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Starting today, I’m going to be posting a series of photos I took at the recent American Indian Council annual pow wow at the MSU fieldhouse here in Bozeman. The primary events at the pow wow were dance contests with competitions in a number categories. Twice a day there WAS a Grand Entry where all the dancers in all the categories come out on the floor at one time. We were standing on floor right were the dancers entered the arena and started their routines. The close-up views ranged from rather sedate dance steps to spectacular blurs of color and motion as shown here. (Note the one static face in the photo.)

For reasons I will try to explain later, most of the photos will be black and white (more accurately duo-tone). But I did want to post a couple in color first to give an idea of the colors of the costumes and because if I don’t, at least one person will ask what it looks like in color!

Kitchen Abstract
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Another in-home found composition. I’m not sure what I was doing when I noticed this; most likely I was just standing there staring at my feet or something equally productive. But I have to wonder by what process my mind uses to go from an aimless glance at something I see every day to thinking there’s a photo opportunity there.

I’ve been busy printing, matting and framing for the upcoming summer outdoor art show season, so it seemed quite timely that a recent Zippy cartoon should address that activity. I can vouch that there’s a lot that isn’t fun about participating in summer art shows but it’s still more rewarding than not–mostly anyway. And I still prefer it to being a dentist (or a cartoonist for that matter).

Wishing Elsewhere
Tucson, Arizona
2015

In spite of what appeared to be a very visible desire to be somewhere else, this young girl and her sister who was nearby were behaving themselves very nicely while their family was taking in the exhibits at the Tucson Art Museum.

The Gesture #10
Tucson, Arizona
2015

 From a sculpture in the Tucson Art Museum who’s name and artist I unfortunately forgot to make note of.

Cubist Moonrise
Bozeman, Montana
2015

I was sitting reading in our living room for a while the other day. When I looked up to give my eyes a rest, I noticed this alignment of an outlet cover and an upholstered bench across the room. This is an example of something I mentioned in a comment to a previous post the other day. I said it seems that if I sit somewhere long enough, I can often find something to photograph that was not apparent right away. (Whether or not the resulting photograph turned out to be worth the exercise in this case is another story.)

To be more specific I guess I should have called this a minimalist cubist moonrise. (I just looked it up, turns out minimalist cubism actually is an art style–who knew?)

Adobe Abstract #2
Tucson, Arizona
2015

Palo Verde Pose
Tucson, Arizona
2015

After I wrote this title it came across as hard to read properly because the first two words are Spanish and the third word, while in English, could also be read in Spanish. But it turns out it doesn’t matter as it means the same thing in both languages, although it’s pronounced as a two-syllable word in Spanish. (Palo Verde by the way is the name of the tree and translates as green stick.)

Still Life With Salt and Pepper
Tucson, Arizona
2015

Spring Green
Saguaro National Park, Arizona
2015

It was so green and lush when we were in Tucson, I thought I ought to post at least one color photo of the desert. It’s probably greener than a desert ought to be. The rain and fog that started this day certainly had something to do with that look.