Tina Givens - the Creative Whirlwind

About a month ago I was lucky enough to work with one of the most creative energetic people ever - Tina Givens. If you don't know her work you might want to make it point to check it out. She not only creates unique colorful fabrics, she has also designed children's clothing lines as well as a multitude of ingenious projects for a how to book to be published by Lark Books. And this is her second career...

We worked tirelessly for four straight days with a "roaming studio" in the Lark Books building - basically chasing the light (and the child models). Pamela Norman designed the book and stylist Skip Wade worked nonstop steaming, prepping and setting just the right item in the set. Assistant Melissa Terazza was my savior, always having a positive attitude, just enough energy, and making the essential trips to Izzy's to keep us caffeine -addicted souls going (and feeding me soda crackers as I caught a horrible stomach bug in the midst of it all). Despite a few hurdles such as before mentioned illness, no shows of models, and the craziness of working with child models, the photos turned out quite well. I look forward to seeing the final book this fall.

The HATCHing of Photography in Asheville

What is Hatch? That is the question most asked when I mentioned my excitement about this 4 day networking conference, somehow named HATCH fest. My unofficial response, which is my own interpretation of just what Hatch IS, is that it is not a festival at all. It is a gathering of creative people from many disciplines including architecture, photography, journalism, music, fashion, design/technology, and film. There are panels, workshops, networking events and parties galore, all filled with people sharing their stories from the experiences they are having just by being surrounded by others from Asheville and around the country with the burning desire to create - something.

When I found out that not much was planned in photography for Hatch 2010, I asked if I could organize some events, and was given the green light. We had less than a month before the event, but I knew there were a lot of energized photographers in our community, and decided to form a panel of female photographers to discuss a variety of topics, which was well attended and well received. I also put out a call for entries to the regional photographic community here in Asheville for two slide shows I wanted to put together - one for the Hatch innovators lounge, and one to project BIG on the side of a building at night downtown, aptly named "Art in the Dark". With the help of fellow photographers and friends, I was able to make it happen, and the results were exactly what I'd hoped: people stopping in the street to watch the 20 minute show that looped for an hour Friday and Saturday evenings, as they came out of the many restaurants and bars near the Lab on Lexingon, where we showed it.

Nothing like an unrealistic deadline to motivate people - I decided to create a stop motion video featuring family and friends (something I had no idea how to do), and I showed it as my contribution to Art in the Dark. It was a baptism by fire learning all the ins and outs of creating a video, but it just got me going, as I can't wait to work on the next one! If you'd like to see it, the link is here on youtube.com:

Murmurs and Motion Stop Motion Video

Photo by Michael Phillips

Butter, Cheese, and More Butter - Yum

Yes, I am referring to yet another book that I'm working on for Lark by "hipster homesteader" (so dubbed by this month's issue of Verve magazine) Ashley English. Last week, at a furiously productive pace, we finished shooting the third book in the Homemade Living series on all thing dairy: soft and hard cheeses, yogurt and butter, to name a few. Lots of WHITE THINGS to shoot and make interesting - no small challenge. With the visual talents of art director Chris Bryant, the organizational skills of editor Nicole McConville, and the delicious recipes of author Ashley English, we had a good running start. As with the other two books we shot last summer, Keeping Chickens and Canning and Preserving, the real bonus was being able to to eat what we photographed, which included saag paneer, ricotta pizza, beer cheese fondue, cucumber soup and strawberry chevre ice cream. Ashley made cheese making look so easy that I've ordered a few supplies and ingredients - it doesn't take much to start making your own cheese.