Thursday, May 25, 2006

There have been a lot of incredible things happening recently. I haven’t really made a lot of time to get them posted because the semester is fast coming to an end, and I am in the throes of preparing for the end of semester exhibition. It seems as though my hard work has now started to pay off because I have very few things left to do and a full week to do them. Sadly, at the end of that week, I must return home back to my real life for the summer. The Fall holds a lot including a 22 day tour of Italy and some more advanced studies of photography with the amazing John Pack and Liz Carson. Not to mention the Art History things coming my way by the brilliant Jeffrey Carson.

Jared has come and gone now. We had quite a blast though. It’s great that he got to come and hang out with us and our group. He got some good Greek sun and even got a four wheeling tour around the island, which he enjoyed very much. We did a little island hopping together, and we got to explore some art stuff on the nearest neighbor to Paros, Naxos.

Naxos was amazing. We got to go to many of the major sites there including the three korui, the marble quarries, the Temple of Dionysus, the Temple of Demeter, The Tower of Aiya, etc. I got some great photographs that are going to go into the show here. I intend to display them in Portland as well, which I am looking forward to in a big way. I loved Naxos in a big way because I was able to explore and island that you think would be so similar to Paros. It is complete different though. It is so huge, etc. There are a lot of stories about that island including the idea that Zeus was born there and stayed in hiding there in a cave until he was old enough to overthrow his father. He was, of course, taken care of by and eagle. Another story is that Dionysus planted the first grape vine there, and thus the island is the father of wine making. The island is still very agricultural, and I was able to see many more donkeys (Jared thinks I have donkey radar) and I even took some photographs of an old man on his donkey.

I have also been taking four wheeling adventures on the island. I drove up behind the famous quarries of Marathi here and went up to a very high point on the island to take photographs. I have found some interesting things. These adventures involve things like finding oregano growing, finding sea salt in the rocks by the sea, swimming, trying to explore deserted monasteries, driving through towns we’ve never been to, taking photos of things like cows in poppy fields, taking pictures of pretty flowers, finding churches that are immaculately kept but not used by anyone, driving the four wheeler a little “off road” on a crazy adventure to Naoussa, going through the channels of the marble quarries, etc. Watching the sunset and then getting up to see the sunrise, etc. My good friend Brie and I have been having a blast.

Most of these trips have been for photography purposes, and it has worked out very well.

It has been getting very hot here, and swimming is a great way to cool off. I have also been spending a lot of time in the cool darkroom getting everything ready for next Friday. It is going to be a blast.

So…. That’s what I’ve been up to. I’m not ignoring the blog, just getting pretty busy. Stay tuned for more.