Dusty Little Blog?

True and not true.  I’ve changed blogs again! I’ve actually consolidated taken what was my website and reworked it into a blog/website.  A cost-saving measure more than anything else. So www.raineworks.com and www.raineklover.com point to the same place.  Eventually I’ll be building a new “real” website and point www.raineworks.com to it. But for now blog and website and together is one place.  Still working on galleries and such.

I’ve posted a few times in the past couple of weeks there. Playing catchup as usual!

Contemplating Photography

I’ve been pondering my love affair with photography recently. I feel like I lost my way a bit – am I taking that photo because I think someone else will love it (ie. I can sell it) or because I love it? Sadly, it seems the answer has more often than not be the former instead of the latter. And it’s so telling when I go through the images later.

Part of this realization has been because I’ve been going through my photography archives, archiving, adding keywords, getting rid of the chaff – and I find myself loving my old work so much more than the 2009 stuff. And the old stuff is more photoshop-centric, creating surreal tableaus, bending and blending images into what I see in my head.

This image is from my trip to Artfest 2007. Two of my favorite images from that trip blended to capture how that trip made me feel.

Free

reaching

seeking

flexing

and

finding my true self

my inner voice

my interior visions

being brought into the light

that was a great trip

9×9x9 Show

I participated in a year-long project with nine other artists that culminated into the 9×9x9 show that deputed on 9/9/09. We also did an 8×8x8 project last year to celebrate 8/8/08. An interested concept that worked out really well. Enjoy the video!

Halloween/Dia de los Muertos

Halloween • All Saints Day • Dia de los Muertos

Three intertwined events in New Mexico

I honored two – stayed away from All Saints Day though – no church for me

One of my only spiritual experiences happened in a church on All Saints Day

and it scared the heck out of me – cut too deep

anyway…..

I’m completely embracing Dia de los Muertos

I pored over ofrendas reading every scrap dedicated to people who have passed through this life

danced to the beat of a skeleton samba band

oohed and aahed at the Marigold y Muertos parade

pounded the earth to the ancient sounds of Aztec drumming

Every day I become more and more New Mexican

feel it seeping like sand into my every pore

aaaah……amor

Click on my Flickr badge to see more pics including my little skeletons!

It snowed today

It was brief, but I ran out with my camera to collect evidence of it’s existence. Snow in the desert always makes me happy!

So much to say, so little time

Poor neglected blog – I keep daydreaming of these beautiful, thoughtful, erudite posts and they’ve just accumulated in my brain like a logjam. Oh well, I need to brush those aborted posts aside and get on with it! My parents just got into town – we’ve been cleaning house preparing for their arrival – and having a lot of fun doing other things also! Lots of weekend adventures. Balloon Fiesta being a big one and the other being a trip to El Rancho de Las Golondrinas. Here’s my favorite image from Balloon Fiesta – it feels primal.

Betsabee Romero

This artist’s work is amazing – and I’m not even a car person! I love that she has completely fixated on one object – and then torn it apart, reconfigured it, used parts from it, etched, carved, and arranged it in so many ways. Obsession at it’s best!! Go to her website to see more!

Bonita

They closed the street that is the main drag of our neighborhood (it just happens to be old Route 66 – how cool is it to live a couple blocks off Route 66?) and had a Performing Arts Festival.  We had lots of performing arts groups out tabling – some I knew and some I didn’t. And had a stage set up and a long list of performers.  We got there early, grabbed some gelato and settled into our seats.  It was a great evening – and then we went home to watch West Virgina beat Colorado – Gooooooooo Mountaineers!

Flamenco Dancer

Friends

My boy and his girl – dancing at our block party last weekend  – a lovely evening full of friends, good food, firepits and candlelight, music, dancing, and s’mores. I wish I could have captured the sounds of that evening – the ebb and flow of the many conversations, the music, the fire crackling of the fire – lovely, lovely, lovely.

Tyger, Tyger

Loved the State Fair this year, we saws tigers, acrobats, and performing pigs. The kids fed goats, rode ponies, and went on rides (without mom and dad). The tigers were my favorite – I was on the verge of tears the entire time we watched them because they were so beautiful.