I went into an aviary with the birds yesterday and took this picture in Tv or time value mode on my camera. I chose a slow shutter speed because I wanted to show the action of the dove’s wings, Aperture: f16 Shutter Speed: 1/6 ISO 100
Happy Easter
March 23, 2008 by carlatsaundersPutto with Poppy
March 21, 2008 by carlatsaunders
Spring is here and the poppies are out showing their brightly colored petals against more muted backgrounds. I’m taking an online photography class at BetterPhoto.com. It’s a four week course in learning about the Canon Digital Rebel camera with Charlotte Lowrie. This photo was taken in the AV mode which allowed me to select a point of focus. I chose the putto’s nose to be the sharpest point of focus in the image.
Flophouse blogger
March 9, 2008 by carlatsaunders
Instead of drinking a beer with a computer on my lap I’m sitting in the sun with a coffee from Bouchon. Instead of “BloggingChefs” I go to http://blog.foodista.com. This older woman is for Obama. My party animal is Miles shown here in a field of mustard. Photo shot yesterday with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera.
Hungfu Hill
March 5, 2008 by carlatsaunders
Small monkeys lash their tails,
watch with sharp round eyes
as I walk through the temple.
A poem in memory of Bill Wu
February 27, 2008 by carlatsaundersColin and I went to China in May 2002. We were on one of the last cruises through the Three Gorges Passage. Our cruise took us from Chongquing to Wuhan. We saw the construction site of the hydroelectric dam which has transformed the valley into a deep, current less reservoir. Eight thousand archaeological sites have disappeared. More than a million people were moved from their homes. 28,000 acres of farmland and around 20 cities and towns have been submerged. I wrote the poem when I came home.
The Yangtze: Three Gorges
Coiled with mist, the cliffs rise
half a mile into the sky.
Looking up, past the trackers’ path,
past the hanging coffins, past the caves,
past the stunted trees,
I see deep blue sky.
Rising Cloud Peak.
Sage Spring Peak.
The riverboat passes villages, orange groves,
fields of pink peach blossoms.
Tall limestone walls dwarf the town.
The river roars.
Winding narrowness,
shallow rapids,
dangerous whirlpools,
currents,
followed by quiet.
Head Rapid.
Chicken Wings.
Fish inscribed on White Crane Ridge:
two carp facing upstream,
one with a lotus sprig in his mouth,
mark ancient low-water levels.
On the road: barbers, plumbers, food sellers.
A welder creates jewelry with his blowtorch,
fired by a garden hose and a bottle of gasoline,
his foot pressing the bellows.
Under a red umbrella a woman sleeps,
sweet slices of watermelon by her side.
Children squat with a deck of cards.
Small groups of people eat noodles out of bowls.
Dressed in a tattered gown of silk
embroidered with dragons, an old man
sits near a persimmon tree.
All this will be underwater soon:
the temple with its wooden pavilions,
pagodas, loggias, reflecting pool,
the monkeys scampering among altars;
the storefronts, streets, houses, fields of rice.
Goddess Peak.
Witches’ Gorge.
What will happen to the Siberian cranes,
the white flag dolphin, the Chinese sturgeon,
the house tucked under a tree?
What will happen to the barbers, sellers, plumbers,
the little girl in yellow jelly shoes,
her mother selling Camel cigarettes?
In a home in Suzhou I saw this poem
on a piece of wood shaped like a banana leaf:
My mind-heart is like the reflection of the moon
in a deep pond on a snowy night
my creativity blooms like flowers
after the spring rain
The old towpath clings to the rockface, high
on the north side of the mountain.
Trackers pulling boats on the Yangtze
sing back and forth, strange chanting melodies.
Sad (for Linda)
February 27, 2008 by carlatsaunders
Ye Ye or Grandfather
February 23, 2008 by carlatsaunders
For centuries Chinese children have learned calligraphy by writing characters within boxes in order to understand their structure and proportions. When I was in China I bought children’s text books on calligraphy. Each work page shows a correctly drawn character. The children copy this in a graph under an image illustrating the word. The characters luck, long life and grandfather are represented here. The two dimensional chart and stencils give a nice balance to the three dimensional portrait. The image came from one of my photographs of a farmer we met while walking in the countryside. He had five children. Later we learned he had seven. Two were girls but they didn’t count.
‘Grandfather’ mixed media on canvas 36″x26″
Cry
February 19, 2008 by carlatsaunders
I chose this painting today because this is how I feel. I have a new computer and all my images have changed color! I should just paint and leave the computer to my son. When I ask him how to blog he gives me a lot of help and then he says, ” just do it” so I’m going to give blogging a try. My goal is to enter a blog once a week so check in and see what happens.
‘Cry’ oil/acrylic on canvas 36″x26″ 2006
Library Selection, an artists’ book 1998
February 8, 2008 by carlatsaunders
This Abecedarian or ABC book is an alphabet book made up of 26 words relating to wine. The unusual format is a wine shipping crate which I took apart and reassembled in a unique way. By stacking the panels that separated the wine I created pages to make up my dictionary. The TEXT, word and definitions are stamped on the wood PAGES.
A bottle of 1987 Trefethen Chardonnay in a stamped wood shipping container. 12″x13″x12″
Zellig
May 31, 2007 by carlatsaunders
In Morocco, moushrabiyas or geometrical screens keep Muslim women hidden from view. These screens allow women to observe their surroundings without themselves being seen.
Sketches and photographs by Carla Trefethen Saunders.
Iris printing, on Somerset 175 gram soft white,
by Urban Digital Color.
Typography and letterpress printing
by Norman Clayton One Heart Press.
A limited edition of twenty copies and three artist’s proofs
Bound by John DeMerritt, Emeryville.
Copyright by Carla Trefethen Saunders
San Francisco, California 2000 $750.00
