Capoeira: The Story of My Introduction

photo from http://usslave.blogspot.com

Back in 2005, my husband and I, along with our three-year old little girl, were exploring Blue Star in San Antonio. Blue Star is an artist community that opens its doors to the town on the first Friday of every month. We went from space to space exploring all the Indie Art, introducing our princess to paintings, sculptures, photography, and many other beautiful expressions of the heart and brain.

When we stepped out of one of the buildings, our ears perked up to a combination of drums and another very strange yet beautiful musical instrument. Brian had heard it before, but my ears were virgin to the pulsing twang and hypnotic beats. We gravitated immediately to a circle of souls, clapping along to the music. There were lyrics, but they were unfamiliar to me. Not English, not Spanish. 

As we stepped closer, I saw the circle's center. The crowd watched as two flexible bodies moved together in harmony. It resembled a fight, but nearly looked choreographed to prevent injury to each other. A dance?

"What is this?" I asked the person beside me.

"Capoeira," he replied.

I nodded, the syllables lost on me.

I watched in amazement. The circle continued to shift. The bodies dressed in all white took turns in the center--dancing, performing acrobatics, and moving instinctively with each other. This circle, a cultural melting pot, was stirred by all shades and tones of skin color. Men, women, teenagers, and even a few small children took their turns.  They each brought their own spice, flavoring the flow of energy pulsing through the crowd.  My mouth remained in the largest grin. My eyes could not open any wider.

The person next to me tapped my shoulder and exaggerated his hand gestures. He wanted me to clap. He didn't say a word. He only moved his hands in front of me, and I knew what he wanted. I was no longer just a spectator; I was part of the musical circle -- if only by providing more percussion with my hands.

We stood and continued to watch. There was a spirit here. I could feel it. It was climbing in through my skin and beating along with my heart.

I shifted to gain a better view. Soon, I stood behind a girl playing one of the odd instruments with the peculiar sound. It was a long wooden bow with a single string. Attached was a gourd, similar to what my grandmother had hollowed into a birdhouse on her farm. The girl held the gourd against her belly, tapping the metal string with a skinny rod. I would later learn the name for this magical instrument -- berimbau. 

I had never in my life witnessed something so beautiful, so raw, and so primitive. I wish I would have been exposed to this earlier, I thought. My, I would love my body to move in such a way. 

Little did I know what was in store.

Share any thoughts, perspectives, etc. I'd love to hear from you. 

Some background on this piece. I am embarking on a journey of studying the culture, social movement, and communication of Capoeira. In order to move forward, I felt it was important to look back. I hope to role out additional pieces based on my past with this beautiful art form that has grabbed a hold of me and changed my life. 

Watching Trains...

It's a great skill to be able to turn lemons into lemonade. I was first in line from the beginning of a train. Instead of cussing every car, I whipped out the camera. It took a few days to weed through the stack, but I did find a few pics inside.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

Happy Easter.

 Hope you have fun finding eggs!!

Considering Self-Publishing eBooks

Good evening all. I'll be brief. I am looking for feedback. I've been having this crazy thought for about a week. I should dust off the ole' book, polish it, have friends scrub it for errors only (no more rewrites), and then I publish it as an e-book. I've found a pretty great service that will format into the top 6 ereader formats. 

My logic is that I am not going to get rich off this book. I know that. But that doesn't mean that I don't love it and want to share with whom ever would like to read it. No need not sharing. I might as well publish it in a way that I can market on my own. I can't afford to publish as a hard back. If I generated just enough off the ebook to cover that, then I could order those at that time. 

What are your thoughts? Has anyone gone this route? 

Anything I should be terrified of? 

I'll leave you with a picture of something I'm very thankful for. My daughter. Today is her 9th birthday. 

Artistic Images

1) A Few Cocktails  - This is three images of the same shot from different perspectives merged together.

2) Lady in Ice - This is an experiment that I am planning to continue to build an entire portfolio. I am using images of glasses of ice and creating works of art from the images that I find within. In this particular image, I saw a woman. I used drawing tools to give more details to that image and then played with the color.

3) Spinning Around - This is four images of my daughter spinning around on the playground equipment. I picked four different angles and merged the images by lining up the actual equipment. This give a more realistic action shot. I enhanced the color to make it more aesthetically pleasing. 

4) The Cross - This image was taken of the top of my church, FBC Decatur. I used a soft plastic filter to pull the details of the sky and went with more of an abstract look. 

  

I hope you enjoyed my photographs. Let me know what you think.

Resale Shops

I love visiting resale and antique shops.  Stepping into one of these stores is like time travel or a hidden treasure hunt. It's a great way to spend the day. The last time I went to "Kudzu" in Decatur, GA, I brought my camera with me. The pictures turned out great and gave me lots to play with when I got home. I still have about a hundred photos that I haven't even touched yet. Here are a few to share. 

1. Spotlight Dancers - This was a wood cut out that was propped up against the wall. The paint was very faded, so I went with black and white and added the spotlight. 

2. Many Hats - I used a lens to enhance the reds, and play down the other colors.

3. Retro Fireplace - I used layers to make everything black and white with the exception of the fireplace, artwork, desk, and fan. The fireplace was this color. An amazing retro piece.

4. Green Room - Just a great space. I didn't have to do much here. The colors were fabulous together. I ran it through a cross process to give it more of a retro feel. 

5. Going Places - I love this photo. It's one of my favorites. I ran it through a earth tone filter, and then applied a hot wax coating. Really proud of how it turned out.

 

I hope you enjoyed these. Let me know what you think!

Making Lemonade

Once again life is preventing me from writing. Work and school are both tugging at me, leaving little time to hang out with imaginary people or even real people. But this time, I have decided to pick up an old favorite hobby that fuels my creative spirit. It is great, because it has me outdoors and spending time with my family. Photography! I have at three different times in my life chased this dream with the same passion that I have my writing. All three times chickening out at the last minute, and holding on tight to my day job. Well, this time it is a little different. The internet lets me share my photos in a way that I previously couldn't back in 1998.

Until I am able to write again, I hope you enjoy the photos that I can share.  Some tell stories and some are just art.

1. The Boy was very excited about the new Cars II. 

2. The Smell of Beer. This is Hubs in a neat window reflection trick. Slapped on a Pincushion lens to pull the words on the wall into the window more. 

3. "Eye on Dinner"   Photo of a ceramic cat, cake plate, and bird. I used blur to help soften the image and to draw the eye to focus on the main subjects. 

4. "Blowfish"   The fish was hanging in an antique store, Kudzu. I used a fisheye lens to focus in on the puffy fellow.

5. "Secret Passage"  I used a vibrant foilage filter, and then cross processed the image.

 Let me know what you think. Thanks for letting me share.