Grounds For Sculpture

Not long ago I went on a second photo club outing. These photo outings are really getting me in the popular group at the club!

I'm mostly joking, but I just went to the camera club Christmas party and people actually waved at me and wanted to talk to me.  A woman actually offered wine to me!  I felt so in.

'Tis the season of my life to start going to real live Christmas parties - the kind they talk about in Good Housekeeping!  Mom subscribes to that mag and around the holidays there are always articles on how to host one, how to behave at one (talking to rude strangers or how to choose a hostess gift), what to wear to one, how not to eat too much at one, and what kind of wine to drink.

All this is fun to read but totally worthless because Christmas parties are for Stepford wives with whom I have no connections as of yet.

But go figure - this year there are all these parties: camera club, AND there was a post-Thanksgiving party that I think counts, and two work parties - one of which is very fancy. I feel like I'm moving up in the world. Alcohol is involved in all four.

The outing was a place called "Grounds for Sculpture" in NJ and we carpooled. The three of us in one car only ran out of interesting things to talk about during the last hour of the trip back. I thought that was very impressive, considering I'm a youngin' and had to carry conversation with two strange adults my parents' age.

The woman in the car uses unconventional and what some would call rudimentary methods to edit her photos - think PowerPoint and excel, and free kaleidescope apps from online. I thought it was all pretty hokey until I saw her unique and visually sound work. The guy driving the car and I agreed that this lady was a very surprisingly creative soul. I love that she uses the tools she has at her disposal to make what she wants to make - no making excuses about not having the "right" advanced software. Kind of like Macgyver: take stock of what you have and use it to solve the puzzle- in this case, a visual one.

Grounds for Sculpture  was worth the drive and the $15 admission. I don't even feel like listing all of the different kinds of sculpture there or speculating about how it got there (aliens).

Photographing someone else's art is a joy because that someone else already went through pains to compose a satisfying visual experience. In sculpture's case, the artist already did this from all angles. See? I can take a picture of a sculpture from any angle and its creator already helped make my image a success.

On the other hand, with this in mind the eyes of viewers (including my own) are more critical: what makes this image more than a record of someone else's art?

A good challenge and an enjoyable outing.