I had the greatest day last Tuesday. First, Ben and I went to meet Bruce Garlick to discuss a future shoot -- at a coffeeshop. And Bruce insisted on treating us (well, me -- Ben didn't want anything), so right away I liked him a lot. We talked for a while about his photographic style and what I would want from a shoot -- he's very different from the others I have worked with. He shoots as if taking stills from a film: sets up the scene, gives a character, a story, and then just takes photos as the 'scene' develops. I am so excited about working with him! I have to share some of his work to explain:


"Alienation"


"summer afternoon"


"irises"


"rainy afternoon"


"the existentialists"


"sunday morning"


"sunday afternoon"


"lucy"

(all images ©Bruce Garlick)

He also wants to help me in my current theme-project: Body Love. I have been developing ideas in my head, but if anyone has suggestions, feel free to give them to me. I think I am going to do a lot of imitation-classic-paintings, posing like Renoir's, Zorn's, Ruben's models... I need to get more specific ideas though, so if you have ANY ideas on glorifying voluptuousness, celebrating curves, tell me.

After that, I got an urge to stop by the thriftstore, and surprisingly enough Ben was positive about the idea -- he was reading the Fair Tax book by Boortz, so he had entertainment. I went in and found !!! a magazine with a DOVE GIRLS SPREAD and another magazine with THREE of the nike body-positive ads!!! Then I remembered that I had prayed to find a Dove Girls ad (in something other than the Weight Watchers mag, because ugh) -- yay God remembered even though I forgot! aaaaaaaaand, I GOT MY ADS without contributing to the EVIL self-esteem-poison industry!!!! hahahahahaha, they got NO MONIES from me. I am seriously SO pleased about that. ;-D Of course I don't like the mixed message of the Dove ads, but really, I am so delighted to see various body types that I don't care. And I had only seen small, low-res images of the women before -- in the actual ad, I could see that they really DO have very varied body types! Top-heavy, bottom-heavy, slender all over, curvy all over -- so awesome to see! And I am in love with the black woman's belly. just wow. I need a scanner so that I can show the photos to all of you and curvygirls.

And then this guy walked up to me and just struck up a conversation -- quite an interesting guy. We ended up sitting on the floor and talking for about two hours about the interconnectedness of all things, politics, vegetarianism, music, humanity, the future of our world culture -- it was SO amazing. I could tell that he was a little too interested in stamping my mind with his ideas, but since I am now confident enough to handle that, I was able to gain some wisdom from him without feeling squelched. And he was very intelligent -- rarely do I meet a person that makes me feel that he is more intelligent than I. I know part of it was a conscious effort to appear intelligent (I know that shell, I used to wear it!), but he really was brilliant. And like all brilliant people, very intense. I felt sharpened by the experience.

And I was flattered when he asked if my clothing was a reculturization. ;-) I was wearing a headscarf, coin earrings, my black "conform and be dull" top, a long black skirt -- and mismatching socks with tennis shoes. I told him no, I just wear whatever I like -- but I do have a strong connection with gypsy culture. That sparked a thread of conversation on culture, my favorite topic.

I love love LOVE that that happened. I feel like that is what my life is supposed to be like -- me going out and making true connections with the aware people of the world. I am so thrilled that I am secure enough to have a real conversation with a stranger -- and a GUY -- who is MORE intelligent than I! We exchanged email addys. I don't know if I'll contact him or not, but I am pleased that I have the choice.

comments enabled, feel free! I'm feeling much more relaxed about that now.