Duh-luth Mini-Snow-Tah

Minneapolis in a Haze upon descent

I'm back in Minnesota! at least for a long weekend... I am part of an exhibition currently at The Duluth Art Institute (DAI) called "Photography, beyond Grain and Pixels". The opening reception was this past thursday and was the perfect excuse to take a small break and come back to minnesota to see family and friends. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone back home until I started making plans to come back and I started to get really excited about the idea. Last wednesday I somehow snuck onto an airplane and in an hour here I was, back in the land of 10,000 lakes (I think it's over 14,000 actually... ridiculous). I spent that first day with my parents, I borrowed a wakeboard from The FL Project and did some wakeboarding out on Forest Lake. It was a good time, I tweaked my knee a bit on a toeside frontside 360, but it wasn't anything major. I spent the rest of the time on the water doing different variations on grabbed 180s.

Thursday I got up and headed out pretty early so I could get to Duluth and see my friends before the opening. It felt somewhat comforting to be back in Duluth. It has become a familiar place that has grown on me over the past 4 years. Later that night was my opening at the DAI. I was pretty nervous as to how my work would be received. I had not seen the final pieces until that night. To have them made and to the gallery in time in Duluth I had them printed and framed in Forest Lake then shipped to Duluth all while living and working in Illinois. They looked great! the print quality was beautiful (thank you Bill), and the framing was well crafted (thank you Nature's Image). They seemed to be well received both by David Hodges and by the people at the opening. People seemed to be intrigued by the ideas I was playing with, many were also interested to see digital photography in a way that they had not before. I was happy with how they were received but I felt that they weren't quite as successful as I would have hoped. My friend Topher put to words exactly what I was thinking when he said... "You look at the pieces, you read the description, you get it, then you are done." This is exactly what I was worried about. I think my ideas are interesting and I am certainly making a valid point, but I don't think they transcend what they are. They don't question or challenge the viewer enough. Part of my aesthetic when designing these pieces was to make them as neutral as possible and present them in a way that photography would be traditionally shown in a gallery setting. Nevertheless, they seemed to be well received and if nothing else there is a very good lesson in this experience.



See my flickr set of the show.

I spent the rest of the weekend catching up with friends and enjoying Duluth. Highlights included going to Hell's Kitchen for breakfast (incredible, you have to eat their peanut butter if you go there sometime. no joke), going to my good friend Cassi's wedding reception at the beach house on Park Point, spending time with Suzanne, hanging out with all of my friends, and seeing Adu Gindy's show Fables + Pyramids at The Tweed Museum of Art.

This has been a great trip home. Now I have to go to bed so I can get up early and go wakeboarding with Kyle the fly back to Chicago!