My stepdaughter Jacque graduated from college in Portland last week. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a college graduate as a daughter. It doesn't seem possible. She is super smart, fun, grounded and free with her love of the world. I was chief photographer for all the graduation events and felt such contentment taking photographs of Jacque and her pals, her pals and their parents, Jacque and the family, the list goes on. But what moved me the most during the weekend was the baccalaureate ceremony the day before graduation. The chapel at Lewis and Clark college is beautiful. The ceremony included a Hindu prayer, singing, boisterous reggae dance and music and words full of good tidings for these young people in the future world.
I just finished creating a limited edition artist book for the Nelson County Almost Home animal shelter. They are having their annual fundraiser on Saturday night and they will be auctioning off the first copy of the edition and then hopefully I'll get some orders for more copies of the book. The proceeds go directly back to Almost Home for the animals. I loved the meditative quality of stitching the binding, sewing photographs one on top of the next. It demanded patience and focus and awareness of pulling the waxed linen thread just so, I loved doing it. And then I got to scratch and burnish the aluminum sheet for the back cover - I could have spent all day watching the swirls and marks appear.
I was inspired by a photograph on the Hey Hot Shot blog of a "contender" for the contest, Mary Ellen Bartley on books - it was beautiful. So I spent just a few minutes looking at the shelf with some of the books that I read as a kid. Thanks to my Mom, she saved so many of them. The covers are a bit torn and the pages are a bit yellow, but I traveled far and wide in those stories. Here are two views from the top.
