And Merry Christmas, and Happy Thanksgiving!\u00a0 I’m probably being politically incorrect by mentioning the last 2 in the manner I did, but not saying their proper names is succumbing to groupthink, which is something to which most artists who do fall will not readily admit.<\/p>\n
Congratulations first go out to my friends who made it into the P\/DM program at the University of Houston.\u00a0 I know they all worked very hard to achieve this goal and I can’t wait to see what they produce in their more in-depth studies of photography as an art form.<\/p>\n
Now I want to apologize for going all of December without an update.\u00a0 I had pretty much decided to just chill out for this semester break,\u00a0 and it is mission accomplished.\u00a0 The new semester begins on Monday (as in…\u00a0 TODAY!).\u00a0 I’m taking two classes – 20th Century History of Photography and Fundamentals of Video Art.\u00a0 The video class today was only about 20 minutes.\u00a0 Driving to school took longer than the class, but since it was the first day it’s ok.\u00a0 I have 2 friends in the class, so that should make things a little easier as well.\u00a0 The rest are mainly freshmen and sophomores who are barely into their arts programs.\u00a0 This should prove interesting going forward, but we will see.\u00a0 The photo history course should be very interesting.\u00a0 My Traditional Black and White professor, who is a graduate student at the University of Houston, loved the class last semester and could not say enough about it.\u00a0 The professor is the Director of Graduate Studies for the University of Houston School of Art and comes with quite an impressive Curriculum Vitae (that’s a fancy word for resum\u00e9 in the art world).\u00a0 I’m definitely looking forward to this one, but not to the 3 hours once per week lecture.<\/p>\n
Speaking of school, I finished the past semester with a 4.0, bringing my cumulative since entering UH to 3.76.\u00a0 I hope I can jack that up a little this semester, but we shall see in 16 weeks.<\/p>\n
This past Saturday was rather good.\u00a0 I went to the Catherine Couturier Gallery here in Houston to meet Maggie Taylor.\u00a0 For those who may not know, Maggie Taylor is a photographic artist.\u00a0 What she does is take vintage photographs and manipulates them digitally to create very colorful surreal works.\u00a0 Contrast that with her husband, Jerry Uelsmann (yes, that Jerry Uelsmann), who creates surreal black and whites in the darkroom.\u00a0 She was there signing her new book, No Ordinary Days<\/em>, and exhibiting original prints from the book.\u00a0 If you have never seen an original Maggie Taylor print, then you haven’t really seen her art.\u00a0 The same could be said for Uelsmann…\u00a0 his original silver gelatin prints are beautiful and even then you cannot find the flaws in his masking.\u00a0\u00a0 I met Ms. Taylor in September of last year at the Houston Fine Arts Fair while she was with the Catherine Couturier Gallery booth (this gallery represents both Taylor and Uelsmann in Houston).\u00a0 I didn’t think she was going to remember me, and I didn’t press it, but I did reiterate that I was a fan of the work of both her and her husband.\u00a0 All in all, I left a few dollars poorer but 1 book and 1 experience richer.<\/p>\n At this point the meeting has inspired me a little to work on my photographic manipulation skills.\u00a0 I have started looking at some of my photographs and have gone on eBay looking for some negatives and photos for sale.\u00a0 I have a few ideas I’m kicking around, and will get started soon.\u00a0 At this point, I will leave you with this piece I completed about a month ago (after neglecting it for about 8 months).\u00a0 Have a good night, everyone, and look for more updates soon.<\/p>\n
![\"Ghent's](\"http:\/\/www.artistrichardcuster.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/ghent-inspired-kidney-stone-story-1024x744.jpg\")
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