Art and Technology Tips

The Tapestry of Art Education

Last week I attended the third annual Art is Education summer institute in Oakland, California. The Integrated Learning Summer Institute: Inventing Our Future was held at the Chabot Space and Science Museum from August 12-14, 2014. The Alameda County Office of Education’s Alliance for Arts Leadership organized the event. For links to the galleries and notes, visit […]


Spring Forward Part 2 – Roller Derby Season Begins

I am an official photographers for the [wb_fb_f name=”bayareaderbygirls” id=””] . I have a camera, a press badge and a really cool derby name. (I am P Giddy.) One of my friends asked me how I lucked into this gig. I really do not know. I showed up one day after attending a bout. I […]


Fire and Flight – Runway Show 3

Hot Couture Runway Show 3 Photo Slideshow Before an artist can fly, an artist must fight. A good artist argues with him or herself. Artists are their own collaborators, their own muse, their own liberators. An artist’s process is uneasy. Art is the fire, the wood and the shadow. Non-artists usually only see the final […]


Shadows in the Jungle – Hot Couture 2014 Second Runway Show

Photo Gallery for Runway Show 2 “Life is wasted on illusion….” Bow Wow Wow, from Do You Want To Hold Me Since last weekend’s Hot Couture fashion show at The Crucible in Oakland, California, I have contemplated the relationship between the music and fashion industry. Popular artists influence hairstyles. New styles of music force designer […]


Self-Portraits, a metaphor by another name

Self-portraits are a visual diary hidden in plain sight… or so says me.  (Here is my 2013 self-portrait gallery.) The Oxford Dictionary chose “selfie” as the 2013 word of the year. A selfie is similar to a self-portrait, but a selfie is meant to be shared on social media. According to the Oxford Dictionary, selfies […]


Capoeira – Batizado e Troca De Cordas

Yesterday was just another day at Melrose Leadership Academy… just another Saturday. Professor Chipa and his capoeira students performed at Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, California for the “Batizado e Troca De Cordas.” Melrose Leadership Academy is the Oakland Unified dual immersion elementary school that my children attend. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art/ extreme […]


We All Got Bruises – Mothers of Angels

Ten days ago I visited Martha Tessmer during my trip to Fresno, California. If you count this recent August trip, I have visited Martha and the support group she created for mothers whose children have died, the last five summers. In the previous years, I met with many of the members of the Mother of an […]


JEA NSPA Spring 2013 Leave Your Heart Everywhere

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon As one of the local committee members who planned the 2013 Spring JEA National Convention, I was busy creating expectations. After the last convention in San Antonio, I even thought that I would influence the story. Wrong. I did not even control my […]


Getting Closer to the JEA Digital Photography Workshop

“If your photographs are not good enough, you are not close enough.” – Robert Capa (1913-1954)   Getting closer is a useful skill, and as we “get closer” to the 2013 Spring National High School Journalism Convention, I have been contemplating Capa’s quote and the meaning of “getting closer.” On the first day of the convention, […]


Photography Portfolios – What Do We Do Next

One year ago today, Mark Murray and I presented a workshop about photography portfolios at the 2012 Spring JEA/NSPA National Convention. He and I have presented together for several years. How we present changes each time, because each convention space influences the presentation. The rooms are different sizes. Some conventions have more workshops and fewer […]


testing comments plugin

feel free to ignore. trying to fix my comment plug ins. many of my imported comments only appear with the following tag (comments imported from blog) … not content   So, instead of actually importing the comments on Facebook sites, everyone can only see that there were comments. Not very user friendly. I should have […]