Stu Jenks: Fezziwig Photography, Music, and Writing

"Oracle State Park, AZ" (c) 2007

"Oracle State Park, AZ" (c) 2007 Stu Jenks

3:00 P.M.: Walking in a wash in Oracle State Park, a small hardly-visited place, north of Tucson. The Arizona Trail, a path that runs from Mexico to Utah, goes through the park. On the way back to my truck, I see these four green trees, covered in moss. I see digitally for the first time, namely, that in Photoshop, I know that I can desaturate the already grey tones of the other trees and branches, and pop the yellow-green of the moss of the four trees, using Selective Color. Using my new Canon D-30, I take 6 shots, power-bracketing as I capture the image. Takes a minute at most.

7:00 P.M.: Home. Done. Took about 15 minutes to dial it in, using the Photoshop CS2. Sent a jpeg of this image to some friends.

10:00 P.M: Printed a giclee, getting ready now, to put on my shoes and drive to the studio, to put the new print on the wall at BR-549.

Being an Analog kind-of-guy, in which in the past, a finished image, at the quickest, is done in a few days, often times, taking a month, today's experience is downright odd.

Seems wrong. Feels right. All wierd. Story of my life.

Time to go. Maybe I'll get a cup of coffee at Safehouse on the way to BR-549.

"Our Lady of The Runner" (c) 2007

"Our Lady of The Runner" (c) 2007

Stu Jenks

This statue of the Virgin Mary was a Christmas gift from Dawn Carlson to Crane Day. Dawn is a wonderful painter who deals with texture and shape. Crane is a master weaver who makes shimmering ponchos and many other woven wonders. Both are artists who work in the same building as I. Both are kind, open hearted, and generous people. If and when you come to visit my BR-569 studio, be sure to visit with Crane and Dawn as well.

[Note about the image: You can't see him but Crane is hold the runner that you see in the background of this photograph, a runner he wove. Our Lady of The Runner is his name for this sweet statue of Mary.]

http://stujenks.typepad.com/photos/the_biscuit_papers_part_o/ourladyoftherunner.html

"Inside BR-549"

"Inside BR-549"
(c) January 2007 Stu Jenks

This is an image from inside the BR-549 studio (named after its numerical address and the phone number of Junior Sample's car dealership)

That's me, playing my Mando through my CUBE Amp, with the amp set on one of its many Distortion presets, with a bit of Chorus dialed in. I only play at night, for I don't want to disturb the other artists I share the building with, who mostly work during the day.

Above my head and to my left, attached with magnets on the big steel door, is a portion of the image "West of Ely, Nevada". Above and to my right is "Four Megaliths, Callanish, Isle of Lewis, Scotland". Both of these images, and "After the Rain" which you can't see in this shot, were recently submitted to the Tucson Museum of Art's Biennial Competition. Wish me luck.

Directly off my right shoulder is my first digital image of note, "Ocotillos and The Biscuit, Mustangs Mountains, Arizona", taken with my new Canon D-30. This image of my studio was also taken (or as they say now 'captured') with that camera, it sitting on my massage table which is used mostly as a place for me to nap.

And next to the Javalina skull, by my left hip, is a model made by my deceased father Stuart Jenks Sr., of the pier that he built at his home on the Rappahannock River in Virginia. The model was built with wooden dowels, popsicle sticks and Elmer's Glue. He, with some friends' help, built the actual pier with his own hands in the late 1980's. After his death, a hurricane destroyed the pier in 2002. It was a very good pier.

Hope you enjoyed this peak into my studio.

Love, Light, and Luck,

Stu

http://stujenks.typepad.com/photos/the_biscuit_papers_part_o/stuatthebr549studio.html

http://stujenks.typepad.com/photos/the_biscuit_papers_part_o/aftertherain.html

http://stujenks.typepad.com/photos/the_biscuit_papers_part_o/ocotillosthebiscuit7.html

http://stujenks.typepad.com/photos/the_biscuit_papers_part_o/westofelynevada3pop.html

http://www.stujenks.com/gallery/megaliths/fourstones.html