Fezziwig Press & Photography by Stu Jenks

"Hoop Dancing" is here!!!

My long-awaited (at least to me) book "Hoop Dancing: More Journeys Through Nocturnal Photography" is now available. Simply click on the above link and it will take you to my website, where there are instructions on how to purchase it. I'm very proud of the book and very happy with the quality of the lithography. And many, many thanks to Gail Cross, master book designer, for her beautiful work, for her guidance on the bumpy road of publishing, and for her continued encouragement, as we prepare to print more good books at the newly formed Fezziwig Press publishing house. And of course, thanks to all of the supporters of my art, my photography, my writing and my life. Both well-known and virtually anonymous; both those with money and hope, and those who only have the gift of Love and Song to give. I thank you.

Love, Light, and Luck,

Stu

P.S. All books will be shipped Priority Mail, now and forever, so needless to say, I can get copies to you before Christmas. And a Happy New Decade to everyone as well.

[Image: "Hoop Dancing at Studio BR-549, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2009 Stu Jenks]

"Hoop Dancing" by Stu Jenks is available for pre-sale!

"Hoop Dancing: More Journeys Through Nocturnal Photography: Book Two" is now in the pre-sale stage. The book has been beautifully printed by Tucson Master Printers Arizona Lithography and is now at the book binders in Phoenix. It will be ready for shipment by December 1st if not earlier.

Simply go to my website at www.stujenks.com, and pre-order the book there. You can use Paypal or if you wish to pay by check, just send me a check to my P.O.Box, listed on my site, and send me an email at stujenks@gmail.com to let me know you have bought a book and I'll reserve a specific numbered copy for you. If you pay through Paypal, I'll get all of your information for shipment through them.

The first 30 numbered edition can be ordered and reserved, by a specific edition number.

I tried to keep the cost as low as possible to y'all, but I am publishing this book through my own house at Fezziwig Press, and beautiful lithography costs money. You truly get what you pay for, when it comes to print quality. The book is not coffee-table size but rather an intimate 6 x 9 inch book, cloth-bonded, and dust-jacketed, with a 4 x 6 inch signed photograph included with each book. All books are numbered, signed and shrink-wrapped.

This is the first in a series of at least five books by me, from Fezziwig Press. Not to beg, but the more I sell, the greater chance of I have of producing the other books. My first book, "Flame Spirals" is no longer available through Lulu.com (The print quality was not up to my standards.) but will hopefully be available as cloth-bond, lithography book, in the Summer of 2010, God willing and the creek don't rise. Master Book Designer Gail Cross has almost finished the book design of "Flame Spirals" and it looks stunning, if you ask me. And she designed "Hoop Dancing" and I've been brought to tears, more than once, from the amazing care and love she has taken with my images and text.

So, just in time for Christmas, you can purchase 'Hoop Dancing". Truly, it would a great gift for anyone on your Christmas list.

And it goes without saying, that I appreciate all of y'all's support: financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

Love and light,

Stu Jenks

p.s. I got Mary some Scotch last night. She had a bad day. She either thought I had died, or suddenly remember that her husband Stuart was dead. We're not sure. But her seeing me did help. And a wee dram of Dewer's really did the trick as well. Two fingers, over ice, with a splash. After taking a long draw on the straw from her bed, Mom opened her mouth, said "Ah..." and then said, as clear as a bell, '...Now that's good!"

"Love, Let Go, Love Some More"

"Love, Let Go, Love Some More; Cathy's Fault, Arizona" (c) 2009 Stu Jenks

"At One With" [@1w/]: Opening this Thursday at TJCC

"@1w/" [At One With]: Opening this Thurday at TJCC

This Thursday, October 1st, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Tucson Jewish Community Center at River and Dodge, I'll be having a little art party; an opening, a gathering of good folk, with sweets and all, to celebrate my new show "@1w/: At One With". I would love to see you there. A little art talk will be happening around 7. Below is the Artist Statement from the show. Come if you can. I'll have a big hug waiting for you (and some rugalah too.) See you soon.

Love, light, and luck,

Stu

“@1w/”
[At One With]
by Stu Jenks,
High Holy Days, 2009.


    With the High Holy Days and the Day of Atonement upon us, I thought about what the word “Atonement’ meant to me. To make amends with G-D. [Maybe.] To make right and correct the harms I’ve done to the people in my life. [Absolutely.] To forgive others. [Yes.] To forgive myself. [Harder to do.]
    The original Middle English words, for Yom Kipper were ‘At Onement”, meaning to be in harmony with G-D and his community. I thought about my own work, and saw, that on one level, that is just what I’m trying to do. I go to these places: the mountains, the deserts, the sea. I bring along Zippo lighters, Hula Hoops with Christmas lights, and small inflatable Bozos, to create a bit of magic, mystery and humor in these landscapes. But I always try to be ‘At-One-With” these places, to not impose myself so greatly as to harm or mock the land, to come with some reverence, even when I’m throwing a miniature Bozo punching bag in the air near some ancient petroglyphs.
    And then, like the mystic who travels deep into the forest to find a vision, not for himself primarily but for his people, I bring the images of the Hoop Dances, the Flames Spirals, the Bozos back to town, and display them for the community, showing the people the wonders I’ve found.
    And perhaps, by going on these lone spiritual sojourns into the wild, I am a better man: A man who will continue to make amends for his wrongs, and maybe, just maybe, becomes a less harmful, more loving and kinder human being.
   

"Bristlecone Hoop Dance"

"Bristlecone Hoop Dance, White Mountains, California" (c) 2009 Stu Jenks

The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Twenty Three: "Old Sonoita Highway"

The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Twenty-Three:

"A Ruined Bridge on the Old Sonoita Highway, Arizona"
© 2009 Stu Jenks

    Her caregiver left a message on my cell saying Mary was in the hospital again, this time with a mild case of pneumonia. I'm just west of Sonoita, driving toward an old bridge. I could rush to her bedside but that would just be a codependent knee jerk response. I saw her this morning and Mom's not going to die tonight. Hell, she'll forget I was there ten minutes after I leave, plus I don't really like her that much. She demanded last year that she move to Tucson to be close to her son, even though I told her repeatedly it wasn't a good idea, given the dozen of friends she had in rural Virginia, and only myself, Annie and two family members in Tucson as support. But she pushed and pleaded, so we moved her out here, a little under a year ago.
    I had no idea at the time just how fucked up she was. Granted, I knew my mother was a hardcore narcissist. Been that way all her life. But her attempt to jump out of a moving car in Arkansas took me by surprise. When we got to New Mexico and Mary started to talk in great detail about her past sex life with my deceased father, I had an inkling that something might be wrong.
    Her decline has been dramatic. From independent living to assisted living to nursing care to the psych ward to an adult care home, in just six months. Thank God we have some money from the sale of the River House so Mom can live and die in a nice place. Otherwise she'd be in a shit hole or a snake pit. If I can help it, I'm not putting Mom in a shit box.
    But it's sad though. To lose your mind to dementia has to be hard for anyone, and with my mother's native entitlement issues, it's got to be a Fun Ride Through Hell. I pray she dies soon, for her sake.
    I'll drop by the hospital and see her in the morning. But I have work to do tonight. The moon's full, the sky's clear and there is that old bridge in the middle of the desert just a few miles ahead that I want to do something with. Maybe a nice hoop dance.

"On A Ruined Bridge"

"On A Ruined Bridge, Old Sonoita Highway, Arizona" (c) 2009 Stu Jenks

[I prefer this image to the one just below. The headlight of the car in the below image now bugs me a little and I prefer a teal hoop to a purple one, at least tonight. But most importantly, I like that I show up in this image. It appears that I'm walking on air (I kinda am), and I like that. I've worked hard for years at making myself invisible in my nocturnal images. I think now I need to be seen a little more tonight, even if it's just a time-exposed shadow.

Lastly, I could have easily photoshopped-out the power pole, but I didn't for two reasons: one, it works in the design of the photograph, and two, when I shot this dance, my demented mother who is a devout Episcopalian, was in Northwest Hospital in Tucson. Still is, with a bit of pneumonia, but she should be released tomorrow. I'm not a Christian but she is. The power pole/cross is for her.]

The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Thirteen: "Along The Methuselah Trail"

The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Thirteen:

"Along The Methuselah Trail,
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California"

[The God in me sees the God in you.]

The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Twelve: "Four Women & a Kit Fox"

The Transpersonal Papers: Chapter Twelve: "Four Women & a Kit Fox" (c) 2008 Stu Jenks

[Was in the desert tonight, hoop-dancing in honor of four women in my life, when suddenly I noticed a Kit Fox ten feet from me. Fluffy, bushy, big-eyed, huge ears. He was at least five feet long, counting the tail. I tried to spook him away, but he was having none of it. Then he just started followed me around, as I packed up my gear. It was weird. I was a bit spooked now myself. Was he rabid? Was he hungry? Was he bored? After all my gear was stowed, I turned and found him again, about fifteen feet up the trail. I flashed my light in his eyes, and I saw no fear and a ton of curiosity. 'What you doin'?", his eyes seemed to say. I then began to sing to him, a silly made-up song about being a fox at night when this big guy with a flashlight shows up. He seemed to like the song. He walked beneath some bushes and laid down, ears still at alert, listening to me sing. I finished my little song and then said my goodbyes. "Have a good night, little fellow," I said, "and please don't bite me on the ankle as I walk away."]

PRESS RELEASE: "Nine Prayers: Photographs of Stu Jenks"

PRESS RELEASE:
"Nine Prayers: Photographs of Stu Jenks"

The Hotel Congress Lobby
311 E. Congress, Tucson, AZ
July 21st - September 13th, 2008

Artist's Reception: Wednesday, August 20th, 2008, 6 - 8 p.m.

 

        Beginning July 21st, Stu Jenks will be displaying what he calls "A small retrospective of large photographs" from the past eleven years. Each of the nine photographs has a personal prayer associated with it, be it the hopeful "I pray we have a good Christmas" to the humorous "I pray that bull doesn't get mad at me, once he finds out I don't have any food." Most of the images are printed using the revolutionary Roland D'Vinci pigment printer, which gives amazingly deep blacks and brilliantly vibrant colors.         
        Jenks' work ranges from mysterious nocturnal images of twinkling hoops and flaming spirals in desert and forested locales, to action photographs of the Tucson Roller Derby women and of the circus troupe Flam Chen. The show is being curated by David Aguirre of Dinnerware Artspace of Tucson.
        The exhibition will run through September 13th, and there will be an Artist's Reception on Wednesday, August 20th, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Hotel Congress Lobby.

 

   

[As you can see, the show is up. It looks good, especially in the daylight hours. Head on by if you are in town, or simply enjoy this Ones-And-Zeros exhibition, if you are afar. And so many to thank, but here are just a few: Annie, Cathy, James, Terri, Charles, David, Paul, Nadia, Doe, Flo, Dana, Crane, Dirk, Dirk, Barb, Tana, John, John, Michael, Sterling, Ronn, Blake, Mary Anne, Dahna, Brenda, Peggy, Geoff, Cindy, Mark, Angela, Mike, Mike, Bo, Mary and Stuart.]

[All images, including the lobby installation photos, by Stu Jenks]