The Fezziwig News by Stu Jenks

All 8 1/2" x 11" A/P archival pigment prints by Stu Jenks for $25, shipping, handling and taxes included...

Image: "Queen Esther Baptist Church, Lancaster, Virginia" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks (Just down River Road from Victoria's house. Love that luscious red carpet. And for you nocturnals out there, it was handheld. Rare for me.)

In this time of making photos on iPhones and Macbook Pros and only looking on screens, I forget I'm a old-school guy. I make a 8 1/2 x 11 work print on archival paper of EVERY image I make. EVERY one. It's the only way, for me, to accurately check for color shift, density, composition, etc. I really like my iPad screen but it's no way to make a good print.

And I have hundreds, if not thousands, of work prints artist proofs at my studio.

If you see an image of mine on The StuBlog or on my old website or on the Fezziwig Press Store or in any of my books, there's a beautiful small print in a box somewhere, perhaps with your name on it. And since I'm organized, I can find it.

Many of you can't afford my larger prints. I understand. I don't have an extra 50 or 100 lying around either. But I do have an extra $20 for stuff I really like.

So if you see an image of mine on any of my sites or in any of my books and you want it, it's yours for $25, shipping, handling and tax included. (I believe in paying taxes, sales and otherwise.)

Just email me at my facebook page or through the StuBlog or at stujenks@gmail.com, and tell me what print you would like or just pull the jpeg and send that to me.

I was just watching the Tarhells lose today in basketball, working on images at my computer when I thought, 'I bet people don't realize I have boxes of work prints here.'

You all do now.

Love and light,

Stu

p.s. Ignore the catagories belows. The computer went wacky. Another reason why I prefer a print in the hand as opposed to an image in The Cloud.

"Hoop-Dancing With An Angel/Ghost"

"Hoop-Dancing With An Angel/Ghost, Dragoon Springs, Arizona" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

...The first draft of the novel is done!!!...

The first draft of the novel is done!!! It came in at 149,000 words, 552 pages in my document. Yeaaaa! I can't tell you how good it feels. The ending made me cry, as I hope it does you. (Last word in the novel, which won't change in revision: Sighs.) I want to jump right back to the beginning and start revisions, but Mary Ann suggests I take more than just a couple days off. OK. I'll take off three or four days. LOL. But then it's fixing this and revising that, then off to the editors. And I have ideas for the next novel in this series, too. I have some pretty great characters, I think, and I want to see what they will do next. But first things first. Get this novel to print.

One serious note: It took about a year to write this novel, but it almost didn't get done. With Mary and Pamela dying and all, I didn't work on it for about six weeks and it was so hard to get my momentum back. But I did. But it was difficult. If you are working on a novel or a large work, I recommend you plow through, even if the field is frozen. I've been told I'm very lucky to have gotten back on track.

Speaking of track, good luck to Danica Patrick tomorrow in the Daytona 500 and in the rest of Sprint Cup and Nationwide races this season. I might just have to go up to PHX next Saturday to watch her race.

By the way, did I mention I finished the freaking first draft of the novel?

Yeaaaaaaaaa!

"Culvert on the Gabe Zimmerman Trail"

"Culvert on the Gabe Zimmerman Trail, Arizona" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

"The Ferro Avenue Angel"

"The Ferro Avenue Angel, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 1997, 2012 Stu Jenks

"The Jenks in 1971"

"The Jenks in 1971" (c) ???, 1971 and Stu Jenks, 2012

Found this in my mother's wallet. Was taken at some photo studio in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1971. I was 16 or 17, Pamela was around 21, Dad was 49ish, and Mary was in her early 40's.

I put this up on the StuBlog primarily to show that my sister was once quite the pretty woman. Those horned-rimmed glasses though don't help my parents' looks, and sweet Jesus, did I have terrible teeth back then with the braces and such or what? Yikes. And my long hair just drove my Dad nuts. This was 1971 in the South, you know. And no, I don't know exactly why I decided to part my hair on the right, making a big blob of hairishness. My guess it was I knew if I parted it in the middle, my father and I would come to blows.

But wasn't Pamela a pretty girl?

And i did fiddle with this image a little, but I don't believe in photoshopping away the cracks and lost paper in old photos. They are the lovely scars of time in pictures. And yes, this once was a color photo. Guess it wasn't printed on archival paper (chuckles).

"Jesus at El Tiradito"

"Jesus at El Tiradito, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

To all of those who died and who were injured a year ago today, you continue to remind in my thoughts and prayers.

...reflecting lots of silver light...

My sister, Pamela Jenks, had a 2011 datebook. Just a tiny red thing. Mostly, it contained times to take her pills or when she needed to go to chemo. Then there were those errands she needed to run that day and the all-important outcomes of Carolina basketball games, but on the rarest occasions, Pamela would write a few things that had left an impression upon her. And remember, she could hardly write at all, due to the huge lyphedema in her left arm.

Monday, May 16th, 2011:

"Stu takes me for a steak dinner. Buttery, tender, European rare fillet. Yum."

But the next night, while I slept upstair in our old house....

"4 a.m.: A big, fat, bright, shiny full moon, reflecting lots of silver light, with puffy clouds glowing by obscuring and revealing - gorgeous!"

She knew she was dying at this point. I wonder if she also knew I would later read these entries in a storage locker in Tucson, Arizona, a few days after Christmas, and cry. If not, she knows now.

Pamela was dead a month later.

Happy 4th day of Christmas, Pamela Jenks. I miss you as do others. May you be running with beagles in Paradise.

"Two Candles At Grace Cathedral"

 

"Two Candles, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

I'll pray for many tonight, at Grace St. Paul's Episcopal. I'll pray for my dead family. I'll pray for my living friends and loved ones. I'll sing Silent Night. I'll light a candle. I'll go home, hoping that The Void Of God, that blessed emptiness where everything exists, fills my apartment in the morning.

I'm sure it will, for that Void is in my home now.

Right now. All the time. Always. Everywhere.

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all.

 

 

 

"Chapel Of The Nativity"

"Chapel Of The Nativity, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

Merry Christmas, everyone. I'll be back in the studio on the 27th. See you then.