Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

Fezziwig Press Images, New & Old, from 17 External Hard Drives...

"The Ikon (A Hint of Blue), Catalina State Park, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

 

I've been going through all 17 of my external hard drives, part of a house cleaning and studio cleaning before Alexa and I move to North Carolina (Due to some hickups, looks like it won't be until September of 2018 when my wife and I move to Greensboro.) While doing that, I revisited some old images, and found some discarded images that deserved a second look.

Also, the images from my new "Two Newlyweds" series are in this post as well as some other new stuff. Hope you enjoy them too.

And as always, everything is for sale, either as a digital file or as a print. Simply contact me at stujenks@gmail.com for prices.

Happy Spring, y'all.

Stu

 

"Leopard Appaloosa, Crow Rez, Montana" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Black Plastic Santa on Peyton Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Two Newlyweds: 1949, 2018: Richmond, Virginia; Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Two Newlyweds: 1962, 2017: Richmond, Virginia; Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Two Newlyweds: 1948, 2018: Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Forgive Me, My Heart: Eastern Colorado" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Pusch Ridge Quad: Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2003, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"The Storr, Isle of Skye, Scotland" (c) 2003, 2018

"West of Ely, Nevada" (c) 2007, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Devotion, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C." (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"1890's Jesus Lithograph & A Stu Christmas Hoop, Flame Spiral Studios, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Black Man Sitting In The Window, Rural Virginia, Turn of the Century, Photographer Unknown" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Larvae Waiting To Go On Stage, All Souls' Procession, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2009, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"1152 Fire Bricks, Art Lab Building, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" (c) 1978, 2018

"Her Hand On The Balcony, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Her Back At Dusk, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Keyboard In Flames, 2018 Avra Valley Piano Burn, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"2018 Avra Valley Piano Burn, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Glass Flame Circle, St. Mary's Whitechapel, Lively, Virginia" (c) 2001, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Cliffs of Arbroath, Scotland: Double Exposure" (c) 2003, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Ghost Coyotes, Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Catawba Falls Log, North Carolina" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks

"Greensboro Skyline From Hanging Rock State Park, In Early Light, North Carolina" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Coalmine Canyon In Winter, Hopi Reservation, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Painted Desert Infrared, Arizona" (c) 2002, 2018 Stu Jenks

"Bluff Buick Infrared, Utah" (c) 2002, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Canelo Hills Infrared, Arizona" (c) 2002, 2018 Stu Jenks

"Cienega Creek Infrared, Arizona" (c) 2002, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Snow Heart Pinhole, Coconino County, Arizona" (c) 2000, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Cheyenne Prayers, Bear Butte, South Dakota" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Pilot Mountain Pano, North Carolina" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Red Tail Taking Flight, The Arizona Trail" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Stuart Circle At Night, Richmond, Virginia" (c) 2001, 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Almond Grove Shooting Star Circle, California" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

"Growler Mountain Milky Way, Arizona" (c) 2018 Stu Jenks.

 

I'm getting married and moving to North Carolina...

Yep. I'm getting married to a wonderful woman named Alexa! (As a writer, you're not supposed to overuse exclamation points, but this is the time for them!)

You can donate to our wedding registry at www.stujenks.org, to help me move my studio and my life to North Carolina in early 2018.

We will be getting married very soon, and neither of us are rich people. If you would like to give a cash wedding gift, you can do so at www.stujenks.org. It will really help. The money will go for things like a washer and dryer, a rented Penske truck to get my stuff to North Carolina, and resources to help us begin our life together. No gift is too small.

And if you would like to give a physical wedding gift or write us a check, just send it to P.O.Box 161, Tucson, Arizona 85702. Make the check out to me.

Thanks y'all for all your help, now and over the years, so I could be a working artist, writer and musician. It means the world to me.

You will like Alexa. I sure do. Photos of us will be forthcoming, on this blog and on my Facebook page.

I'm so happy to soon be Alexa's husband and she's very excited to soon be Mrs. Alexa Jenks! I'm joyfully misty-eyed much of the time these days.

Again, thanks for your help. And don't forget to give me your snail mail address so I can send you a thank-you card.

www.stujenks.org

Photos from top to bottom: "Alexa Reading, Mark Hewitt's Studio, Pittsboro, North Carolina", "Alexa Walking Away From the PBRC, Lake Brandt, North Carolina", & "Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Lake Brandt, North Carolina" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

Mom's Bowl...

"Mom's Bowl, Echo Canyon, Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona" (c) 1993 Mark Hewitt, 2017, Stu Jenks.

 

1993: Mark Hewitt threw this bowl. My sister Pamela bought it for our mother for Christmas.

1993-2008: Mark's bowl sat on Mom's dining room table for years, a vessel where Mom put old greeting cards and this month's bills.

2008: Mary Jenks moved to Arizona and quickly became very demented and very ill. She moved into an adult care home within months. She could only take a few things with her. The bowl came to live with me.

2011: Mary and Pamela Jenks died that summer, within three weeks of each other. Yeah. I know. It was tough but a blessing. Life is complicated.

2017: Maybe I'm starting a new series. Maybe not. But I seem to be traveling hither and yon with Mom's bowl, taking photos of it in pretty and interesting places. And it's not just for the memory of Mary Jenks or as an acknowledgment of Mark Hewitt's body of work. It is partly that, but it's also a walking prayer of sorts, for a woman I love very much who is going through some tough times.

So those are the ideas around the bowl. Remembrance, respect, love and prayer.

(Oh. And at some point, this bowl is going to break. It is clay. Pottery breaks. And I am trucking it around rocks and hard things. Pottery is not fond of rocks and hard things. But the plan when it breaks is to glue it back together and keep photographing it. We all have cracks. We all have wounds and scars. It's what makes us interestingly and lovingly human. This bowl will have scars too. But I'll be careful until that happens. Promise.)

#pottery, #stujenks, #markhewitt, #maryjenks, #ceramicbowl, #remembrance, #love, #prayer.

 

"Mom's Bowl, Under U.S. 60, Arizona" (c) 1993 Mark Hewitt, 2017 Stu Jenks.

  

 

"Mom's Bowl, Near Picketpost Mountain, Along The Arizona Trail" (c) 1993 Mark Hewitt, 2017 Stu Jenks

 

 

"Mom's Bowl, Kitt Peak Hoodoo, Arizona" (c) 1993 Mark Hewitt, 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

 

"Mom's Bowl, Near The Mexico/US Border, Santa Cruz County, Arizona" (c) 1993 Mark Hewitt, 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

 

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation at Tohono Chul Park

As part of the Dia De Los Muertos show at Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation is up and ready to go. The opening is Thursday, August 24 at 5:30 p.m.. The show runs until November 8th. Thanks so much to James and Karen for allowing me to be part of this show.

And this post goes out to all those folk who live outside of Southern Arizona, so you all can see and enjoy the piece too. To read the artist's statement for the piece, just click on this link.

Again, thank you everyone for your financial and emotional support this summer. It's been a tough one for me and for many. You all have helped more than you know.

"...a great adventure story that takes place in a very plausible future."

Below is a very kind review by David Moyer of my first novel "Step Zero." Book four of this series, "Victor Mothershead: U.S. Secret Service" will be coming out in early July of 2016. "Step Zero" is now available at a new low price of $1.99 on the Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks. Book two, "Air & Gravity" is now $2.99. Book three, "Balthazar & Zeeba" is also $1.99.

Start at the beginning is what I say.

 

"I wasn't sure at first if a book heavily influenced by and full of references to the 12 step program would be to my liking, but to my surprise, it added to, rather than detracting from the story. Stu Jenks has written a great adventure story that takes place in a very plausible future, and he has made it very intimate by bringing you all of the characters in the first person. I felt that I knew and empathized with his characters, even those I didn't like. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the sequel." - David Moyer.

"Flame Circle at St. Mary's Whitechapel"

"Flame Circle at St. Mary's Whitechapel Episcopal Church, Lively, Virginia" (c) 2000, 2016 Stu Jenks.

From the hardbound book and e-book, Flame Spirals: Journey Through Nocturnal Photography

Dad's cancer has shrunk but hasn't gone away. After almost two years of awful chemotherapy, we are pretty much where we started: Dad has a bad lymphoma and he's probably going to die.

I was up in New York City for a few days photographing and attending a friend's wedding. [Major emotional highlights were the Klezmer band at Craig and Barbara's reception; the delightful and generous devotees at the Hare Krishna Bed and Breakfast in the Lower East Side; and the many Monet haystacks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.] I've just come down to Virginia for a brief visit with the folks before flying back to Arizona.

It's good and not-so-good to see Dad. I always experience some sort of internal emotional bugaboo when I'm hanging around my mother and father. All of us Jenks are judgmenta, me included—this is good, that is bad, blah, blah, blah—but my mother and father have it down to an art form. Dad's mockingly sarcastic laughter at my going to their church tonight to shoot is just one example. Mom's subtle shaming sighs of disapproval are another. God love 'em, or to Hell with 'em. See what I mean? I inherited the virus too.

Within twenty minutes, I’ve parked my rental pickup truck in a gravel parking lot of their church.

My parents' church, St. Mary's Whitechapel Episcopal Church, is just down the road near the little town of Lively, Virginia. Lively is actually just a crossroads, with a drug store, a post office, and a bar called “The Corner” that serves pretty good shrimp and really great hamburgers. The church is a few miles south of Lively at an even smaller crossroads. The church is the only thing at the corner of routes 201 and 354. It's a very small chapel that has been there since 1669. It thrived during Colonial Times, was vacant and abandoned for fifty years during Antidisestablishmentarian Times (when the Church of England was shunned by most new Americans after the Revolutionary War), was reborn in the middle 19th century, and is now an historic, financially well-endowed, little church in the middle of nowhere in Virginia.

There's no moon tonight, but there’s plenty of good light shining into the graveyard from a strong streetlight near the back of the church. The church’s sexton has apparently cut the grass today. What a delightful surprise. Large amounts of cut grass are scattered all around. I walk around the cemetery looking for just the right stone, just the right light. I find the stone and the light pretty quick. The smell of the grass is strong and pungent. We just don't have grass like this in Tucson.

I make a circle of cut grass on a tombstone. I look and find the angle, set up my Rollei, and practice making circles with my Zippo. I get the hang of it after a few minutes. I stop and take in the space: the ancient Oak trees that surround me; the graves of wealthy Colonial Virginia planters; the monuments of a movie star or two.

I open the shutter and enter the frame and begin to paint a flame circle above the grass. Cicadas sing loudly from the surrounding woods. I close the Zippo, exit the field of view, and then go for a walk around the cemetery. This is going to have to be a long exposure. Probably a half hour or more. It's a strong streetlight but it gives off less light than you think.

Up the hill, I visit the four plots for the Jenks Family. No markers or graves yet. Two huge Oak trees grow just north of the plots. I won't mind having my ashes here some day. I walk to my rental truck to check the time. Fifteen minutes have gone by. I throw in a Peter Gabriel CD and light a smoke. After 25 minutes, I get out of the car and return to the grass circle. I close the shutter and repeat the process all over again. I paint a flame circle, walk among the graves, think about my Dad, think about Death.

I didn't think about Death much until my Dad got sick, but I sure do now. I believe in some sort of Soul Survival, be it in heaven or as a part of a Great Big Sea of souls. I don't know, but I'm not scared of that. OK, maybe a little anxious but not bad. I'm in my mid-40's, still thinking that my death is a good thirty years away. But being around Dad, who seems to be getting sicker and sicker, seems to be dying more than living, and this taking-it-for-granted-that-I'll-surely-live-a-long-time-thing is leaving me a little each day. When they found his cancer, it was no bigger than a pencil point. They cut it out, but it came right back, even larger. So they cut it out again, and that just made it mad and it spread like a weed. To his lymph nodes. To his lungs. Around his heart. All over. Now it's filled most of his left lung, all in a year. And if he hadn't taken the Agent Orange Chemo, he would have been dead months ago.

It could happen to me, to you, to anyone. Cancer, that is. And Death is surely going to come to all of us one day.

But again, it's not Death or Heaven that I'm scared of. It's living an unfulfilled life, here on Planet Earth, of wasting the time I have, of not risking greater happiness for myself or larger service to others, of not fully loving those who I love and not fully receiving the love they give, of not forgiving myself when I truly fall short of the mark, of not forgiving others for their shortcomings. That’s what really terrifies me, that at perhaps age 77 I'll look back at my life with deep regret, knowing I should have eaten more ice cream, should have forgiven that friend, should have loved the imperfect Stu just a little bit more.

Then again, I could die tonight, by accidentally hitting a deer with my truck on the way back to the river, and avoid this imaginary-unhappy-old-me all together.

Nah. That won't happen.

I guess I’m going to have to eat more butter pecan, forgive that jerk Richard, and love Stu more.

Shit.

 

Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: The Audiobook, Final Chapter: "The Graves of Stuart, Mary, Pamela, and Stu Jenks"

The final chapter of the Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair audiobook: "The Graves of Stuart, Mary, Pamela, and Stu Jenks."

The final free download of Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: "The Graves of Stuart, Mary, Pamela and Stu Jenks"

Feel free to give to my PayPal account, if you like what you've heard. The log in is stu jenks at g mail dot com, spelled the usual way.

And all chapters take a while to download, so be patient.

I really hope you've enjoyed this audiobook.

And for the fine art trade paperback book with all the photographs, simply contact me at my square up marketplace page.

When you see an old rocking chair, think kindly of my sister Pamela. She is free now.

And when you hear a gay or lesbian Episcopal priest speak, know that my mother Mary had something to do with his or her ability to have that job.

Love and light and luck,

Stu.

All images and audiofiles (c) Stu Jenks and Fezziwig Press 2014.

  

"Forgive Me..."

 
"Forgive Me: Eastern Colorado" (c) 2014 Stu Jenks.

Favorite film of last year? Nebraska.

A free ePub download of The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) by Stu Jenks.

 

Download The Transpersonals Papers by Stu Jenks epub (c) 2013 Stu Jenks.

I was just at a Starbuck's buying an Egg Nog Latte, when a homeless woman came in and asked the clerk, "Do you have anything for just a dollar?"

I'm not struggling like her obviously, but as my father used to say, "It's not what you make but what you spend." And having my own business, Fezziwig Press, costs money and my little company isn't making enough money right now.

So I'm doing an Amanda Fucking Palmer thing. If I don't ask, you don't know to give.

Fezziwig Press and I have been struggling financially for the last year or so. Namely, I'm not quite breaking even, still a few hundred dollars in the red each month, even with my part time counseling gig and all. I'm making some sales with image rights, book sales, music sales, etc, but not like I did five to ten years ago. So I'm putting out the artistic begging bowl. And I'm giving shit away.

The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) was released in 2011. Cost a boat load to produce but I only sold seven ebook copies. (Thank you to the seven, by the way.) So I'm offering it today, to you all, for free.

If you like The Transpersonal Papers, or the StuBlog, or my work, I ask that you give a little money to my Paypal account. My log-in is my email address, stujenks at gmail dot com, spelled like you normally would type it. Donate to my Paypal, or buy some books, or send money to P.O.Box 161, Tucson, AZ 85702. Whatever you like. No expectations, but if I don't ask, you don't know. And of course, if you don't give, that's perfectly all right too. We're all tight these days, don't I know. Or you just might not like my stuff that much. It's all good, as the kids say. Except for my ever-shrinking savings account.

I hope you enjoy the photographs and the stories in this book. Perhaps someday I'll have enough money to print it as a large coffee table book, like it was originally envisioned. Perhaps not, but you can have it right now for free. Enjoy.

And just download the Adobe Digital Editions free software to see and read The Transpersonal Papers: (1861-2010), if you don't already have it on your computer.

Thanks, y'all, and have a Happy New Year.

Love and light,

Stu

Download The Transpersonal Papers by Stu Jenks epub (c) 2013 Stu Jenks.

Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair (The Deaths Of Pamela and Mary Jenks), is now for sale.

Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair (The Deaths of Pamela and Mary Jenks), the book, is now for sale.

Here's how you can purchase it.

1) Within a few days, the PBRC book, will be at Tucson Touch Therapies here in Tucson, at the northeast corner of Alvernon and Pima.

2) Or make an appointment by emailing me at stujenks@gmail.com and you can purchase one at my studio, here in Tucson, at 549 N. 7th Ave. $24.95 plus sales tax. $26.97 total.

3) Or I can Priority Mail you a copy. I take checks. I take Paypal (log into my Paypal account using my email address.) I take Square. I take cash. I take tamales. Really. A dozen tamales gets you a book. Just email me at stujenks@gmail.com or log into my Paypal or Facebook me with your address, method of payment, etc. $24.95 plus sales tax if you are local. No sales taxes outside of Tucson and Arizona. And I ship everything Priority Mail so add $6.95 to your order. One to three books will be just $6.95 shipping. Four or more, it'll be more. Total, in Tucson: 33.92 Priority. Total, outside of Tucson: $31.90 Priority.

4) Or find me on the street. I'll have a box of books in the truck of Mary's Buick for a few weeks at least.

The books look great. They smell good too like new books do.

And for those of you who have pre-ordered the PBRC book, I'm heading to the post office in about an hour. Look for them in your mailbox in the next day or three.

Thanks, y'all. For everything.

Love and light,

Stu Jenks and Team Fezziwig.