ZOËLAB: THE LIFE AS ART BLOG
Mexico City Photo Essay
Visiting a less familiar city is always a fun opportunity to bust out my Fuji x100 to capture some street photography
In May, Lucas, Emilio and I went to Mexico City, now nicknamed CDMX, to finish up the paperwork process of getting our Mexican citizenship.
Visiting a less familiar city is always a fun opportunity to bust out my Fuji x100 to capture some street photography. Living on a dirt road in the desert does not offer too many of these chances. For the first 35 years of my life, I lived in cities--New York and then SF, and Oakland and walking around with my camera is a welcome return to my former life.
The hotel we stayed at was in the downtown and very close to China Town. I have a history of living in Chinatown and have had an affinity for Chinese culture since I was a child. I also studied Chinese for 7 years as a youth! So it was super fun to capture both Mexican and Chinese culture in some of these shots.
Mexico City is a fun place, but I must admit that I have become accustomed to a slower, quieter, less populated way of life, and I get overwhelmed by large cities now.
We ate tacos at our favorite Taqueria: La Auténtica. I stopped eating "red meat" a year ago for no other reason than my body tells me not to eat it, but I do eat an occasional taco al pastor, which is pork, and I've heard is considered "the other white meat." Their al pastor tacos are the best I've ever had. I also love their little plates of nopal, and their quintet of salsas is incredible. I had to keep ordering totopos so I could have a vehicle for more salsa. We discovered La Autentica the last time we went to Mexico City, and that was when we first heard this powerfully moving song, El Paciente by Alfredo Olivas. It would be a high challenge, especially to sing, but some day I would like to do a Zoë + The Mischief rock and roll cover of it.
Anyway, our little trip was successful and we left as Mexican Citizens!
Driving North on Independence Day
A photo essay of our road trip from Elias Calles, BCS to Los Angeles California
La Guardia Airport Power Point Presentation
In honor of the holiday traveling that I am not doing, that many other people are doing, I wanted to share my first power point art series I made when I lived in New York, two months after Lucas and I started dating.
ZOELAB DAY 114
Original Date of Post: December 23, 2012
In honor of the holiday traveling that I am not doing, that many other people are doing, I wanted to share my first power point art series I made when I lived in New York, two months after Lucas and I started dating. He had gone to Baja to see his sister for a few weeks, and was returning to New York. We were in the early stages of falling in love, and I decided it was important to pick him up at the airport after his late night flight. I didn’t have a car, so I took a cab to La Guardia Airport. I got there early, and I had some time to kill so I walked around taking photos. About a month or so earlier, I had come into possession of my first digital camera. It wasn’t even mine, it was something I got to use because of my job at a children’s services agency as Publications Coordinator, in house publications designer, and Alumni Relations Coordinator. I needed to take photos at Alumni events, so they got me a digital camera, which I pretended was mine and brought with me everywhere. Until that camera, the only other cameras I had used were 35 mm SLRs, which I had been using since I was fifteen. (As a younger child I had used two cameras given as gifts from my parents--the Nikon Disc camera (remember those? the film looked like little View Master slides) and a Polaroid.) In 2003, having a digital camera changed completely the way I took photographs. I discovered and developed a new style almost instantly.
As I waited for Lucas at La Guardia airport, I wandered around taking photos of things that caught my eye. Later, when I examined the images at work, a universal story emerged, personal only because of the context in which they were taken. I felt the photos had captured the contrast between the visual mundanity of airline travel and the internal feelings of excitement because of who you are traveling to see. For some reason, perhaps because I was at work, I decided the series needed to put together on power point, and hence my first power point art was created.
Dia De Muertos, A Magical Day of Creativity & Community in Todos Santos
A very special day filled with art & community in Todos Santos in photos.
Thursday, November 2nd, A Day in Our Life
7 AM - Wake up in panic. We need to put together a Dia de Muertos costume for Emilio’s costume contest and school
7:15 AM - Drinking coffee, because nothing happens until I drink my coffee
7:20 AM - Looking for and finding old face paint in my camper/studio that I haven’t used or cleaned in two years
7:25 AM - Looking through my collection of costumes, finding an old hat of mine, and fishing out Emilio’s hole-filled pants from the hamper
7:45 AM - Applying make up to Emilio’s Face feeling rushed, stressed and inadequate as mother
8:15 AM - Drop Emilio and his friends at school
9:30 AM - Look desperately through the mess in my house to find my painting pants, paint brushes (which I haven’t used in many years) and pallet
10:30 AM - Show up at the wall at the Cultural Center in Todos Santos, find my spot and start painting my skull
3:30 PM - Emilio comes to help me paint. I find out he won first prize at the costume contest at school
5:30 PM - Finish up my skull and go to Hotel Casa Tota to be fed and quenched. Sit with old and new friends and celebrate
7:00 PM - Head to the Town Plaza to see the beautiful ofrenda, Emilio, friends and other offerings
8:00 PM - JJ does a puppet show and dance party for los niños. All the kids get up on stage and dance with him
8:30 PM - I am unexpectedly invited to dance along with the Mojiganga giant puppet show that Emilio has been helping to paint on for weeks with Maria at Puente de Milagros
8:30 - Fretting I am wearing nothing but my dirty painting clothes, and therefore am not prepared to perform on stage, I go to get my face painted as a clown skull in two minutes by the lovely Zephyr at the Puente de Milagros booth
8:40 PM: I am suddenly on stage with Maria, Emilio, Ashta, a group of adorable children of all ages and from all places, and am helping to lead the children in an improvised dance that supports the energy of each Mojiganga— Earth, Fire, Wind & Water. JJ is playing bass, electronic beats and another woman is singing a haunting melody. I am dancing and my body is aching from painting all day, but I still release the energy needed. We are joined by a team of drummers, including Kurtis & my mother in law Ruth
9:20 PM: Done with the performance, all of us exhausted, Lucas Emilio and I head to the ice-cream parlor for a treat
another museum adventure
The museum allows photography, the general admission is free, and it also offers many interactive resources as a way to engage in the art. Though out the time I was in the museum, I periodically welled up with emotion because I was so inspired by the space and the art, and after two years of motherhood, it felt like the beginning of my return to art.
To continue on the theme of photographing museums, I want to share some images that I took last August in my new favorite museum, The Tate Modern in London. Lucas, Emilio and I took a grand European tour that summer and when were in London visiting our friends, I got to spend a very happy dayalone, wandering around the museum, which shows exciting and eclectic contemporary and modern art collections, in a very impressive industrial space. The museum allows photography, the general admission is free, and it also offers many interactive resources as a way to engage in the art. Though out the time I was in the museum, I periodically welled up with emotion because I was so inspired by the space and the art, and after two years of motherhood, it felt like the beginning of my return to art. I had forgotten to bring my journal with me, but I had my ipod, which has a voice recorder. Here is an excerpt from what I said:
“I also realized that being at this museum alone is what I really needed because I have been depressed and lost and disconnected.... this happens to me in life and it makes sense but, it’s been hard being a mom and being a wife because I feel like I have no core and I’ve sort of lost track of the other things I care about, my passions. I realize that... I unconsciously think: ‘my life is over, now that I’m a mom that’s all I’m ever gonna be and I won’t ever have time to do any of the other things that I love to do.’ And whenever I have a few minutes or hours it’s not so easy to reconnect with who I was, or who I would like to be... Believing in art as a religion, not just something to do, but it being a deepest expression, not being lost in the world of practicality.”
Here are some photos I took that day of people entering the museum in its great hall--the last one is a video.
museum adventures
To continue with my insider/outsider perspective of the art world theme, and to honor the photo from yesterday’s post, (which was taken at Mass MoCA) I want to share some photographs that I have taken in some of my favorite places to photograph: museums. There are not very many museums in the world that will let you take photographs inside them. But there are a few. Taking pictures is is a way to have a more interactive experience when I go into a museum. Instead of just being an observer, I become participant. I go from outsider to insider. But, in the end, I feel even more like an outsider.
De Young in San Francisco
ZOELAB DAY 71
To continue with my insider/outsider perspective of the art world theme, and to honor the photo from yesterday’s post, (which was taken at Mass MoCA) I want to share some photographs that I have taken in some of my favorite places to photograph: museums. There are not very many museums in the world that will let you take photographs inside them. But there are a few. Taking pictures is is a way to have a more interactive experience when I go into a museum. Instead of just being an observer, I become participant. I go from outsider to insider. But, in the end, I feel even more like an outsider.
My interest in this activity started when I was nineteen years old and visited the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The Musée d’Orsay was a railway station (built at the turn of the 20th century) that opened as a museum in 1986. It is a beautiful space, and when I first visited there, they allowed photography. In those days, I used a 35 mm Nikon FG. I have since lost all those photos (they were actually stollen from my darkroom drawer in college). I loved photographing the art, with the light glowing down from the magnificent dome glass ceiling. I returned to the museum last year with my French aunt, (twenty years later) excited to re-experience the museum with my digital camera, and found out that they no longer allowed photography. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Since then, one of my other favorite museums to take photos in is Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.) My parents live an hour away, and every year when I visit them, we make a family pilgrimage. Taking photos there has become a big part of the ritual, especially between me and my brother.
You may ask: is this intellectual property infringement? And the honest answer is: I don’t know. But I do find it interesting to think about: seeing art, and the space that contains it, from a different person’s perspective. Not necessarily as the artist, or the museum, intended. Does that photograph of art become art or is it a sneaky reproduction?
Birthday Wishes
I turned 39 today. I worked all day and got to spend no time with family or friends. I got lots of virtual love but Little Zoë feels neglected.
ZOELAB DAY 64
I turned 39 today. I worked all day and got to spend no time with family or friends. I got lots of virtual love but Little Zoë feels neglected. I am going to buy her a vintage “gold” heart necklace, break my sugar diet with a piece of wedding cake, and make a photo collage.
Dia de los Muertos
It’s the first day of November. It’s also Dia de los Muertos. A day whereMexicans honor the dead. The two most recently deceased beings I know are Bashi, our friend Bruce’s white german shepard, and Da Sol, our friend Omar’s blue healer.
ZOELAB DAY 62
It’s the first day of November. It’s also Dia de los Muertos. A day whereMexicans honor the dead. The two most recently deceased beings I know are Bashi, our friend Bruce’s white german shepard, and Da Sol, our friend Omar’s blue healer. Bashi died on Tuesday, October 23rd of old age, and complications arising from that old age. In the last year of her life, Bashi’s two hind legs no longer worked, but she was still able, miraculously, to swim and walk around by dragging her legs behind her. Da Sol, who was also quite old, died a few weeks ago shortly after receiving a hard kick from the neighborhood donkey, Einstein. Lucas and his sister, Emilia buried Bashi in the dark, on our land. Her owner was in Vera Cruz making his yearly pilgrimage to traditional parts of mainland Mexico to capture the enigmatically beautiful Dia de Los Muertos festivities. He owns the plot of land next to us, but the land was undiggable there, so she is resting very close to her home.
Because he is respectful, and speaks excellent spanish, Bruce has been given access to the some intimate moments of the reverent and ancient practices of honoring the dead. Some day, I would like to go with Bruce to witness the traditional Dia de Los Muertos celebrations. In the meantime, I can look at his vast collection of colorful and solemnly dignified images, which I had the privilege of working with closely when I designed his website. For our wedding present, Bruce gave us a large photo depicting hundreds of observers of the holiday in Chiapas. See below.
Day of the Dead, San Juan Camula, Chiapas by Bruce Herman
This is what we touched or where we stood and when
It’s so difficult to draw hands and feet, yet so easy to photograph them.
ZOELAB DAY 53
It’s so difficult to draw hands and feet, yet so easy to photograph them.
You don’t really know someone until you can picture their hands and feet in your head.
To be continued...
Self Portraits (not selfies because I used a tripod)
To continue on the theme of self, I am sharing some self portraits I took yesterday. The goal at first was to create a new profile photo for facebook (while Lucas was away, he has just returned this evening.) But really, to be really honest, the idea started because I was having a particularly good hair day, and I wanted to capture the way my hair looked. (A good hair day can sometimes be an equivalent for happiness.)
ZOELAB DAY 35
To continue on the theme of self, I am sharing some self portraits I took yesterday. The goal at first was to create a new profile photo for facebook (while Lucas was away, he has just returned this evening.) But really, to be really honest, the idea started because I was having a particularly good hair day, and I wanted to capture the way my hair looked. (A good hair day can sometimes be an equivalent for happiness.) But, because I couldn’t create one I liked for the context of facebook, and I just couldn’t capture my hair. I started to become interested in creating an image for the sake of an image, and in capturing a certain kind of light. I began to let go of my vanity of how I looked in the photo, and then alternately, my fear of being (and appearing) narcissistic, and I started to feel like a character in a spontaneous film. The more I saw myself as someone other than me, the more fun I had with it. I began to objectify myself for the purpose of creating an image. This reminds me of Cindy Sherman’s early work from the 1980’s. I was very influenced by her untitled film stills series and wrote a scholarly manifesto about creating identity as a means of empowerment in the postmodern age, which compared Cindy Sherman with Madonna. In college I also made a lot of self portraits, as girls in college are often want to do. In one series, I created a character who was an androgynous movie star. The photos captured myself in moments in between--expressing an ambiguity of gender, as well as story. Creating those self portraits in college was my way of getting back into acting, which I pursued soon after I graduated.
The self portraits that I took yesterday, tell a different story, from a different film. I am not sure what yet, they are experiments. By taking them and sharing them, I am releasing my fear of being exposed in this kind of way.
Some Images
These are some photos I took in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.
DAY 6
A lot of people watched the democratic convention tonight.
A lot of people are following the election and were inspired by Michelle Obama’s recent speech. Not me. I didn’t see any of it. It’s not that I don’t care, but I am increasingly disengaged from politics. I’ve found other things to believe in that make a difference. I guess I am radical/apolitical. Also, we don’t have a television or high speed internet.
Tonight I ate pizza and drank beer with a group of friends after an incredibly fun day at the beach. I’ve fallen in love with boogie boarding with a blow up surf mat. I rode home at dusk in the back of a pick up truck, sitting on top of the surf mat. Emilio, from inside the cab, joked as we drove home: “this car surfs on the waves.” Now at home, I am sunburned and tipsy, and I feel like sharing some images.
These are some photos I took in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Lucas and I went here on vacation seven years ago. It was our first vacation. It was here that I discovered how to enjoy a vacation. The key is the two beer lunch. I also melted into a mermaid by basically living in the warm water of the Carribean.
