Four Outstanding Milwaukee Artists on the Internet

A big thank you to Mary over at CricketToes for including me in her "four outstanding artists on the internet". Check it out. CricketToes is a refreshing voice in Milwaukee for all things creative.

Check it out:
CricketToes

WhiteOwl Will

Cigar Girl

All the worlds a stage

All the world is a stage and this is the fourth image in a series entitled, "Beauty and the Performance". The terrific painting you see in the photograph is by artist William Schulman.

The Bride

The Evolution of an Idea

I normally post portrait related idea's and themes on this blog but my new fine art series that I'm in the infant stages of loosely ties in with portraiture. You can read more at my fine art website blog.

Another fun shoot at the ZU!

CHUBZ ripped up the studio!

High School graduation brings new beginnings and charished memories

I haven't written a poem in a very long time. When my kids were younger I traveled an average of 7 days a month. This poem which is in honor of my daughter graduating from high school was written about eleven years ago. It's based on conversations I've had with my daughter, McKenzie, usually during breakfast or in the car. I wrote this poem with tears in my eyes from Rye, New York. I was there doing a photo shoot. That evening in my hotel room I called home, like I did every night I was on the road, to talk to the family. When Kenzie got on the phone she was so excited to tell me about a boy in her, class that she liked, and was able to sit next to on the bus that day. I was happy and excited for her and her special day but sad knowing how much better this story would have been if she was sharing it while we had dinner that evening. Seeing the sparkle in her eyes and the tone of her voice sharing it for all to hear. With the conversation over I took a walk around the hotel grounds, went back to my room and poured out this poem for my daughter.

DADDY, DO YOU CRY?

It was a weekday morning, music in the air

Son was in the bathroom, combing his hair

My head was in the paper, while eating cornflakes

Daughter sat beside me, picking her breakfast, while staring into space

Daddy, she says in her soft quiet voice

Daddy, she says as she looks up from her bowl

Daddy, do you ever cry?

Daddy, why don’t you cry?

Sweet child of mine with the curious mind

Try to understand, understand if you can

Sorrow is a feeling that you don’t usually see

I keep it hidden, deep within me

Happiness is present and seen most every day

But even my most joyful thoughts

Are rarely on display

Do I cry? Dear, yes I do

I cry the most, when I’m thinking of you

My first tear falls before you wake

Sunlight dancing, across your sweet face

I ask the golden glow that caresses your cheek

Become your suit of armor, as you sleep

With each new day I see you grow

Joy and sorrow the moisture hold

Each day I wake you from your sleep

Another tear for you I weep

Sorrow and Joy are not far apart

For tears don’t know the difference

When they fall or why they start

The heart knows the reason for each tear upon my cheek

I cherish the knowledge for which my heart speaks

You share with me excitement

About a boy in your class

A special friend, that makes your heart, beat “pitter-pat”

He sat beside you on the bus one spring day

A moment of your life, and mine I pray

I see you standing so proud upon the stage

Eyes scan the audience, you find strength to play

You firmly tuck your violin beneath your chin

Managing to smile, your fingers begin

Small fingers dance magic upon the strings

Bow massages the strings, the violin sings

The tears well up in my eyes each day

As I relive the moments from each passing day

You hold a special place in my heart

And that is where all the tears start

So when you asked me such a curious question

Daddy, do you cry?

My answer is now here on display

If you do not see a tear fall from my face

Rest assured, the right time, the right place

Your daddy does cry

Many tears fill your space.

Your friendly neighborhood Spider man

Before and After

Tastefully sexy for that special someone in your life. From the photo shoot through post production you are the star. Book your appointment commission now.

Hello Dollink

Jessica Rabbit oh how I love thee...

Anyone who has been to my studio or home knows that I collect figures. Horror figures, TV characters, movie characters, Bobble Heads.... Well, I haven't added to my collection in a while but last year when I photographed a model she saw the Jessica Rabbit doll displayed in my studio. Fast forward to this February, I emailed Ari to ask how she's been and that if she would like to do another photo shoot, to let me know. She surprised me with her tale of being inspired to make her own Jessica Rabbit costume after seeing the doll at my studio. Would you like to photograph me as Jessica Rabbit she inquired? Absolutely was my quick response. So last Friday she arrived at the studio mid-morning and by noon she was transformed into Jessica Rabbit.

The Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee sent out a request to send portraits of "Famous" people to be a small part of a larger exhibit that opens on March 19. These smaller portraits will be in the lounge/annex of the gallery. I have portraits of more famous people I've photographed including Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Hamilton and Mandy Patinkin but I really hoped that I could get the "Famous" Jessica Rabbit into the exhibit. I emailed gallery owner Debra Brehmer with my info and picture of Jessica and to my wonderful surprise she decided to include Jessica in the exhibit. Debra said, "Thank you for sending the image. My first thought was a woman dressed up as a fictitious cartoon character is probably not "Famous" enough for this show. But the image is so fetching that yes, I would like to include it." Thanks Debra!

Book Passages Exhibit opening reception

Here is a ten minute video highlighting some of the readings from the opening reception of Book Passages: A Visual Journey. Thanks again to all those who attended and made this the largest opening reception to date for the Tenth Street Gallery.

Lake Effect interview with Bonnie North

Yesterday I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview with Bonnie North, Producer of the Lake Effect Program on WUWM-HD 89.7 Milwaukee Public Radio. I arrived right at 9am for my 9 o'clock appointment. I thought I would arrive ten minutes early but the traffic was worse than I thought it would be so close to 9am in the morning. It could have been compounded by the light snow that had been falling most of the morning.

What a professional and kind person Bonnie is. I was extremely nervous not knowing what we would cover in our conversation and not being a big fan of public speaking anyway, she quickly put me at ease. She reminded me that it's nothing more than a conversation among two people and that since it wasn't live we could stop and start at anytime and she could edit in post production.

Lake Effect is a wonderful radio program that consistently covers a wide range of interesting topics from politics to art every weekday from 10am - 11am and reruns at 11pm - 12am. Tune in next week Thursday February 11 when my twelve minute segment with Bonnie airs on Lake Effect. If you are not near a radio but are at your computer you can hear it stream live. Just click on the button on the WUWM 89.7 website. If you are busy working at that time and can't listen (like myself) you can tune in later that evening or wait till it is put into their archives of past shows.

Thanks Bonnie for your interest in my Book Passages series and what turned out to be a fun and memorable half hour.

OPENING RECEPTION February 12 6pm-8pm

I hope that you can join me for the opening of my exhibition "Book Passages, a visual journey." It promises to be an exciting and interesting evening. During the opening an actor from the In Tandem Theater will continue the participatory nature of this series by dramatically reading out loud the twenty book passages while standing near the coinciding visual interpretation.

William Zuback, Book Passages, a visual journey

February 12 - April 9

Tenth Street Gallery

628 N. 10th Street

Milwaukee, WI. 53233

Opening Reception:

Friday, February 12

6pm - 8pm

Cash Bar: Wine & Beer

Gallery Hours 10am - 5pm Monday-Friday

414-271-1371

The Book Passages Exhibit is a photographic journey of conceptual thoughts culminating from brief Book Passages that I asked readers of my blog to send in for this project. This journey began in February of 2009 with a blog post, "What have you read lately".

Twenty passages and a year later I present the exhibit, Book Passages - a visual journey.

If you have any questions in regard to this up-coming Exhibit Opening please feel free to email me.

Down the rabbit hole

I moved this image to my website so as not to offend anyone. If you are interested in viewing this image it can be found at:

http://www.simplephoto.com/BacktotheZu_TestShots104934.htm

Blinded by the Light

Welcome to Chapter 17 of my Book Passages series. This image is an interpretation of a passage from a yet untitled novel by Mary Dally-Muenzmaier. Mary is the voice behind the words at a wonderful news and review blog for art and culture in Milwaukee called Crickettoes. From the brief passage that she provided to me for my Book Passages series I cannot wait to someday read her finished novel. Until then, we have this brief passage and my accompanying images. Enjoy and always think and act by sharing your thoughts on the images. Some behind the scenes images are also available by stylist Addie Kidd. Thanks to both Addie and model Kristin Sutter for creating such an enjoyable photo shoot.

"Untitled Novel" by Mary Dally-Muenzmaier:

"There are some who view the world through a very small lens and though they live in three dimensions they perceive only two. Armed with this outlook, they operate daily with a fundamental conviction that all that exists does so solely in relation to their own existence and all that happens serves a purpose of meaning.

She is not a small lens viewer, but lying there on the floor, unaware of her surroundings, her subconscious mind begins to replay a scene from her childhood. It was a time long before she had wholly grasped the truth that she was just one on a planet populated by billions, before she had fully realized that the culture she was growing in was just one in an enormous, divergent sea of traditions and beliefs. It was a time when her lens was very, very small and she needs to be back there again, if only for a moment.

Mass Nothingness

An excerpt from William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury completes Chapter 16 of the Book Passages series. This passage provided my biggest challenge yet in this photographic series. Heavy on character development this excerpt was very difficult to interpret without getting a better idea of the background of each character mentioned in the passage as well as an overall summary of Faulkner's complex intent of the novel. So for the third time in this visual journey I had to get some brief information on this book so that I could proceed with the interpretation. Below is my interpretation of the submitted book excerpt. Your feedback is always appreciated.

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury:

"I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon tide flats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale clear air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off. Benjamin the child of. How he used to sit before that mirror. Refuge unfailing in which conflict tempered silenced reconciled. Benjamin the child of mine old age held hostage into Egypt. O Benjamin. Dilsey said it was because Mother was too proud for him. They come into white people's lives like that in sudden sharp black trickles that isolate white facts for an instant in unarguable truth like under a microscope: the rest of the time just voices that laugh when you see nothing to laugh at, tears when no reason for tears."

Oil Painting

Wow! Welcome to chapter 15 of my Book Passages series. I can't believe that I've been traveling this visual road now since February. It has definitely been one of the best road trips I've ever taken to date. The excitement and enthusiasm of discovery is still there but I must admit to some road fatigue. Five more chapters left after this one. Hope you have enjoyed being a passenger on this visual journey as much as I've enjoyed being your tour guide. Enjoy the ride as we begin the last leg of our journey together. Please keep the dialog coming, it's like buying the audio tour at a Museum exhibition and I really appreciate it. Thanks!

Chapter 15 is a passage from the book, Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford.

"How far we have come from the hand oiling of early motorcycles is indicated by the fact that some of the current Mercedes models do not even have a dipstick... There are now layers of collectivized, absentee interest in your motor's oil level, and no single person is responsible for it. If we understand this under the rubric of "globalization," we see that the tentacles of that wondrous animal reach down into things that were once unambiguously our own: the amount of oil in a man's crankcase."

Backyard Soul-O

What I find most interesting and challenging about these book passages is not knowing the context of the passage in relation to the larger scope of the book. So when I would read and re-read the passage from Dreams of Leaving by author Rupert Thomson I was challenged by the details of the passage. Unlike other passages that I have worked on, this passage seemed much more literal with characters and place, making my own personal interpretation a bigger challenge. My solution to a passage that has many descriptive details about a very specific act, the saxophone solo, led me to pick out some key words that I was drawn to. The title, Dreams of Leaving, the words "abandoned mansion, saxophone and solo" around the larger significance of music is what I used to build my visual interpretation.

I grounded the visual interpretation's sense of place with the abandoned mansion. It dominates this passage so much that not including it, I felt, would leave the viewer too disconnected from the passage. The rest of the interpretation deals with the physical and emotional sensitivity that can be experienced through the power of music.

Here is the book passage that inspired my visual interpretation Backyard Soul-O.
"Gloria was introducing the band. If he didn't listen to the saxophone this time, she'd murder him. He only had to wait until halfway through the next song, then Malone unleashed a sixty-second solo, and played with such raw soaring power, assembled such an intricate structure of notes, that listening to him was like being led through some extraordinary abandoned mansion. It was as if Malone somehow knew of Moses's anxiety and was building a house specially for him, a different kind of house, a house where policemen would never appear at the door. The saxophone scaled the facade, dropped into an upstairs room, tiptoed across the landing, opened a door with rusty hinges, tripped, stumbled to the edge of a parapet, peered over, stepped sharply back, ran down flight after flight of stairs, through ballrooms peopled by the ghosts of dancers, through echoing cloisters and claustrophobic passageways, past windows with vistas and hushed rooms no longer used, tore through curtained doorways and out, finally, into the open air, paused to breathe the air, ran on through gardens with peacocks and fountains, along spacious landscaped avenues, past sudden explosions of plants from South America, and back down a sweeping gravel drive to the road where Gloria was waiting with the rest of the song."