The crew from Thursday night:

This is me, Jim the welder, and Dave Witt after our triumphant night of welding until 3am.

There were minor lacerations, moderate burns, a few failed jabbing attempts, and one electrocution. I'm proud to say it was I who got electrocuted!

More adventures in welding!

Hey folks--
Some more shots from my welding expeditions of late. This was from tonight when my good friend Matt (veteran Winker) helped me out with two panels for the conference art show!
Seriously...looking into welding career after I'm finished midwifery....my parents LOVE that about me. You know, my lack of stick-to-itativeness.
But first...this is me at the walk0in clinic the other day moments before I was told, 'Yes you have a sinus infection....oh and pneumonia.'

Matt's a little domineering with the welding gun...so I take pictures of bordom.

Spacey...

Surrender

Love, when we met, 'twas like two planets metting.
Strange chaos followed; body, soul, and heart
Seemed shaken, thrilled, and startled by that greeting;
Old ties, old dreams, old aims, all torn apart
And wrenched away, left nothing there the while
But the great shining glory of your smile.

I knew no past; 'twas all a blurred, bleak waste;
I knew no future; 'twas a blinding glare.
I only saw the present: as men taste
Some stimulating wine, and lost all care.
I tasted Love's elixir, and I seemed
Dwelling in some strange land, like one who dreamed.

I was a godlike separate existence;
Our world was set apart in some fair clime.
I had no will, no purpose, no resistance;
I only knew I loved you for all time.
The earth seemed something foreign and afar,
And we two, sovereigns dwelling in a star!

My being trembled to its very center
At that first kiss. Cold Reason stood aside
With folded arms to let a grand Love enter
In my Soul's secret chamber to abide.
Its great High Priest, my first love and my last,
There on its alter I consumed my past.

And all my life I lay upon its shrine
The best emotions of my heart and brain,
Whatever gifts and graces may be mine;
No secret thought, no memory I retain,
But give them all for dear Love's precious sake;
Complete surrender of the whole I make.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1892

Happy Valentine's Day (of Torture) my friends...
always,
Claire

A hard day's night.

*******Disclaimer----I WILL be retouching the blurry spots in this photo---don't you worry. I just don't have the programs to do that myself.*********

Last night I had the pleasure of welding until the wee hours--I think we stopped around 3am. It was glorious. I'm not kidding. I think once I've established myself as a photographer, seamstress, chef, and general domestic goddess I'll take a welding apprenticeship.
Anywho--this is all for the True City conference at the end of the month. I'm the artistic administrator and we were welding industrial fence-like panels to hang art on for the exhibit. It was pretty cool seeing an idea I had become tangible...and by my own hands. And apparently I'm very talented at fitting odd shapes together. How true...how true.
So here are some shots from last night...
The sparks from the grinder are so beautiful:

My hands after the job was finished---I LOVE getting dirty...is that wrong?

Proof: that I actually did some work. Here I am shaping the metal.

Hewit

These are shots I took in Janurary for the band Hewit. Um..yeah...enjoy! I've been asked to take pictures for another band next week, so I'll post more picture then.

Self portraits...

Here's a few self ports I've taken over the last few weeks.
The whole reason i started the self-port. trend was as a type of journal entry. Sometimes words aren't enough--and in those cases, a picture can usually do the talking. The self-ports. have morphed a bit, but ultimately they come back to feelings, ideas, etc that I'm working on at the time.
The first one was inspired by the Misty Edwards song I Am Yours where she talks about our hearts yearning for the Lord even as we sleep.
The second is just...me. I have some cool lighting equipment so I've been playing around with it--just learning by experience.
The third was taken just last weekend at a little girl's birthday party. We were asked to dress up like princesses...so I did. As an Indian princess (or something)...but APPARENTLY that dress-up call wasn't for the adults. Ah well..I looked pretty.

Older stuff..

Here's a few more for your viewing pleasure.
Like I said eariler, I'm taking a lot of pictures. So I hope to be posting more and more recent pictures.

Old passions revisited

Well, it's well into 2007, thought I'd start the year off with some photography. As the story goes, my brother was asked by a local band to fill in for their awol photographer, but he referred the job to me, and the whole experience renewed my passion for photography.
So, here we go.
Hopefully I'll be posting a lot, because, so far I'm taking about 100-500 photos a week. There's gotta be something good in there! However, my internet has been a real hassle, so I'm...trying new ways to steal it better. Steal it well?
Let me know what you think: