Thursday, January 31, 2008

organic ballet


organic ballet, originally uploaded by z e n.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

cortex rendezvous


window lines circles, originally uploaded by z e n.

Monday, January 28, 2008

a delicate crafting


ice lines and bubbles, originally uploaded by z e n.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Marcel followed the voices to safety.


Green walking, originally uploaded by z e n.

Deriving a six-word story for me went something like this:
The first thing I looked at after the photo were people's comments - and they were both about loners, being loners and understanding the feeling of being different. So that set my 'mood.'

Boy walks away from dumb wedding.

Well, yes, that's a bit obvious for what's going on, but it's probably how he's feeling about the dumb wedding and having to be all dressed up and slick-backed hair and stuff.

Next I thought what would be the name of my little loner? I like giving names because, well, I believe that a story is about someone. Someone specific. Not 'Loner" because we all can see that he is and and already identify with that. And definitely not 'little boy' because not only is that obvious, but for gosh sakes it uses two words! That's a 3rd of my story! So if I name him, he will be manageable and identifiable too. A loner should have a name that no one likes in the first place or one that sets him/her apart from his peers… like Herbert or Marcel or Gaylord, but not Dave or William or any of the newer names people use for children to make them seem different, but aren't… the city-like Denver or Austin or happy neo-retro names like Brandon or Connor and definitely nothing starting with a J (Jason, Jacob, Joshua). These are fine names, but not for our little loner. And nothing too cutesy like "Billy."

I like Marcel because it's different, and has an effeminate sound to it. Like Johnny Cash's "Boy named Sue."

The scene is in the mountains, and obviously a part of a gathering, probably a wedding. Marcel is more dressed up than he wants to be, and either that discomfort or boredom shows on his face. He's obviously taking a 'path less traveled' even though it is mowed. It leads off the photo so we don't really know where it goes - but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere where the crowd is interested, except that one woman (who happens to be my dear sweet Helen, but nobody needs to know that she's probably looking at me taking a picture of someone, not looking after the boy or whistfully watching).

What did he do next? Go behind a tree a take a leak? Go off into the woods and get lost and launch a few Search and Rescue helicopters to find him?

Marcel was later found partially eaten.


Yikes, let's not be overdramatic and have the poor boy mauled by a bear just to create some plot… there's probably plenty crisis to go around without resorting to physical harm. Besides, not all crisis needs to be physical.

Maybe we should just let the details of his "loner-ness" be private and only indicate that there was something larger there:

Even at 9 Marcel heard voices.

So that's why he's distracted and tends to wander off! Well, we learn that he hears voices, but his expression isn't hypnotized. One thing, we probably already suspected he was around 9 years old so those words in the story don't tell us anything new. I like the "Marcel heard voices" part though, so what else can be told?

Maybe the voices were good rather than what we normally assume, that he's a loner and nuts (and an artist). Maybe that takes the story into a place where we didn't originally want it to go, but gives interest to the relationship between the boy and the crowd he either despises or is ambivalent about.

Marcel followed the voices to safety.

Ah! Now Marcel may have wandered, but this leaves the story open to many other endings… such as did he also run and tell everyone to leave before the aliens came? Did the unexploded bomb in the Pyrenees mountains go off killing many partiers and he unexplainably survived? Was the 'safety' his mother? Were the voices real (not in his head as implied earlier)? I like this much better than when I started, and just thought I'd throw in the thought process of my particular six-word-story today for fun.

Friday, January 25, 2008

transitional leaf


transitional leaf, originally uploaded by z e n.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

window dance


window dance, originally uploaded by z e n.

green wall wound


green wall wound, originally uploaded by z e n.

the curl of datasmoke


the curl of datasmoke, originally uploaded by z e n.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

gangles


gangles, originally uploaded by z e n.

Friday, January 18, 2008

paper shrines


paper shrines, originally uploaded by z e n.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

gone and unaccountable


tree thru broken window, originally uploaded by z e n.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

glass ding repair


glass ding repair, originally uploaded by z e n.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

four sticker art


four sticker art, originally uploaded by z e n.

Monday, January 14, 2008

window tape


window tape, originally uploaded by z e n.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

two memories that don't match


window monument face, originally uploaded by z e n.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

waiting for magritte


waiting for magritte, originally uploaded by z e n.

Friday, January 11, 2008

threatening my reflection


threatening my reflection, originally uploaded by z e n.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

ice styrofoam


ice styrofoam, originally uploaded by z e n.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

iron circle in ice


iron circle in ice, originally uploaded by z e n.

ice and ice bubbles can seem so micro-biological.

Monday, January 07, 2008

dappled light on red chair


dappled light on red chair, originally uploaded by z e n.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

old typewriter


old typewriter, originally uploaded by z e n.

One of my new year's resolutions is to write more in my journal. Not with this machine of course.

Friday, January 04, 2008

fog birds telephone wire


fog birds telephone wire 2, originally uploaded by z e n.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

evening begins on the fender of a cadillac

west asheville and lake imaginary.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

glass


glass, originally uploaded by z e n.

what we see is so colored by our perceptions and feelings that every photo, no matter how meaningless to some, will find at least one who can place it on their own internal jigsaw puzzle for a happy fit!