Back in the Saddle.....

Almost a year since my last post, this period of time has been wonderfully active, filled with several exhibitions, competitions and project advancement.

And now... as well, back to books!!!! (see below)

The exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum of the Tyrus Wong retrospective was amazing and my wall of large photographs of Tyrus at the beach with his kites, his family and community told a perfect story of this artist's last 40 years of creativity and activity.  My thanks to the late Diane Disney, Michael LaBrie and the WDFM for mounting such a beautiful, comprehensive and well-deserved show.  It was an honor to be in it and a pleasure to experience the depth and beauty of Tyrus' work.

I am happy to report that Tyrus Wong is now 103 (to be 104 in October) and still comes out to Santa Monica Beach to fly his kites and enchant everyone.

Based upon the prints and my photobook GO FLY A KITE: SATURDAYS AT THE BEACH WITH TYRUS WONG (available for purchase online through Magcloud and viewable at issuu, the New York Historical Society has asked for several of my prints to illustrate the concluding panel of their upcoming exhibition: CHINESE AMERICAN: EXCLUSION/INCLUSION 

In the Winter, I prepared for an exhibition at the new Leica Gallery Los Angeles, a beautiful modernist gallery/Leica store where even the cameras are so elegantly displayed.  The project was GRIDLOCK, my series of photographs taken from my driver's seat while stopped in traffic, primarily in Los Angeles.  I loved putting the work in a grid format and also prepared an accompanying small boxed limited edition portfolio, Gridlock: Tire & Tread. 

Ibarionex Perello, multi-talented writer, photographer, educator... interviewed me about GRIDLOCK for his international renowned podcast, The Candid Frame.  My interview is No 238 and was conducted on June 29, 2014.  

I was also interviewed by the Leica Camera Blog.

 

During these more major exhibition periods I continue to shoot more for my fine art architecture project, REVISIT.RENEW.NEW; worked at times in collaboration with fellow photographer, Martin Cox, on several commercial architectural shoots - fascinating design and architecture! - and shooting the beginnings of  an exciting new house by a major architect rising only a few houses away from me; several small group exhibits/projects; and taking the time to re-think how I approach my long-term project on Detroit, DETROIT: DEFINITION where I will visit with more focus in the Fall.

Architecture and design has always fascinated me, whether captured for exhibition and publication or shooting to involve my work in conversation with great design - residential, commercial and for hospitality (where we experience, i.e., hotels, restaurants, gathering places) - the environs of living has always been evident in the way I see and I am now in the middle of setting up a specific online portfolio/website for selected work, presently in an early "design" format at www.sarajaneboyers.com.

My more specific fine art/exhibition work remains my major website at sarajaneboyersphoto.com


BUT THE BEST NEWS!!!!  -- a return, finally to my writing.   Over the years I have been away - now almost 14 years since my last book, TEEN POWER POLITICS, was published -  I have been playing with ideas, thinking of new directions in the world of books for youth, my publication focus for years.  Of course LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, my first book, is still going strong 21 years after publication and award after award.  I created/edited LIFE, the initial design (the end polished result won a prestigious AIGA "50 Best Books of the Year" award), and married the powerful imagery of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat with Dr. Maya Angelou's strong words of her 1978 eponymous poem. Good to try for that again!!!!  My sadness of course is the recent passing of Dr. Angelou, a loss for our entire country.

I look back over the 14 years, most specifically to TEEN POWER POLITICS, for the world has changed for all of us, youth especially since the beginning of the new millennium.  I'd like to bring this book back, refreshed, filled with our new concerns and hopes while acknowledging a different world post 911 on the darker side but also new approaches and attitudes - a greater acceptance of our global cultures, ethnic diversity - on the more positive side.  Civic responsibility is key and TPP was important in 2000.  I hope to make it relevant and a part of the instrument of change again.

I have so missed the world of publishing while feeling yet so lucky to finally feel a sense of confidence and belonging in the world of photography, my very very first love.  The return to writing, creating works and imagery now using my own photographic sensibility as well as the literary is exciting for me and I find myself with almost too many projects to explore, all the while retaining the visual expression - so much without words - that characterizes and will continue to characterize my fine art photographic work.

I return with the experience, the tools and best, the ability to incorporate my words with powerful photos and illustration.  This weekend is the annual SCBWI (Society of Children's Writers & Illustrators) Conference and although my deadline schedule is not permitting me to attend it in full, I have created a new "quickie" card and have already visited, getting back into the rhythm, and find what it is I can do now.... literary and visual.  A good moment!

Here is my entry "leave behind."

Wish me luck.