It's almost been a year

June 9, 2009

This afternoon a violent afternoon thunderstorm ripped through the area almost a year to the day (just one day off to be exact) that a microburst torn though my town, felling trees, damaging cars and homes and creating what looked like tornado swath. I am the type of person to remember significant dates. That week last year was a fanatical one, not just due to the storm, but also due to other events in my life. A year later I look back and think of all the good that has come from all those events, as well as some of the difficulties.

That Monday my husband came home to report that he had given notice at his job. Now a year later he is very happy not only with his current work, but also his office, co-workers, bosses, commute on the train into DC as well as just the general lifestyle of working in the city and coming home to his family in the country. That was a good day.

On Tuesday the storm came through, knocking down about five of our trees in our backyard and causing substantial damage to the backyard and fence. It just so happens that our computer blew out as well that morning (shortly before the storm, but the insurance company thinks it happened during the storm). We were lucky. One next door neighbor lost their car. Another had a huge tree land in their master bedroom. A year later we are still digging into the pile of mulch left behind from some of the trees knocked down on another neighbor’s property. That was a weird day.

On Wednesday, as I was setting up the removal of the trees in our yard, we received the news that my mother-in-law had Stage 3 ovarian cancer. I called the daycare parents to pick up the children, had my own sons go with my parents and I rushed to the hospital to be with Gail, Ron and Ryan. Now a year later, Gail is still fighting this disease. She has had her ups and downs and is on her third round of chemo. My in-laws decided to sell their beautiful mountain property and move to Louisiana to be closer to a well-renowned cancer treatment center and other family members. That was a bad day.

I know there were other things that happened that week as well (yes, I finally found my keys!) and then of course there were so many other events, both wonderful and exciting and aggravating that happened throughout the year. I use anniversaries to mark where I was and look at how far I have come, what has changed and what I need to continue to work on. I have seen my oldest son through his preschool experience, worked with my younger son on giving up the pacifier and diapers and continued working with children in my daycare. After many years, I have picked up my camera once again for artistic pursuits, not just as a method of recording family events. I have traveled to several exciting American cities, and jumped on the indie-rock music following scene as well as continued with my yoga practice and even branched out to my old love, modern dance. Life threw a few curve balls and I spent a good deal of time sitting in the auto repair shop, getting to know the staff after three accidents in six months (none of which were my fault). Weddings, sadness in friend’s lives, surgeries and health scares. They all happened this past year.

I know my blogs aren't really funny. As much as I would like them to be, I really need them as a form of therapy, much like I used to have when I was an avid journal keeper. So recently I have been thinking about the past 365 days and singing this song by Greg Laswell.

It’s almost been a year.

http://www.imeem.com/people/TRDYyxe/music/eAewzYa8/greg-laswell-its-been-a-year/

Below is a project which I have embarked on.... you will see the project description followed by my proposal. I have been selected as an artist, met with the group, but have yet to be paired with a scientist. I do have one in mind, and it happens to be in a direction that I nearly tailored my proposal to. More to come I am sure....

The Mary Condon Hodgson Art Gallery at Frederick Community College invites art professionals and emerging artists to submit work of all media for a juried exhibition, The Art of Science/The Science of Art. Following the preliminary selection, artists will be interviewed by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, and then paired with a scientist to begin work on a collaborative art project. This collaborative project may take up to one year to complete.

Goal: To foster an understanding at Frederick Community College (FCC) and in the community of the relatedness of the process of creating scientific discoveries and artwork. The project will focus on how art can inform science and how science can inform art.
Plan: To connect recognized scientists from the NIH with regional artists. The artist will interview the scientist and interact with his or her work, creative process and vision. The artist will spend time in the laboratory/clinic observing the process, the equipment, raw data and the scientist's interaction with their patients. The resulting work will be part of an exhibition in the Mary Condon Hodgson Art Gallery located at Frederick Community College during the month of April 2010.





Art & Science Project Proposal

My mother-in-law, Gail, was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. This was the first time someone close to my family has been faced with a serious illness. I have watched as she has experienced the different stages of the illness and continues to try new medical methods that aid her in this battle. Gail is independent, resilient and a self-starter. I have never known her to fail at anything she sets her mind to. When the news came of her diagnosis, followed by the six months of chemo treatments we all started to think about the things that she would miss out on. Her gardening, her work as an award winning realtor, visits with her grandkids and enjoying her life in a house she and her husband built several years ago to enjoy their retirement years.
For Gail, it has been hard to sit back and let others do things that she is used to doing, even simple tasks such as loading the dishwasher or making dinner. I wondered what other responsibilities she missed doing, things she missed experiencing and people she missed seeing as she was homebound and doing her best to fight off this illness.
As a photographer I enjoy capturing moments in time with my camera. It is a tool that can be used to record favorite memories and experiences as well a document important events or to share simple achievements with those who cannot participate. My project proposal is to photograph a few of a patient’s favorite things. This could be a portrait of a loved one, an image of a favorite place or even a still-life of a favorite item.
Collaboration on this project would involve the photographer to engage the patient in what it is that they may miss most in their previous day-to-day activities. Is there something that could be captured in a photograph and if so, would the patient like to have it captured? After the images are created and presented to the patient, in a form similar to art therapy, the patient’s doctor could then visit with the patient and glean from them the importance of what was captured in the image.
Art and science are similar in several ways. Both the artist and scientist set out with a goal, question or purpose to fulfill. They construct a hypothesis, create or perform the “experiment”, analyze their findings and then share the results. Artists of course may not follow the scientific method exactly, but the steps are very similar and sometimes the outcome that one hoped for turns out very different from what was hypothesized.
As a photographer I have had the opportunity to see how art and science are joined. Working with a camera as well as processing and developing pictures in the darkroom is systematic as particular steps must be performed to achieve the desired outcome. Of course there is also the creative side, which I enjoy, especially when it comes to portraiture. When photographing people you never know what the end result will be.

February, 2009