Sunday, October 28, 2012

Vanishing Vermont: Middlesex

Right off the highway the between Waterbury amd Montpelier is where you will find this sleepy little village. Middlesex, Vermont is a little town. fewer than 1,800 people call it home.











I stumbled upon this abandoned house and train depot not far from the center of town.  Trains still push through on this track on the way to Burlington and beyond, but the days of passengers getting on and off at this platform is long gone. So sad to bear witness to the decline of the railroad.



Thank you so much for visiting my blog. 
Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you
might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012
Thanks! Lorraine

Thursday, October 25, 2012

the veil is thinning

almost to Halloween- and the veil between the worlds is thinning...........












Thank you so much for visiting my blog. 
Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you
might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012
Thanks! Lorraine

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Behind Closed Doors-The Art of Hans Bellmer

I sort of have this odd fascination with old, cast-off abandoned things; like moldy dog-earred books, old photos and broken dolls. I have done quite a few works with bits and pieces of old busted dollies and have even taught an assemblage class about Creepy Doll shrines. 

There's a lot that could be said about Dolls and what they symbolize and in my class we touch a bit on some of those things specifically Freud's idea about the uncanny. But recently, Hans Bellmer, a German artist from the 1930s has been brought to my attention. To say Bellmer's work is disturbing, would be a bit of an understatement. (And if you are unfamiliar with his work, please keep this in mind if you look further into this artist.)  His work was and remains quite controversial. His doll's with their uncanny, fragmented and provocative poses are as extremely shocking now as they were in the 1930's. 

At the recommendation of my artist teacher, I have been reading Therese Lichtenstein's book Behind Closed Doors: The Art of Hans Bellmer. I am focused specifically the chapter: Return to the Enchanted Garden, which has some incredibly powerful insights. Of which is this quote that I want to leave with you. In my mind it links back to some of the work that we were doing in the Creepy Doll Shrine class at Art-Is-You. Take from it what you will...

"At the same time that Walter Benjamin was writing about the loss of the aura and the rise of fascism, Hans Bellmer was engaged in creating and photographing his curious doll-like sculptures, which were designed to evoke a sense of nostalgia. But what kind of nostalgia? Bellmer's return to and obsession with adolescence may be in part understood as a necessary regression into the past, a working through of psychic processes in a dialectic of transformation. By depicting adolescence as ruined, the photographs acknowledge both the desire to return to the past and the impossibility of doing so. The desire to recapture letting go of that childhood. It is as though Bellmer, while searching for what he had lost, was also looking for a solution to the problem. Although his works are mediated by memories of childhood, they do not recapture an idealized past but one that exists as ruin. His doll photographs are not transcendent images. They do not represent childhood as an illusory paradise lost but as a paradise never obtained. They depict the ungratified longing of youth, denying utopian impulses usually associated with memories or thoughts of the period of like and revealing it instead as a time of sorrow and struggle. This Bellmer's images of abuse and deprivation shift between a desire to preserve the past and a desire to destroy it by representing ruin." (Lichtenstein, 152)






Friday, October 19, 2012

Hauntings







Via Webster's

Hauntings: to visit habitually or appear to frequently as a spirit or ghost: to haunt a house; to haunt a person, to recur persistently to the consciousness of; remain with: for example: Memories of love haunted him. to visit frequently; go to often: for example: He haunted the galleries and bars that the artists went to. to disturb or distress; cause to have anxiety; trouble; worry: for example: His youthful escapades came back to haunt him. to reappear continually as a spirit or ghost. to visit habitually or regularly. to remain persistently; loiter; stay; linger. 

Origin: 1200- 50; Middle English haunten  < Old French hanter  to frequent,probably < Old Norse heimta  to lead home, derivative of heim homewards; see home.



Sunday, October 14, 2012

Vanishing Vermont: Wells Lamson Quarry



Things a been a bit of a whirlwind for me the last two weeks. So I apologize for not getting a post up last week. I was teaching at Art-Is-You, in Stamford CT. Which was an amazing adventure of its own. Don't worry, I am going to share photos and insights from that event in the next few days.

But right now, I want to focus on a my day today. On a tip from a friend and fellow artist, I drove down to East Barre (right on the Websterville boarder) to visit the abandoned Wells Lamson Quarry. Barre's history is rich with stories of immigrants workers and industrialization. New England quarries are know for their consistent quality and significant deposits of raw materials. These photos I am sharing with you are just the beginning of the shots that I took today. This is the location of the oldest Granite Quarry in the US. crumble and waste away. I was completely taken in by the beauty of the site. The thing that strikes me the most about this location is how changed the landscape now is because of human interaction. I don't know all the details, but my understanding is that there are organizations out there that are trying to conserve the land and keep alive the historical importance of this place.


Look around and you will see that our natural world has be transformed by industry. Where industry has been, there seems to be significant marks upon the land. In this case, Nature is trying to take back what belongs to her. Today was a very fruitful day and inspiring too. I will continue to edit my photos and post them. Hopefully I will learn a bit more about Barre's granite history and share with you those important nuggets as well.



This place was a space of labor and livelihood for many men for over 100 years. I am sure if the rocks could talk they would have amazing stories to tell. Up on the hill, in the light drizzle, on a Sunday afternoon, there was something magical, yet uncanny there. The birds where chirping, flying in and out of the trees and I could swear in the silences I could hear the faint echoes of men working down in the depths of those pits: Machinery buzzing and clanking away.  







 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. 
Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you
might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012
Thanks! Lorraine