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Birch Trees, Franconia, NH.
Like veins into the night. I Love the flat even light of the ice rink fluorescents.
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Hoop II, Franconia, NH.
As we arrived in Franconia we had to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things, namely a comb. Don’t ask. Franconia is a crappy little town but it has two really sweet attributes:
1) The local ice rink also doubles as full basketball court. And it’s lit well into the night, allowing for hours of freezing fun and photography.
2) The Garnet Hill factory outlet. Crazy goodness for all you Martha Stewart/Pottery Barn types. Present company included. I can Martha out, for sure, NBD.
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Trip 2, Day 2. To Franconia, NH.
Cannon Mountain View Motel, Franconia, NH.
We were originally planning to drive north on VT. route 5 straight up to the US/Canada border, but we got sidetracked with a business matter and had to divert East to New Hampshire. No biggie, because we were headed right through Franconia Notch, one of my favorite places in New England. We cruised south through the notch and made it to Lincoln, NH just in time for dinner. We needed some time out of the car so we decided to stop and get some pizza, to stay, for once. We chilled, ate our pie, and watched as the little girl next to us spilled her brand new gatorade bottle all over the table and onto the floor. It was pretty funny, I know there was picture in there somewhere…
I decided we would go back up north and stay in Franconia, on the other side of the notch. That way we could wake up and explore in the am, at the foot of the mountains. We got to the motel, grabbed the keys from the bar and slipped into our no cell reception/internet free comas. Peace out matrix, see you in the morning.
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A few weeks ago Clover and I took a quick trip to Stowe, VT. to pick up some work from the Helen Day Art Center. It got me thinking about the hotel bed shots. I’v been wondering how they fit in, what they represent. They seem to act as a reset, the end of the chapter, the daily epilogue. It’s a place to recalibrate and to prepare for the next day’s adventure. They are quiet and soft, almost sleepy.
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When we are out there I feel like we are all alone, like hobos on a lonely train. No schedule, no plans, just exploring. We hop off when the train stops and stretch our legs.
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Trip 2, Day 2. Fairlee, VT. to Franconia, NH.
It’s always weird to book a room sight unseen, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. We stayed in a nice place last night. I brought the swimsuits, so we were looking for an indoor pool. We arrive to the hotel, check in and schlep our bell cart upstairs to our room. We get off the elevator to find the hallways on each side pitch black, and the doors of every room wide open. It was creepy as hell, straight out of The Shining. Chills… Clover was creeped out, I was creeped out. It was super weird. The whole place was empty, quiet, and dark. So, we requested a room on the first floor, closer to the pool, and front desk, humans. A quick dip and off to bed.
We awoke to a beautiful huge window over looking Lake Morey and all it’s wintry glory. It was a vast mountainous landscape with hints of snow and a smooth wet untouched coating of ice on the lake. Back on route 5, our first roadside attraction was a waterfall that was gushing and half frozen in Bradford, VT. Tremendously loud and powerful. I love waterfalls.
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Dead Tree, Norwich, VT.
The snow, ice, and fog seemed to consistently give the landscape a blue tint. At sunset it just gets bluer.
Stay frosty.
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Route 5, Norwich, VT.
After gassing up and grubbing down at the mini mart we were off. Vermont Route 5 runs along the VT. and NH. border and parallels the Connecticut River. It’s an awesome winding, hilly drive. We spent more time driving and less time exploring the first 2 days of this trip. We shot pictures along the roadside when cool things would present themselves, which seemed like every five minutes. There were tons of basketball hoops, corn fields, and lots of fog and slush. We just sat back and absorbed the wintry landscape.
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Trip 2, Day 1. Rumford, RI. to Fairlee, VT.
I’ve been itching to get back out on the road since we arrived home from the last road trip in October. With Christmas break at hand we decided to head back out and make some new work. This time I decided to take a more wooded route, up to the Canadian border through VT. No set plans, just exploring nature and seeing what was thrown our way. The first day we made it to the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT.
Things were different on this trip right out of the gate. For one my road mate was being a serious whiner. “I miss Mommy.” Really, we’ve been gone 18 hours and you’re ready to pack it in. Just think of all the fun we’re going to have and all the amazing stuff we’ll see. “I miss Poppy.” OK, that’s how it’s going to be… Another thing I overlooked was the fact that it’s dark at 4:00. This seriously diminished the ability to shoot and stop a lot and drive a lot in the sunlit hours. I’d need to rethink my plan of attack. We’d need to be up early and in bed early. Not likely.
It’s great to be out here, just the two of us. We can focus a little better, talk longer, it’s just more concentration all around. We talk as we drive. I try to be honest about as much as I can with her in regards to life and death. The circle of life. She gets it more than I think she does. 5 year olds are much smarter than I thought. Clover has this new fascination with death. She wants to know what it’s like after you die. She said “Daddy, I want to know what it’s like to be in your body. To see through your eyes.” Pretty deep for 5. We talk about our neighbor Marie who was 97 and died at home. Clover saw the fire trucks come to get her. Marie gave her a stuffed animal cat, Fudgie. She is always talking about how special Fudgie is. This is her way of remembering Marie, she loved her. We talk about how animals kill each other to eat and survive. Which animals kill what. We talk about being safe and getting hurt. She’s pretty brave, she’ll touch and hold almost any animal, dead or alive. But she’s a total wuss when it comes to her teeth falling out and bloody noses. She got a bloody nose in the shower at the hotel tonight.
“Daddy! My mouth is bleeding, my tooth, my tooth!”
No honey it’s just a bloody nose. Stay right there, I need to grab my camera.
Song of the day: Bigmouth Strikes again, The Smiths.
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My studio smells like dead fish.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of working more collaboratively with Clover on this project. For now that’s where the strength seems to be, where my focus has gone. I’ve been itching to make some new pieces with this in mind. I knew that I wanted the creative balance to be more even, 50/50, if that was possible. But that is a tall order when you conspirator is 5. But I had an idea.
We’re collectors. We collect various treasures we find out on our journeys. Sand, shells, feathers, rocks, driftwood, pinecones, dead bugs. It’s a nice way to bring a little outside to the inside. The stuff is all over our house, it’s great. It’s simple and earthy. My idea was to have both of us to go out and collect treasures, then bring them back to the studio and utilize them in some way. This particular day we gathered a bunch of beach goods - crab legs, lobster claws, skate egg cases, shells - and headed home, stink in tow. Back at the studio I taped a piece of light gray paper to the floor and set up the lights and camera. I drew a box for Clover to work within and handed her the treasures one at a time from our smelly Dunkin Donuts bag. I told her to lay them out in the box and make a design or sculpture. I told her to create something out of our treasures, and that when she was done I would photograph it. As I handed each piece to her we would chat about which side of a claw was better, which color we liked. Sometimes we were in agreement, she always had the final say. She talked about why she put each piece the way she did. She explained that all the claws had to face to the left. It was important. It was a bit of organized chaos. The process was organic and made sense. Collecting treasures is something we already do outside of the studio, so it made sense for me to bring that inside, to capitalize on our established routine. This was a way for us to document the performative aspect of our collecting process as well as the sculptural aspect of her layout. It was part performance, part sculpture, and part photograph, 100% collaboration. It’s important for me to give her control, to see her hand in it. More than just an expression or stance, it is the physical manifestation of her thoughts and ideas. I could see that she was taking it serious and her brain hard at work. She loved it, I loved it. It was fun.
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Just in time for the beginning of hunting season Time Magazine’s LightBox blog posted some of my images from the Blind series here.
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Theme: Linear by Peter Vidani
