2008

a study in patience, perseverance, and taking detours en route to greener pastures.

to kick off the year, i road tripped across the connemara in ireland and slept on the floor in copenhagen airport.

then, i at long last graduated from university, got a sickening cubicle job and ran away. my heart was hung out to dry.

great new (and old) friends came to the rescue. i taught french at a university to old people and saw my sister for the first time in 6 years.

cities visited: dublin, galway, belfast, copenhagen, phoenix, denver, las vegas, minneapolis/st. paul, duluth.

suburban balloons, february 2008

albuquerque is a haven for balloons, but usually they’re relegated to autumn skies when the weather is ideal.

unseasonable warmth, however, brought these out to the cardboard suburbs on a gorgeous february morning.

holiday love

canon xsi

family portrait. we don’t do garland or rudolph sweaters.

albuquerque, new mexico

december

velarde, new mexico september

casita floor

canon xt

one set of my great-grandparents live on a dusty and sprawling patch of land in the apple orchard village of velarde in the north of new mexico.

it’s dotted with haphazard and ancient structures: a garage, four houses, and a rusty swing set. some of my fondest childhood memories were made here - bike races, baseball games and lighting massive anthills on fire with gasoline.

this self portrait is on the floor in the kitchen of one of the uninhabited casitas, and the brilliant 70s linoleum was ripped out just after this was taken.

minneapolis, minnesota

august

gehry 1

canon xt

one of many dubious life goals of mine is to see every major frank gehry building in the world.

i saw this on on the u of minnesota campus in minneapolis when i was on holiday to pay my cloistered nun sister a visit. two birds with one stone, i suppose.

albuquerque, new mexico

autumn

burt’s tiki lounge

canon xt & minolta x-700

the only place to see and be seen in the desert wasteland that is albuquerque.

my camera and i ran wild here every thursday night.

interstate 40, arizona

july

gina

canon xt

gina from maryland in a field of flowers off interstate 40 in arizona so bright it stopped traffic.

albuquerque, new mexico

june

(untitled)

canon xt

this photo is the crippling, overwhelming pain you feel at the loss of something you love. the model is not me.

albuquerque, new mexico

may

dirty

canon xt

self-portrait in my bedroom.

albuquerque, new mexico

april

suburban balloons

canon xt

in the right season, balloons fill the wide open albuquerque sky.

unusually temperate weather brought these out at the wrong end of the year on a most frigid spring morning.

chimayó, new mexico

april

chimayó

canon xt

this long-abandoned village square in northern new mexico is one of the purest remaining examples of colonial architecture left in new mexico.

today it’s filled with trash and rusty bud lite cans.

albuquerque, new mexico

february

moving day

canon xt

moving into a new house is traumatic and invigorating: old, comfortable personal space gives way to new reinvented space.

these moving day photos show lots of promise on a huge new blank canvas.

from left: bedroom window view, mona lisa xerox print; chair, two paintings i did several years ago; niche with view of staircase; closet.

albuquerque, new mexico

february

pastel 1966

canon xt

i found (and have since used up) this box of almost brand-new vintage pastels from the sixties in my grandparents treasure trove of a garage.

copenhagen, denmark

january

arches

sony t500

copenhagen is a city that oozes cool almost like no other on the planet. this particular trip was a bit of a disaster, but i still fell in love with this scandinavian design capital.

click here for more photos from copenhagen, click here for blog entry.

ireland

january

éire

canon xt & sony t500

i thought i wouldn’t care much for ireland, but on a visit to one of my closest friends who has made it her home and was almost instantly won over:

downright stunning and stark scenery, an utter lack of pretense, lots of good beer and genuine people.

left: bar adverts declaring war dead, right: mangled and bent old trees on a lost road in connemara.

click here for more photos from ireland, click here for blog entry.

velarde, new mexico september

casita salon

minolta x-700

see above, but this was taken with a 1980s minolta.