The Kickstarter program made the goal and it looks like everything is on for the adventure. I have been contacting and communicating with artist in both Paris and Berlin and am getting excited to meet so many of these people who’s work I admire and have been watching for some time. Wow thank you everyone who has contributed to all this. This is a dream come true. I am going to be busy the next couple of days getting the trip planned and finishing the portfolio and start getting everything in order to head out. Unfortunately with the drop of the American credit rating the value of the American dollar also plummeted to a very poor exchange rate. The last time I was in Paris the dollar was so strong that I could stay and hang for three weeks for next to nothing, including hotels. This trip concerns me a bit and will be tight, but will make it all happen with what’s in place. Any additional help is still greatly appreciated as there a still a few days left to contribute.
This past weekend’s events have really been on my mind, as it settled me and reminded me of home and my sense of place. I am very proud of my western heritage and to have grown up in this area. Sometimes it feels the older we get the further we get from the true core of who we are and forget some of those important blocks that make the foundation from which we sprang. I feel some of my life has been a denial of this part of my self and something that I closely kept hidden, thinking somehow it worked to my disadvantage and would limit my possibilities. But now I see it’s actually an advantage. We are who we are. This is a lesson I desperately needed to learn and it’s funny that it comes right at the cusp of making another giant leap. My years in the theater have mainly kept me behind the scenes, not even recognizable, and I loved being a master of this dark world. I have always had an uncanny ability to adapt and am great at communication with all the various aspects of production and find the balance. Will Paris and Berlin become the same? Will language become a barrier or will heart and the belief in ones talent remain universal. Here’s to a huge leap of faith. I still believe the net will appear. My father said to me this weekend when I was home, boy you have got more guts then anyone I have ever known, and how much he admired that. At the beginning of the project in January I believed that my life was actually coming to a close, but as my friend Marklin keeps saying it’s just a beginning. Wow what an adventure!
I know that not everyone likes what I do and how open I am to reveal my inner thoughts. I heard all kinds of strange stories about what I am doing and others perceptions of the project. A woman said “she liked what I was doing and my images were beautiful, that I always was a bit weird, and now to be working in pornography.” I guess I didn’t think much about it, but my sister Pam said she had posted some link from my Facebook to her site and was a bit ridiculed by it, because they said their children where playing on their computer. It’s funny we live in such a closed culture of becoming labeled or judged. I guess I don’t see it as pornographic and live in a world of beauty, romance and extraordinary light.
>I get the same reactions from some people, Terry, about the writing that I do. Some people have very puritanical views and anything that involves a naked body or contains hints of sensuality/sexuality is considered base or perverted. You and I fight against that by boldly portraying men in all of their naked beauty and sexiness and power. Some people just cannot handle that. I really feel sorry that they live their lives with such a limited perspective.
>you are not allowed to choose when you are born or when you will die, only what you do in-between. Your father is a very wise man, you are gutsy. Maybe not everyone in the world will understand your vision,but there is enough of us who do and will.
So many times, people are just more then willing to be complacent, and not chase their dreams. It takes real bravado to create, and even more to ask the world for their approval.
As for not understanding the languages, your work will speak for itself. I always say painting is a language I speak with a heavy accent. Photography is a language you speak not only fluently, but with gorgeous eloquence.
You surprised me a little today Terry. I would have thought a old theater dog as yourself would know, the second act is almost always the best. Curtain up.
>Not to put my erotic writing on the same level as your art. Erotic fiction is meant to titillate and arouse. You don't have that as your objective, obviously. But you are photographing gorgeous, naked men which is an inherently sexy thing, to me and alot of people anyway.
>Well said, Marklin! Curtain up, indeed 🙂
>Marklin you are always dead on when I need it the most. It is what we do in between that defines who we are. And yes I have forgotten about the second act rule. I am just getting my second wind.
Elizabeth you and I are on the same level, we very much do the same work, who's to say my work doesn't titillate and arouse.
I love you guys, thanks.