2011 in Review

A collaborative retreat in the New Year begins with taking stock and reviewing

ACTIVITIES and PARTICIPATION    2011

January

Final edit and reshoot of images for Ponder Food as Love

for studio visit from curator Lisa Hostetler

February

Focus Project: LOVE  Top 25 Photographers. Through the clever juxtaposition of the naked body with food, Ciurej and Lochman's subtly suggestive photographs investigate ideas of obsession and consumption, ultimately commenting upon our primal instinct to devour a feast laid out before us.

Collab Professional Develmpment Month with Color Management and Printing tutorial with Peggy Wright, Kelby Photoshop/Lighting Seminar and 

Kristen Carter, social media consultant

March

AIPAD show in New York (BJC)

Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University

Barbara organizes the Artemisia Archive Event, we add to our archive

International Women's Day Greeting E-newsletter 

April

April 29- July17, 2011 

Public Works at the Museum of Contemporary Photography  curated by Natasha Egan

Geographically and chronologically diverse examples of infrastructure captured through the lenses of historic and contemporary photographers and artists. Included was work from our "exurbia" series, Corporate Corridors, commissioned for the Changing Chicago Project.

May 

Dinner Party in Chicago Memoir Workshop

In an ongoing effort to preserve women's history, we participated in a memoir workshop, video, website development and celebrations around the 30th anniversary of the exhibition of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party in Chicago. We were members of the Steering Committee from 1979-81 which worked for 2 years to bring the exhibition to Chicago.  See  www.dinnerpartyprojectchicago.org or listen at Women's Media Group, Inc/Coming to the Table. Illinois Institute of Technology/Institute of Design  Reunion and Archive Project. Visit with Barbara Crane LENSCRATCH Mother's Day Exhibition  Aline Smithson's blog collection of the many guises of mothers

June

Archive: IndiPhotobook  submitted All Things Are Always Changing

Birth of Natural History series when L researches cyanotype in her backyard. We work throughout summer using flowers from the changing garden and invoking the good will of Anna Atkins.

July

Archive:  Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art 

Archive:  Brooklyn Museum Contemporary

Feminist Lens interview with Barb:  Coming to the Table

in Conjunction with the 30th Anniversary of  Chicago's Dinner Party Project

September

Successful MAM/PC fundraiser

Listening party for Feminist Lens at Bette Cerf Hill Gallery

in Conjunction with the 30th Anniversary of  Chicago's Dinner Party Project

October

Celebrating the Chicago Artists Month theme, Artful Networks, we joined with other members Stella.

Stella a collective of Chicago women photographers exhibited and participated in a panel discussion at the Chicago Photography Center. The Stella Art Cart, with mini portfolios of members work, appeared at the Center and at Filter Photo Festival's Portfolio Walk giving away suckers and photo fortune cookies.

Illuminating the Issue: Artists Book as Social/Political Critique

Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin

Oct. 10-Dec. 30. 2011.

University of Wisconsin Faculty show

Cedarburg Cultural Center, Cedarburg, Wisconsin 

Oct. 16-Nov. 20, 2011.

Filter Photo Fest

Portfolio reviews with Anthony Bannon, Martha Schneider, David Bram, Christy Karpinski, Aline Smithson, Kate Bussard, Mary Virginia Swanson, Chuck Gneich from Gallery 400, Rich Cahan.  Finale Dinner with women photographers organized by Mary Virginia Swanson.

Website Launch and 30th Anniversary  Dinner Party Project Chicago Celebration

 www.dinnerpartychicago.org

November

collect.give announces the release of a their book celebrating the project's first 50 photographers.All participants pledged to donate 100% of their print proceeds to charities they've selected. Included is an essay about our work by Lisa Hoestetler.

Diann deWeese Smith Memorial 

Guest Lecture, Senior Seminar  class/Colleen Plumb 

Guest Lecture, Professional Practice class/Mary Farmilant 

Collumbia College, Chicago

Thanksgiving E-newsletter 

Soho Photo Gallery, New York

November 3- December 2, 2011
First place winners of Soho Photo's Alternative Processes Competiton curated by Michael Paris Mazzeo. “My top choice was Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman's exquisite portraits of elderly women adorned with botanical specimens by way of cyanotype photograms. An elegant elegy to old age and the passage of time, this work also nicely references Anna Atkins, an English botanist and the first recognized female photographer, who is credited with publishing the first book of photographic illustrations, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions."

Getaway weekend for the Soho Photo Opening. Conversation with Michael Paris Mazzeo, Maria Burns,  Lori Nix. Cheslea: Nan Goldin, Richard Serra, Roberto Matta, Hiroshi  Sugimoto,  Uptown: Julia Margaret Cameron,  Magritte, Georges Braque Retrospective. Met show: Steiglitz's Treasures and Steiglitz and his Artists, Lucien Freund and Friends

November 21, 2011
Blog Feature in  LENSCRATCH by Aline Smithson 

"The stunning series … Natural History, features one-of-a-kind cyanotypes that incorporate portraiture and botanicals. The juxtaposition of faces that show history and presence with the fragility of flowers and plant life bring a renewed energy to the standard portrait."

December

Art Miami with Michelle Fire (BCJ)

Illuminating the Issue: Artists Book as Social/Political Critique

Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin (LLL)

Oct. 10-Dec. 30. 2011

Guest Lecture, The Art of the Book Class/Max Yela

UWM-Golda Maier Library

Dust on the Corner open studio project (LLL)

December 9, 2012

featuring the work of Anna Helgeson, Jon Horvath, erin kresol

Dust Settled seeks to celebrate these tiny particles of material life. Follow its path as it dances through sunlight, capture its expulsion from tickled noses and examine its persistent presence in all of our lives.

Tapped 2, Manifest Gallery, Cincinatti, Ohio 

Dec. 16, 2011- Jan. 13, 2012
Paired with our former teacher Patty Carroll in Tapped 2, an exhibit that recognizes the student-teacher bond

Every Day, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

Dec. 2, 2011 - Jan. 14, 2012
Eye to Eye, new work

2011 Correspondence/Applications/New Friends and Resources

Santa Fe Center

Aperture Portfolio 

Art of Photography

Brooklyn Museum Contemporary Art

E. M. Sackler Center For Feminist Art Archive

Center for Fine Art Photography: FOOD

FotoFest Houston

Hey Hot Shot

Humble 31 Women in Photography

Humble Lightside  

Klompching: Fresh

Klompching: New Directions

Modern Book SF

National Gallery Portrait Competition

Photo Lucida/Critical Mass

PDN The Curator

SHOTS Mag: The Body issue

Soho Photo

PhotoShelter pa-photographer@photoshelter.com

Mike Ware  http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/New_Cyanotype_Process.html

http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/Publications.html

Pete Brooke  http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/

Diffusion Magazine/Blue Mitchell  www.diffusionmag.com

http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/Publications.html

The Harvest of Research and Image Serendipity

As we think about our own work, coming across images randomly is a joy and a thought twister. This season's harvest:

Dimitri Tsykalov's violent meat in Commando

Offset by Feature Shoot's Food Photography ranging from tasteless to tasteful:

Henry Hargreaves

Jonathon Kambouris

Caren Alpert

Martin Klimas

Sung Yeonju

Stella Exhibition - Chicago Photography Center

Stella Exhibition October 15-16, 2011

Saturday, October 15th photographers Aimee Beaubien and Margaret Wright will be in-residence with the Stella Art Cart giving art advice from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Group exhibition by members of the Stella Collective including Aimee Beaubien, Suzette Bross, Patty Carroll, Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Christine Di Thomas, Mary Farmilant, Alice Hargrave, Jean Sousa, and Margaret Wright.

Ponder Food As Love (#1 Figheart)

Ponder Food As Love (#2 Plum)

Ponder Food As Love (#4 Cantaloupe)

We Celebrate Chicago Artists Month

AT THE CHICAGO PHOTOGRAPHY CENTER

Stella, a collective of Chicago photographers, will be in residence on the evening of Friday, October 14th from 7:00-8:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 15th from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Concurrently an exhibition of their work will be on view, and members of the group will be dispensing free art advice to aspiring photographers. A Friday evening panel discussion entitled Artful Networks will launch the weekend events.

Artful Networks / So You Want to be a Fine Art Photographer

Friday, October 14, 2011

7:00 - 8:00 p.m. (as part of our fall lecture series)

Advice is only good if someone listens. Members of Stella, a Chicago photography collective, will discuss issues, from the practical to the whimsical, related to being a photographer. They will touch on alternative ways to get your work out, the business of being an artist, the energy of a group, and opportunities provided by chance and good fortune. Panelists include Aimee Beaubien, Suzette Bross, Patty Carroll, Barbara Ciurej, and Mary Farmilant.

Stella Exhibition

October 15-16, 2011

Saturday, October 15th photographers Aimee Beaubien and Margaret Wright will be in-residence with the Stella Art Cart giving art advice from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Group exhibition by members of the Stella Collective including Aimee Beaubien, Suzette Bross, Patty Carroll, Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Christine Di Thomas, Mary Farmilant, Alice Hargrave, Jean Sousa, and Margaret Wright.

Please note: The Art Cart will be at CPC during the day on Saturday, but not Sunday.

Ponder Sweets

We have finished printing Ponder Food As Love portfolio and are currently pondering sweet food.

some kind of love, June 2011

Forgive Them for They Know Not What They Do

Blinded and Ridiculous, from the series, Ponder Food as Love

The transition from all-embracing life-giver at birthing to irrelevant, hovering thwarter of teenager freedom is startling....and the nurturer is always the last to know.

A General Confession *

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Child,

I have erred and strayed from your ways like a lost sheep,

I have followed too much the devices and desires of my own heart and brain,

I have offended against your sacred laws,

I have left undone those things which I ought to have done,

And I have done those things which I ought not to have done,

And there is no health in me, hope for me or cleanliness in me:

But you, O child, have mercy upon me, a miserable offender;

Spare me, O child, who confess my faults,

Restore me cuz I'm penitent,

According to your personal philosophy of "...it's all good."

And grant, O most merciful child,

That I may hereafter live a never-nagging life,

To the glory of your holy existence. Amen.

* taken, with alterations, from the Anglican Liturgy and DJL

President's Day - Nourishing Kennedy's Astronauts

Spare no Expense: Nourishing the Astronauts

The average shuttle meal is chosen six months in advance, specially packaged, weighs 3.4 pounds, is carefully tested for bacteria and microbes, and costs about $300. Currently, Boeing industries process and prepare the shuttle foods. With an average shuttle mission lasting seven days, a minimum of 147 meals must be chosen, tested and packaged for each flight.

Waste is a familiar problem to Quartermasters who have operated field ration break points. Dr. Bourland noted that "astronauts always choose more food than they can eat." The result is hundreds of food items returned from every flight. Most astronauts are too busy to eat and just do not get hungry. Senator Garn agreed, noting that if he flew on the shuttle again he would choose fewer items. The 90-day menu alone consists of over 14,000 separate items.

Presidents' Day - An Army Marches on it's Stomach

"une armée marche à son estomac" -- Napoleon Bonaparte, 1795

Burger King, Baghdad

Burger King, Baghdad

George Washington, b. 2/22/1732 Nourishing the Continental Army

The Continental Congress of 1775 attempted to standardize rations and the way units prepared them. The basic ration included 1 pound (lb.) of beef, or 3/4 lb. of pork, or 1 lb. of salt fish; 1 lb. of bread or flour; 1 pint (pt.) of milk, or payment of 1/72 dollars, and 1 quart of cider or spruce beer; 3 pts. of peas or beans per man per week. [Soldiers were required to cook their own meals, no private contractors.]

Nourishing our troops in Afganistan and Iraq

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has given the green light to bring fast food and other concessions back to Afghanistan. “These quality-of-life programs remain important to soldiers for stress relief and therefore enhancing military readiness,” Gen. David Petraeus wrote in an Oct. 4, 2010 order.

Prior to February 2010, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service operated 141 eateries and shops in Afghanistan. After the May closures, 84 remained. Among the 57 closed were Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Popeyes restaurants, as well as new-car sales offices, jewelry, perfume and souvenir shops.

As a civilian, I don't know if I am as comforted by this comfort food for our troops.....

Celebrate World Cabbage Day - 17 February

from Ponder Food as Love, 2011

There is historical and botanical evidence that cabbage has been cultivated for more than 4,000 years and domesticated for over 2,500 years. Although they look very different, cabbage, kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are all the same species of plant.

With it's ancient and distinguished heritage, Cabbage may be viewed as a symbol of the natural order of life. Its authority can be seen in the fairy tale of Little Otik, where those who wreck havoc by thwarting mother nature are punished by the crone who patiently nurtures her cabbage patch.

This fairy tale is realized in film by the brilliant animator Jan Svankmayer.

"As we know, folktales are old myths retold. What myth is hidden in the tale of Little Otik? A childless couple rebels against fate and creates, from nature, a child. They literally extract the secret of creation. For this rebellion against the natural order they suffer a bitter punishment, directed not only against themselves, but against those around them. As we can see, we have touched on one of the basic myths of this civilization: the myth of Adam and Eve, or, if you wish, a myth analogous to that of Faust. I think that now, after the mapping of the human genome, such myths are becoming increasingly relevant."

J. Svankmeyer

Jean Dunning has Mold Covered on February l8

Jean Dunning has been working with vegetables throughout her career, her most recent images inspire us.

Jean Dunning, Still Life with Grapes, 2010

Jean Dunning, Still Life with Green Apples, 2010

Jean Dunning, Marble Cake with Creme Fraise, 2010

"These [new] images serve as a far more extreme reminder of our own mortality than even the traditional still life. More time has passed, the decomposition is more advanced, and it has taken on a life of its own."

Donald Young Gallery

Reception for the artist, Friday, February 18, 2011

5:00 to 7:00 PM

Ponder Food as Love - Inevitable Sweets

Thinking about the inclusion of candy, cake, and sweets in our photographs, we are inspired by Amy Stevens' recent extravagances....and grateful for her vision.

Thinking about the inclusion of candy, cake, and sweets in our photographs, we are inspired by Amy Stevens' recent extravagances....

Valentine's Day - Historical Love Notes

from Ponder Food as Love, 2010

Regarding St. Valentine

269, 270, or 273 AD Various dates are given for the martyrdoms of men named Valentine whose acts are known only to God.

496 AD The feast of St. Valentine was first established in by Pope Gelasius I

before 1400 AD Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle associate the feast day of February 14 with romantic love.

Titian, Adam and Eve, ca 1550

Regarding the Fig

528 BCE Siddhartha Gautama, Lord Buddah, attained enlightenment while sitting under the bodhi tree/Ficus religious.

758-728 BCE Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome,were suckled by a she-wolf beneath a fig tree.

100,000 BCE Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and "the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons" Genesis 3:7

1557 AD Fig leaves were instituted by the bull of Pope Paul IV to reduce the amount of nudity in the Vatican art collection.