Well, the book is finally complete. After a long, arduous journey into the world of bookmaking, I’m proud of what has been created, and hope you will be too. See pictures below of the final product.
To celebrate, I want to invite you all to a party in my new space on Mississippi Avenue. The party will be a combination of the following: Displaced book release, new studio space, and general celebration. It’s been a year and a half since I moved to Portland and I want to enjoy feeling at home somewhere again, the completion of the book, and closing a chapter in my life. I finally, after years, feel ready to smile again, and I’d like all of the wonderful people I’ve met in Portland to be there to see it.
The evening will also be a special night because I will have my niece Jamie staying with me for a few weeks. She’s my oldest niece, and I’m very proud of her. She’s an excellent event planner and she’ll be my assistant in party planning! I can’t wait to show her off.
I’ve also decided to attempt (if I can pull it together in time) to have a raffle at the party. I am in the process of developing a new book, title either to be Resting Place or Place of Rest (any preference?) and I will be giving away a copy of that book which will produced in the next few months. I also hope to get some of my friends at ProPhoto Supply and Framing Resource to pitch in some items. If you have any ideas or suggestions for raffle items, I’d be appreciative hearing them. I’ve never done an event like this before, in fact I’ve never done anything even close to this before, so I would be thankful for any your help. The purpose for the raffle is to raise money for a trip I want to take this fall with Kirsten Rian who has become one of my closest friends, a soul sister. She is a brilliant writer and poet. She also is an independent photography curator and has a keen sense for sculpting portfolios. Anyway, I was at her house a few weekends ago, and she said that we really should collaborate on something. She mentioned an idea that she had for a topic she wanted to write about. I said that I had always wanted to photograph a farm. The two ideas melded perfectly. And we looked at each and knew, this could be a really good project. We both have clear visions about what we like and don’t like and we both walked away excited and energized. This project has to happen. She’s also been trying to convince me to get on a plane to go to Maine where we want to do the work. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, Maine is where my soul is. It is my place of rest. When I’m there I feel at peace. I want to go and photograph a farm for two weeks and she wants to go and write about it. It will be a perfect project. I haven’t felt so strongly about a body of work in so long, if ever. The raffle, if it could raise a decent amount of money could pay for both of us to get out there. In November, it will have been 10 years since I’ve been on an airplane. It is time for me to let go, and lay to rest a lot of the fears I’ve had—about life, about death, about being alone. And I feel incredibly lucky that Kirsten wants to be there to help me unclench my fists.
I plan to show prints as well as the books at the event and I’m going to take the plunge and install some track lighting in my studio. I miss having prints on the walls and I want to be surrounded by them. The track lighting is expensive, but it was part of the long term plan for Vela Noche, so I’m going to leap and just stop thinking about it constantly. I’ve been obsessing about money all the time lately. Mostly, I think, because of all the projects that fill my mind all day. Is it wrong, to simply want to bring beauty into the world as a profession? Could someone pay me to do that? There are three people’s projects that I can think of that I’d love to publish. The only thing stopping me is money. So, I’m formally writing a business plan for Vela Noche. I really need to get a loan and get it off the ground. Again, massive panic has stopped that from happening too, although with the writing, with the plan to follow, I think it will be a little easier. I come from a family of entrepreneurs… I can’t help it, it’s in my blood.
I wish it didn’t cost so much to be a photographer. I wish I could add up every dollar I’ve spent on this passion. I think I’d be scared to see the total actually. I’ve got a show coming up at Marylhurst University in July. It’s a solo show, in a fairly large space. It could probably hold 20 prints. But I won’t show that many. Not because I don’t want to, or because there isn’t enough to show, but because I simply don’t have the money to frame that many pieces. And who does? I have found a wonderful framer in Portland, Framing Resources over on SE Stark and 13th. They’re wonderful, the best framers I’ve ever worked with. They give me discounts, they try to make it as affordable for me as possible. But hey, whenever you’re doing 15 of anything, it’s bound to add up. I was thinking today that someone needs to start a rental framing non-profit for artists. So, here’s how it would work, you could go to the website and see a picture of what frames were available to borrow, what the sizes were, etc. Then you could reserve and borrow them for a month or however long you’d need them. I’m serious about this, how amazing would that be? There would be no mats in the frames, just the frame itself and glass. You would still have to have a mat made, but think of the cost savings. It would be amazing. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who had a gallery call to ask for more of his prints. He had to tell them that he literally couldn’t afford to send any more because he couldn’t afford to frame. God that makes me sad and upset. To think of how hard it is to get to a point where you have beautiful pictures, where you can print beautiful prints, where you can find a gallery wanting to sell your work, and then having to turn them down because you can’t figure out a way to pay to put some wood and glass around the print. If anyone is seriously interested in starting some kind of Artist’s Frame Exchange (that works doesn’t it!), I would do whatever I could to help move it along. Man, that would make me happy, to save artists the 1-3K cost of framing for a solo show.
So… back to the event. Here are the details.
Location
My Studio
4039 N Mississippi Avenue, Suite 202
Portland, OR 97227
Date
Saturday, June 26th
Time
6-9pm
Food and drinks will be served.
If you can’t make it, but would still like to make a donation for my trip to Maine, I will be posting the project on Kickstarter.com soon and I will post it here as well. Any little bit will help.
I should also mention that 10% of the book and print sales from the evening will be given to Newspace Center for Photography as a donation.
I hope you all will come and celebrate with me and the Portland photographic community.
1 more thing! I’m looking for an intern to work in my studio with me one day a week to help mostly with marketing efforts. If you know of anyone responsible, professional, organized and proactive, have them send me a resume. Thanks!
More soon…
Displaced Book. © Lauren Henkin. All rights reserved.
Displaced Book. © Lauren Henkin. All rights reserved.
Displaced Book. © Lauren Henkin. All rights reserved.
I can feel your passion for your Maine project while reading this post. I wish I could make this event, but please be sure to let us know when you have this up on Kickstarter.com. I would like to help……….