online sketchbook

Sloane, age 3

2012-02-19T23:19:00.001-05:00

This is the incredible daughter of some friends of mine from college. She is a joy to be around and is so much her own person, even at 3; it amazes me.

Piety

2012-02-06T22:11:00.000-05:00

Salibello Antiques

2012-01-28T13:15:00.000-05:00

I was in the Hamptons for work all week.

Kaleidoscope of girls

2012-01-25T16:09:00.001-05:00

I made these for the Fortmakers project. Click on them to see them larger, please.

2011

2012-01-22T15:03:00.002-05:00

so
in 2011

3,486 people visited this blog
1,334 people visited my website, ewarfield.com from 56 countries

Hello out there! I sure do appreciate every last set of eyes.

Nighthawks

2012-01-22T01:11:00.000-05:00

Here is an assignment that is close to my heart. I went to this school for 12 years, and it just keeps getting better.

Space girls are....

2012-01-20T13:48:00.002-05:00

Look book images for Fortmakers.

Fortmakers

2012-01-16T10:41:00.000-05:00

I had the good fortune recently to meet the good people of Fortmakers and we are working on their lookbook for their Fall 2012 collection. Their clothes are beautiful and filled with energy and life, it buzzes right out of their fingertips. Fortmakers is a company where art and commerce have somehow found a way to live together in an authentic way, which I believe is rare. Totally cosmic. This picture is kind of an outtake.

Working Life: Abbie Zuidema

2012-01-11T12:35:00.000-05:00

I was honored last month to photograph an old friend from RISD for the Working Life project, Abbie Zuidema, a very talented painter.

Ladies We Love

2012-01-07T14:37:00.000-05:00

I have been working on a new portrait project for a show at Anna's store. It is all about women, the many faces of some lovely ladies we know. Here are a couple of my favorites so far.

Liz

Melissa

Lesley

Christmas outtakes

2011-12-27T14:21:00.000-05:00

Mabel

2011-12-19T22:53:00.001-05:00

Working Life: Tamara Magel

2011-12-14T15:51:00.001-05:00

Recently I had the pleasure to work with a New York designer named Tamara Magel. So I asked her if she would be a part of my ongoing series about Work.

Enough said

2011-12-14T15:37:00.001-05:00

Sioux City, Iowa, circa 1930

Proverb of the Day

2011-12-13T18:11:00.002-05:00

72. Smiles wait at the end of patience

(from Proverbs of the Sene-Gambian)
This is my apartment hunting mantra. I've seen the pitbulls and grime, now it's time for the glory.

Kinki tearsheets

2011-12-09T13:26:00.001-05:00

This month I have a picture in a Swiss magazine, Kinki, accompanying a profile of my friend Nick Felton. This portrait is actually the first picture I took for my Working Life series, which is ongoing. All of my friend are slowly becoming super famous, so you should probably be a part of this project too. Let me know when's a good time.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans

2011-12-08T16:06:00.001-05:00

Proverb of the Day

2011-12-06T22:17:00.001-05:00

I started packing today. I don't know where I am going, but I definitely have to leave this place. While going through my books I found the little book of "Proverbs of the Sene-Gambia" that I found in the shelves at Camac in France this past June. I have no idea how it got all the way back to New York. But I know you have really missed the Proverbs of the Day. Calm down.

152. Better say earlier that you are afraid to go on the roads alone than going half way only to return to ask for company.

I agree with that. I love company. And if you had seen the terrifying apartment I did tonight you would agree we all need a little help from our friends.

Thankful

2011-11-29T23:38:00.000-05:00

I love this song but I am definitely more hustler than gangster. I am grateful every day for all that my life is, especially the people that surround me.

Hissssssss

2011-11-28T18:08:00.001-05:00

Midwest mission part 4: Well hello!

2011-11-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

Meet Robert Graves Warfield, master moose hunter, man of international mystery, progenitor of scores of multi-talented individuals. This picture was taken on the Gaspé Peninsula, Canada in either 1921 or 1927, my research lab is working on it.

Happy Thanksgiving world! May your day be filled with love and family and friends.

Midwest mission, part 3: silver lining

2011-11-23T10:35:00.000-05:00

Even with all this Irish blood in me, I am an optimist. Or at least, I can laugh at myself and whatever bizarre cards life deals me. You have to, or you will absolutely lose your mind. I've been trapped in a marble quarry, fallen on my face, bled on, meowed at and slept in a motel alone in the only snow storm Savannah has had in 20 years, and that's just this year. But on the other hand, I also swam in the Seine on a lazy hot summer day, visited a champagne cave run by two brothers that only produces enough bottles for their parent's restaurant and the occasional tourist who strolls in (me....there is a bottle of that in my icebox right now, waiting for just the right moment...any moment now), got a ride around a race track at 140mph, heard Thich Nhat Hanh in person and I make a living doing what I love.

The huge silver lining of my bloody trip to Indiana was the chance it afforded me to stop in Cleveland, Ohio and visit with my dear old friend Stephanie and her family. I have known her since high school at Nightingale here in New York. Stephanie lives in an absolutely beautiful apartment in Cleveland with her husband Mark and their two kinder, Lucas and Alina. Lucas is 3 and Alina is 18 months; she has only been walking for four months. They are such a joy to be around, and they are bi-lingual, which makes me very jealous. Lucas speaks perfect English with a German accent.

When I got back to their apartment after 11 on Thursday, there was a bottle of wine and glass waiting for me in my room, with a note saying, drink me now! That's a good friend; I feel very lucky.

Midwest mission, part 2

2011-11-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

As we are driving I get another call saying that a nurse is able to come last minute to the house so we go back there instead. Uncle Bob uses napkins from the diner to stem the tide of blood. The nurse arrives and she puts on new bandages. Then she puts on another bandage and waits, and then she puts on another bandage and some gauze tape to apply some pressure. She leaves and we finally start to talk a little about family history.

After a while he produces this packet of pictures, that the instant he pulls it out just blows me away. Written in pencil on the envelope it says, “Dad’s moose hunting trip, 1921” and is full of 5x7 negatives, about 40 of them with prints of my great grandfather Robert Graves Warfield on a hunting trip in Gaspe Bay, Canada. These pictures are just incredible and looking through them, seeing my great-grandfather with a rifle and standing outside a tent with the antlers hanging from the the top of it and then gutting a moose with the guides and in a tent with mugs of something warm and a pipe in his mouth and leather boots laced all the up to his knees with jodpurs coming out of them, I really feel I am finally seeing this man. I ask Uncle Bob if I can take this packet with me.

It was getting pretty late and every time I look at his face I realize that the blood is not stopping. I warm up his plate of macaroni and cheese from the diner that he never ate and as he starts to take a couple of bites, I think the movement of his jaw aggravates the cut on his face and blood now starts to drip out of the bandage. I realize that I can’t fix this. I have never met Uncle Bob before. I can’t fix that no one is really taking care of them. We talk a bit more and I say to him that the cut is still bleeding, but he has another nurse coming the next day and he should go lie down and take it easy. I think I have been largely cured of my insatiable desire for family history.

Midwest mission, part 1

2011-11-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

I have a photograph in my house that I inherited when my grandfather Donald Warfield Sr. passed away two years ago and it is his father Robert Graves Warfield when he was in the air force in World War One.

I started to ask my father a lot of questions about this man since he died in 1933 when he was 40. My father said, you should call my uncle Bob in Indiana, my grandfathers older brother, who is 94, and would be the only one left who could really answer some questions. I called Uncle Bob, and for 94, he is a remarkable man. He has his memory and does not suffer from dementia or Alzheimer's. I decided I should drive out and see this Mr. Bob, because he is 94 and although he insists on his 100th birthday he will be jumping out of a plane with a parachute strapped to his back he could die any day.

I wake up in Greenfield, Indiana and drive down the little strip that carries every restaurant that is available because in small town America there are no individually owned businesses anymore. You can expect to find a Long John Silvers, a Bob Evans, a Qdoba Grill and on and on in almost every town in America, so I knew there would be a Starbucks and I found it. I got a coffee and as I am leaving my phone rings and it is Uncle Bob saying, “Where are you? Where are you?” I said, “What? I am on my way now.” He said, “My wound..I need to go to the hospital...I am bleeding like a stuck pig!”

I hung up the phone and really quickly realized that this day might not play out the way I was hoping, where I would do a little family history research and take some pictures. Nope. I arrive at Bob Warfield’s two story house in Fortville, Indiana at 9:15am. It is a green house that he had built 39 years ago. The top floor has not been used or visited in about five years. Bob and his grandson, Bobby, who is severally mentally disabled are waiting outside for me. Bob is bleeding from his cheek through a bandage due to a routine procedure to remove a growth and there is quite a lot of blood. He is holding napkins to it and we get him in the car and we drive to the emergency room.

They try to stop the wound for three hours using various methods and eventually bandage it up and send us on our way. We go to a diner back in Fortville. Everyone in the diner knows Bob and Bobby. I start to notice that the white bandage on Bob’s face is slowly growing more and more red. It is making me sick to my stomach. He is struggling to be the same person that he has been all his life even when his body starts to not want to cooperate. It is obvious that it is pretty well saturated and it will soon drip down onto his blood splattered sweater. I tell the waitress that we are going to need to take this food to go. My visions of a walk down memory lane are starting to wash away and I call the hospital and they tell me to call his main doctor and I call the doctor and they have to call me back and they are all talking to me as if I am the caretaker, and as if I will be the one who will be attending to Mr. Warfield in the future. Each phone call is more heartbreaking than the one before.

Autumnal gradation

2011-11-14T19:57:00.001-05:00

Sisters

2011-11-11T17:36:00.001-05:00

I went down to Zuccotti Park today with Sarah, but I didn't take any pictures. We walked all around the neighborhood, zigzag-ing through the tourists and endless barricades, police and horses. History and the passing of time are the themes that occupy my mind, especially today when we were walking through the tent city. There have been tent cities in New York before. I hazily remember Tompkins Square Park as a kid, and Central Park was filled with people struggling to make it through the depression in the early 1930s. I wonder how history will remember the people down in the park now? I can't say I really understand the message, but my thoughts are with them as the nights get longer and the frost sets in.

I will say this, it is a great country that lets such voices be heard. These freedoms have not been lightly won, and they are to be cherished. There are many places in the world today were you can and would be killed for much less. Here are two sisters, ancestors of mine on my grandmother Roys Jeffris' side of the family. "Aunt Hart" from Connecticut on the left and "Grandmother Roys" on the right. These are probably from the 1860s. Many voices were left out of the political conversations back then, and in the wide eye of history, that was 15 minutes ago.

Wounded soldier

2011-11-08T23:04:00.002-05:00

Here is an ancestor of mine. I do not know what his is name is, or where he was born, or what his injuries were. I am pretty sure he was an American Civil War veteran, because this is either a tintype or ambrotype, which were developed in the late 1850s. My family has been here a long time, at least 150 years before this was taken. I wish I knew his name. I am going to try and find out.Can you imagine what it must have been like here when this was taken? The death toll of the Civil War was greater than all the American deaths of WW1, WW11, Vietnam and the Korean War combined, and all in our backyard. What this man must have seen.

Costa Verde

2011-11-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

I was honored to be in the company of such talented artists at the Costa Verde International School benefit auction last night at 401 projects. This is the second time I have participated in this event and it was a beautiful show....and a great party.

Movin' n Shakin'

2011-11-03T00:05:00.000-04:00

So I have to find a new place to live, but I still want to live in the shire, so shout if you know of any free green doors in Williamsburg or Greenpoint. xx

Link love: Emme Bakes & Remodelista

2011-10-26T13:29:00.000-04:00

Two exciting new bright spots on the dusty ol' internets this week:
- My friend Erin Madorsky's new baked goods company, Emme Bakes, website is live. I did the smorgasbord picture. Who doesn't love a smorgasbord?
- Walden was featured on Remodelista.

Working Life WALL OF FAME: Michael Bloomberg

2011-10-19T12:19:00.000-04:00

Bloomberg sent me a signed picture, which is going right up on my wall, right next to my framed notice of jury exemption until 2017. Thank you Mr. Mayor!

Working Life WALL OF FAME: David Sedaris

2011-10-17T13:27:00.003-04:00

David Sedaris is a gem, but we knew that already. This just confirms it. I sent him a note and asked him if I could photograph him for my project, Working Life, and I got a postcard in the mail the other day in response. I almost fell over I laughed so hard. Thank you Mr. Sedaris

Walden

2011-10-15T01:39:00.001-04:00

I took some pictures this week of my friend Jamie Gray's new place Walden at 502 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is a great place, with a fantastic wine selection, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Go check it out asap. Call me first, I'll meet you there. Actually, I might be there already.

The many faces of my dad

2011-10-12T16:34:00.001-04:00

Donald Warfield

bye summer, see you next year

2011-10-05T18:35:00.000-04:00

I've been in hot weather since May. Portugal was like the surface of the sun from day 1. I am so ready for scarves and hats and boots and....wait, what? It says it will be 80 on Sunday. Seriously? I guess I may regret my words when I snowed in with a dwindling supply of Bulleit. These pictures are from August at my papa's house party in Connecticut.

Ken

Julianne

Kim

Interview on Unplggd.com!

2011-10-03T21:26:00.000-04:00

I was interviewed the other day for Apartment Therapy's technology website - Unplggd.com. Check it out

Sam at 24

2011-09-28T23:17:00.002-04:00

My brother turned 24 last week, which is hard for me to believe. I took the opportunity to do some 4x5 portraits of him in the backyard of our parents house in Connecticut. I have photographed him so much in the past, but now less because, you know, he is 24, and off becoming the amazing person he is and will be. I have no shame in my love of history, both personal and cultural. Photography enhances the marking of time past, shows you how far we have come, and how different or the same we are. I love being able to remember. Especially when the pictures show me this handsome young man...

but in my minds eye I see this...

Rose

2011-09-25T19:58:00.002-04:00

Les bicyclettes

2011-09-24T01:22:00.000-04:00

I have noticed they come in pairs

Emme Bakes

2011-09-19T22:28:00.001-04:00

This past weekend I did a still-life project with an old friend from RISD, Erin Madorsky. She has two new business ventures and we did pictures for both. This is for her baked goods company, Emme Bakes.

Drunk and preggers

2011-09-14T23:12:00.001-04:00

I just remembered this self portrait session from the fall of 2005 in Los Angeles. Good ol' LA. I still have that dress. I think I bought it at a vintage place and didn't realize for a couple months that it was a maternity dress.

I see you

2011-09-12T15:34:00.000-04:00

A view from above at Lincoln Center plaza this morning.

meet me backstage baby

2011-09-10T17:02:00.003-04:00

I am very happy to be shooting backstage again this season for Full Frontal Fashion! I love the madness. Check it out daily.....here is day two, which covers Nahm, Misha Nonoo, Rebecca Taylor & Cynthia Rowley.

Get excited

2011-09-08T18:32:00.001-04:00

Oh it is almost Fall. I can feel it in the air, the few sharp turns of a breeze, the leaves caught in my scarf, the boots taken to the cobbler and hot toddies on the horizon. Ok, today was still pretty hot, and I was carrying an umbrella around Lincoln Center for the first day of ye ol' Fashion Week for no reason. I have been super busy lately with the picture taking, which is wonderful. Here are some of my favorites from a lookbook yesterday for Annabelle. She knocks it out of the park every time.

Working Life: Melissa, August 3, 2011, New York City

2011-09-03T16:25:00.000-04:00

Melissa Lopez-Leach runs the show over at Annabelle's new store in the Lower East Side on Ludlow Street.

You walk through this

2011-09-02T00:15:00.001-04:00

Night train from Paris, June 2011

2011-08-31T22:54:00.000-04:00

Thank you Irene

2011-08-28T15:44:00.002-04:00

Turns out this Irene was a lady and left the party before too much damage was done. I put my baby car in storage and then it rained in my apartment a bit. All in all I am grateful, as I think we all are, that it wasn't as bad as it might have been. On the Upper West Side they were still queued up for brunch....surprise surprise. It's still New York after all.

New Wedding website!

2011-08-24T23:08:00.003-04:00

Today I finished off a new home for my wedding work, http://cargocollective.com/warfieldweddings. I am pretty excited about it, so if you know anyone who is thinking of tying the knot, send them my way. I love weddings. I think all the different things that I work on contribute and inform each other in so many ways; it gets better and better all the time. It is all a part of the same story.

Age is beauty

2011-08-23T00:07:00.003-04:00

Another portrait from a recent trip to Stonington to visit my friends. This lovely man made me miss my grandfather exceedingly. I think he is about 95.

Super Fast, Far From Furious

2011-08-19T22:39:00.005-04:00

See my work in the Wall Street Journal today in an article about the Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, NY!
Here is one they didn't use.

Magical Tree

2011-08-19T15:52:00.002-04:00

I wish I had noted the name of this incredible tree, but alas. It lives in the Jardin Bontanique in Marnay-sur-Seine, France which very sadly is closed to the public now because of lack of funding. I snuck in, well walked in, as the doors are not locked and the place is a revelation - truly breathtaking. The amount of care that went into making it is obvious. It felt like an enchanted kingdom. I hope to return.

3 ladies

2011-08-18T18:26:00.003-04:00

I had a shoot last week in Stonington, Connecticut with a friend whose father is writing a book about exercise over the age of 65. These ladies made my day.
This lady, Betty Jean, will be 96 in November

Profile

2011-08-15T23:39:00.000-04:00

Summerfun!

2011-08-13T22:42:00.006-04:00

Today I shot a fun story for the Wall Street Journal, but I can't share that for a bit. But I can tell you I was in a car going 145mph today! I was not driving. This is a picture from another job, earlier in the week.

Old Glory, Stonington, CT, August 11, 2011

2011-08-12T19:29:00.001-04:00

Bepop and me, 1979 and a Reindeer

2011-08-09T22:51:00.005-04:00

I was going through some more old photos. How many can there be? Millions, that's how many. How cute am I with my grandfather at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago? How sad does that poor reindeer look though? He has totally given up.But now let's turn our attention elsewhere. Was this normal in 1979 in a public place for guys? I mean, he is literally in a petting zoo.Oh Bepop, you are guilty as well...socks and flip-flops. SighAnd then, well, there is this.That was fun.

Working Life: Erika Dahlen

2011-08-08T15:24:00.004-04:00

Another artist I had the great fortune to get to know at Obras in Evoramonte, Portugal is Erika Dahlen. She is an artist from Stockholm, Sweden and was joined at Obras by Henrik Sjöberg and their two beautiful sons. Erika works in several mediums, making installations and multi-media works but I was initially blown away by her paintings. They are quiet and focused but her work is about big issues.

I have discovered again, and again and again, that even though I went to these residencies to focus on my work and pull what is in my head out into the world through my images, that I end up learning so much more from the people around me. If you pay attention, you can see the world rushing up to meet you like waves at the beach.

This is Erika in her studio at Obras in May 2011.

Working Life: Annemie Bogaerts

2011-08-06T19:30:00.004-04:00

I am incredibly fortunate to have been at Obras in Portugal at the same time as Annemie Bogaerts. She is a Dutch artist who makes incredible installations and graphic works. She changed the way I feel about installation based work. I photographed her for my ongoing project about work, called Working Life.

This is Annemie working on an installation at Obras in Evoramonte, Portugal in May 2011.

14 Seconds of Monet

2011-07-31T00:49:00.004-04:00

because I want to burn into my mind being there, in the galleries of the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris. In the movie Midnight in Paris they get some time to themselves in these rooms, which would be incredible. Monet gave this series of paintings, called Les Nymphéas as a gift to the people of France at the close of World War One to give them a place to come and rest their mind and see only beauty in a dark time. They called WW1 the "Great War", the war that was supposed to end all wars. Would that that were so.

New work in Resource Magazine

2011-07-29T12:15:00.003-04:00

I have pictures in the new Resource Magazine in a piece about 4x8 Workshop. Looks great!

I love the errors even still

2011-07-25T11:24:00.005-04:00

Agh cursed light leaks! I apologize, my sweet horse friend Brancita. Large format camera + blazing sun + moving horse + 4 planes = a few mistakes

Nature Morte: Caméras

2011-07-20T00:56:00.003-04:00

Springfield, France

2011-07-18T17:12:00.001-04:00

This is a steam cloud rising from the nuclear reactors in Nogent-sur-Seine, France. Am I crazy, I think it is beautiful? Don't answer that.

Lovers bikes/Ils ont laissé leurs vélos ici

2011-07-17T17:00:00.002-04:00

Nature Morte

2011-07-10T22:31:00.002-04:00

Today I started scanning in the film from Portugal and France. This is one of my favorite things to do. Thank you airports for not destroying all my work. Thank you Kodak for still making wonderful film. Thank you Primary Photographic for always doing such a wonderful job. Here is just one.

By night, in Marnay

2011-07-06T23:15:00.001-04:00

Memento Mori

2011-07-04T09:51:00.002-04:00

Paris is filled with the past, choking on it almost. Thankfully it all looks beautiful and those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it, so I guess it is mostly friendly reminders from the dead to make sure you live the life you want to live. That is how I see things anyway.

Wall of the cemetary at MontparnasseEver heard of these guys?Oh Serge you sexy beast, even in death he gets a lot of attention. You should walk past his house on rue de Verneuil in Paris, it is covered with graffiti.I went inside the Notre Dame for the first time the other day and was blown away. Someone in line behind me said "This place makes me wish I believed in God." I think that was their goal. You can feel the love and tremendous care that went into making this place by hundreds, maybe thousands of people more than 600 years ago. It took quite a beating during the Revolution from the people who "beheaded" mamy of the original statues but has survived, thankfully with the windows intact.

Locks of Love, part deux

2011-06-28T04:40:00.005-04:00

These guys look right on trend for Pride Week. I don't think it is Pride Week here in Paris, but I am still pretty proud of good 'ol New York for taking another leap forward for civil rights. This is in the Musee Carnavalet Also the Carnavalet, a museum dedicated to the history of ParisBill touring me around, looking for birds to put on thingsThere are millions more locks of love than I remember from when I last visited Paris, and they mostly seemed from this year, which means the city must come and remove them so new lovers can make their mark. Is there a giant bin full of cut love-filled locks somewhere in Paris? Are there tough guy fish who wear necklaces made of keys in the Seine? I swam in the Seine over the weekend, but a long way from Paris, don't worry. It was wonderful.I especially like this heart lock.

Villenauxe has great champagne

2011-06-26T06:17:00.004-04:00

Villenauxe is an extremely sleepy hamlet in the Champagne district of France and we went there to visit a cave and sample some delicious champagne. Of course you know "champagne" can only be called thusly if it is actually produced in this area, by law. Otherwise it is called sparkling wine, even if produced with the same grapes and in exactly the same methods. We visited the tiny operation of Oudard which is run by two brothers after their father started it in the late 80s. I asked him if he grew all the grapes for his champagne and he said regretfully, no I must buy some. But he buys them from his uncle. You can only buy their product from them or at their parents' restaurant in town, or perhaps locally, I'm not sure. I am definitely not a wine expert but I think the Oudard Brut is delicious! I bought several bottles and hopefully I can make it back to the states with at least one. My mother says you should have a bottle of good champagne in the refrigerator at all times, in case something really good happens.

The church was heavily battered during World War Two and in the early 90s they chose to redo the stained glass windows in the beautiful old church with a modernist flair. Here the Virgin is asking why, why?A baby duck ignoring meI will buy this place and make my own champagne.One of the brothers gving us a tour of his caves. If you walked by this building on the street, you would never know - it just looks like a big house.In France, you can rent a building from Shakespeare's time to live in. In America this would be a national monument.A carved figure above the door to the church

Rosetta Stone

2011-06-24T07:49:00.004-04:00

Sometimes the pictures are so ridiculous in Rosetta Stone it makes it hard to concentrate.

The church in Marnay sur Seine

2011-06-23T08:35:00.009-04:00

No one uses this church anymore. No Sunday mass, just the occasional wedding or christening. To go in you must ask for the skeleton key from the barkeeper next door, which he is happy to give. It was originally built in the 1150s and was kept by monks who lived in what is now Camac, where I am staying. Does that make me a nun?

Not really because my bedroom is in a building built 800 years later in the 1950s to house guests of Frank Tenot and Daniel Filipacchi who used the place to record their famous radio show Salut les copains. Then they started this little publishing side project, you may have heard of it. So I like to think Count Basie or Petula Clark slept in my room. Anyway, there is this beautiful church across the street from me that is much much older than the good 'ol USA.
There are several different sets of numberings on the pews.This amazing fresco work only remains inside one arch. It looks ancient, I would imagine middle ages.I am obsessed with renderings of fierce beasts drawn only from imagination.

There is no bad wine in France

2011-06-22T20:55:00.001-04:00

....non pas que j'ai trouvé

Beastly

2011-06-20T17:17:00.002-04:00

The beast awakensTrying to catch me in the showerThis is what the beasts see at night, contemplating their next move

une journée à Paris

2011-06-19T10:12:00.004-04:00

Spring in Paris. The Arc de TriompheA sudden downpour on the Champs-Élyséesbut the sun always comes out againdown into the belly of the whale and back up to the surface in the Grand Palais My focus remains clear at all timesand then back to the country side with the lovely Emilie

Nature morte/Still life

2011-06-17T08:28:00.005-04:00

Sometimes it is just as exciting when it is not moving. It being life. A few scenes from Marnay-sur-Seine, France, June 11-17, 2011

Nice work Claude

2011-06-16T12:27:00.004-04:00

I don't know exactly why the water reflects the sky in quite this unbelievable way in the Seine near Marnay. Maybe it is just the right time of year so the position of the sun as it falls is right behind the water? I couldn't say for sure, but I think Monet must have seen it too at some point...the water is like a huge round mirror, really breathtaking.

On A Soif!

2011-06-15T10:23:00.005-04:00

I heard this song in the car today with Emilie, who had a cassette from her Grandfather. She is Belgian and this song by Grand Jojo is very Belgian, je pense. So great! The seventies ruled everywhere.
Grand JOJO - On A Soif par mumu

Proverb of the Day

2011-06-14T12:55:00.002-04:00

203. Dry dog is sweet to eat but what will you eat before the dog does dry? - Proverbs of the Sene-Gambian by Bamba Khan and Mariama Khan

All in a line

2011-06-13T17:45:00.007-04:00

In this area of France, the Aube, everything seems to grow and grow. They plant trees in orderly lines, and they grow fast and then they come and cut them down, haul them away and plant more. Forgive me I am not sure of exactly what kind of trees they are...poplar, pine? Walking by these woods is like being in the best kind of factory ever.

Mistletoe grows in the trees! I did not know that mistletoe was a parasitic plant that lives in trees.

Proverb of the Day

2011-06-13T06:13:00.001-04:00

172. If the weakest of birds can fly what should brave birds wait for? - Proverbs of the Sene-Gambian by Bamba Khan and Mariama Khan

to the market

2011-06-12T05:32:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I went to the next town, Nogent-sur-Seine with a few other folks from Camac for the market on Saturday mornings. It is 2011 everywhere so there is a lot of cheap clothing and shoes from China, but still the old life of France exists, especially with the fromagerie et le biscuiterie et le charcuterie. You know I bought some special cheese.Then we went to Creperie Vanille in Nogent for lunch! So good.And Amitla played piano a bit for us after dinner later.Food is very important to me. I don't understand when people don't care what they eat or take no interest in making a meal. So I suppose France is a pretty good place to be.

Proverb of the Day

2011-06-11T17:12:00.002-04:00

76. The shade of the palm tree does not benefit it. - Proverbs of the Sene-Gambian by Bamba Khan and Mariama Khan

L'énergie

2011-06-10T11:09:00.001-04:00

Right down the road from where I am is a nuclear power plant that produces a third of the electricity for Paris. The steam rising from it is quite beautiful in a way to me, the sheer mass of the cloud at all times is impressive. France has the highest percentage in the world of electricity produced from nuclear power, almost 80%, and they also sell energy to neighboring countries. It looks very familiar to me somehow. Ah yes.

Proverb of the Day

2011-06-09T21:30:00.000-04:00

230. Pretending to own a farm will not satisfy your quest to have one
-Proverbs of the Sene-Gambian by Bamba Khan and Mariama Khan

J'aime la pluie

2011-06-08T05:23:00.006-04:00

I have begun my second Artist-in-Residence tenure of 2011, at the CAMAC Centre D'art in Marnay-sur-Seine, France. The gray skies and clouds and rain all agree with me, as do the cheese and wine, plus I think it will be 99 degrees F tomorrow in NYC. Yikes! The building I am staying in is literally 10 feet from the banks of the Seine, I could slip in and swim to Paris.

the small village of Marnay-sur-Seine in the rainLa Seinereeds in the riverEverywhere I go there are horses.

Proverb of the Day

2011-06-08T05:08:00.005-04:00

I found a little book called "Proverbs of the Sene-Gambian" here in the shelves at Camac. I think I will share some with you from time to time. This book is from 2004.

98. If you are accused of being a witch, avoid being seen with meat at night

Lisbon, day 2: No more nuns

2011-06-07T13:30:00.000-04:00

I am in France now, but I need to tell you about my last day in Lisbon. First I visited the Belem church and Jeronimos Monastary. It dawned on me that maybe we have such problems with unemployment because there used to be many people living as monks and nuns, but no longer. I have visited countless abandoned convents and monasteries in Europe and there are quite a few in the US as well. I personally have no interest in this lifestyle - just a thought.

This is the number 28 electrico tram that runs through all the older parts of town. They have newer trams now but keep this line for the tourists.The Manueline ceiling of BelemHere lies Vasco de Gama, explorer and colonizer extraordinaire!I studied this flat-faced guy for a few minutes and finally decided it was meant to be a lion. There is very little chance that anyone in Portugal in the early 16th century had ever seen a real lion (and especially not the sculptor) so it was probably very impressive and I am guessing meant to signify Jesus, as he is the "Lion of Judah", from the book of revelations.Then I went to another part of Lisbon to visit the Gulbenkian Museum. The outside resembles a prison somewhat, as do many buildings of the late 1960s, but the collection is remarkable and a testament to the vision of Calouste Gulbenkian. It is amazing what money can do in the right hands. They have several Turners and Fantin-Latour that are wonderful but the real prize to me was the room dedicated to Rene Lalique. Pictures could never do the pieces justice, so I didn't bother. You should just go see it for yourself.
I love this painting of Madame du Barry.

Lisboa, day 1: Castles and rain

2011-06-05T13:07:00.005-04:00

I visited the Castelo de S. Jorge yesterday soon after arriving in Lisbon. I have loved medieval times since we had to build a model of a castle in 3rd grade, yet I probably would have been a scullery maid back then and lived to 24. Life was rough.

This hilltop has been used by kings and rulers since the 12th century, but there is an archaeological site from the Iron Age on the site as well. The day I visited there were 50,000 Portuguese cub scouts tramping around and I noticed a large condom dispenser outside the bathroom area. Really? Are there condom machines at the Statue of Liberty? I guess there should be.I also walked around a lot of central Lisbon and waited out a rainstorm in the Chiado with lots of other tourists.

Fondation OBRAS Arists in Residence April May 2011

2011-06-05T05:37:00.003-04:00

There is a bit about me in here.

Beach porn

2011-06-04T18:18:00.002-04:00

Praia de Dona Ana, Lagos, Portugal. Anna!7am Lagos riverfront, waiting for the bus

Obras

2011-06-02T05:26:00.007-04:00

My time at Obras is over, for now. I will surely return. It is a bittersweet leave taking, as many are, because the joy of so many new friends and a strong feeling of accomplishment as well as just plain old reluctance to go. I have now dragged my monster suitcase to the Algarve for a few days of sun! There are tourists from many nations here, but mostly pasty Brits. I blend right in.

random pictures from my time at Obras:
beautiful Erika Dahlen in her studio. She is like the Girl with the Pearl Earring and a great painter from Stockholm, SwedenWe did a lot of cooking for big long delicious shared dinners. I made a crepe gâteau with quince paste.And one night we grilled lots of seafood, including sardines from Luis! This is what they mean when they say sardines in Portugal!My room

Evora, night of the show

2011-05-30T05:48:00.006-04:00

The night of my exhibition everyone from Obras went into Evora to see it and then a big dinner after. I was so happy to have them all there and to be able to share some of what I have been doing, since they see me drag this massive camera around but no prints yet, so the digital prints we were able to mount worked out well.
Erika at the showLucas at the windowThen we all walked over to the Museu de Évora, which is newly renovated and well worth the visit. This is Zakarias in front of the monumental display of paintings moved from their original home in the cathedral at Evora. The paintings date from 1501 in Portugal and highly influenced by Flemish painters of the time. It is breathtaking.Miira Sippola, director of Myllyteatteri, a theater company in Helsinki, FinlandHere are two of my favorites from the collection. This was also commissioned for the cathedral. I imagine that is Jesus floating out of the frame.This is titled, "A woman and a turkey", from around 1794.Oh and there are remains of a Roman temple to Diana across from the museum.

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial

2011-05-27T17:31:00.000-04:00

Last week or so we took a drive to Elvas, another town nearby and very close to the border with Spain. There is a massive Roman aqueduct that you drive through to get to the town and a shiny new contemporary art museum, The Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas (MACE). It is housed in what used to be a hospital, so there are several beautiful examples of traditional azulejos that depict scenes of health care, and also sad donkeys that must pull the sick people to the hospital.In the lower level they had this interactive piece where you balance and walk on a thin piece of wood holding another.

I captured the castle

2011-05-25T16:46:00.008-04:00

I climbed to the castle of Evoramonte last week one lovely May morning with my friend Helga. It starts out nice and mild, wonderful smells in the air, birds in the sky, and then 8km later I am dying in the brutal Portuguese sun, panting my way back to the Herdade da Marmeleira. Helga was not phased at all. She would have survived well back around the time when this current castle was built in 1531, although the city walls are much much older. I might have perished from the heat, or spent most of my days in the kitchen, cooking for the ancient kings.
We went all the way to the roof for a great view of the Alentejo countryside where they have recently installed at least three cellphone towers! It looks bizarre to have them on a 16th century castle, but I am sure it bankrolls much of the town which has about 700 inhabitants.

Chapel of Our Lady Of Mt Carmo (Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo)

2011-05-23T15:23:00.008-04:00

Yesterday we took a drive to Azaruja to visit this magical chapel, originally dedicated by an order of Carmelite nuns in the 1750s. It is still a place of pilgrimage (as well as a nice hotel), and it is easy to see why. The inside is filled, almost covering every wall with paintings done as thanks for answered prayers by the saint. Many of them are from the 19th century, picturing people lying in bed sick, but the paintings and offerings all mean that someone recovered. It is a place of joy and hope, not suffering.

Little white one

2011-05-22T12:18:00.002-04:00

Solo exhibition in Evora, Portugal next week

2011-05-20T16:11:00.000-04:00

Great news!

"The Earth is Laughing"
an exhibit of photographs by Ellen Warfield
May 26 - June 15, 2011

Sociedade Harmonia Eborense
Praça do Giraldo 72 Evora, Portugal

I am honored to have a solo exhibition next week in Evora of photographs from my project on the marble quarries here in Estremoz. This is due to the work and forsight of Ludger and Carolien of the Fundacao Obras, where I am currently an artist in residence. Check out some pictures I took in the building last week. It is really a wonderful space. Please come!

Stormy weather

2011-05-19T16:03:00.007-04:00

Chico pauses as he realizes a storm will be upon him.The eye of the stormGod I wish I could show you these pictures bigger - the sky was incredible.

Walk with me

2011-05-17T14:37:00.004-04:00

A few people have asked me what it looks like here. It is beautiful. I am out in the country, in the Alentejo. But the countryside near Estremoz and Evoramonte is especially magical. Last night there was a thunderstorm on a full moon and the lights went out. The other day I went on a walk...stevia grows everywhere so the air is sweeta wild beast spottedeverywhere the earth pushes forward to meet me this is a painfully shy Gypsy horse being brought back to health by a local shepard. He bought her from some gypsies not long ago for 100 euros and she was skeletal but is now eating field after field of tall grass.this is the closest so far