guest post from steve hoffman

guest post from steve hoffman

good morning STILL blog community. there has been a temporary coup, and, for one day only, i, steve hoffman, am your new overlord. mary jo has spent the day trying to prototype a number of new illustrations for one of my articles, and so, somewhat ironically, she has worked all day on a piece of my writing, while i have worked all day trying to create a mary jo hoffman conposition. you will see that i am much more drawn to the safety of grids and linear composition than she is, and that i am not one tenth the artist she is. but i hope you will at least look forgivingly on my attempt to wring a bit of order and balance out of the random chaos of bark, berries, stems, needles, and leaves that was delivered to me in a cardboard box this morning. if nothing else, this should remind you of just what a mountain six years of daily composition is to climb. and i hope, when mary jo returns tomorrow, you will appreciate even more than usual the dogged, daredevil climber you get to watch perform her death defying aesthetic feats each morning. until next time, thank you for being a part of this strange, improvisational, and  rewarding experiment called STIL blog.

juniper berries, cedar tips and birch bark

  • Nancy Bergstrom says:

    How nice to see Juniper berries. Brother Juniper was one of the early followers of St. Francis of Assisi. May we all be serving, creating and ever re-imagining what has been presented to us each day. Great job Steve.

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  • Dede Bliven says:

    Great job Steve, but I think there is a subliminal message here that only Robert Langdon can provide. The pyramid and the repeating juniper berries is clearly code for something and I am not sure what. Hopefully MaryJo will give us a hint by the end of the week.

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  • eh, sr. hoffam, me gusta mucho su trabajo!

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nature’s calligraphy

nature’s calligraphy

this is my new 24 letter alphabet. it spells the words of a murmurous language that, if you hear it but don’t know it, sounds like the lapping of waves on a rocky lake superior beach. it doesn’t contain the words for guilt, or mistake. artists find it easy to praise each other in this language, but also to correct in a gentle way that makes other artists’ work better. politicians find it very difficult to use for some reason, and so they don’t speak much, and are forced to concentrate and listen hard. children pick it up instinctively, and get to pass it on to older people in a way that makes them feel proud of themselves and optimistic about the world and their own futures. in this language there are thousands of words for “tree.” but there are also thousands of slightly obscene words that make people laugh. in this language, when people are dying, it is easy to talk to them in a way that tells them you see them just exactly the way they have always wanted to be seen, and that wherever in their lives they have struggled, you have understood how hard it was.

leaves of an unidentified winter stem

  • Tracey Martin says:

    This is perhaps the most beautiful interpretation in words that I have ever read of free form.

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  • Dorothea says:

    I like this language. How precious and literally lovely it is. And so the letters are dancing in the wind, gently and lightly. Beautiful.

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  • You are inspired and inspiring, Mary Jo

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  • Ginny says:

    Splendid, MJ! It speaks to me.

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happy new year!

happy new year!

first, please pardon some technical difficulties as i transition back from a black background to a white background. yes, that’s the first news of this new year. after giving it a good try, i felt that my black backgrounds weren’t somehow my best work. they required a moodiness i don’t naturally feel, and depended on a kind of light i found it hard to capture. there is something comfortable and graphic about a white background that seems to better fit my temperament and vision. so you all have a year of white ahead of you, which i know will please a lot of you, and disappoint a few. one challenge lately has been coming up with enough new subjects, after six years and over 2000 images generated primarily in a geographical radius 0f maybe 10 miles. on the other hand, i want to keep the rules of my blog constrained because i do feel that constraint feeds creativity. my compromise, for now, will be to experiment with occasional photos of food. as most of you know, my husband is a food writer, and we collaborate all the time, so this should open up some new avenues for me and also build some images that perhaps we both can profit from in the end. but i won’t be photographing styled food or cooked dishes. i would like to experiment (and my vision isn’t entirely clear yet) with food as nature. i think seeds, and pods, and roots, and fruits are all fascinating, and i think i can bring them in under the STILL blog umbrella without altering the overall vision by much. you and i will all be discovering exactly what this means together, as i feel my way forward. i can’t wait to continue this journey with you, and love having you along.

xxoo, Mary Jo

  • Candice says:

    I understand your desire to experiment, but the white background is you. No denying it. Glad to see the familiar look return to Still.

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testing testing 1 2 3

testing testing 1 2 3

 

posting an old favorite, while i test the new website interface.

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infinite monkey theorem

i’ve been playing with my portfolio of STILL images, and without even being aware of it, this happened.  hmm, five years of daily STILL blog images…is that sort of like the infinite monkey theorem?

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