Jaimie’s Camera

My stepdad, Jaimie, has this incredible Canon camera that I used about 40% of the time I was at his house on the Central Coast.  It really cut down on my socializing time, but man, was it satisfying.  Here are some of my favorites from the trip.  

 

  

I’ve Got a Thing for Birds …

… and I owe it all to Pookie. (If you know me, you know Pookie).

 Here are some recent pictures I took of sea birds in Morro Bay near San Luis Obispo.

I’ve always been drawn to pelicans … as you’ll see here … 

Saying “Hello” in Oregon

Listening to KQED this morning I came across this very, very cool story.  Folks in Portland and the surrounding areas are getting to know their neighbors in order to reestablish a sense of community.  Their focus is in areas of gentrification, where familiarity is going out the door and newness is knocking.  The artist’s approach is to take photographs of neighbors, blow up the photographs to banner-size, and hang them off the sides of buildings in the neighborhood.  Each photograph contains a quote as well.  The idea is that once you meet your neighbor via banner, you’ll be more likely to say hello when you see them on the street, in the cafe, at the market, etc..  How awesome is that??? 

Click here to go to Hello Neighbor website.  

a note from the project’s artist (taken from the website):

What happens to neighborhoods when your neighbors aren’t your neighbors any more? When interviewed about his rapidly changing North Portland community, my neighbor, Charles, said he didn’t mind the streets being safer, the businesses returning, or the houses being fixed up. What he did mind was that people didn’t say hello anymore. 

When I moved into the neighborhood in 1991 with my husband and 6-month-old daughter, I was a new neighbor. As an artist, I wanted to find a way to publicly address the changes I was a part of. 

My idea was to work with children to seek out neighbors of all ages. I wanted to begin a dialogue about community from their point of view. The resulting artwork would be displayed throughout the childrens’ neighborhoods. Mural-sized, black-and-white photographs with text would introduce the neighborhood to its children and neighbors to each other. 

It all begins with a simple hello. Julie Keefe, Artist