My wonderfully talented husband Chris designed this book cover for our friend John Goldbach. This is John's first published book and we are thrilled for him. He will be having a reading from the book in Montreal this Sunday at Blizzarts (3956 St Laurent). Doors open at 8:30, reading starts at 9. Perhaps I'll see you there!

The bottom image is my sister practicing her newly acquired doctor skills on my mother, and the top image is my father showing my sister how it is done.

I have something exciting I want to share with you. Next Thursday evening (May 7th) I am going to be the guest artist at a workshop about how to start an art collection (the workshop is called Building a Collection: Where to Begin?). Lisa Hunter (the author of The Intrepid Art Collector: The Beginner's Guide to Finding, Buying, and Appreciating Art on a Budget) is going to be the guest speaker, and she is a wealth of knowledge so it should be great. The event will be hosted my Matiere Grise at a beautiful loft and wine will be served! I am going to show prints from three different bodies of work. So if you are interested register now before it fills up (if it's not already full).

I bought Chris Lego for his birthday this year (as per his request). He started making these Lego robots and I decided to photograph them around the house. This is the first one he made. So this is a fun new series just for the blog.

Officially this would be our third collaboration. In thinking about it I realize that there are different ways in which we work together. First there was Why am I Marrying him? (which I'm still making even though we're now married) and that was really a symbiotic collaboration. Symbiotic in that it lived peacefully alongside and didn't disturb our lives. Part shooting in the moment and part recreating things that Chris had already done, it came easily and painlessly. Then there was Model Husband. Now that was a different story. That was really more of a dictatorship, with me being the dictator. For this series I had very specific ideas about the images that I wanted to make. Asking your husband to lie down on the cold, and possibly dirty floor, just as soon as he gets home from work (because the light is fading), does not go over well. That is somewhat of a small series as a result! At present we are mending and going back to simple and childish ways. And so now the robots, which really I would call a coalition. A joining of forces with designated roles and equal opportunity for all. He makes the robots without any input or suggestions and I photograph them later and without direction.

Some friends on the porch at the cottage in the first spring sunshine of the year.

Some more cottage stills for you. I'm just finishing off this semester's work right now. I'll have time to give you more of my thoughts in a week or so!

Another still from the cottage.

Conor working on getting more channels on the satellite.

Conor's Room

Images from The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.

For those of you who live in NYC and are Chris Mottalini fans he has an show opening this week! Here is the info: opening from 7 to 11pm this Thursday (tomorrow) at Oulu in Williamsburg (170 North 4th Street, btw Bedford and Driggs). I'm not sure how long the show is up for but it should be good. I would love to see images from "After you left, they took it apart" in person.

Some animal tracks from a few weeks ago. I believe they are of grouse, grouse and hare, and then the last two of fox and mouse. I apologize for the poor quality of the second image, but I couldn't leave it out because it had the hare tracks. 

This week I've been reading "Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste" by Carl Wilson. Sara was reading it at the cottage last weekend and since I had heard of it through Joerg I picked it up. Well it's a great read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. An interesting look at why we like the things we like and all the possible reasons for those tastes, with some Quebecois culture tips, Aesthetic theory, and history of schmaltz thrown in. 

As many of you Canadians will know our beloved CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is facing massive cuts unless the government steps in to support them. And with our government it is highly unlikely that they will do so, unless there is an overwhelming outcry from the public. So take two seconds and do your bit. You can sign a petition here (already over 100 000 signatures) or write a letter to Stephen Harper here.

As most of you will know I have been working with the red counter in my kitchen for some time now. Well with the wonderful addition of a cottage to our lives I have started photographing things that happen upon its table top. Some results above.

More from Ludden House, Co. Limerick, Ireland. The last image is of Sarah and Orla, distant cousins of mine.

Images from Ludden House in Co. Limerick, Ireland. This is the farm where my grandmother grew up. My great aunt Maureen (in red sweater) still lives there and we had the opportunity to visit her in December when in Ireland. I then got to meet her granddaughter Orla who you see in the top 2 photos.

Last day at the Daniel Cooney emerging photographers auction. Also Flak Photo featured my image from the auction today. I look at Flak Photo every day so to see my image there is quite exciting.

Some new kitchen photos.

It's FIFA this week in Montreal (Festival international du film sur l'art). So last night I went to see Colville (2008, directed by Andreas Schultz) a film about one of my all time favourite painters, Alex Colville. I've been enamoured by his work ever since I was a teen. Then I happened to go to Mount Allison University where he had been a student and a prof. This exposed me to more of his original paintings and deepened my love of his work. I've never seen him talk or seen a documentary about him so this was quite a moving experience. Then there is the fact that he often made nudes of his wife, who has been important to his work throughout his long career, one of which I used as inspiration for a Model Husband image.

I love, love, love seeing documentaries on artists that inspire me. You can't always see artists talk live and so this medium is a good substitute. Another artist that has inspired me for fifteen plus years is Sam Abell. His was the first photo book I ever bought, and was in fact the first thing that I ever ordered on-line. And so when I came across a little VHS documentary on him (Sam Abell, Sight and Insight: Photographer Sam Abell's Art of Simplicity) in the Dawson library I couldn't help but check it out. Now I show this film in many of my classes and have seen it at least 8 times. And yet I love it every time. His use of such simple tools and the incredible results, are always inspiring. And then of course he seems to have such a soothing voice and demeanour.

I realize that I haven't told you about a show that I am part of. Click on image for larger version but here are the basic details:

Concordia MFA show
at Art Mur (5826 St Hubert, Montreal)
Vernissage Saturday March 21st from 1 to 5pm
Show runs from March 21st to April 4th

I will be showing 3 Model Husband images (2 of which you have not seen here)

It's this awesome guy's birthday today! So happy birthday Chris and thanks for everything.

From a lunch I had at diner in the Laurentians (an hour or so North of Montreal)

I'm going to give the Model Husband a rest for now. You'll be able to see more from the series when I update/redo my website in the coming months.

Inspired by Paul Strand, part of the Model Husband series

First off I would like to thank Joerg for featuring my Dali image on his blog Conscientious yesterday. Secondly some of you may have seen the above image on James Danziger's blog for his Callahan competition. The image was always meant as a Strand homage and I inadvertently entered the competition when showing James some of the Model Husband series. But as I am a big fan of James' blog I didn't mind in the least!

Last night I saw an artist talk by Bettina Hoffmann. I enjoy her photo montages, especially "Affaires Infinies" and "La Soiree" but it is her hypnotizing videos that really draw me in. Take a look at an exerpt here. Bettina's videos most often feature still groups of people, in mid interaction, with the camera weaving in and out of the scene. She decribes the videos as a way of adding space, time and motion to a photograph. I first saw her work at the MAC's (Musee D'Art Contemporain de Montreal's) Triennale this past fall. Her work is meant to be seen projected large on a wall in a dark viewing room and in this setting you are really overwhelmed by the size and stillness of the subjects, as well as the soothing and trance-like sound track.

Inspired by Salvador Dali, part of the Model Husband series

There is a lot of great work out there right now dealing with the medium and process of photography, but the one that really grabs me every time I see it is Self Portrait with Rifle by classmate Michael Love. Click here to see the set up and then click on the image to see the results. Enjoy!

Inspired by Edward Weston 2, part of the Model Husband series

I went to the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture) on Friday and really loved the Actions: What You Can Do With the City exhibit. It is an uplifting look at what artists, architects, gardeners, and other activists are doing around the world to improve their cities. Really worth a visit.

Hello all. Well I hope that I have not shocked you with this nude of Chris, I know some people are sensitive about these things. This is part of a recent series I did called Model Husband, and this image is specifically called Inspired by Edward Weston 1. I am showing it to you now because I have been lucky enough to be included in Daniel Cooney Fine Art's auction of emerging photographers. The auction started today and ends in 20 days. To view the auction and even place a bid go here. Tell your friends. Beautiful prints for sale! And if you want to know more about this new series of mine here's a little blurb on it:

This series explores the nude in the context of the spousal relationship, drawing inspiration from poses used by a previous generation of men photographing and painting their wives. As in the Why am I marrying him? series I am once again photographing my husband, but this time pushing the boundaries of our collaboration. Looking at the intimacy and trust that must exist between two people in order for one to photograph the other throughout their relationship, I take as models these men who used their wives as subjects. I examine their methods and approach through mimicry. How did these artists balance the need to create with the need to preserve something so dear? The relationship between artist and muse is at stake but so is that between husband and wife. How did they, and how do I, resign the two? Futhermore looking at a potential shift in gender roles over the past century I also wonder: are we telling the same story now but in reverse?

Winter Activities.