Mondo News

After a ton of work, I'm finally able to announce this: my new website, Splatterverse (www.splatterverse.com) is now up and running.  My old site is just a lonely old placemarker. The new site, of course, has stuff on my plays (including samples folks can read), but, much more exciting to me, the site really tries to provide quality resources for writers, playwrights, theatre people, journalists, photographers, musicians, and artists in general. Some sections are still under development, but I feel there's enough good stuff there to announce the site; so folks can start using  the resources. My blog has also moved there, although I'll continue this blog for awhile, until the full transition is ready.

The project has been cool as hell to work on, and, if it sounds like your thing, I encourage you to check it out and get back to me with your comments. (And, if you dig it, pass it on to others.)

Much work remains to be done, but here's hoping the site will serve as intended: a hub that creative people can use to further their art and careers.

Onward,

Steve Patterson

 

art = photography + music

A couple images from my recent artistic passion (all shots taken with a Canon G10)...

The New Thing

I’ve been away from the blog for awhile for (I think) a reasonable reason: I’ve been writing. Seriously.

I took the morning off from writing and spent some time reading my friend Jack Boulware’s very sharp and funny book Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day. You should check it out: it’ll make you want to immediately dye your hair green and stick a safety pin through your cheek.

I felt like I had the carte blanche to blow off the muse for the morning because yesterday I finished typing up Immaterial Matters, a new, full-length drama with which I am very, very pleased. I’m never a very good judge of my own work. First off, you’re always in love with a play when you’re writing it, even if it’s putting you through fits. Second, others often really like the stuff I end up a little indifferent to, and the work I become besotted with tends to be the stuff that generates an “eh” from others. I have no explanation for this, other than I have perverse taste. Sometimes, it ends up being vindicated; sometimes it just stays perverse.

But this one feels a little different. Writing’s generally hard, hard work, even when it goes well, but this thing was just a breeze from beginning to end. In fact, it was coming so easily that it began to freak me out—like I’d inevitably sit down with the notebook one day and be suddenly dry, dry, dry. Never happened. It was always there for me when I called upon it, which is a joy. It continually surprised me—another good sign—and, when I was typing it up (I write all my drafts in longhand, then type them, revising as I go), I’d slightly change a line, then pause and change it back to the original. This almost never happens.

So I don’t know. But I’m guardedly optimistic. As to the play itself: it’s set in 1880s, and it’s about a photographer, death, and a ghost.

And that’s about all I’m saying for now.

R.I.P. Kodachrome

Kodak retires Kodachrome....

No matter how much better digital gets--and it gets better every day--there'll never be another Kodachrome 64.

Doors and Windows into the Past

We went to Pompeii in the morning, arrived around 9:30. The sky was clear, but there was a bit of haze, so there were good shadows and colors but also good detail as there wasn't too much contrast. I didn't have any particular idea in mind when I was shooting, and it wasn't until I got home that I realized I'd kind of instinctually used doors and windows to frame one another, and, along with the detail afforded by the G10, I ended up pretty pleased with the results. I'm still working on cropping, optimizing, and printing the photos, but I'm kind of hoping I can make some kind of series out of it. Anyway, here's a few of the Pompeii shots. It's a weirdly magical place, both beautiful and tragic. I wouldn't want to be alone there at night.

Images from Rome

I'm working through a wealth of images from Italy--it's literally a photographer's paradise. (And let's take a moment to extend our heartfelt sympathy to the lovely people of Italy at this very difficult time.) It's going to take me awhile before I'll get the best of the Italy pictures together, but here's a handful just from Rome. All were taken with the fabulous Canon G10. If you click on the image, you can see it in greater detail.

Mixing Passions

So I'm in that puppy love stage with the new Canon G10 and kind of wanted to test its resolution and quality under optimum conditions; so I figured I might as well mix it with my other recent passion in the arts and photograph my Stratocaster. (It doesn't move around much or complain that I'm taking too long setting up the shot.) Anyway, at the moment I'm very pleased with both.

Steve

The Other Art

Though it's been a big writing year, I kept active as a photographer as well. Here's some stuff I liked from 2008.

Steve

Artist @ Work

My photographer friend Katherine Pollak (in NYC and responsible for the infamous "Artist @ Work" picture) has her photo site up and running, featuring both her photographs and her high-end black & white processing/printing services. Nice website and some cool photos. Check it out at: Katherine Pollak

Steve

Waiting on the Object of Desire

Trying to get back to a human schedule now that "Dead of Winter" has closed. I have a bunch of scripts to read, I'm rewriting my 1991 play "Bombardment" (more on that to come), also revising a one-act called "Farmhouse," and I have two more plays waiting in my notebooks to be typed up. Not working on anything new at the moment...I'm such a slacker.

But...I am hoping tomorrow that the new toy arrives: a Canon PIXMA Pro9000 inkjet printer, which will mean I can make color prints up to 13"x19" with archival inks. In other words, I can hang them for a show and sell them. The 9000 is supposed to be a superb machine...all the reports I've been reading is that you can't tell its quality from a pro lab, and you can print on heavyweight museum stock, art papers, etc. Pretty thrilling prospect since I've always felt my work looks better in a larger format. I still love the traditional silver process for black and white, but this is like having your own color lab, and that's just...too cool.

The object of desire....

Inner Demons, Generous Angels

In addition to being a playwright and theatrical producer, I'm also a photographer. Reasonably serious--had a couple shows and some stuff published. Have my own darkroom and just recently made the shift to digital. (After a certain point, resistance really is futile.) Going digital has been very convenient as a theatre occasionally asks me to shoot PR photos for them or someone wants a portrait, and it's a lot easier and cheaper to do a little sharpening and color correction, burn a CD, and be done with it.

Awhile back, I ran across an L.A. gallery's call for submissions on the theme "Angels or Demons?" I didn't have anything suitable for submission, but I thought: hell, what a fascinating theme. And a project took shape.

I'd been working on a lighting set up for portraits and thought I'd found the right combination to give me the look I wanted. What would happen if, knowing many actors, actresses, and other photophilic people, if I invited them to collaborate on the theme, shooting the pictures with a consistent lighting and backdrop scheme, with the variable being the look--costume, make-up, and attitude--the subjects brought to the project?

So far, I've shot five sessions, and the results have been simply wonderful. The images have all been remarkably individualistic, unique, and reflective of the subjects' creativity. And the lighting is gorgeous. I have more shoots in the works, but we're working on the ever-challenging matter of scheduling. With the holidays coming up and "Dead of Winter" going into production/rehearsals for next February, I figure I'll be shooting well into next year. The ultimate goal will be a show, I suppose, ideally in a gallery, but right now it's just fascinating to see what one can do with a simple backdrop, a couple of hot lights, and some creatively crazy collaborators.

Before sessions, I often sit on the porch and look through photographs to sort of "tune up" my eyes, the photographic equivalent of stretching before playing sports, but I find my attention wandering to: good Lord, what will my next subject bring to me and can I make a good photograph of it?

Happily, so far, the answers have been, respectively, "nothing I can predict" and "yes." Making art dosn't get much better than that.

(Note: if you live in Portland, have some Monday or Wednesday evenings free, and feel like getting in touch with your inner angel or demon, drop me a note. It addition to participating in a project that subjects seem to enjoy, sitters will receive a couple e-mail sized images, plus a CD and a couple finished prints.)