FCW Society SWAN Brunch

SUPPORT WOMAN ARTISTS NOW!
The FCW Society celebrated SWAN DAY 2008!
Those who stopped by, gathered in Joanne's Chinatown art studio in NYC to celebrate and share our ART!
All donations went to The Fund for Women Artists.


Goddess Cards were drawn. yay! Thanks to Amy for bringing her beautiful cards along with her beautiful self all the way from LA! MWAH!


kissy fish face. ;X




Katherine reads her card.


Amy shares her song.


Lauren made this wearable art and gave away her original pieces to all that attended. Thanks Lauren! :)


Joanne had a canvas up for us to work over. Thanks to those who contributed!




Lauren shows us her Marie Antoinette puppet she created from Pottery Barn and West Elm catalogs. I love art that recycles!

ICP with Kramer!

Hilary and I went the open house for the International Center of Photography last night. Just to check it out and see what it was all about.
We got a tour of the school and were a able to check out all the resources they have available for students. Computers, printers, darkrooms, labs, classrooms, library. Quite impressive for a one building school. They had the latest of everything and over 17,000 books all on photography in their library.
We also interacted with some of the faculty and watched a slide show presentation of photos from past and current students. All of which was very impressive and inspiring!
The crazy part was that I knew one of the students that they featured in the slide show. They showed her photos of a project she did in Africa, but they also mentioned the other project she had done about a family going through divorce. I baby-sat for that family and I watched her create that project and was even in a few of her final shots since I was a huge part of the childrens lives at that place and time. It was a fun coincidence!
The other cool part was Michael Richards aka Kramer from Seinfeld showed up for the open house! I was beside myself! He's so tall and sticks out just like you think he would. I'm such a sucker for celebrities! I really wanted to ask him if he would take a picture with me, but I chickened out. For the most part, I have always respected famous people in NYC. This is their home and they deserve their space. But man, do I wish I had jumped in there and asked for a snapshot! He took a tour along with us and sat through the slide show and even cracked a few jokes during a discussion of some of the photos. I guess he had to make it known that a comedian was in the room. ;) I also sat two rows in front of him and noticed him taking shots of the slideshow with his iphone. I wonder where his interest lies with photography?!?
Well, if I sign up for a class, maybe we will be bumping into each other in the darkroom. :)


I shot these photos after we left the ICP open house. This area near Bryant Park is exploding! These buildings were not there two years ago. NYC's landscape is constantly transforming! It always still amazes me!

Photo Jo Jo Photo Time Capsule

i love this website that sends you old photos from your flickr account. since i've been on flickr for over 2 years now and have over 13,000 photos uploaded, it's kinda cool to see what i was up to a year ago!

once or twice a month, photo jo jo sends me an email with a selection of my most interesting photos from one year ago. this is what they sent me for the date range of March 9th - March 23rd, 2007!

day 7 'i put a spell on you'

day 8 'glamour shot'

day 9 'here comes the sun'

day 10 'orange cap'

day 11 'red'

crazy fun, eh?! i love it! it's always a surprise!
you can even 'talk to the future' by leaving yourself a note that will show up in my capsule one year from today! oh boy! :)
this is what i left from myself....
wow. these are some of the first photos from your 365 project. a year ago today, i was starting a new budding relationship with myself and my camera. go you! for finishing the project and coming so far with your photography!
i love you!
~julie

i'm such a dork. ;)

Hilary's Photo Show in NYC!

my friend, Hilary, had a photo show at The Plumm in NYC last night! i had so much fun watching her shine and do her thing with a full house! i'm so excited for her!

she presented several matted prints that she shot in Malaysia this past year while visiting her mom on a catamaran.to get a closer look at the images and to buy prints seen here, click here.

international artist

'lonely is lovely' arrived in FRANCE!
and it only took 4 days! yay!

Genseric took a picture of his 'lovely' package and posted it here.
fatseth wrote:
I received the photo I bought on the Etsy shop of Julie Staub. www.juliestaub.etsy.com

Do I feel "Lovely" or "Lonely" today ? Now I'll know, thanks to this great "mood indicator" hung on my wall ;)

Thanks Julie.
hanging on a wall in FRANCE! ooh la la! ;)
thank you fatseth!!! :)

hooray for etsy!

i haven't even had a chance to put out an email to tell everyone about my new etsy shop, but i have already sold my first print! yay! it's going to one of my flickr contacts in FRANCE! ooh la la! thank you fatseth!
i sent it out today and i am so very excited about getting my work out there and generating some much needed cash!
please check out my store here.
THANK YOU for your support! i'm on a mission to have a new camera by MAY 1st! visit my store and support my mission!


life is pretty lovely!

a new earth

when i found out that oprah was having a free online course based on the book 'a new earth' by eckhart tolle, i had to join in.

many years ago, my healer told me that if she could only have ONE book in her spiritual library, it would be 'the power of now' by eckart tolle. she believed that if you could practice what was talked about in his book, you would experience who we really are....our true essence. our awakening would lead to our spiritual enlightenment. of course i immediately bought it and tried to dive in. but i'll admit, the book was really hard to comprehend and digest. really heavy deep thinking reading. a lot to digest and process. i never did more then skim paragraphs and jump around the chapters in the book.
that was three years ago.

since then, i have still been on a quest for spiritual growth and awareness. and my road to enlightenment has expanded in miraculous ways. i picked up 'a new earth' with a fresh mind and was eager to see what this book was all about.

i found 'a new earth' much easier to read than the 'power of now.' it requires thinking and processing, but i think the time was right for me to read this book. everything i read applied to my life. it gave me understanding and awareness to what i was creating and the dysfunction of my mind. i have already noticed a shift in my awareness. especially on how the ego has such a grip on us all. i am grateful that i am taking the time to further my awareness of the suffering that i create for myself. and that in every moment it just takes a shift in my perception to bring peace into my life. i understand who i really am and i want to expand that. i am finding more time and space to listen to my inner wisdom. and i am grateful for each breath. life is full of beauty, wonder and awe. that's what i want to be in touch with everyday.

a way to practice tapping into the depth and mystery that lies within all of us....





this was from the online workbook (question number four.)

spend some time in the presence of something you consider beautiful—a flower, a gem, a piece of artwork, etc. as you look at the object, try to see it without naming it mentally. when we appreciate beauty in this manner, a window opens into the formless, and into a state of gratitude. see if you can experience that. write your experiences here.

i wrote...
i started to appreciate it, notice it, all of it. it's cracks it's markings. then i started to see it's depth, it's layers. i held it to the light and inside i could see the universe. pools of colors that you could not see from the outside. it glowed. it had markings and expansion and growth. the depth kept growing. i could see what made this stone up. and it was all beautiful.

day 366 'celebration!'

i attended the fcw society's 3rd year anniversary tonight and had a lovely time with the ladies. i've been a member for 2 years now. great network of powerful vibrate woman doing their own thing in nyc! you can check out the society's blog here.

lizzy brought the flowers and somehow this one got stuck in my hair. :)

***

well....there you have it.
the unofficial official last day of my 365 day project!
whew!
all done.

buh bye!

day 365 'dreaming wide awake'

MY LAST DAY! HOORAY!
wow. i made it. a full year of self-portraits.
oh my. i had no idea what i was getting myself into. ;)
but i’m thankful for the journey none the less. that's for sure!

looking through all of my shots from this past year, i can definitely tell that i have grown as a photographer. picking up the camera everyday forces you to get creative (unless you want all your shots to look the same- BORING!) and figure out how to use your camera in new and interesting ways! i have fully pushed my sweet canon point-and-shoot as far as it can be pushed. it's time to get my hands on a DSLR!

as i got deeper into the project i started to alter my shots slightly using iphoto. but most of my shots are straight out of the camera. i'm not a photoshop wizard, nor do i aspire to be one. i don't even know how to use the beast. instead my focus was about making the shot right before i clicked. it also meant taking a lot of shots until i got what i wanted. i also relied heavily upon natural or found light, no studio equipment here. not even a tripod. i borrowed a friend’s gorillapod for a few shots, but other than that, i used things around me to steady or hold my camera while I stepped in front of the lens.

as i grew more confident as a photographer, all sorts of opportunities started to come my way, including two art shows in nyc! showing and selling my art in nyc is a dream come true! i am very grateful for all the people who have been there for me and have supported me along my journey. thank you thank you thank you!!! and a special thank you to ms. contini. if it weren’t for her, i wouldn't be showing my artwork in nyc! thank you, my dear!

and of course, how could I not mention ALL OF YOU!
through the year i made many more flickr contacts and even met several flickrites in person! thanks to flickr, i have been able to connect with other photographers from all over the world who have inspired me and taught me something new! THANK YOU!

and a big huge THANK YOU plus many many thanks to all of you out there who have followed this experience of mine and have left comments and favorites! i appreciate all your kind words and encouragement! thank you for all the love and support! thank you.

and a special thank you to hilary mchone, the woman who inspired me to do the project. if it wasn’t for her brilliant, witty, fresh, funny, original and creative 365 set (that i randomly found on flickr through another contact) i might not have taken the plunge. thanks for your wonderful friendship hilabean!

....so I guess that’s a wrap folks! i feel like i've just given birth and it's time to set my baby free! the reality tv plug has been pulled!

although, i will have a day 366…since leap day decided to squeak in my year cycle just before I finished. :)

and just in case you were wondering…the answer is no. no ‘year two’ for me. of course random self-portraits will pop up on my stream from time to time, but at least i won't be chained to it! ha!

PEACE and LOVE!
besos,
julie

ps
this is what’s up next for me:
a canon EOS 450!!!
more art shows in nyc and brooklyn!
selling prints at my etsy store!
marketing my freelance services here!
adding to my photo portfolio here!
and blogging my journey here!