Chattanooga (© Michael Ast)
Pleased to have my photograph “Chattanooga” featured in LENSCRATH’s “Night Exhibition”, launched today in conjunction with Halloween.
The first thing I heard was a grandmother killed picking okra in her fields, her grandson full of shrapnel, his father, the school teacher pleading on Capitol Hill to the Nobel Peace Prize president’s men about them lethal hawks hovering near by his schoolyard. I heard the daily jackhammer pound the length of the median strip . . . I put on Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Bad mistake. Bagpipes morphing into drone guitars, ominous sky, kinks in the chevron flight. The world might just implode today. At least it feels like it should.
I’m honored to be featured and interviewed for Blak Dot by founder/curator Matt Sanchez, the delightful Oregon-based photographer. I discuss Guinness among more important things, namely image-making . . . .
Michael Ast – Interview / Feature, Blak Dot, October, 2013
Morning walk. Sunday. The dew drops fooled me for rain. Acorns strike gutters, my neighbors car. The neighborhood is two shades more yellow today. Not knowing my insects, is that monotone whistle a cicada? Feeling guilty for a moment, then jealous, thinking of Gary Snyder’s native knowledge. Crows caw. United Church of Christ bells in the distance. A thump in the woods, then again. I love the wet pavement this time of year, it runs straight through me. I can’t begin to translate the language I walk on, along graveled Peach Lane, how it meanders through perfect woods and introduces audible overload at this hour after dawn. I question how many silly fools tired themselves already with the government shutdown, picking sides hopelessly. And how much beauty they’ve already missed today in their morning clothes.
Photos: Sunday Morning Walk, Spinnerstown (Michael Ast © 2013)
Emmett, Blacktop Beach (© Michael Ast, 2013)
Feels good to get back in the printmaking studio!
I’ve added a couple latest prints and will be posting more to my gallery in the coming weeks and months. Cheers!
