I have been a professional writer for over twenty years, with over 100 essays, chapters and reviews published internationally. My writing falls into three basic categories: the arts, digital media and personal topics such as spirituality, creativity and gardening. I publish very regularly and am happy to add you to my mailing list so you can receive notices of my latest work.
New! Major Digital Media Essay in Print
I am thrilled to announce the long awaited publication of my landmark essay "The 'Camera' as Camera - How CGI Changes the World As We Know It" in the anthology Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Film, Pleasure, and Digital Culture, vol. 1, edited by Jason Sperb and Scott Balcerzak, published by Wallflower Press, UK and now available from Amazon.
About the book: Building Value Into the Life of Our Dreams at the Central Coast Women's Network blog A Strong Woman: Hua Anwa for the Women's Press in SLO County
For years, "cinephilia" has been a part of the theatrical experience, denoting a deep, even limitless passion for the medium. Cinephilia encompasses consuming, defining, sharing, discussing, and writing about films, but what happens when the experience of watching movies becomes something increasingly complemented by digital means?
This volume of original essays explores the pleasures of cinema in the realms of online communication, digital imagery, and digitized home viewing. Including the work of critics, scholars, and bloggers from the US, the UK, and Australia, Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction provides an innovative and multifaceted approach to the ever-evolving world of cinema culture. The first in a two-book series (volume two follows in 2009), this collection features contributions from Robert Burgoyne, Zach Campbell, Tobey Crockett, Brian Darr, Kevin Fisher, Andy Horbal, Christian Keathley, Adrian Martin, Jenna Ng, Lisa Purse, Dan Sallitt, and Girish Shambu.
New Articles on Creativity and Spirituality
Both of these appear in the online September/October issue of Women's Press
Cookin' Up Peace and Creativity in Cambria for event taking place September 19th
Long Dance: Highlight of the Spiritual Calendar for event taking place September 24-27
New Catalogue Essay (forthcoming Oct 2009)
Hard Candy and Good Humor - the Art of Jean Wells. Essay included in the forthcoming catalogue for shows at Yarger Strauss and international venues. Reception October 24 2009
More Writing on Spirituality, Creativity and Gardening
Interview with a Guatemalan Shaman - Tata Erick Gonzalez for the Greenstein Institute
Parts 1-4: Intro, Wisdom & Stewardship of Indigenous Elders, The Medicine Wheel,
Natural Cycles of Life
Here are some of my blog articles about my new vegetable garden in Los Osos, written for the Green Body Project hosted by the Greenstein Institute
Of Frost and Flowers - Kitchen Notes on Home Gardening The successful and happy kitchen is managed by realpolitik, the productive marriages of old cheese, stale bread and succulent new fruits from the vine. There is a role for the slightly over ripe, the crusty, the hardened hunk of former glory.
More on Frost and Flowers – Growing Your Own Vegetables …when you grow your own foods, the world changes shape before your very eyes. Everything becomes more tightly interwoven, and natural processes seem more miraculous.
How Growing Tomatoes Made Me a Better Person One of the hardest lessons for me personally to learn on this human journey has been that the steady application of effort on a daily basis does in fact yield long term results. I am bad at forming good habits.
Cooking up Community by Planting a Garden in Your Heart I love the way that my simple quest for a home grown tomato has brought me deeper and deeper into the realm of culinary arts that are part of our national heritage. If we all could live just a bit closer to the land and attune ourselves to the cycles of life and nature, I think we would be better off as a society.
Seed Saving: My Sweet Peas Teach Me About Life At a recent party a guest, who is herself a master gardener, was admiring my heirloom sweet peas which have an unusual and lovely scent.
More Writing on the Arts
“We Are All Made of Stars” in Of the Flesh: The Art of Andrew Krasnow. Ed. Jonathan Hutt.
For my archived essay (2001) about the art of the future at the Anthology of Art,
look me up under contributions A-Z.
Archives:
You can click on the links here for some sample pieces from my archives. With nearly 100 published reviews and essays since 1988, my art criticism has appeared in the
Interview subjects include Christo, Komar & Melamid, William Wegman, Dennis Oppenheim, Vito Acconci, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Tim Rollins, Tamiko Thiel and Michael Heim, among others. I plan to produce selected podcasts from the original tapes.
More Writing on Digital Media
"The 'Camera' as Camera: How CGI Changes the World As We Know It" in Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Film, Pleasure, and Digital Culture Volume 1. Eds. Scott Balzerak and Jason Sperb. From Wallflower Press, UK. 2009. Now available from Amazon
"The Computer As A Dollhouse (excerpts)" in Video Games and Art
Eds. Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell. University of Chicago Press. 2007 Available on Amazon.
Copies of my 2006 PhD Dissertation "The 'Camera' As Camera: New Subjectivities in 3D Virtual Worlds" are available in both print or as an affordable download from Lulu.com
“An Aesthetics of Play, Or How To Understand Interactive Fun” in Mapa do Jogo – relevância cultural dos games, edited by Lucia Santaella and Mirna Feitoza Pereira. Cengage Publishing, Sao Paulo Brazil. 2009.
See my 2004 Intelligent Agent essay on building architecture and ritual into virtual environments.
Forthcoming in 2010:
“The ‘Camera’ as Camera, or - Why 3D Virtual Worlds Matter” in Travels in Intermedia - ReBlurring the Boundaries, edited by Bernd Herzogenrath. Mellen Press, UK.