Botanica Photographicus

The Next Big Thing.

Mike Cullen — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:25:50 +0000

I’m going to begin the process of de-commissioning this site.

From now on, my new pictures will be posted at http://cullenpix.photoshelter.com/ . There will even be an easy way to purchase my art there. As soon as I can, I will change that clunky address to just plain CullenPix.com, but first things first.

The blog site is now http://cullenpix.tumblr.com/ . I should have done this years ago! Tumblr is so much easier than WordPress.

“Simple Gifts”

Mike Cullen — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:22:17 +0000

A Shaker song, written in 1848.

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,

‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain’d,

To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Eye-doe-wanna.

Mike Cullen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:23:53 +0000

I fear the time is growing short for my WordPress experiment: I’m almost finished uploading and keywording over on Photoshelter. I plan on using that site for a gallery and sales pages, and then link to a (maybe) Tumblr for blogging stuff.

Things I Won’t Tell You.

Mike Cullen — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:20:34 +0000

I keep reading helpful advise pieces about how to build a following on the web. All those good intentions serve only to fuel my anxiety and make we sweat.

Open yourself up, they say. Bare your soul. Be like this other artist that’s doing boffo biz; there’s nothing she won’t blog about.

No.

There are things I won’t tell you. Lots of things.

Like my sad bourgeois dream of owning a top of the line Hyundai. Or that my wife is jealous of my relationship with our cat. Or how I curse myself for not having written three or four novels by now. And I should be making more art right now, not writing this.

No. I will not tell you things. And you can’t make me.

Inspired by this poem by Brad Leithauser.

Philip Glass and Blurry Photos

Mike Cullen — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:53:10 +0000

For reasons unknown, the music of Philip Glass resonates with me, especially when I’m working on a new piece. Wish I could put my finger on it…something about how his themes repeat and fold back over themselves to produce something new, like a kaleidoscope.

Here’s a short piano piece played by Branca Parlic.

Pathway In The Park, Summer 2010

Mike Cullen — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:29:15 +0000

Shot this the other evening during what is turning out to be the longest and hottest summer since the Pre-Cambrian era. I took my (occasionally) trusty Olympus point and shoot and wandered into Owl’s Head Park just after sundown.

I’m one of those old geezers that’s always amazed and delighted by the immediacy of electronic photography. Case in point: I experimented a little bit by setting the camera on available light, then moving around to catch some blur. If I had tried that once upon a time with the old 35mm, I wouldn’t have known that the results were crap for days, or even weeks. And let’s not even consider the cost of film and processing.

O brave new world!

Heatwave Clouds

Mike Cullen — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:48:10 +0000

Heatwave clouds only come out during earthquake weather.

Hanging

Mike Cullen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:52:03 +0000

I got an email the other day from the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition. Looks like they had some space for their next show and in return for working one shift at the show, would you like to hang some art? To sweeten the deal, they’d waive the yearly membership dues. Sure, I said, when can I come down?

So I spent a few hours on Sunday in Red Hook hanging a few photos of mine in their gigantic Civil War-era warehouse.

I’ve never done that before. The closest I’ve come to this is sticking a few pictures on the walls for a photo class critique, and that was many moons ago. Two thoughts: like just before a class critique, I wonder, am I going to get crucified; and the odd thrill of knowing my pictures are hanging in a show with hundreds of eyeballs gazing at them.

So: do your bit. Give me a vicarious thrill by going to see my (and about 200 other peoples’) art at the BWAC show. It opens this weekend and it’s up for a month. Go here for details.

Sunset Over New Jersey

Mike Cullen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:09:02 +0000

This is simply the view out of my window the other evening. A bunch of summer thunderstorms had just rolled through Brooklyn, and these pink puffy clouds were bringing up the rear. I spent some time with Photoshop trying to translate the feeling I had as I was watching these clouds into pixels. A feeling of nostalgia, maybe? Or a dream of nostalgia?

Here’s the thing…

Mike Cullen — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:31:05 +0000

For whatever reason, this former English major totally chokes when it comes to writing blog posts. The internal editor goes haywire. We’ll see if I can finish this paragraph without having to back up and…nope, had to do a little revision up there.

So I’m going to try this: a little forced march. I’m going to see if I can beat the editor out of me simply by drowning him with words, on schedule. (Am I going to Beat or Drown the editor? See, I’m going to leave that horrid mistake intact. Eat it, Mr. Ed.)

And off we go…