5 January

First Photo Chosen: “Landscape Perspectives,” The Forss-Katz Art Show, February

by Jon Katz
First Photograph
First Photograph

Maria and I spent an hour this afternoon choosing eleven photographs to show in the George Forss-Jon Katz “Landscape Perspectives Art Show to start the second week of February, about a month from now at the Round House Cafe. The cafe will hold a reception for the two of us – it is scheduled for 7 p.m., February 20, 2014, at the Round House Cafe, Main Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

This is quite a privilege for me, showing my work alongside the genius of George Forss. Maria and I went to Saratoga today and bought mats and frames – they were on sale, and George is printing my photographs. This means we can sell them inexpensively, probably in the $150 range, there is no way to print them on classy paper for any less. Maria is curating the show, and Scott Carrino, my good friend, is the co-owner of the cafe along with his wife Lisa. It seems like a warm and connected circle, the way creativity is supposed to work.

George is planning a retrospective of his New York-Washington County landscapes, including some digital color photographs, among his first. You can see George’s brilliant work on his blog. I think we’ll both speak about our work at the reception.

This landscape, taken with my wide angle fisheye on a late fall day, is one of my favorite landscapes, it captures the texture and sweep of a classic old farmhouse with barns. The photos will be hanging in the Round House for a month or so, all of them will be for sale, matted and framed. I don’t care much for showing my work at art shows, I can’t say I care much for art shows, but this one, showing my work with George, curated by Maria, hosted by Scott, wants to happen.

5 January

Return To Movies: “Saving Mr. Banks,” Next “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and “Her.”

by Jon Katz
Movie Festival
Movie Festival

From 2008 until Spring of 2013 I was not able to go to the movies, something I have loved all of my life. It was a part of the breakdown, I guess, too much fear, I simply could not process images from the outside world. I am happy to say that phase of my life is over, and this holiday season brings more movies that I want to see than I can recall in a short period. We’ve already seen “American Hustle” and “Anchorman 2” and “Wolf Of Wall Street.” Today we drove to Saratoga to see “Saving Mr. Banks,” with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.

Next week, Maria and I are going to New York for a couple of days (she will be blogging from there, I won’t) to see my daughter, get away from the frozen farm and see a some museum exhibits, a play and two more movies “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Her,” I also hope to see some old friends I haven’t seen in a long time.

I’ll report on the movies. I enjoyed “Saving Mr. Banks,” this is a Disney movie of the old school, sweet and neatly wrapped up in good feeling and emotion. As a lifelong scholar of Walt Disney and his magical worlds, I especially enjoyed Hank’s portrayal of the willful and savvy Disney, whose great genius was that he never lost his love of the magic in the world. This movie is a refreshing counterpoint to the hard-edged, gritty and explosive movies of our time. The movie captures Disney’s 20 year battle to get the film rights to “Mary Poppins” from its suspicious and iron-willed author.

For me, the movie captures some of the emotion in the creative world, I cried two or three times. Hanks and Thompson are very good actors, I appreciated the movie, even it was sugared up a bit, as happens in Disney movies. I was thinking we need it sometimes, and this movie just worked for me.

I am so looking forward to a couple of says in New York, we’ll return on Saturday evening, stopping on the way to speak at the Chatham Public Library at 3 p.m., the last stop on the “Second Chance Dog” book tour. I was there last year, it is a beautiful library with an enthusiastic and intelligent crowd.

5 January

Poem: The Divine Old Dog

by Jon Katz
Divine Old Dog
Divine Old Dog

The Divine Old Dog,

has seen enough of the cold,

she loves the wood stove,

it warms her arthritic bones,

it gives her peace.

The Divine Old Dog

is slower, quieter,

she sits by her stove through the

many hours that once

were taken up with hunting

and running,

and protecting.

The Divine Old Dog

is fading, quieter,

her limbs sore and thin,

her heart is big and strong,

she watches over her world,

she is due some rest,

she did her work so long,

so well.

5 January

Good Morning Zelda: Photo Show In February!

by Jon Katz
Good Morning Zelda
Good Morning Zelda

Zelda keeps an eye on things, when I come out to do the morning chores, she is the first one out of the barn to check on me and Red. I talked to George Forss this morning and we are both excited about doing a photo show together, it called “Landscapes” and our work will hang together at the Round House Cafe in Cambridge, N.Y., for the month of February, the Round House is having a reception for the both of us on the eve of the show, date to be announced.

We each will have 10 photos in the show, George’s will be a retrospective showing his work capturing the urban landscape in New York City and his newer work of the rural landscape, a subject we both will share. I think my photos will focus on my sense of the rural landscape, perhaps some of Cambridge as well. I am quite honored to be sharing a photo show with George, I think it is a kind of coming out to me, although I do not compare myself to him, he is a well known genius at landscape photography.

Maria is going to curate the show, and I feel very excited about it. George is also going to print the photos I have chosen, I couldn’t ask for more than that. The photos will be matted and framed, as inexpensively as possible, and George is using high-quality digital fiber paper to print them. They will all be for sale.

This week, Maria and I are going to New York City for several days, Wednesday through Friday, to take a few days off,  see some movies, go to see some museums, hang out with my daughter Emma, who has a bunch of things lined up for us to eat, see and do. I hope to get over to George’s gallery, Park Slope in Brooklyn and see some more of George’s work there.

As many of you know, my photography has become  important to me, art show are not very comfortable for me, but doing one with George is a wonderful thing for me, I couldn’t ask for a better way to honor and show both of our work.

5 January

What Is Safety? Fear And The Meaningful Life. When Truth Snuffs Fear.

by Jon Katz
What Is Safety?
What Is Safety?

A writer I know wrote recently that she would rather be scared of her perfect life than comfortable in her old one and I got to thinking about what it means to be safe in our world, and whether one needs to be frightened to have a meaningful life. We all have to decide for ourselves what a perfect life is and what a comfortable one is. I’ve gone back and forth several times in my life, been frightened and comfortable, and then comfortable and secure.

I think the hero journey is not about risk, really, but exploration. The mission is not to find the dangerous jungle we have to survive but a sense of who we really are, what we can learn, how we can grow.  You don’t have to live on a farm and walk around in the bitter cold to have a life of value, a woman I know in New Jersey works hard and devotes her life to loving her three children and raising them well, and her life is as meaningful as anyone I know. Her husband left the house in an alcoholic stupor and has not been heard from in five years and her life is so full of meaning and love. She is comfortable, she said, she has never felt more secure.

My friend is a hero in her own right, she is not scared, she is comfortable and safe, she has no desire to live on a farm with animals and haul firewood around. And good for her, I admire her greatly, sacrifice, independence and responsibility are noble things. When I ran to the mountain 15 years ago, I had no idea what I was looking for, had I know what lay ahead I might have fled back to my comfortable suburb with all its organic food, Thai restaurants and independent movie theaters, plowed roads and beautiful parks, something I have to travel to find.

I suppose we are all looking for safety, seeking meaning in a fragmented world. I think I was also looking for love. A therapist told me that every single thing I was saying about Rose and Lenore reflected what I really wanted from a human being – love and connection. When I told her Lenore was keeping love alive for me, “she said, yes, now you get it. That’s what you want. Go find it, but not just in a dog.”  And I did, that is where the hero journey led me, and Lenore is still here.

For me, love and connection are powerfully connected to safety, I think in a way they define safety. I learned early on that people with money were rarely happy or safe. I think I began to feel safe when I faced the truth about who I was, and who I wanted to be. When I realized that fear is a symptom, not a purpose, not a rational for life. I took my fear to therapists and counselors and separated it from the rest of my life. I was disconnected from the world, and as I learned how to connect, to be intimate, to be authentic, then fear no longer had any meaning for me. There is great safety and comfort in love – in sharing a life with a lover, a friend, a partner.

I can’t say that I am always comfortable – there are many challenges in my new life, creative, financial, personal, physical, as there are in every life. For me, safety is accepting them, acknowledging them, dealing with them. In truth, there is so much power, there is so much comfort, and here is another thing I learned on my journey:  truth squelches fear like a big bucket of water on a smoldering match.

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