Day: February 27, 2014

I spent much of the day Thursday putting together a video of George Forss talking about his impending Kickstarter project “The Way We Were.” We started at the Round House Cafe but it was noisy there, we retreated to a hallway then to his gallery. Self-promotion does not come naturally to George, he is never quite at ease talking about himself. It was like pulling teeth at times, but I think we got it out of him.

I’m too close to George in some ways, too close to this story, so Maria is going to edit the video. This is a major moment in George’s life. This is George’s time returning. His powerful photos of pre-911 New York have never been released, never been published, they show us what was really lost when those towers went down, they capture our greatest city at a particular point in its time and glory.

Most of George’s magnificent landscapes show the Twin Towers looming over the city, after they fell George was horrified, at a loss, he withdrew his powerful images of the lost world of New York from the public eye, he left the New York part of his life behind and concentrated on his gallery, his new photography and his love of the artist Donna Wynbrandt. Before he moved to upstate New York, George had become one of the world’s most acclaimed urban landscape photographers, he never quite knew what to do with fame, he left it behind.

His work remains in the imagination of many in the city and of many photographs. Ansel Adams called his work “genius,” now that genius can be shared. George is seeking $8,200 to self-publish his lost photographs, “The Way We Were,” and perhaps some of his fame as well. Digital photography swept away much of the old photographic world, it left many of the masters behind. If you look at George’s work, you see right away that there are many things even the Iphone cannot do. One is capture the majesty and wonder of New York City. Tonight we hope to finish the video and tomorrow morning I hope to help George launch it live on Kickstarter, a crowdsourcing site that helps artists follow their dreams. This is George’s dream. I hope some of you will help George reclaim his magnificent lost work and share it with the world.

The Round House Cafe has agreed to host a fund-raiser for George in the next two weeks, we will all get this done, it is George’s moment.

My friend George Forss told me some of the best photos of New York are from rooftops, you have to get high up and you will see the true spirit of the city. He was right I think.

“Soda Fountain,” Chief Martindale Diner, Hilsdale, New York.

I missed my morning cat meditation in New York, Flo and I participated in a meditation this morning. I am finding the stillness and self-containment of cats calming and powerful in my morning meditation. Most mornings, Maria and I meditate together, she was out this morning, I sat in my chair near the window. In the morning, as the sun rises, Flo is always on her stand, she stares out the window, and then grooms herself quietly and deliberately. This spot has become a spiritual place for me, watching her helps me center and settle down. This morning, I meditated a bit on the cold, it is bitterly cold again and will be for some time, well into March.

I am okay with upstate winters, this is the life I chose and you don’t move upstate if you don’t want to experience winter, but this one has been unique in my experience, just relentless. We are burning lots of wood, navigating ice, struggling with farm chores, feeling for the animals, sparing the barn cats by bringing them inside, where they have been day and night for more than a month. The dogs have had few walks or time outside, the house shrouded in ice and snow.

We dealt with it in our own way, by taking some short trips, once or twice to Vermont but two or three times to New York. I have loved these trips to New York, they have pulled me out of myself and this long winter. I get to see my daughter, we see museums, a movie or two, we have restaurants we love, I am pulling in the energy of New York, it warms my soul more than it has for some time. It gets me in touch with my publishing side, it eases the isolation of a long and unending winter. I have a lot of good books left in me, many more blog posts, I have some new ideas for bedlamfarm.com, I’m eager to share them with you.

I appreciate my cat meditations, such a thing would never have occurred to me, Flo has led me there. She has the presence and poise of the barn cat, she seems so at home inside of our house. This morning, I’m going to meet George Forss at the Round House, we are preparing a video for his Kickstarter project, “The Way We Were.” Then I’m going to write about my carriage ride in New York City.