The Project Web Site

And another step. The basic web site behind Rosso Bella is online, waiting....just waiting...

If you care to see it, it is www.rossobella.com. Just it a moment to load, for there is a tiny bit of java just waiting to be discovered.

The sigh and the long pause

Perhaps as you read along, you will hear my sigh. The pause. The longer pause. The sound of waiting. Yes, that is where this project now stands. Slowly but surely Rosso Bella is turning into a business.

But we pause as the packages of red items will hopefully soon arrive in my post office box. And we pause, fingers crossed that our business credit card will also go through so that we can open a PayPal account.

Until then...it is a sigh and a pause...another sigh...another pause.

Progress

Another step forward. We have begun to get ourselves in line for the beginning of this project. Bank account, EBay and PayPal, post office box...now all I have to do is begin...and think about how to celebrate this project.

Haniel Long

"In youth the human body drew me and was the object of my secret and natural dreams. But body after body has taken away from me that sensual phosphorescence which my youth delighted in. Within me is no disturbing interplay now, but only the steady currents of adaptation and of sympathy."

Clarence Holland White

Ah Pictorialism.
The graininess, the softness of diffusion. Skin glowing in murkiness. There is something marvelous in this type of style. Was it due to industrialism, the coming depression, the oddity of the 1920's or just a rebellion against the sterility of improving technology? Perhaps it was the true vision of near-sighted artists. (I jest a bit here).

I feel deeply akin to this genre.

Mucha

Once upon a time, another artist appealed to my vanity with compliments. He alluded to the idea that I look like a Mucha girl and that opened my world to Alphonse.

To see more Mucha or to purchase the above print, visit www.allposters.com.

Alfred Cheney Johnston

Some might say that the Ziegfeld Girls were the epitome of womanliness, especially as depicted by Alfred Chaney Johnson. I am very tempted to agree. The grace and fluidity is stunning.

If you are interested in collecting his work, EBay is a great source. Check out http://myworld.ebay.com/ka59/. This seller has a lot of fine prints by Johnston.

Inspiration

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Come closer

...and I will tell you want the purpose of this blog.

Soon, very, very soon - it will begin. Day by day. Image by image.

This is a study in red. In the genre of "art a day," there will be a new photograph published on this site, five a week, or as much as I can muster. I hope this journey will run for a year, but it will happen as long as the red muse inspires me.

Each image will be a figurative study involving the color red (what other color would work with the last name "Rosso"). This means an exploration of the nude figure. I am in a quandary of whether I should disclose this first thing or ignore it and hope I do not offend anyone. This study is art, not porn, though I know there are some who do not know the difference. I suspect they would not haunt this site, though. I suspect my work would never make it onto the pages of "Penthouse" or that ilk. I also suspect my work would not appeal to those viewers, as I am on the apex of 40. We shall see, what we see.

So, this should be an interesting pursuit. Will you join me?

New Header

Well after a bit of a struggle, I was able to modify the header of the blog. Ah, the sweet smell of success.

Amassing

Bells, bows and bobbles. Any thing red. The collection is growing. If you have any suggestions for red objects to use in contrast with the figure, I am interested.

A Stick

At some point recently, I read that the terribly skinny models in the world were going to be banned. I was totally in a quandary about this for I had always wanted to be rail thin, a stick. I wanted the freedom of never having to wear a bra without seeming pretentious. And I believe that designers who showcase their clothing on the super thin, this is their form of creative expression. I suppose if the fashionable designers wanted to showcase their designs on more robust women, they would do so.

On the other hand, I am not a stick. I have and will always have curves. And the flesh seems even more abundant now that I am looking over the edge of 40. Am I fat? Sometimes I think so. Sometimes not. Good food is a passion and one that I do not wish to give up, though I have tried, but have always been seduced back. Rather, I do yoga. I walk.

One might say I am obsessed with weight and that may well be. I work in a field where the people I photograph are beautiful and are always stressed over food. There is an almost overwhelming joy to having photo sessions catered and watching the anxiety that follows. I say this not in a mean way, for I am among the stressed it would seem - sometimes. But there is joy in knowing that when I put the camera down, I am free to indulge in brisket and shortbread and no one will truly care.

But I care. Recently, I have begun changing my aesthetics. I am not so sure about wanting to be a stick. I have begun to prefer models who have a little more flesh and seem healthy. And I have begun to accept my body for what it is.

A personal project is evolving here. And as I slowly amass ideas, slowly letting a little of it into light each day, it is feeling like a return. This will be an exploration of self (for me) and hopefully a visual feast for you, my viewers. This is an unblocking of creativity, perhaps even a spiritual journey of letting go of past barriers, an exorcism of phantoms that have haunted me.

Soon.

The Concept

Rebirthing.

Not therapeutic regression, but therapeutic progression. It has been said that when one stifles creativity, a part of the soul dies. But sometimes it seems different than this, like creativity lies in a stasis, a cocoon of contemplation or quiet, until the time is deemed correct and out it springs with beauty and life. This life is filled anew with energy. It is free to fly.

Rosso Bella. Red Beautiful. This is a project of rebirthing. Red is the source. It is the energy propelling this forward.

Wrapped in my soft cocoon of comfort, I am stretching forward, about to burst through. My time is coming.

The Thing About Red

Its vibrancy seduces me and I become enrapt in the saturation of color, the fine nuances of hue. It vibrates loudly, and the effect is dramatic.

In short, there are times when the colors of life seem to shrink in clarity. The palette, ever earthy, sustains everything - the right path to take, the clothes one wears, until one risks fading into the grass and hills, becoming the landscape.

Then there is red, screaming loudly for attention. I hear it. It calls.

And now after a period of healing stasis, balanced life, there is a new level in which to ascend.

The journey begins on this red road.