Inspired By Reading Book Club: Vampires in the Lemon Grove

A friend of ours, Andrew Thornton, started up a virtual book club a few years back called Inspired By Reading.  Like most book clubs, each month a new book is read, but instead of just talking about the book the members of the group are challenged to create something inspired by the book.  Most of the members are artists--especially jewelry designers--so this is a very visual take on the classic book club.  I've taken part sporadically, but my wife pretty much gets every month's challenge done.

This month's book was a short story collection by Karen Russell named after the title story Vampires in the Lemon Grove.  I didn't read the whole collection--I'm in the middle of two short story collections already--but did read the title story since I like vampires.  The story was strange, somewhat haunting and wistful.  I liked it and didn't like it at the same time.  I like the imagery of two vampires finding each other and falling in love for centuries, but just didn't really "get" the whole thing.

Regardless, here's my artistic inspiration from the story:  I struggled with this a bit, but eventually got it looking OK.  I took a macro shot of a handy lemon--destined to be used in a cocktail--for the background.  Then I discovered a shot of a fruit bat that I took on our summer trip to visit Andrew and William in Ligonier, Pennsylvania from the wonderful Pittsburgh Aviary (where the Lorakeets pooped on my).  I manipulated the picture to fit over the lemon.  The tough part was getting the edges to look right and it still isn't perfect, but I learned some new Photoshop techniques in the process.

Inspired By Reading Book Club: The Fault In Our Stars

A friend of ours, Andrew Thornton, started up a virtual book club a few years back called Inspired By Reading.  Like most book clubs, each month a new book is read, but instead of just talking about the book the members of the group are challenged to create something inspired by the book.  Most of the members are artists--especially jewelry designers--so this is a very visual take on the classic book club.  I've taken part sporadically, but my wife pretty much gets every month's challenge done.

This month's book is John Green's The Fault In Our Stars.  The book was turned into a movie that was actually well done and kept very close to the source material.  But I suggest reading the book instead!  The book is told from the point of view of Hazel, a teen who is in treatment for thyroid cancer.  Hazel meets a young man, Augustus Waters, in a support group meeting and the resulting relationship is one of the most real and poignant that I've come across in all my years of reading.  Oh, and spoilers: you will cry like a little baby when reading or watching this.

As a pediatrician, I spent my share of time in residency taking care of families (not kids--families) undergoing cancer treatments and bone marrow transplants.  These are the sickest kids you will ever take care of in my line of work, many balanced chronically on the knife edge of life and death.  I would never give up my memories of that aspect of my training, but it was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my career.  The emotional and physical toll that the process takes on the patients, their families, and yes--even on their health care providers--is astonishing.  On the positive side, kids and teens are remarkably resilient, both physically and emotionally, often handling things much better than adults do.  I felt that the book really captures the emotions and situations of these teens in a way that feels true and isn't just calculated for cheap sobs.  The teens' take on their doctors and nursing staff isn't always complimentary, but this also feels very real to me.

So, how can I take inspiration from this book?

My first effort relates to Augustus' family.  His parent's home is littered with all sorts of cross-stitched samplers with inspirational sayings that they call "encouragements".  Taking a quote from Hazel's favorite book An Imperial Affliction, I made my own "encouragement" for her!  I had to first make a background in Photoshop CC to imitate fabric.  This took quite a bit of effort, but I figured it out via tutorials on the web.  I next downloaded and altered a cross-stitch font and made my own paint brush using one stitch.  I went a little overboard on it, but why not!

My next effort was related to Hazel's lungs.  She needs to be hooked up to oxygen because--in her own words: "my lungs sucked at being lungs".  I drew a pair of shoddy looking lungs and then did a clipping mask overlay with a shot of smoke that I had previously taken.  I then gave the lungs a bit of an outline glow and embossed texture to differentiate from the black background.  Not my best work, but I was trying new techniques!

I had other ideas, but ran out of time.  Read this book.  Seriously.

Inspired By Reading Book Group: Miss Peregrin's Home For Peculiar Children

Once again, after my wife Sj (of Sj Designs) finished reading her book club book, she talked me into reading it as well.  For those who haven't read all of my previous posts, the Inspired By Reading Book Group is a virtual book club made up mostly of jewelry designers who take inspiration from books and create amazing works of art based upon them.  I've taken part a few times with my budding photography skills.

This month we read a young adult novel by Ransom Riggs called Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.  The author is a photographer and a collector of strange old found photographs.  Between his own collection and those of some other collectors he pieced together a narrative using these odd photos.  The book is told from the perspective of a teen boy, who grows up listening to his grandfather's tall tales and looking at those old and remarkable photographs.  As the book goes on we discover that perhaps there may be some truth to these stories and photos, but that's all I'm going to say or risk ruining it for you!  The book is actually being made into a movie by Tim Burton, but I suggest reading it first--besides you need to see all the cool pictures!

So this challenge was really up my alley.  As an amateur photographer I found inspiration in the very visual media of this book.  Let's be honest, when was the last time any of us read a book with pictures that wasn't for small children?

For this photo I used one of the characters from the book (an invisible boy) as inspiration.  I set up my tripod in my basement bar and arranged a vintage martini glass and stereoscope on the bar-top as set dressing.  I took a shot of the bar and chair without myself in it.  Then I sat down very carefully and used my remote trigger for the camera.  This took a few shots to get right, and my camera kept falling asleep and not recognizing the trigger.  Eventually I got two shots I liked.  I was then able to import them into Photoshop Elements.  With the plain bar as background layer, I put the shot with myself in it on top.  I was then able to very carefully erase my face and hand out of the top picture, allowing the background to show through.  This took me some time and cursing.  But I got the effect I was looking for.  Next I changed it to sepia tone for that 1900's look.  Then I superimposed a photo of peeling paint on concrete with a low opacity setting to simulate fading and age spots on the photo.  Last but not least I used a "frame" that had lines on it to simulate scratches on the film.  I'd love to figure out how to get a creased look or ratty edges...

Next up was another shot at the bar, since I had everything set up already.  This one was inspired by a super creepy picture from the book of an 1800's evil looking dentist.  I rearranged my foreground items and made sure my arm and shoulder was in the shot.  I sat a skull in front of my body so it would show up only in the reflection in the mirror.  The shot turned out great but it often takes people a couple of seconds to see the reflection.  The side light from an overcast afternoon also highlights only half of my face making it look much more ominous than usual.  I took a couple of these with an evil grin but it was just too much, even for me!  For the rest of the shot I used an overlay of a rust patch that I took in NE Minneapolis from the side of a building, to simulate age.  Then tweaked to sepia tone and done!

Next up, I made Sj get dressed up in her Ren Fest outfit and had her pose for me.  I didn't have a lot of time so my staging and set up were a bit rushed.  It was also really cold out and my model was not happy with so much skin showing in the whipping wind.  I took a couple of long exposure shots with an ND filter to cut the sun's light a bit.  The wind moved the leaves more than I would have liked and there wasn't much directional light, but hey, work with what you have!

I actually like this one the most.  I added a rust stain to the background to add texture and color to this one.  I also added scratches to the photo to add more age.  I also had to smudge out some of the background fence and house details.  I like the unhappy ghost look!

So creepy much?  This one was less about Miss Peregrine than the others.  The tone of the book reminded me of Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man which I red when I was much younger.  I tracked down a copy of this fairly rare Gold Medal Original paperback a few years ago and it sits with the rest of my old pulp-era collection.  For this shot I took a macro of a huge spider from my back deck, who had wrapped up a yellow-jacket wasp in its web.  I superimposed a shot of myself reaching out an arm and blurred it a bit to make it look less odd.

Back to Miss Peregrine: I loved this book with it's crazy characters, amazing old photos, and quasi-supernatural plot.  Happily the second book has been out a while and the third in the series just came out recently so I'll have plenty to read in the near future!

Inspired By Reading Book Club: Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

This month I again took part in Andrew Thornton's Inspired By Reading Book Group.  Each month a group of artists (mostly jewelry designers), including my wife Sj of Sj Designs Jewelry, read a book and then do something "arty" inspired by the book.  I took part last month with some of my photos and based on Sj's excitement over this book I decided to try again.  Check out the rest of this month's entries at Andrew's blog HERE.

The book is Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.  Published in 2012 this one made it to the New York Times Bestseller list.  The main character, Clay, is a somewhat nerdy young man who ends up almost randomly working for a strange 24 hour bookstore in San Francisco.  With a history of growing up playing the equivalent of D&D and reading sci-fi/fantasy novels, the character hits close to home for me!

Throughout the book we discover that something more complex than book-buying is going on at this strangest of bookstores.  We eventually discover that (like a nerdier version of something by Dan Brown), there is an ancient society of bibliophiles all secretly trying to learn the secrets of life.

The cast of characters is really what makes this book fun to read for me.  Quirky, slightly odd-ball, without being caricatures, the people are all somewhat believable.  I was struck by the description of Clay's room mate Matt--"He works with crazy intensity, feeding hours like dry twigs into the fire, just absolutely consuming them, burning them up.  He sleeps lightly and briefly, often sitting up straight in a chair or lying pharaoh-like on the couch.  He's like a storybook spirit, a little djinn or something, except instead of air or water his element is imagination."  Now that is a description!  And even better, it seems to describe our very own Andrew Thornton adequately as well!

This book touches a lot on the difference between books and Internet/computer/tablets.  The parallels and discrepancies are scattered through-out the pages.  However the book itself isn't truly about books.  I think it's real focus on being human and what we want or expect out of life--and how we go about it.  While the story is mostly light and fantastical, this book's under-text is also deeper, leaving one with a new appreciation for friends and family.  I liked this one a lot!

Here's my entry for "art" this month!  I took some of my fancier leather-bound books and placed them into an area where they would get more light.  I used my plain leather mead journal (far right) for this shot as well.  In post production I added Aldus Manutius' name to the binding.  I also took a macro shot of the book-hands symbol from the intro page of Mr. Penumbra and then added that into my shot.  Then I did an emboss filter to those to make it look like the writing was printed into the leather.  Not stopping there, I added a painterly effect to make this a little more dreamy and unusual...

My Travels With The Night Circus

Every month one of my friends, Andrew Thornton--of international jewelry design fame--hosts a book club.  This isn't just any old book club.  This is Inspired By Reading Book Club!  The members of this virtual club read the book each month (OK, who really finishes them?) and then are challenged to make something artistic/creative inspired by that book.  The majority of folks in the club are jewelry makers, including my wonderful wife Sarajo--of Sj Designs Jewelry.  Andrew does host an in-person meeting each month in Pennsylvania, but if you can't make the trip, he hosts a Blog-Hop for everyone to see the art generated each month.  HERE is the main page for this Blog-Hop.  I took part in one last Fall when we made it out for the celebration and had a blast!  Finally there came another book that interested me and I was ready to take part again.  Sj and I listened to it on disc on our way to Duluth and on our many trips into the Cities for Fringe Festival.

The book: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Published in 2011, this was the author's first book and arrived to much critical acclaim.  I'll try to avoid spoilers so I'm not getting into too many details here.  The basic plot is that a man and a woman are raised from a young age by two rival mysterious magicians in the late 1800's and trained in the magical arts.  They are bound together into a game of sorts in which they compete with each other but neither knows the rules or conditions of the game.  As we discover, once things get going, the "game board" is a very unusual traveling circus.  The book is somewhat slow moving, but told with a richness of description that is quite entrancing.  The subtle foreshadowing and use of magic make this stand out from the usual period piece.  The narrator for the audio book was very good as well, making this a pleasure to listen to.

I was initially expecting something more creepy or horror-like, but the book ends up being quite dreamy and even a bit romantic.  There was just enough magic and unearthly material to keep me interested.  The only real gripe I had with the telling was that the chapters skip around in time a bit and especially when listening, this can be a bit confusing.

As I listened to this book, I got to thinking about what I could do with photography to bring across some of the feel of the story.  Then it hit me...what is magic, but smoke and mirrors?  I started to experiment in my makeshift studio (on top of Sj's jewelry making table) with photographing smoke trails.  I ended up using an inverted and mirrored image to complete this effect.  I also left this in black and white to mimic the black and white theme of the circus itself.

I'm pretty happy with the results!  Sj says she sees faces in the patterns, and this just makes more sense when you've read the ending of the book...

As an added bonus to the one photo, I'm adding in this creepy black and white spider picture I took on my deck.  While there are no actual spiders in the book, I felt that a theme through-out was one of manipulation--both of people and objects.  The two "evil" magicians were manipulating the two young protagonists in their web, while the protagonists themselves wound a web of magic through the whole circus.

So there you go!  I'll probably take part in next month's book as well...

Inspired By Reading Book Club: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This month I decided to take part in Andrew Thornton's Inspired By Reading Book Club.  This is a virtual book club composed mainly of artists, who take inspiration from the book to create artwork.  The group is predominantly jewelry makers, including my wife Sarajo of Sj Designs. 

The book this month is Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, published in 2013.  We had a signed hardcover of this one already and I had been meaning to read it, so I jumped on board with this challenge!  I've been reading Gaiman's stuff since the 1990's when he was known for writing the Sandman comic series.  He was a true groundbreaker when it came to adding levels of complexity, myth, and characterization that was nearly unheard of in the predominantly costumed superhero comics industry.  I continued to read as he wrote a wonderful series called The Books of Magic in which a young bespectacled English boy named Tim Hunter discovers that he is a wizard and must learn to use his magic against those who seek to control or destroy him.  Sound familiar Harry Potter fans?  Yup this was written in 1993! 

I continued to read Gaiman's books, especially when he moved to novels, with Neverwhere, and American Gods.  If you haven't read those...do so now!  Sj and I even got to have sushi with him and a group of musicians from the Twin Cities once, a very cool evening for us.  So that is a quick background of my history with this great author...now on to the book itself!

I've noticed that Gaiman's recent works have mostly focused on children's books and those aimed at young adults.  Trust me, he doesn't dumb things down for the younger crowd, but keeps things complex and intriguing.  I would have killed for his smart kind of YA novel when I was younger, but there were limited options back in the 1980's.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane takes place in an older version of rural England and uses the somewhat detached and formal voice that Gaiman often uses in his books.  The book is told by an unnamed narrator after he goes back home to visit after "growing up" and is mostly a long flashback of strange events from his childhood that he has long forgotten.

My first "artistic" endeavor for this book uses my main form of self expression: Beer Making!  The story takes place near and in a farm house, so I took this cue to create a classic farmhouse ale--the Belgian Saison.  This type of ale was typically made on a very small scale mainly for the people working on the farm, and as a result the "style" is really quite varied since every farm had their own recipe, yeast, and brewers.  Most of the brews were fermented on the warmer side resulting in a fruitier flavor from yeast derived esters.  I brewed up a fairly simple light colored beer mainly of pilsner malt, with some noble Saaz hops for bitterness and a hint of floral aroma.  The real player in this brew is the Belgian Saison yeast, which I fermented initially at 67 degrees, then ramped up to 70 for finishing.  The resulting brew is my take on the Saison farmhouse style and I've named it Hempstock's Farmhouse Ale.  I'll be taking some of this brew along for an in-person visit to the live book club meet up in Andrew's home town in Pennsylvania!

I'll try not to give too much away...but want to explain my pictures a bit, so if you hate spoilers, just scan the pics and ignore the words.  Let's be honest mostly we do that anyway!

 Much of the action in the book takes place at the farmhouse of the Hempstocks, a trio of women who live just down the lane from our narrator.  The youngest, Lettie, is just a few years older than the protagonist and takes him under her wing.  She tells him that the pond on the property is really an ocean, along with several other nonsensical things, but he takes this in stride in typical young child fashion.  I took this particular photo of a farmhouse along the pond at Phelps Mill in Ottertail, MN.  This is a place I grew up, swimming in the river, fishing in the pond, and climbing about in the then-decaying and dangerous mill building.  Testing out my new Photoshop Elements, I pasted in this seagull from a shot I took up in Duluth the same summer.  I think it ties in the Ocean aspect of the story...

Creeped out yet?  Gaiman's books often have an element of horror wrapped up in them.  At one point in this particular tale, after getting embroiled in some fantastical events with Lettie Hempstock, the protagonist discovers a disgusting worm living in a small hole in his foot.  In the bathroom he tries to get the worm out, and this is my take on it.  Not sure why, but I found this particular part of the novel especially nightmarish!  So I took this vision of the book and did a bit of a self portrait...now all of you can have nightmares as well!

During the culmination of the book, the narrator has a desperate evening run through the farmer's fields to escape the villain and get back to the Hempstock farm and Lettie's protection.  I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how best to make this work in photography...starting in the spring and not really getting anything great until fall harvest time.  At our Minnesota Landscape Arboretum they had a special limited run of glass and metal sculptures throughout the grounds and this particular grouping of glass people rising and cavorting from the tall grass finally hit the sweet spot I was looking for.

Overall this was a book that was at once simple and complex, hitting many levels at a time.  I highly recommend it to any age reader.  I hope you enjoyed my write-up.  Please check out the other blog entries on this book--I'll be updating this blog with their URLs once everything is posted!

The Drunken Botanist

My wife, jewelry artist Sarajo Wentling, has a habit of getting involved in online jewelry design challenges.  This works for her and often acts as inspiration, sparking some of her more creative pieces.  I envy this aspect of her craft.  Check out her jewelry blog HERE if you want to see what I'm talking about. 

One interesting group that Sj has been involved with is the Inspired By Reading Book Group, started by the talented Andrew Thornton.  Like any book group, each month has an assigned book to read, but instead of just talking about it, these artists work the book into their respective artwork.  While the majority of the group are jewelry designers, other types of art are included as well. 

This month's reading was The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart.  This book is more of an encyclopedia than a novel, including chapters on various spirits, mixed drinks and history of the flora and fauna that flavor those spirits!  While reading this book, Sj would frequently read aloud passages for me or fill me in on little snippets of information.  After a while I realized I just needed to read the book for myself!  Occasionally snatching the unguarded book from Sj's clutches, I would read a few passages.  I have still not read the entire thing, but the way the book is set up, reading bits and pieces works fairly well. 

If I had had more time, I would have used my main hobby of homebrewing to use some of these interesting herbs to make a gruit or herb-bittered beer.  But the discussion/blog-hop is already upon us and brewing would have taken a few weeks at the least.  Not to mention that no one but Sj and I could sample the results, since this is a virtual book club!  Wracking my brain, I finally realized that I could use my new camera and budding photography skills to attempt an entry for this challenge.  Much like Sj when she started to make jewelry, I certainly don't feel like an "Artist" yet, so it really didn't occur to me until late in the game.  Oh, well, why not give it a shot

Reading/skimming around the book, I spent a fair amount of time reading about the herbs, flowers and spices that were involved in many spirits and tinctures.  Saint Germain elderflower liqueur is intriguing, and I've even thought about doing an elderflower beer after tasting one in Belgium.  I have tasted saffron beers before but find I'm not very sensitive to that expensive ingredient so it just isn't worth the money.  This past weekend we were up at the family cottage on Ottertail Lake for a reunion weekend.  My cousin Kathleen is an amateur photographer as well and the two of us took off to find some likely things to photograph.  We were driving past Lake Country Gardens, a family run landscape and nursery place, when Kathleen suggested we see if they would allow us to take some pictures there.  The kind staff had no problem with us sneaking around with our cameras and even pointed us toward a nest of photogenic baby robins.  I discovered some bright, papery orange poppy blossoms on our little tour of the grounds.  As a physician I was intrigued by the storied history of the Opium Poppy and its use in cure-alls and Laudanum.  This was a perfect intersection of my hobby and the book! 

Later, while wandering the back roads around the cottage, I discovered wild pink roses growing in the ditches.  Wanting to get closer I discovered a huge and extensive patch of the three-leafed caustic pest: poison ivy!  So my picture of this one is more of an arty rural background piece than a close up of roses!  The book mentions roses being used in rose petal liqueurs, as well as rose water's use in cocktails.  I was intrigued by the little mention of rose hips as well and this makes me want to use that strange ingredient in my brewing...

Right turn Clyde!  

Hangin' out with Rosemary...

In the back of the book there are a couple of charts including many other ingredients in cocktails and Rosemary is mentioned briefly there.  I think this is my favorite picture from this particular challenge even if the tie to the book is tenuous!

After arriving back home in Waconia after the weekend, I went out to my own garden and took more pictures.  There I have a plant of Sweet Woodruff, another herb used in spirits, that I have been growing for use in a future medieval style beer.  I noticed that the author did not mention the use of violent green woodruff syrup in Berliner Weisse beers in Germany…  After reading about it in the book, it sounds like this can be toxic if not prepared correctly and now I'm a little more hesitant to try using it!  I was sad that while we were out of town the pretty little white flowers on the plant were almost all gone, so this one wasn't as photogenic as I had hoped!

Sweet Woodruff!

Of course I have a cascade hop bine growing in my yard for future use in beer, so I took a quick shot of the the active climber.  We just had some heavy weather this past week and the plant was battered a bit, but these fresh shoots are coming back quickly from the damage.  The hop cones themselves won't  arrive until later in the season.

Hop bine (not vine) spreading up my deck!

And of course there is a whole section in the book on berries!  Here is my ever expanding raspberry bramble.  The flowers are falling off and the fruit starting to form already.  I think raspberries will gracing my beer very soon!

This is a fun book with lots of educational and informative snippets that will make you more popular at cocktail parties for sure!  The book certainly sparked several ideas for herb or fruit based beers that I'd like to try out.  I was happy to get a chance to practice my photography and take part in this!  Later in the year they are reading Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I am already looking for perfect pictures to bring out that wonderful book.  Check out the Facebook site and read/look at the other contributors' entries for the month HERE.