domino effect

Allow me to start by fulfilling a meme since I was tagged by The Fabulous Miss B whereupon I must reveal SIX, count 'em, 6, secrets about myself.


topiary © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Here goes nothing:

1. I have an irrational fear of perishing from radiation poisoning/gamma rays, not that I act upon it in any manner, but I do have a hard time watching movies where that comes into play, like K-19: The Widowmaker totally horrified me.

2. I cannot read analog clocks. Well, I can eventually but it takes me a little while to...um... sound it out.

3. I am left-handed.

4. I was obsessed with birds and insects as a child... and kept a large number of insect pets, including praying & Chinese mantids, several varieties of katydids, Colorado Potato Beetles, a bunch of butterflies and moths including hummingbird moths (which are amazing), and June Beetles.



5. I am mostly Ukrainian. My last name was "americanized" from a name which in the original Cyrillic sounded like "Kit-see".


albinos © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

6. I had very blond hair as a child.

Alas my friends who blog are lazy, its late and it is unlikely that I will hunt down anyone to tag to carry on with the meme.


bromeliads © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

I have good news coming in a matter of days that is far too secret yet to share here. Patience! But I will be having photographs in the December issue of Food & Wine magazine and an interview in a major Chinese magazine. Details, soon.

In other news:

Last week, to continue with my ongoing documentation of Terrain, I returned for the Harvest and got my pumpkin on. Autumn is in full swing, going from 96˙ evil-humid days to 60˙ days with chilly breezes in the blink of an eye. I picked an especially gorgeous day, arriving at the crack of dawn and leaving only after the golden hour of evening. It was also really lovely to see the Terrain posse again who are always a pleasure to work with... or near.


harvest spray © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


lotus © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Spectacular light, and not too shabby results.

An anonymous tip put me hot on the trail of an abandoned, burnt-out diner in inner the Philly burbs this week. Today Gwyn, Michael and I decided to take it on. Before we met up with Gwyn, Michael and I decided to case it and see if the entryway was still clear, look for eyes on us and parking. It was fairly out in the open but we decided to run with it... collected Gwyn and returned and slipped right in.


pumpkins and mushrooms © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

There had been an accidental kitchen fire several months ago, but despite this, everywhere but the site of the fire was in surprisingly good condition. Tables were still set with silverware, paper napkins that were slightly singed, and coffee cups sitting upside down on their saucers, booth seats barely covered with dust. We crept into the seating area, moving slowly behind the slightly-tinted glass. Gwyn followed me into the kitchen to look at the damage, while Michael wandered off around the counter.


orchilette © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


lace © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

As I backtracked towards the booths, Michael whispers "There's someone coming, there's a guy on a bike and he is coming this way, we gotta get outta here." We grabbed our stuff and made our way out the back door, Michael saying he couldn't see him clearly, but he had a blue shirt and might be a bike cop.


arterial © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Peeking around the corner, we saw nothing and shuffled back to the car, while the bike guy continued to stay put, staring into the diner door, barely visible to us. I turned for a moment just in time to see him slip around the corner and ride off.


albinos © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

We decided to see if we could get a good look at him (like if he was actually a bike cop or not) and get moving in case he saw us and called the cops.



apricot © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Failing to catch up with him, we returned and waited in the parking lot to see if anything would "happen" and try to decide whether or not we should make a second attempt.

And thereupon we bailed. Not one photograph was had, not a camera unsheathed from its bag. Amped up on jittery adrenaline I snappily decided we should go check out one of the Peru House neighbors, Riddle House. This particular approximately mile stretch of road in Delaware County may have no less than 10 abandoned and/or vacant houses, some locked, some visible from the road, some posted, some not. Gwyn led us down a woodsy drive to a stupendous, rather strangely organized Victorian-ish house. There was grand front porch that was mostly surrounded by railings, though at one end, there was a bank of windows... with curtains.


the wind through us © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The drive that encircled the house had a roofed portion that extended from the front porch, presumably to protect you from the elements while you hopped in your carriage. Around back there was a structure on top of which there was watchtower-like room, large and octagonal with big windows all the way around.


ashes © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The front door was hanging open, its padlock busted and while the first floor was boarded, moving through the front room quickly lead us to the main stairway which was so bright by comparison, it seemed almost artificially lit. It was painted with rather unusual patterns that could have been painted really anytime... deco-y and abstract in pale pinks, yellows and greens. It had obviously been sepearated into apartments at some point during the 70s (noting the harvest gold kitchen appliances). There were signs of small fires on the second and third floors, no graffiti to speak of, no solid signs of squatters.


tissue © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The watchtower had become a rather impressive grave for two turkey vultures. Strangely, there was one huge window wide open (maybe broken out) but the one vulture had died with its wings spread out in the center of the room. The other folded and tucked in the corner. It would seem that one would cancel the other out, but there they died together, looking like they had died at almost the same time.


nevermind © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The house was filled with all sorts of interesting slopes and curves, rippled old glass, and subtle colors. The evening light made it so magical, but the trek earlier in the day, made me jump at the none-to-distant woosh of traffic and the scuttle of squirrels and birds outside the open windows.


marshlands © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Having neglected to bring a flashlight we were cut off from the excitement that apparently is the other half of the house. Return is essential, with model, ideally. More photos to come, naturally.

The last few weeks of October are chock full of action to make up for the quickly approaching November deficit... of action and income. I'm starting to dread it more and I've been having some unexpected pain the past couple of days... hoping it just passes before I run into the Butcher for our ladder match. The hospital posse might have even forgotten about me by now. Next weekend by bosom friend Shanners becomes Mrs. McLaughlin and Michael and I are devoting our weekend to being her paparazzos. I have a few special visitors, models and a touch of trouble to get into... then hopefully, I will go vote, put Senator Obama into office, and then wizz off to the hospital.... A few drugs here, a few weeks of laying around there... and I will be good as new, we hope.


sprig © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

the exacta

Despite the heat, the hospital visits, and the lack of shooting, the summer is flying by at a mad clip. It can't have been that long ago I was bemoaning the length of time before my next check-in with The Butcher.... and it's been and past already. I'm plotting another shoot with The Beave and a camping expedition with Michael. Work with my new favorite client is broadening by the day. There is nothing quite like being someone's Everything Girl. I like it.


all-terrain days © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

I could not have imagined such variety in the things I have done and seen in the past short weeks. Every day has been filled to the gills. The Shanners has been cooking on the wedding front, with copious shower action.


adjustments © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Thereafter, I disappeared into the shadows of Lancaster, unearthing the questionable treasures of college art & design classes along with embarrassing journals from high school. As little as I remembered about my social interactions in both college and high school, the things I made I remember clearly still. But reading about the things that happened brought them back with surprising vividness. Much to my wild blushing.


penumbra © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


headstone © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Along the path of our normal let's get lost weekend drives, Michael suggested that we take a detour to the racetracks for a day... to see what stumble across.


leader © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The Philadelphia Park track is certainly not amongst the grander in the area, but did provide us a slightly unsettling glimpse into the lives of hardcore gamblers and the curious lives and relationships between the jockeys, horses, owners and handlers on the other side. The element of excitement lost out of the creepy grit that laid over the place like the scent of stale cigarette smoke.


gallop © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The uncharted territory of visual merchandising was stumbled into last week as I began a stint of very hands-on work at Terrain. I had no idea what to expect and though my picture is slightly clearer, I still do not know what to expect for the second week of work. They are in the midst of their Autumn turnover, new product comes in, holes from the summer need to be filled in and re-mingled with new... new displays, replanting, renewing. Now I have always had a soft spot for moss... after lunch on the first day, I embarked on a two and a half day intimate journey with moss, quite unlike anything I have ever worked on. There is a moss wall in the spa-product room that is planted with a few ferns and finished with some orchids.


watering cans © Laura Kicey for Terrain. All Rights Reserved.

Along with one of the staff display artists, we had to remove almost all the moss section by section, soak it and replace what we could, pitch what did not revive. My time was split between collecting dry moss and working in the mushroom house, submerging, draining, sorting.... and making chicken wire planters lined with sheet moss. Altogether it took us a day and a half to replace the moss, attach the planters, plant the ferns, rearrange the ground plants and water it. The third day we started on a major project, creating a huge wooden arch which would be covered with 40 moss-covered planters. It was not long before I found myself with my same mossing partner elbow deep in giant hunks of chicken wire and huge bags of moss, covering planters. While also wrassling with the design for some cashwrap signage. Weeee!!


pincushion plant © Laura Kicey for Terrain. All Rights Reserved.

After spending five years working basically alone in an attic I had forgotten how much fun it is working with people. Not only was it nice to be social again, but it was also refreshing to be outside, away from a desk, a computer. It was very physically demanding, every day going home with soil and mysterious organic debris in side my clothes, dirt under my nails and barely able to move from being so stiff. Going home and taking a shower after a ten hour day and flopping down in bed, I haven't felt this accomplished in some time. It was very invigorating. Friday night before Labor Day weekend, we hoped to finish the hothouse refixturing. We stayed extra late and managed to fill it in and erecting the wood arch with planters. We were all sweaty and filthy at the end of it, but it was a very satisfying finish to the week.

for sale by mummy © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Following that I didn't think I would be able to muster energy to do much of anything. But I had three shoots lined up nonetheless. I had to complete a photo essay I am doing for a magazine (no details until after release, naturally).


backstroke © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Shhhhhhhhhhh!

grasses in the wind © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


Shanners and Shua were asked by the Shannersmom to produce some engagementy-style photos for her enjoyment. To help a sistah out, Michael and I took them over to Valley Forge Park, in the insanely intense sun and goadded them into being cute together in front of us for an hour or so.


lawn care © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Then, ice cream to help everyone get over the heat.


the clothesline © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Holiday Monday was the perfect opportunity for Gwyn, Michael and I to visit a couple of abandoned houses near where developers were actively working on some new McMansions. The first of the two sites was a house that appeared to be built in the 70s. The first story was boarded up but the second story was filled with a lot of of interesting remains of the last families inhabitants.


thinking back © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Several photo albums, one dated 1998; love letters from the late 60s from a man in the army, Peter, to his (later) wife, Rita; several sports trophies, dolls, a weight bench, and a bowling ball. The latter appearing to have been used as a wrecking ball on the toilet by squatters who put some holes in the walls, drank lots of terrible beer, played paintball and wrapped themselves in the amazing assortment of crocheted blankets all over the house.


second story © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Though it is not something I normally do, I was drawn to this amazing painting I found in the 'girls room' of a red-haired lady on a green field with flowers. I had to take her home with me.


center stage © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Two weeks remain until my 31st birthday. I had to share a phenomenal find today, I was forced to purchase for a birthday present to myself, from etsy's maid of clay, I give you flower child - poppy, © Felicia of MaidOfClay.



Just my flavor of bizarre beauty.

Also in the spirit of sharing great things I have stumbled upon, my sweet internets friend meeralee posted this very eloquent and insightful series on sharing yourself on the internets for a Utata project and I think you should check it out.

There are about 4 other adventures I believe I neglected to mention, but I the bedding down hour draws near. 6am is my new hour! Good Night!




etched © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

when one has spent a long time undressed from the waist down...

...one should consider going Down The Shore™, so that one feels, by comparison, less naked.


scrub © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The past couple weeks have finally started resembling the life I remember having a long time ago. Despite the lack of work... or perhaps because of it, I've been getting around. Gwyn, Michael and I decided for my first shoot-outing in a month, we should do it up right. Destination: Pennhurst State School and Hospital. We were given explicit directions on how to get onto the campus so as to avoid certain problematic situations. Little did we know that the rugged mile and a half trail on a near 100 degree day, in the very wrongest shoes, carrying a maximum of equipment would totally kick our asses before we actually even made it into a building. Magnificent blisters! Hobos! Humidity!


fire door © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

But! Wow. Once we settled on a building to investigate, we spent the next couple of hours, slowly making our way through the Christmas-themed rubble of the Assembly Hall, which looked as though it had been abandoned in the midst of a holiday pageant. Admittedly I felt a little off my game... having not shot in ages, feeling so totally drained before even digging in, not to mention having to literally take baby steps so that my feet didn't self-destruct... it took us almost an hour before we discovered what appeared to be living quarters above the auditorium.


organgrinder © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Pennhurst has suffered a great deal of vandalism, naturally, over the past twenty years it has sat vacant, more recently scrappers have really taken their toll. They were probably responsible for the destruction of just about every bathroom fixture. Most of the residents' possessions in this building were long gone, with the exception of a couple office-like rooms with some desks, toys, and some papers, including what appeared to be a music teacher's teaching aids - drawings of musical notes.


pageantry © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

We started to fade pretty fast, so we cut our visit short knowing we had a long, hot walk back to the car. I wasn't overly pleased with the resulting photos, but it inspired some curiosity and fears about the site and what I found made me question whether or not I wanted to take the risk and return. Better planning and a cooler day will probably make all the difference. It took me a two days to recover from that visit, but I am rather invigorated now, so bouncing back should happen faster. Walking now whenever I can, Nordictracking it in between.


vanities © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


scent of sleep © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The following week, finding herself temporarily unemployed, Shanners recommended we do something cheap and fun. We had been pining to visit Terrain at Styers for some time now and with a gorgeous day on our hands, we trekked out. With all of its parent company's inventive flair.


the opening © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Slackjawed and whimpering at the loveliness, we walked through, doubling and tripling back to admire and re-admire the copious gorgeousness, over the course of two hours. I could barely put down my camera. We enjoyed spritzers in the cafe and mused about how much more exciting our abodes would be if we were both independently wealthy. Ah if only.


the light from within © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

altar © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

The mercury has been fast on the rise for weeks now. Michael and I collective blood was boiling at the thought of staying in the city another weekend, with little choice but to hide out indoors. We whittled down the options, but the low 80s with low humidity with a breeze offered up by the OC, proved too tempting to ignore. Doused in sunscreen, we set out on the most backasswards route to avoid the well backed-up AC Expressway. On the to-do list du jour: walk walk walk, good-bad food, photographing. We walked the entire length of the boardwalk and then some. Admired wiry, sweaty jogger, obnoxious nearly naked youth, saggy swimsuited old ladies. And then steamers. Fried shrimp. Scalllops. French Fries. Gelato. Saltwater taffy. Ocean air.


cyclical © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Did a body good. And a mind.

Just before we busted a beachward move, I paid the Butcher a visit, the last for a long time (comparatively). After the last procedure, I swore he said we'd only wait a month before we could try to repair me again. The next time we spoke, I swore he said two months. This time, he said he wanted to see me at the end of August to see how we were progressing and then we would wait until the end of September to try again. My heart sank. Shanners and I talked and we realized that if I had the procedure at September's end, I would more than likely not be in any shape to shoot her wedding a couple weeks later. So I have decided that I will wait until mid-October at the earliest to attempt the surgery again. It is difficult to imagine that much time between here and health. Healthy birthday, no. Happy birthday, perhaps I can manage. Maybe healthy holidays. Goals are hard to set. Nay. Impossible.


descent © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Meanwhile... Happy New Year! I have a show in January at Cafe Estelle!!! Something to tide me over until I can secure a gallery showing with the constructs in mind. So this will likely feature my more recent abandoned interiors. First Tuesday of the month, opening, that is January 6th, 2009. Be there!


cloud number two © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

there's more where that came from

An evening walk speckled with fireflies... what's that you say? Am I all better now? Up and out and moving and shaking like that.

It might seem like I take some perverse joy in this... or am making it all up for the number of times I have written the words it didn't work.

That little sliver of hope that it would just scar down and everything would grow golden peach fuzziness died with a delightful infection over the weekend, following my visiting with the Butcher. We discussed how to proceed in the short term and long, with the now-familiar pall of disappointment over us. To ensure my comfort for the interim period, he wanted to perform an intermediate comfort procedure before the 4th of July weekend... a procedure I have now had four times. Then for the worse news, instead of waiting only one month to try again, he said we should really wait two... on top of that the rather horrifying and more invasive procedure he mentioned last time... yeah, that one.


tangle © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


So last Wednesday, back to the Surgicenter we went. After my last visit, where I assured all the nurses that I wouldn't be back, this is the last one for real this time... Michael and I both have become all too familiar to well... everybody now. We got razzed at every turn, starting with the inimitable Georgette. My favorite German, red-headed-surrogate-mother nurse was in recovery and visited me while I was in Pre-Induction.


escapist © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

This process has become so much a part of my way of life. Despite that, I am still surprised at how uncomfortable and drained I am for ages following it all... I always expect to just bounce. But I don't. The added weight of having just been in the hospital two weeks prior to the day, and scarcely moving in that time, took its toll. So this week I decided I needed to step up. Since I have two months, I've decided to start a light workout routine, including walks and my Nordic Track... which hasn't been touched in so long it got stuck at max resistance where I left it, making it especially challenging, now. Its been very upsetting watching the hard work I put in for some four year basically go to waste because of pain, exhaustion, explicitly being told to rest and eat weird things, and lack of desire to start something I would have to stop again repeatedly. I need to get a step ahead of this next one. I want to feel stronger going into it... hopefully the result will be that much better. Exercise plus regular art fagging with the gang and shooting onward and upward should make the two months fly, and looking forward to doing it again afterwards makes it a little easier to process.


fear to tread © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

At long last this weekend Gwyn is taking Michael and I to a special location that I attempted to visit some two years ago and chickened out of and I am buzzing with the thrill of what we'll find there. Also everywhere I turn I have been featured on the front page of art e-commerce sites including imagekind and trunkt. There was even a little spike in etsy sales. Always welcomed. LAB v02 came out as well, which features some amazing collections, including a vibrant bunch of Indian handpainted street signs from Meena Kadri and mac 'n' cheese packaging amassed by Pete Jordan. Plus my constructs make an appearance.

Also its come time to showcase some things I shot aaaaaaaaaaaages ago and finally can post them publicly. First off, from a shoot in February for the American Institute of Architects, Context magazine, I was asked to do a portrait of the fine gents who lead a sustainable development/design/build team in Philadelphia, The Onion Flats. I opted to do some traditional group portraits but then also wanted to take a slightly different approach: take four individual portraits and then digitally composite them afterwards. Sort of a portrait version of a construct. While it was not chosen for print, I still liked how it turned out. First, the singles, then the recombined version:


tim mcdonald © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


johnny mcdonald © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


pet mcdonald © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


howard steinberg © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


forward thinking © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

Two months ago I had the opportunity to shoot the workings of a printing studio in idyllic Durham, PA. I documented the studio assistants working on an edition of floral woodblock prints by renowned artist Polly Apfelbaum. Afterwards I met with the owners of Durham Press for a series of portraits around with pieces from their private collection.


crossfire © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


awash © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


woodblock print © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


the perfect stroke © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.


jig © Laura Kicey. All Rights Reserved.

I had a passing fancy this morning that I might ask some people to contribute photos of random architectural elements and façades so that I might build a construct of them. It half way seems like cheating and half way seems ideal for the circumstance. It would bring fresh stock to the dwindling pot, help me keep creating without moving, and allow me access to foreign architectures without an airplane ticket or wasting gas. Credit gets sticky... and I hate not taking my own photos... and I don't know what quality of camera I am working with when others shoot on my behalf... and if I sold the piece would I then have to divvy up the profits... and who would actually do it?

In the meantime I am working on a presentation book for the constructs to shop around to publishers, hoping I can find someone to produce it and I am considering also self publishing a smaller photography book featuring my abandoned interiors. Should keep me distracted for a little while I imagine. Keep your eyes peeled I should add to that particular set of images this coming week.