The Two Worlds

April 19, 1255 AD

Lords and Ladies,

On March 18, went into Boston w/ fellow AIBer and photog Katie Ring to see "The World as a Stage" show at the Inst. of Contemp. Art. Since some of my medieval work has a theatrical element to it, it was fun to see this show.

We also visited the Griffin Museum in Winchester, Mass., and was blown away by a show called "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom" by photographer Stephen Wilkes. Some beautiful and haunting imagery.

In my last Thought Piece, I dealt w/ exploring the Society of Creative Anachronism even more and why people participate, and what positives do people bring back into the contemp. lives that are learned thru the SCA, as well as just learning more about the culture of the fighting and life of the SCA. It is making me appreciate the SCA even more.

In my work, I’ve been playing with trying to combine the two worlds of the contemporary and the medieval world that myself and SCA folks participate in. I’ve been using mirrors and now have begun to use a picture frame to combine the two worlds. I probably will buy a doorframe and use that to symbolize transition from one world to another.

My mentor Peter Clive has been great in his critiques and helping me refine my ideas. I’m still working on refining ideas and photos from Feb! Don’t know what that says about me…☹ I suppose I’m still not satisfied with them.

I also hope to play some ideas using the medieval theme in other ways as well as I head to June residency. I’m sketching out ideas with the themes of domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, immigration, religion, and war—all issues that the medieval society dealt with as much as we are now. I guess I figure why not try different tangents of the medieval + anachronism themes now and see what people are drawn to in the next residency.

Less than two months now til the next AIB residency! Wow.

Vi et virtute,
Mark