5 year reunion for Shared Horizons

On October 17, 2004, we gathered at Golden Star for our first round of Jimmy the Greek omelettes... this time we returned older, wiser, and with a much better camera. check out my website to see the original Shared Horizons project.

The first day- 10/17/04

some other older shots... more on my Facebook page.

In response to the 100 degree heat...

... and because I'll be seeing him live tomorrow night.





"Wolves" by Bon Iver

Help Portrait - consider getting involved.

New Work Explorations...

These new ideas are generously "borrowed" and derived from Jeff Rau and Jonathan Anderson... friends share things, right?




I've been wanting to make "icons" of my Northwoods Journals imagery... so here we go, this is my first attempt at routing and inlaying using a Dremel... not sure where this will lead, but it's fun to play... This is definitely very rough, and if I don't get better at it, then I'll just have my photos laser-cut and inlay them that way...




The wood panels would be stained, and I'm toying with the idea of incorporating gold leaf into them somehow... into the wood grain... ? who knows, but below are some images of my first attempts to gold leaf something in 10 years. I'm not that fond about it yet, but I'm excited to have at least gotten some of these ideas out of my head and into the studio.

Website updated / blog update to follow...

www.kurtsimonson.com

has been updated with new info/news pages and the latest configuration of the Northwoods Journals project.

maybe someday I'll get around to updating or using this blog again too...

Uganda pictures are posted

My Uganda photos are finally posted and ready to share- I had a hard time narrowing about 4000 photos down to about 1200... which is still far too many for most people to care about, but it was a big trip! The photos are organized in sets on my Flickr.com account, which allows you to view them at your own pace and with some sense of organization... so go here to see them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtsimonson/sets/


If you have never used Flickr before, it can be a little disorienting because of multiple viewing options. If you click on a set, you are taken to a thumbnail page. From there you have two options:
1. Click on any of those thumbnails, and you are able to see them larger. You can also read captions easily that way. Moving to the next picture is done through a grey-shaded box on the right. When viewing this way, you can also make comments, and you can view and download the full-size version of the picture by clicking "all sizes" above the photo.
2. However, if you want to view them as a slideshow, which is my favorite way of viewing things, there should be a small little icon (of a projector screen) for viewing things as a slideshow at the top of the main set page. The background goes black and the photos go full-screen, and if you want to know caption information, click "show info" at the top of the black screen.


I should be picking out some of my favorite photos to put onto my main website soon (www.kurtsimonson.com) and when I do, I'll let you know.

Uganda pictures coming soon...

To those of you who have been checking to see how my trip was... my apologies. It's been very difficult to find time to process my pictures (or my thoughts) since I got back and since work for the spring semester has started.

I will be posting most of the pictures (thousands of them) on my Flickr webpage, which I'll share the link for once they are ready. Then you can take your time, view as many as you want, or just ignore them.
Once I have a strong set of (narrowed down) personal favorites, I'll post those at kurtsimonson.com

For now, here's a couple.



Ruth's house, "The Blue House" at Namugongo




Idah, at the Blue House




Ruth's oldest sister




St. Paul's Cathedral, Namirembe

Me & Ezekiel

On Wednesday, I finally got meet Ezekiel... who I found out actually goes by Namukangula within his family (most of the kids have an English name and a family name, which is different than what would be their western surname... hard to explain).


I've sponsored Ezekiel for the last two and a half years- he's from the remote bush village of Bulemeze, which is where Sam's side of the family is from originally. Ezekiel, and a lot of the kids from Sam's side, now live in Kayunga (outside Kampala), in the house that is cared for by Gladys, the woman in the post below.

Yesterday I got to see the village, visit his parents grave, and meet his uncle James, who took care of him and his 6 siblings after his parents died. James told me his dad died first (from AIDS), then his mom one year later. Ezekiel was very young, and probably would not remember them. Three of Ezekiel's siblings (John, Robinah, and Diana) live at Kayunga with him now, and are sponsored by Ugandan Lambs. I'm not sure about the status of his older siblings.

Tom & Alex

When we first pulled up to Ruth's family home in Namagongo ("the blue house"), before Tom could even get out of the van, Alex was running up to him to give him a huge hug. Without a doubt one of the most touching things I have seen in my life.

Last year it was discovered that Alex had a heart condition that needed surgery. The same condition had recently taken the life of one of our other kids. Tom and his wife Meredith, who sponsor Alex, organized the fundraising to pay for Alex's surgery... and now he has the massive scar to prove it... which he's showing us here under his new Wilson's Home Improvement shirt.

Uganda

In about 24 hours, I'll be on my way to Uganda. If possible, I'll try to post updates and photos on here... in the meantime, here's a few photos that Louie Huesmann took when they visited last year.



Gladys, the caretaker for the kids at Sam's family home in Kuyunga. I am really looking forward to meeting this amazing woman, whom I hear has an incredibly deep and rich voice.




Here are the kids that stay at Ruth's family house, "the blue house," outside Kampala



Inside the Blue House, which is falling apart faster and faster each year... we may end up doing a fair number of repairs on it next week.

Great job with the photos Louie... I have a lot to live up to with my own work. Check out www.louiehuesmann.com when he finishes it.

Cheers friends... I'll talk to you from afar when I can.