TRICK OR TREAT!

Eva-and-her-Bird-on-halloween-charr-crailThere is no book or story to read as the title alludes to.  That’s the TRICK in the Trick or Treat.  The TREAT is this art piece inspired by Edward Gorey and his gothic take on the darker side of life.  I love his work.  One day while allowing the muses to play I drew the strange woman standing in the foreground with her bat-like hat.  The rest of this image was found and added piece by piece over a few weeks.  I don’t think one has ever taken this long to fully arrive.  It was close on that first day but I knew something was missing and I simply had to have the nerve to wait and watch for it.  And wait and watch I did.

The bits and pieces were captured during daily doings.   The old victorian buildings were found on a stroll through Midtown.  The birdhouse and an actual fledgling bird showed up during a backyard garden party at a friends house.  Finally, on a typical grocery shopping trip, the skeletons appeared.

The point of this?  The bits and pieces are everywhere.  Even if you are doing the most mundane things at the seemingly most normal places the extraordinary will show itself.  Being aware of your surroundings and allowing the muses to guide you is the first half of the battle.  The second and most important half is taking up the challenge and stopping to capture the ideas that present themselves.

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About charr

Charr Crail is a Northern California photographer and artist with an avid passion for creating unique digital imagery. Charr, a full-time freelance photographer, spans the divide between photojournalism and extraordinary art via photography and can trace back her evolution as an photographer/artist from three dominant sources. Her father made his living as a newspaper photographer and as soon as he could, was taking young Charr, then four, on assignments to capture a lifetime of experiences and images. He instilled a sense of adventure and curiosity in her as they would often meander down unknown country roads of the South – just to see and capture what was out there. Soon after, Charr would develop her eye for photography and journalism as “the river that runs through everything she does”. Charr’s mother blessed her daughter with the ability to appreciate art in its various mediums. Further, her mother was able to pass along the joy, satisfaction and excitement one can experience in actively creating something beautiful. It’s no surprise, then, that Charr would become a photojournalist and later a photo editor spanning two decades working for Northern California publications including The Sacramento Bee. Often, her assignments would include community events with a “close to home” theme woven into every image and story she captured. Her photojournalistic experience has therefore been nuanced through everything she produces. She’s also drawn to the wonder of color and the beauty that can be found in the composure of a face and the make-up of the human bodyscape. Charr has won countless awards for masterful pieces including; the Professional Photographers of America LOAN Collection for two consecutive years, WPPI Grand Award and her work has been featured in the Di Rosa Museum in California’s beautiful Napa Wine Region and is also part of the permanent collection. Separately, she instructs digital photography workshops that teach students how to blow out the creativity of their photography in simple methods using programs like Adobe Photoshop and how to market using mobile devices-- Visual Content Creation using Mobile Devices.. Charr lives in Sacramento with her husband Chris and kitties Leeloo and Sadie.

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