FEATURE SHOOT

FEATURE SHOOT is a photo blog with great work on it - Peter Hoffman is the creator. He contacted me a few weeks ago. They chose some of my work to feature. Thanks Peter!!!

Mention on www.coudal.com blog

I got a blurb mention and a link off of this blog. My friend Atom Robinson in Minneapolis told me. Nice how this happens! They linked to the photo I took of the barn near Mt.Vernon with the mural painting of Grant Wood's American Gothic painted on it.

Down to the River / The Music of Bill Monroe

Down to the River / The Music of Bill Monroe

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Inspire(d) Media

I don't think I had a blog when this came out in my friends' new magazine inspire(d) media. It is a good piece -- Sandy Dyas = Iowa / '50 States' Project --and I wanted to hold on to it - so here it is. Thank you Benji!

Pieta Brown & Skyrocket

New little video of Pieta and her amazing Skyrocket band at the Mill in Iowa City. My hope is to make more little videos - got a new camera and final cut express so here we go...

Artist, Photographer Sandra Dyas

Artist, Photographer, Lecturer Sandra Dyas Iowa City has a brand new blog - check out the article.

Kate Greenstreet Poems

The American Dream; The 50 States Project

The American Dream

Photograph: Steve Roling, near Bellevue, Iowa 2009

It was December 17th, 2009. Steve Roling and I were driving the back roads and the high roads of Jackson County in his truck, taking in the winter beauty of the Iowa landscape. We have been friends since the late 1970s. Steve and Peggy (his wife) own a bit of land through years of investing in farmland rather than stocks and I was getting a first class tour of it.

In the early seventies, just out of the army, Steve began working for Nelson, a man who lived near Seattle, Washington. “Nelson Erection” was the name of the company. Steve was hired because his older brother Gene had worked in Alaska for Nelson but decided to return to college. Steve became part of a crew hired to build radar towers and Boeing aircraft hangers. Their motto was “ We Always Get It Up”.

In 1976, Steve began a logging business in Bellevue and named it “Steve Roling Logging”. When he wasn’t traveling to all parts of the United States for Nelson, he was logging trees. Steve adamantly points out he has planted far more trees than he has ever cut down and he intends to continue. Harvesting full grown trees he planted as saplings is a physical reminder to him of life’s precious cycle.

During Steve’s fifteen years of working for Nelson, he traveled to 49 states. “Like any other boy, I couldn’t wait to leave my hometown,” said Steve. “I grew up on a farm in rural Bellevue and realized after seeing most of the U.S.A, Bellevue was really the place I wanted to call home. I returned to Bellevue and married the girl down the street.”

My photograph of Steve was taken in front of a cabin he built on the first farm he bought. The land fondly became known as Rolly World in the mid-eighties. A spring fed creek, two ponds and so many memories....Rolly World.

Steve Roling just might have it all. He is living his American Dream. He is not rich in things but he has some of the richest land in Iowa and more friends than you can count. A hard worker, he also finds time to hunt and fish in Iowa, Colorado, Alaska, New York State, Florida, South Dakota and Arkansas. Sage Rosenfels (quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings) once wrote in a grade school essay that when he grew up, “he wanted to be just like Steve Roling because he got to hunt and fish all the time”.

Steve and Peggy live in a modest home in Bellevue, on Second Street, down the street from the house my daughters and I used to live in. They have three grown children, Ryan, Michael and Christina. There is a big wooden bear standing on its hind legs in their front yard. You can’t miss it.

The American Dream - The 50 States Project

Our final assignment "American Dream" is up for your viewing pleasure. What a wonderful year of photographs. I for one, really was inspired by the work and enjoyed participating as Iowa Photographer. View The 50 States Project by Stuart Pilkington of the UK.

Minneapolis Photo Center - PORTRAITS

Recent press in the Star Tribune and on Minnesota Public Radio about the show "Portraits" at the Minneapolis Photo Center. If only I could have been in two places at once. A crowd of 400-500 people were at the opening night reception. My portrait entitled "Susan with the Red Tomato, near Andrew, Iowa" was chosen to hang with 83 other portraits. David Little, photo curator at the Minnesota Institute of the Arts was the juror for the Photo Center's very first exhibition in the new space. The show is up through February 14th.

Farnham Galleries - Simpson College

Heaven & Earth - Farnham Gallery, Indianola, IA
The Lost Nation Photographs

Heaven & Earth - A Photo Installation

Heaven & Earth - the Photo Installation went up on Sunday and Monday. I did have some installing help from a number of faculty, staff and students. A nice and interested crowd of people were there for the Monday reception. Justin Nostrala, Painting and Drawing Professor at Simpson College invited me to show in two galleries. One gallery was devoted to The Lost Nation Photographs and the other to Heaven & Earth. Both exhibitions will be up until February 5th, 2010. For more information about the exhibitions - see this link at Simpson College. Gallery Hours: M-F 8am- 4:30pm. Call 515.961.1761 for more information.

If you are interested in having me present this very large installation, Heaven & Earth, I would welcome environments to show it. I am also available for artist/student residencies. My contact information is on www.sandydyas.com - and I am also a member of the IOWA Artist Directory. My newest work can be found on my website and on my blog - Picture This.

ONWARD '10 - Philadelphia, PA Opens February 6th

Project Basho in Philadelphia opens Onward '10 exhibition of photographs juried by Debbie Fleming Caffery on February 6th, 2010 - Opening Reception - 2 - 5pm. They received a stunning 1666 photographs from 418 individual artists. Two of my Holga B/W silver prints were selected!

New Eef Barzelay Video - "I Love The Unknown" - Video - Stereogum

New Eef Barzelay Video - "I Love The Unknown" - Video - Stereogum

Alec Soth - Glass Jars

This is what I love about Video. Brilliantly simple and enticing.

It is inspiring Alec Soth - thank you for posting it. I actually found it

on Shane Lavalette's posting. Another excellent photographer - and I

found his photo on Flak Photo this morning....

Glass Jars from Little Brown Mushroom on Vimeo.

The Secrest Round Barn in Preservation Magazine

This fall I did a large shoot for an essay written by my good friend Thisbe Nissen in Preservation Magazine, January/February 2010. I am thrilled have made the photographs for Thisbe's story/essay entitled "A Year in the Round; How My Love for a Barn in Iowa Inspired a Lifelong Obsession". The online version contains two photographs and I think there will be more in the printed version...which I have not seen yet.

Farnham Galleries - Simpson College

Getting ready for a big up-coming Sunday. I am driving to Indianola, Iowa to install the show at Simpson College. Two shows. Two Galleries of Work. One room will house "The Lost Nation Photographs" and the other will be a very large and unusual photo installation called "Heaven & Earth". It takes a few days to hang the photos (see installation), pin the photos to the walls to create something new. Hope I will see some friends at the reception on Monday, January 11th from 5-6pm, 2010.

Kate Greenstreet - ARTIST & FRIEND

Here is an interview with Kate Greenstreet about her new book of poetry and a video too. I think you should buy her book. I think you should read this interview. She is someone special and REAL. Keep going Kate.