Juliet van Otteren

Last night I did my first class with Juliet van Otteren. She is an outstanding artist and an sizzling, passionate person. She loves life, her work, and being on the planet. Prints from her books, Heart of The Horse, and the upcoming Being Dog, are hung in an exhibit where I go to church which is probably the least prestigious place she’s ever hung an exhibit. She has otherwise had exhibits at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in France, and lots more. In terms of the success terms we white bread Americans can understand, she’s so good you can buy her stuff at Art.com and Amazon.com.

Her results are in and of themselves amazing but how she does it is a courageous, spiritual experience. For Heart of The Horse, she used real film and painstakingly took the time to go into the darkroom herself to accomplish the results she wanted. I spent some of the evening staring at her photos in ways that are considered impolite if you are looking at real people. But that’s not as astounding as how she gets the shot.

So Juliet sets up a studio and lets the animals roam about as they wish, and do what they want. For her horse series, she used five strobes with a gi-normous backdrop set up in a barn. She left the barn door open so the horses could leave any time they wanted. She did the same for the dogs.

I'm inspired and intrigued. Our first assignment, a self portrait. Hmmm oh geeeesh... the anxiety!