Nancy Rawles, a Little Bit More

I want to tell a little bit more about my photo shoot with Nancy Rawles.

Nancy initially was not so happy to be photographed. She is not very fond of publicity. I pointed out she would do the shoot for the other women, who will be happy to learn about her in the magazine and who will be encouraged and inspired by what she is doing in her writing. It's important for other women and girls to see which wonderful creative and productive women we have in Seattle.



Very soon into the shoot we talked about things that were close to both our hearts . Nancy showed me pictures about the creation of the sculpture "Sadie" and the story behind it. Sadie is Jim's wife from the book "My Jim", which refers to the story of Huckleberry Finn and the slave Jim, who escaped from slavery. For the book "My Jim", Nancy asked several artists to create objects and music that are part of the story. For the sculpture "Sadie" she asked a good friend to be the model for the artist. Many hours were spent to create just the right expression and body posture. You see all the attention and love that went into the sculpture and you get a very good feeling for the life and the struggles Sadie went through.

You find more about this on Nancy's site.

I just started to read Nancy's book "Crawfish Dreams". As in "My Jim", "Crawfish Dreams" is about one woman's struggle to create a life of dignity and meaning for herself and her family. Camille is 68 and has the dream of opening a restaurant. She "cooks up a plan to bring her family back together and discovers that love, sharing, and a dash of daring are the secret ingredients that can turn drams into reality." The language with a wry sense of humor and the love of how the people are described in their weaknesses and in their dreams are captivating.

Nancy Rawles is also a teacher. By listening to her stories about her work as a teacher you can hear that she does it with a lot of love for her profession and for the students. I wish I had a teacher like her. I was very touched by what she said about the importance of daydreaming and the importance of giving students some space for that in the daily duties. The daydreaming part comes often to my mind. It has kind of a bad reputation. You are so used to filling up your days with all the things of the list. You need to be productive and show results. It's often overlooked that there is another kind of productivity working in daydreaming.

I discovered a beautiful website with interviews from Seattle related authors: Booklust by Nancy Pearl.

Look for the one with Nancy. She has a beautiful voice...

Nancy Rawles, Writer

Nancy Rawles, author of 'My Jim: A Novel,'
'Love Like Gumbo,' and 'Crawfish Dreams.' Ingrid did this for Seattle Woman Magazine.

Pepper Schwartz at WBE

You have the chance to see and hear Pepper Schwartz, who I recently photographed, talking about her book Prime. She will be at the Women's Business Exchange Breakfast on this coming Thursday morning, that is, October 11th, 2007.

The Women's Business Exchange is one of Seattle's largest networking organizations. Each month on the 2nd Thursday they have the breakfast meeting from 7 to 9am at the Washington Athletic Club downtown.

I still remember the first time I went to a breakfast around 4 years ago. I was impressed by seeing ca. 150 business women buzzing around. The air was full of sparkle and energy. Everything seemed possible.

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Here again is the picture of Pepper Schwartz for the cover, this time without the text:


I love the light on the wall. It was not easy to find the right spot to take the photos in and around her house. We looked at everything, Pepper's horse stable, the beautiful garden and rooms in the house. In spite of being beautiful, it all did not seem to be the right spot. So many things have to come together: the light, the colors, not distracting from the person, working for the cover and the text position, and in the end, it has to give the person the right "frame" and make them feel comfortable. All of this will affect the position of the body and the expressions.

I finally decided for this small spot in the kitchen. The warm yellow color and the streams of light seemed to be the right background for Pepper. I felt it connected with her ability to enjoy the moment, being exuberant and glowing from inside.

The dog who peeks in on the bottom of the picture contributed to the fun as well. Meanwhile her other big dog was lying on the opposite side under my tripod and between my feet. They wanted to take part too.

By the way, the cherries in the other picture were just there, we were eating them. They tasted so good. No bigger meaning, I just liked the little splash of red color...

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