Sheila Bocchine, Photographer

Sleeping in the Ala Mar by the Sea Motel in Santa Barbara, California. Gary must of woke up early because the door is open.  I also love the occasional sleeping pinhole when I’m super aware of what’s happening and sleep without moving much. Also, I travel in style, notice my pink chucks and my vintage 1970′s purse!

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Suwon, South Korea is pretty amazing. A friend on facebook said my encounters were like living in Mayberry. I believe she cast a Mayberry spell on me, for at first Mayberry it was not, but as my days pass, Mayberry it’s becoming.

I must be on the right path because every time I pose a question (to myself, or out loud), the answer reveals itself moments later.

On Wednesday, I went to pick up my laundry (on Saturday I found a laundromat with an owner that speaks a little English).  The door was open, but the owner was away. On the desk there was a sign with a phone number in big letters.  I can only assume it said, ‘Call me if you need me’.  I pondered what to do next, because I really needed clean panties and bras.  Luckily, neatly folded in the bags I dropped off were my clothes, and hanging above them were my dresses.  I wrote him a note, put it on his desk and left with my things. On my walk home, I was starring into outer space when I noticed a man in a van trying to get my attention. I realized it was the laundromat owner.  He stopped to make sure I had everything! So sweet is he.

On one of my exploration treks I found a flower/plant shop.  Yesterday I returned and purchased 2 potted herbs (lavender and lemon balm) and a pretty green hanging plant. The shop owner was trying to explain something to me, and at first I had no idea what he was saying.  Then through gestures, I realized he was saying water the herbs a lot and the plant once a week. He realized that I understood and he smiled!

Walking home with my plants a guy on a scooter stopped me, asking for directions.  Yes, please laugh and then continue reading! Turns out he’s a college student (I live by a university) looking for the foreigners bar, he wanted to practice his English.  Now stopping me made sense. I knew where it was, haven’t been there and couldn’t really give directions but I could type the name into his ipod touch. We talked for a few minutes and I gave him my email address. Waiting for me at home was a facebook friend request from him!

And… that brings us to today. Across the street from my apartment is a mountain, okay maybe a REALLY big hill.  None of the other teachers knew anything about it.  Walking home with my laundry the other day I saw an opening and people disappearing into the trees. Today I decided to go check it out. At the opening 2 nice ladies said hello, they seemed like they wanted to talk, but I was eager to retreat into nature.

I wasn’t prepared for the hike that lay before me. I was wearing yellow jellies and carrying a purse with a book. I was hoping to find a nice patch of grass to enjoy my book.  I started climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing.  Surrounded by lush green trees, interesting plants and the peaceful sounds of nature was a pleasant change from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Everyone that passed by said ‘hello’ or ‘how are you’ or something in Korean (with a smile on their face). People were walking in both directions. Families walking with their children, held up by a tree love birds were kissing, and old men holding  were holding their walking sticks tightly.

The canopy of trees hid the sky, but occasionally I’d round the corner and see a breathtaking view of Suwon. Miles of high rises and mountains in the background. It was so beautiful. Along the trail were clearings with gardens! Hidden gardens were growing all around.  I can’t wait to find out what’s growing.  The plants were very young and some haven’t even sprouted.  People with baskets and bags were off the trail, and I assume foraging. I would love to know what’s edible!

I kept climbing.  The occurring thought, ‘in what part of the city will I end up’ interrupted my hike a few times, but I kept going. I figured if I didn’t know where I was, I could just hop in a taxi and say Youngtong (that’s the part of Suwon in which I reside).

I finally reached the top. It was all downhill from there. I also stopped seeing people, which was a little strange. The descend was lined with 100′s of rose plants.  I was in awe at how beautiful this part of the trail was. I was skipping in delight, inhaling the delicious rose perfumed air.

I reached a brown wooden gate.  An elderly man was standing off to the side, just standing.  I opened the gate and kept following the path. I reached two more gates. Both locked. I had seen similar gates throughout the trail.  Each gate lead to apartment hi-rises and to required a pass code protected card to enter. I just stood there for a minute, wondering what to do next.  I realized I took a wrong turn somewhere; the well kept roses and no people, should have been a clue.

I decided to retrace my steps and walk back the way I came.  The man next to the brown gate was still standing there.  He said something to me in Korean and I spoke back in English. AND he spoke English. Not a lot, but enough to help me. I asked if there was a way down, and he said yes, but it is very difficult (obviously it was similar to the path I had taken up). He said he would help me and to follow him. So I did. We went back through the wooden gate and he asked me questions along the way. He wanted to know where I was from and what I was doing here. I found out that he grew up in Seoul and retired in Suwon.  We reached the locked gate and he swiped his card. I asked if I could get one of those and he said it was only for the people who lived there.  He also said to ask people where Youngtong was and I would find my way home. I thanked him and kept walking.

WOW!  I want to live where he lives! These hi-rises can’t even be seen from the streets.  The grounds had gorgeous lakes and flowers galore. I didn’t ask anyone for help, I just kept walking. I found a road that looked like it was going down… it was.  Along the sidewalk were paths through more wooded areas and beautiful flower gardens. I got a closer look at the birds I saw while hiking.  Very curious HUGE black and white birds.

I reached a major street and wondered out loud ‘which direction is Youngtong?’  A few feet in front of me a huge sign appeared over the street with arrows pointing to the main part of Suwon, and to Youngtong. After a short walk I recognized the area and made my way home.

Gary and I love Couchsurfing. It’s the greatest website. We’ve hosted travelers and have used it during out travels. Everyone we’ve met is super nice and full of terrific stories. This is us couchsurfing, on a bunk bed, in Oxnard, California. This house was incredible and right on the beach!

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I’m having a final moving sale tomorrow morning from 6am to noon. I’ll be doing it with some of my neighbors so there will be lots of stuff!

If you want to come say bye to me, I’d love to see you. I am leaving Phoenix on Tuesday April 28th. For those of you in Concordia, Missouri, I’ll be home from April 29th to May 8th. Then I leave for Suwon, South Korea! I’ll be teaching English. I’m thrilled and cannot wait for my adventure to start.

I’ll be blogging about my adventures in South Korea: www.sheilabocchine.com
Posting photos on my flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/daisyjellybean/
and of course you can find me on facebook by searching my name or email address

The garage/moving sale will have SO MUCH stuff for super super super cheap. Including kitchen stuff, clothes (from 4 different people, men and women, all sizes), books galore, art supplies, photo frames, home furnishings, vintage hats, purses, feather boas, etc. etc. etc. I have a couple of pinhole photos left as well if you’re interested in adding some art to your collection. Also totally random stuff like expired film, a box of unused CFL’s, photo paper, etc. etc. etc. Oh yes, and a jar for donations in case you feel like giving me a $1, to reach my goal. I’m almost there, so that’s the good news!

Where: 4950 E Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ 85008. Garage #5. Right next to the west gate.
Time: 6am to noon
When: Saturday April 18th

Feel free to pass this along to all your friends!
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This is an interview about my pinhole photography!!! Thanks for checking it out!

Click here to read the whole interview.

The Soop is a site that covers art, culture, fashion, lifestyle, music and trends. We are not trying to take over any news sites that are out there. More to give a voice to the local arts, the cool, the hip, the trendsetters, movers and shakers, but most of all to help grow the community.

If you didn’t see the exhibit that opened last First Friday at The Bragg’s Pie Factory on Grand Ave, you’re in luck!  There will be another opening on November 7th from 6-10pm.  Please come look at some fantastic photography, a beautiful day of the dead installation and ‘Armada 2012′ a spaceship installation (if you came to the exhibit last month, please come again, just to see the spaceship installation, it wasn’t up at the last opening).  The theme of the show is ‘Mysterious: simultaneously arousing wonder and inquisitiveness’.    There will also be amazing live jazz music as well!

Hooray for pinhole photography!

In August I was part of this really neat event called Ignite Phoenix.I gave a presentation on pinhole portraits. It’s 5 minutes long, with 20 pinhole portrait slides. Watch it if you like! You may need to turn your volume up pretty high…

I apologize if you’ve been to my website in the last week, for it was down. Not down for maintenance, it really just disappeared! It was totally crazy. But I am so grateful that it’s back!

The openings on October First Friday were fantastic! Great turnouts, amazing jazz and t’was a night filled with conversations about art! Afterwards some friends and I went to check out the bar at the recently opened Sheraton Hotel. Absolutely Gorgeous!

This is one of my new favorite pinholes, Sleeping in Santa Monica at The Pacific Sands Motel. I love my sleeping series and this is a welcomed addition. I love the matchbook on the night stand, the way the lamp curves on the right hand side and the light on the curtains. I bet this pinhole photograph will look gorgeous 30×30. My sleeping series is an ongoing pinhole documentary of the places I find myself sleeping… hotels, living rooms, friends houses… It’s such a fun way to document my travels.

So my parents are in town. I’ve enjoyed spending time with them. They are house hunting so I spent the weekend looking a homes in Maricopa, Surprise, and Litchfield Park. We found a gorgeous house yesterday in Litchfield Park, it’s the only one with my vote so far. I’m pretty excited for their move to the Phoenix area, it will be nice to see them every few weeks instead of every few years.

Although the process of house hunting is fun because they are looking for one to buy, it’s also a very sad experience. So many of the houses are short sales or bank owned or foreclosures and you can tell that the families had to get out of there as soon as possible. Many of the houses were dirty and had items left behind from the frantic move. I find it a little sad that so many homes are for sale and in this condition. Can you image how happy the families were to purchase their own home and start creating memories and a life together. You don’t really image being kicked out a few years later. I think the state of our country is a sad one sometimes. It appears that getting ahead for some people is impossible.

I completely feel that your destiny is up to you and that you make your own happiness but not everyone follows that philosophy and when they purchase that home and think everything is going swell, they find themselves in a bad loan and then out on the streets. I think certain operations are too greedy and they should think less about themselves and more about others. If families could purchase their own home and afford to make the payments then everyone would be happy… but NOOOOO… someone had to be mean and greedy and sign them up for a bad loan that they knew would be impossible for them to keep up with in the upcoming years. So now everyone looses. The banks can’t sell the properties and the families are out of a home. Totally blows my mind.

Speaking of happiness! I am SO HAPPY when I read The Ringing Cedars Series! I’m on book 3 right now and cannot wait to get home to read some more. Before I went to bed last night I read a chapter on ‘creating your own happiness’ and like I’ve said in other blog posts I truly believe in doing that. If you can’t make yourself happy, how can you expect anyone else to?

These books are so incredible I think everyone should read them. I feel so much happier and at peace while I am reading them and then definitely after. I also LOVE the way cedar smells. My cedar pendant, which I wear all the time now, smells divine! Periodically throughout the day, I’ll stop and just smell the pendant and a peaceful sensation overcomes my body. It’s a wonderful feeling.

I’ve been trying to do more meditating and more intending lately. I think at the end of each blog I will start intending.

Today I intend to answer all my email.
Today I intend to enjoy a wonderful dinner with my family at Olive and Ivy in Scottsdale.
Today I intend to get a lot of work done at work on the Iowa project.
I intend to make my living from photography.
I intend to show work in Germany this summer for their photography festival.
I intend to get a solo show at a prominent gallery in 2008.

This image is part of my sleeping series. Gary and I stayed in the San Carlos Hotel in downtown Phoenix for a few nights in summer of 2005. It’s rumored to be haunted but we didn’t see any ghosts. Marilyn Monroe also stayed there when it was a glamorous hip hotel back in the day. There is a Marilyn room, but it was booked. I document my globe-trotting adventures with pinholes of myself (and gary) sleeping in hotel rooms, friends living rooms, parents couches….
It’s an ongoing series, I never feel ready to show the whole series, but when I do, it will be beautiful.

Last night I went to bed early, like 8:30pm early. My brain is working too hard lately. I’m full of thoughts and ideas and I’m exhausting myself. If I could get a hold of my brother to see how my website is progressing, I think that would help. I feel like all these incredible things are about to happen, it will be like the fireworks grand finale every single day, once a few things are taken care of. All of these thoughts must be why I had such bizarre dreams last night.

All I have to say is, don’t mess with my car or you will be sorry.

I made Gary walk to my car with me this morning because I was weary of the ‘panda rapist’. What? Don’t you know who that is? Quite honestly, I don’t either. I had a bizarre dream last night. I walked to my car and there was a CD on my windshield. It was titled ‘panda rapist will kill you’. I played the CD and it was people screaming and obviously it was a recording of people being killed. The rest of my dream was like a movie, a partially black and white, partially color film with wild 60′s style music. I was being chased and all the signs were there, dark parking lots, a blanket in my back seat hiding the panda rapist, cautious peeking around corners…. it was crazy… he never did get me, but I’m positive that is only because I awoke.

I had another dream. I was living in a beautiful large house. My mom was there and so was Gary. It was 2am in the morning and I needed to run an errand. I walked outside, and noticed my car was gone. At first I didn’t suspect that I had a stolen vehicle case on my hands, I thought I forgot where I parked. After walking up and down the street, I realized that it had indeed been stolen. The house next door to us was dirty and ghetto and loud noises were coming from the back yard. I peeked in a crack and saw the tires and VW emblem of my car. I realized they had stolen my car and took it apart. The tires were standing upright, like they would on a car, except there was no car there. Just magical standing upright tires with the rims still intact.
I went back to my place told my mom and gary what happened. Then the next scene is a blur, but somehow the old lady that lived next door came over and I jumped her. I was beating her to a bloody pulp, except there was no blood… I was dragging her around the living room floor. I was throwing her against walls, I was jumping on her, I was trying her arms in knots. THE WHOLE TIME I was doing this, I was on the phone with the cops, telling them about my car and what happened. They wanted me to stay on the line until backup arrived. Every time I thought they had hung up on me I would say ‘hello’ and they would respond. The last time I said ‘hello’ I was having a hard time keeping the old lady down, and the cop said, they are right outside your door… and then BAM! Cops busted into my apartment and saved me! and I got my car back….

Yes, those were my dreams last night… welcome to my world.