Roxanne Turpen

It has not simply snowed in DC this winter. Rather those beautiful tiny fluffy flakes have managed to shut down the federal government for days on end and bring America's capital to a stand-still... more than once. Check out the video I made below so my mom in North Carolina could get an accurate portrayal of the weather. We already had 2-3 feet of snow and before the city could scrape it away what do you know- here comes another foot! Brrrr! Props to Beirut and W.B. Yeats for his dramatic use of poetic prose.

It's a little hard to believe that after living in North Carolina for 20 years it only took me 20 years to see it's most western side...a sandy strip of a world somehow still hanging on in the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks were lovely. They ARE however eroding... lighthouses are being pushed back, docks and houses have been swept away... however it's been hanging on for thousands of years and I'm sure it's lifespan is long yet. At least as long as any other low lying piece of earth will make it amongst the doom laden forecasts of global warming. So yes; the sand is lovely. The sky's are fierce and calm-- expelling winds and deep blues at their whim. And Jockey's State Park is a wonderful sunset sandscape of slipping and sliding upon dunes with a guilt free conscious.
However.....docks like the one below are falling out of business for miles.

LOOKEY: While I'm seeking out my next big project I have made an etsy store selling hand painted night lights...check it out!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/findingrox

In the future I'd love to tackle lighting design full on. Perhaps once I have an old farmhouse to fill up with gorgeous glowing chandeliers of every sort in every room.

I always seem to have a million projects going in my life. Some of these get finished, many are left near completion, and others are simply forgotten beneath the next wave of action and inspiration. I'm currently trying to decide what is worth finishing before moving on to new places and new adventures.

A hitch-hiking documentary from NC to Florida that my college roommate and I embarked on one Fall Break.....minus the documentary since my external drive died in the midst of editing as I was preparing to leave the country for 5 months. Needless to say it has remained chomped up in the merciless jaws of tech-death for a couple years now... easily forgotten beneath daily life until I found the hard copies of those tapes in my room yesterday. --Which just happened to be sitting beside a much larger stack of footage for a documentary I shot above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. After editing the latter it was 30 minutes long and it's now holed up on a DVD on the same shelf as the tapes. It is not doing much there; only my friends and family have ever seen this visual time capsule of Ambler, Alaska- a 95% Inupiaq village in the dead of Winter in 2007... and it seems that if I care for anyone else in the world to see what I saw, heard and felt-  I should go back- re-edit- condense- and web/ youtube/vimeo-ify to  allow more people to potentially stumble upon this snowy ice world even after all the glaciers have melted.

So I'm wondering now, what is okay to leave to the flippant strength of memory? One reason I am so strongly attached to photos and video is because it provides proof that amazing, simple and beautiful things really did occur. That for however long, your sister, mom or dad really did look like that. That I/You/She WAS there- in that corner of the world- once upon a time. It feels almost as if I've created a semblance of a responsibility  to prove that I and those around me really have lived and lived fully; however, if I go back and dust off those old mini dv tapes of two blonde girls thumbing rides on the back of Harleys in Cocoa Beach Florida or of an old medicine man talking about the little people who came from the North, does this edited/tangible experience actually become any more real than the memories?

A very good photojournalist once stressed the importance of now to me; of immediacy, of doing things right away while it is still fresh- and moving on. And with that, I must accept that some things will get left behind, layered deep between the neuro pathways of our minds, shut tight in drawers... lost on broken 250 gig hard drives; because life is still unravelling... and as for me- my appetite for creation shows no sign of slowing down.

So here- now- is just a glimpse of what I'm working on-  caught from the freshest and most recent visuals and memories in my mind... hello to the faces of the Dominican Republic.

Who knew that everyone and their mother rode motorcycles around the Dominican Republic? Please allow that statement to include grandmothers, grandfathers, babies, toddlers, kids and families of 4 all piled onto one bike zooming down a dirt road filled with potholes- hair blowing and teetering in the wind.
A lack of rules, regulation and warm tropical breezes wafting down from green hills full of palm trees and cows grazing is a feeling of this republic found floating in the Caribbean waters. Photos of this adventure- of the ups and downs, of the beautiful faces, of the wrinkles, of the poverty, of the richness, of the absolutely ripped bods of some of the men who work in agriculture, of women with hair maxed out with huge curlers- will come soon. 
For now, please enjoy the newest page to hit my site- the dreamy magic world of Kellen Watson in the belly of Reems Creek Valley by the Blue Ridge Mountains in Weaverville, North Carolina. xox.

What goes on in the summertime-------HOT August, at the art haven studio space in DC's Chinatown.
1- FFFever (below) realized last week that the AC unit (behind heads) worked. And it has been pleasantly cool and comfortable ever since.
2- Durkl -who recently pimped out their new space in the bottom floor of Goldleaf- has a new fashion line just in time for winter and the bomber jackets are sick.
3- Target had a red-sticker sale on blow-up pools (and we got the last one).

 I am going to the Dominican Republic for 5 weeks to work on a portrait series along the theme of  beauty through equality... if you know any great places or people there please fill me in !

Here are some pictures of what is to come! BillyStraps.com will be an online store where you can purchase the savviest and most goat-friendly camera straps on the planet. I've sewn these prototypes up over the past couple months, and fingers crossed they'll be rolling off a factory press before long.

 Still working on making some decisions such as the best type of fabric to wear around your neck... 
Please email, fb msg, or comment below if you have a preference between the following: cotton, microfiber, nylon, cotton/poly jersey, bamboo, or other... 
Also, would it make a difference to you if your camera strap was made in the US (ex. Hendersonville, NC) versus China? Enough to pay $2 more? (hypothetical)

Your input is appreciated! 

These last two pictures were taken on a friend's property just down the road from my mom's in Weaverville, NC... I never knew how much I loved goats!!