Bay Area Trip

I went to the Bay Area over a year ago (almost two years). I never worked on any of the images I took, for some reason. Here are a few that I was fond of.

Also, the next time I go up there, I'm bringing an axe and cutting down those three pines (JK, I'm very into environmentalism... perhaps their owner can trim them).

Tiny Treasures

They're a bit on the old side, but still worth sharing!

Japanese room

I meant to post this months ago. 1:24 scale.

Loss

Loss. We've all felt it. When I was six, my grandfather died (I actually called him Pop pop, beside the point I guess). When I was eight, it was my paternal Grandmother. I lost two cats at the age of 15, rather traumatically (one was injured and one was trapped under a neighbors house). My Gran went when I was 21, though she was old, and it felt more correct than anything else (though I was still quite distraught). At 24, my Aunt abruptly died. I am familiar with the concept of loss. Nothing could have prepared me for these words: "Casey killed himself yesterday." Casey and I were kind of special friends. He and I met by- I kid you not- a dreadlock. We found a dreadlock at one of the common meeting areas at our college, Pratt Institute. We mused over its presence (we were nineteen, and nineteen year olds love to muse about this crap). The thing about Casey, he accepted my attraction to women immediately. I don't know if that's what made our relationship what it was, but I'm glad. He literally was the brother I never had. We would stomp on each other's shadows as a game (really... and this was when we were older), play scary video games together, and enjoyed cats/every other animal in the world. We played Resident Evil: Remake together. If you guys aren't gamers, you won't get this, but it was an experience that bonded us for life. He helped me with every zombie, every puzzle I had trouble with (despite the fact we had to play in the dark, to make it scarier). We emailed somewhat frequently (we real mailed, but I told him that email is more my style. Casey was not impressed). We loved talking about animals, and petting them (our college had a LOT of cats on campus). He had a cat, Peter, who I had expressed interest in meeting. He met my cat, but not my bunny. I still regret this. Casey got my weird desire for "not normal" animals. He kept a pet chicken. We argued quite a bit about what was worthwhile fiction. We used to go to the diner across from school in the morning to help hangovers. He helped me move, multiple times. Casey is the only friend I've ever had that helped me when I was sick. I threw up all night, and Casey brought me vegetarian soup the next day. No one else has done that (except my Mum), not even my best friend. Perhaps, I have strayed from my original point because of nostalgia. Casey WAS my brother. We played games, looked at girls together, talked about our intimate lives. The point is, I'm going to miss him horribly. I'm going to be real here: if I could, I would tell him how stupid this is. That his wife loves him, his family loves him, and I love him.

Being a grown-up (And Bryce Canyon)

I think part of the reason I became an artist is I like to play. I don't want to go to work and dredge through my day. I don't find that rewarding in the least (although, I will say this is a personal opinion, and I HAVE played with the idea of other jobs). In any event, I like to create. Let's go back to September, 2012. I was getting over an illness. I was depressed. I was lonely. I was stuck. Then, I went to Bryce Canyon and Zion. This trip changed my whole life. Not only did I make friends that I will treasure forever, but it taught me about pushing yourself, even when you are out of shape (I used to run everyday, and so now when I'm physical and it's hard, sometimes I give up because it used to be easy). It taught me about how much I love raw nature, and raw conditions (who knew I liked freezing to death?). When I got home, I looked at the pictures I had taken. I was horrified. "TOURIST TRASH!!!" I proclaimed, and never looked at them again, after posting the obligatory facebook photos that my friends needed. Fast-forward to March 9, 2013. I need new images to work with, but I can't go out that day. I look in my computer... and find the Bryce and Zion pictures. Yeah, some of them are Tourist Trash. You can't get away from it. But being away from the actual thing, and comparing the Real Thing to my photography... it made a world of difference. Here are three in series; more to come.

Disney Shadow boxes

Hello everyone! I know not everyone is a Disney fan, but pretty much every creative person I know likes shadow boxes. Disney likes to make ones... like: (I have the Jungle Cruise one.) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has a very special place in my heart. Although they made a Frontierland shadowbox (as you can see), I'm... not really a fan. I think it's too all over the place, and it certainly doesn't speak about my love of the land, let alone BTM. So, here's the start of my own BTM shadowbox. The Original sketch: Final sketch:

Botes

This was starting to look like a project that a friend of mine did in college... but it's not done yet. We'll consider these boats round one.