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.

Bunny Shelf

Ugh, I wanted to post this from my phone Some closer details:

Pretty nice!

Happy Holidays! *deep breath*

This picture is important. It's there to remind me that even though my room/work space gets messy during the holidays, it HAS been messier, and I have lived. I lived. I am a bit worried though, I'm moving Lili into my room because she can't co-inhabit with the Christmas tree (this is an artistic decision on my part), and I have to do some major clean-up STAT. I'm also pretty sick with a cold that will not go away. It's driving me nuts. But hopefully, the next time I post, it will be full of pictures of finished gifts. I got both Christmas Eve and Christmas off, so if I can just make the 20-23, I'll be fine.

Sabina painting

Sabina painting. Not my best, but the canvas is only 1.5 by 1.5. I also didn't make her hair curly enough; I think I wimped out. But I finally got the wings in a sort of okay place, and I don't often illustrate her in her blue "escape from the lab" dress.

Vegas Fountain

This is the most trippy picture I have ever taken. EVER. And I have taken some trippy pictures. Kind of an amateur crop, but I love the detail of the fountain. If I ever print it, I'm going to have a LOT of fun burning the edges for definition (no, it won't actually be fun.) Soon, I'll have some Bryce Canyon/Xion images up!

Cyanotype Experimentation...

It's been so long... I don't even want to go into it! Four letter word, called LIFE got in the way. Lili got sick, I got sick, Chloe got sick... it was ridiculous. Well, I decided it was time to return to something more organic than digital photography- though if you want to get real, this is technically digital photography, since the negs are made from digital images (well... sometimes).

This first attempt... let's just say I decided this paper was not to be used anymore. It really didn't hold the chemical well. This other paper did MUCH better in terms of holding the cyanotype chemical. In addition, these two prints are (obviously) not negatives. It's too bad I was so messy with the spread with the bottles; it's actually kind of a neat print. I accidentally inverted it in photoshop and it looked REALLY cool and creepy, kind of Silent Hill style.

Now we get to the negatives. This first one was exposed too long, and thus is too dark.

So for this one, I tried to pull it early. This is the pull of laziness; I never write down the times for any of these, or the time of day. For this particular print, I know it was about two and half minutes in broad daylight, but it obviously wasn't enough.

This one I lucked out, and got some nice tones, even though it's still far from perfect. This is also the only print from film negatives.

Finally, I made a print on canvas. Turned out surprisingly well. I intend on making a painting out of this thing.

Tiny Terrariums!

I know, I know. I swore I wouldn't have long, unexplained hiatus'. Unfortunately, Lili fell very ill with GI stasis, and getting her better took the majority of my time. On the bright side, she IS in fact, all better. I have lots and lots of projects going, but terrarium-making has been something I've gotten really into recently. It started with a book:http://www.timberpress.com/books/terrarium_craft/aiello/9781604692341; which most of my ideas came from. My first projects didn't go so well:

...Not so pretty, right? I'm going to clean them out and try again. I have a feeling that I know what I did wrong. Here is my first successful terrarium:

A glass of succubus? They really are much more forgiving. In the book, it recommended that you use sand, but I rather like the look of the dirt. My second project was more fanciful; definitely the "fantasy" project. Also the most fun to photograph by far.

Finally, this was the most traditional by far, but I also like how you can see the layers of the "earth". Not pleased with the images AT ALL.