The first of many posts about... PAINTING!

Whelp,

nearly all of my entries thus far have been about photography...

but for now, I'm turning over a new leaf and then next few entries will be about some of the paintings I did in my Painting I class (with oil paint!).

What I'm going to show you today is two paintings that I did at the beginning of the semester while we were studying still-life's.

Powerlines, Powerlines (2/2)

Simple, Simple Lines & Forms-- that my friends, that is the key!

Oh my word, isn't the sky just insanely, insanely fascinating?

All 3 of these photographs were taken within the same 30 minute time frame--just walking around La Mirada-- and yet, the sky still varied this much. So ridiculous, so incredible.

Powerlines, Powerlines (1/2)

This shot was one of many in a series I did of power lines for my Photo I final project. It didn't fit with the rest of the series--but I'm still in love. I'm pretty sure I blinded myself in the process of taking this.

Tomorrow-- I will post more images from the power line series.

Mind Trip Central

This is a photo I took about a week ago in La Mirada,

just a photo of the blank side of a house,

but... look at the shadows!

ridiculous, I know.

anyway,

I want you to try this:

stare at the center of the lightest part of the house for about 5-10 seconds...

does it, or does it not look almost like a repetition of the sky above?

ah, insane!

Perfectionism

Both of these photographs I don't really distinctly remember taking. I vaguely remember that I thought the shapes of the houses were interesting and that I loved the fact that there were power-lines behind both of the houses.

But now, while I was sorting through photographs from the past few weeks, in the Philadelphia airport on my way home, I couldn't believe how ridiculously perfect these two photographs are.

They almost look like idealized versions of what a suburban California neighborhood might look like.

But... all that being said, I think that's why I like them so much. They're just a little too weird, not to be seen.

Guerilla Art: A Yarn Mural

My last project for my 4-D design class was to make "Guerilla Art".

In response, I decided to graffiti the fence of McNally Field, creating a yarn mural.

Initially when I envisioned it I planned on making it so big, so large, so "WOW".

But... after 5 hours of work, I had only gotten 4 lines of the fence done. I spent Wednesday night shaking in the cold, trying to wrap yarn over & over again, through the fence until 4 am.

It only got more depressing by the hour--with light, after light, after light turning off in Hope Hall as people went to bed. I finally had to stop working when my hands froze too much that I couldn't hold the yarn anymore without dropping it.

I went back during the day on Thursday and tried to finish it up before class--and literally every 5-10 minutes there was someone who would walk by and comment on it--for 3 hours straight, saying "YOU CAN DO IT!!", "What is this?", "LOOKING GREAT!", "Is this Art?".

But without further ado, the yarn mural:

Aren't the colors simply delicious?

public transportation

This past week I went to Seattle, to visit my brother Isaac--and it was fantastic, fabulous, restful, and exciting as we explored the incredible city together. Isaac doesn't own a car so we did a ton, a ton of walking, and a bit of public transportation.

And lately, especially the past few months-- I am realizing more and more how much I absolutely love public transportation--buses, trains, ferries, the metro--all of it. The metro especially though. The metro gets me so good. I love the weirdness of it--the stillness of the inside of the metro car, the way people are waiting, waiting, waiting, their hollow blank stares as they zone out the window, and I especially love that contrasted with the changing scene outside the window--wizzing by, not stopping to let your eye catch-up.