box-of-paints

Medieval Beetle website and etsy shop

2011-11-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

I am excited to introduce my new website and etsy shop dedicated to a series of gouache paintings that I have been working on for the past few months. This series of paintings are inspired by images and patterns found in the margins of illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages. I plan to exhibit these paintings along with the Insect Collection Show set for 2013. Here are a few samples that you will find in my new shop and website:

The charming logo pictured below and Medieval Beetle website was designed by Nickolas Heslep. For more views of his creative works, you can follow the links to his website and flickr photostream.

I will be posting new paintings as they are completed in the shop and website. You can also keep up to date on new works through my flickr photostream.

Three Day of the Dead images at the Sun Gallery

2011-10-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

Three of my color pencil drawings have been selected for the current El Color Caliente de la Cultura exhibition at the Sun Gallery in Hayward, CA. For more information on the gallery and show, please refer to the Sun Gallery website.

Here are the images:

This exhibit runs till November 12th and should prove to be very colorful and festive. Go check it out if you get a chance!

My bee painting at the de Young

2011-04-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

Exciting news! My bee painting will be included in the New Generations Student Showcase at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on April 22nd!

This is a description from the de Young website:
April 22, 2011 - 6:00pm
Friday Nights at the de Young presents...“Where To? The Call of the Times”
Art students from local universities, colleges, and art schools have been invited to submit works of art responding to the theme “Where To? The Call of the Times.” Artists of various disciplines will be exhibiting works of art and presenting live music performances, spoken word, and dance that address urgent social issues of our time.

Recent sketches

2010-03-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been making weekly trips to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park for sketching. Happily, the models there are very patient and never complain, which is a good thing because I am a slow sketcher! All of these are presented with a plain white background in the traditional style of Natural History illustrations. Eventually, I'll move on to including more of the background, but I am enjoying focusing on the primary figure for now. Let me know what you think of them here in the blog or by email. They are also featured in my flickr photostream. Feedback is welcome in all formats.

This last image was done as part of a sketchwalk group started by Micah Moore through the meetup site. I hope to be able to post more in the near future now that the weather is improving.

Filoli

2010-02-12T23:09:00.001-08:00

Jamestown, Virginia

2009-11-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

These photos were taken at Jamestown, Virgina, the first English settlement. For a good historical summary of Jamestown, go to this link.

I hope you enjoyed these images taken from one of the oldest historical spots in the country. Of course, there are areas once inhabited by native Indians that are even older, but that's another image thread.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Day of the Dead 2009

2009-11-02T14:38:00.001-08:00

Day of the Dead has always been one of my favorite times of the year, but this year, it is especially meaningful. For many people, 2009 seems to be a year of loss, whether it be the loss of a job or a loved one. The most difficult loss for me personally was the death of my kitty Joseph. We had him for nine happy years. He past away suddenly from a heart seizure on October 2nd. This is the last picture I took of him. It was still in my camera at the time of his death:

Memorial flowers for Joseph:

Thanks to everyone who sent Michael and I sympathetic emails and cards. We greatly appreciate it.

In addition to decorating my own house, I like to go to DOTD related events and art exhibits. These photos were taken at the Meek Mansion in Hayward, CA. I thought the displays were well done overall and looked great in this particular setting. Please note that all of the displays and images were initially created by other artists. These are simply photos of the artwork displayed.

These were taken yesterday at the big street festival in Fruitvale, CA:

And last but not least, these are some color pencil drawings I created a few years ago for a Day of the Dead celebration at my house. The original drawings were done on 18x24 inch paper so they were big enough to catch the attention of my party guests. I thought it would be fun to include them here:

I hope you enjoyed looking at these images everyone. Take some time today to remember your departed ancestors and loved ones.

Two more ATCs for my Flickr pals

2009-06-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here are two more ATCs, recently exchanged with my friends artsy fartsy queen and nayski:

and a link to my complete flickr photostream, for your perusal.

Money Pig Screening in San Francisco!

2009-04-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

My ten minute stop-motion film The Money Pig will be screening on April 30th in San Francisco! For more information about this event, please go to the Cinematheque Avec website.

And for those of you who do not live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can catch the MP in action on youtube.

Be Mine Ermine

2009-02-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was asked to join an online ATC group in flickr based on famous works of art. Our first challenge was DaVinci's "Lady with an Ermine." Interpretations of this theme ran the gamut from collage to hand drawings and paintings. After a whole day at work, looking at pictures of babies on blankets, here's what I came up with:

Isn't she fetching? Here's a link to my photostream if you'd like to see more.

Have a delicious Valentine's Day dear blog readers!
xo,
tina b.

Three more Tisnikar studies

2008-11-25T16:11:00.000-08:00

These first two were done with soft pastels:

and this with gouache:

Good news! M and a few people in my family have pooled together some money for my birthday (which is today btw) and decided to get me a nicer, better, faster digital camera ;) I've been craving this piece of gear for a long time. I love my first digital camera, but it only holds 3 megapixels per image, so it will be satisfying to take a few steps up in terms of resolution capacity. I also plan to get a nice macro lens. I'll be using the camera along with Dragon software hopefully some time next year in order to shoot this project.

added note: Many thanks to pdxsean for giving me solid camera advice about the Nikon D80. It helped to steer me in the right direction.

Haunted Dollhouse

2008-10-08T20:32:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I put together this haunted dollhouse to amuse my party guests at our annual Halloween shindig. The house was a big hit so I thought I would share it with you. Warning: One of my friends said that these pictures made her want to look at images of cute, cuddly kittens afterwards to counteract the morbidity. I choose to take that as a compliment.

Our first stop, the living room - or shall I say the un-living room where Junior and Missy have endeavored to have a chat with Captain Howdy.

And to the right, the kitchen

mmmmm - tasty brains

Upstairs, we have the demonic nursery

The result of a minor disagreement

An unfortunate accident in the tub

Grandfather conducting experiments in the attic

Poor uncle went off his meds

The grand overview

two recent drawings

2008-09-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I've been a bit lax on keeping up with my blog entries here. However, I have been marginally productive. Posted below are two recent drawings. The first is an ATC for my flickr pal nayski:

The second is a turpentine wash drawing for my second insect painting:

So, you see I haven't been completely lazy and good for nothing, only somewhat. I'm also serving as art director for my friend Andy's film and doing the flower decorations for my sister-in-law's upcoming wedding in October. I hope to post some pictures from Andy's film in the next two months in addition to a few more from my own film on Tisnikar - and oh yes, I have a few pictures from my trip to Columbia, CA that I need to post as well. Surprisingly enough, the sustained heat in the car did not damage the film. Lucky me! But please don't take this as an encouragement to overheat your own film. It was very nerve-wracking waiting to see what had happened. I had many visions of damaged images right up to the second before I got them back from the lab. I guess this is one of many convenient advantages of digital over film. You don't have to worry about these types of issues. Still though, there's something special about film that makes me go back to it time and again.

More later...Till then, feel free to comment on my raven and moth.

Images from Portland, OR; Part II

2008-08-04T11:52:00.001-07:00

A few months ago, I posted some images from my trip to Portland, OR. At the time, I promised to post a second batch and then put it off and put it off....you know the story, the endless chain of procrastination. In any case, here they are, finally.

The Oregon Garden, another one of Portland's spectacular public gardens:

A closeup of one of the garden chairs, fashioned entirely from tree branches:

Vegetables grown from one of the organic gardens. A lot of communities throughout Portland are active in growing their own food without the use of pesticides. I wish I had gotten a picture of one of their eco-roofs. They are amazing gardens grown on the roof of the buildings, sustained purely from rainfall. A good idea that may catch on in the future.

A garden resident hard at work:

Giant sunflowers:

One of several waterfalls within the garden:

Another place we went to during our stay in Portland was Multnomah Falls, easily one of the most photographed places in the country:

The parking lot in front of Multnomah Falls, Nature made orderly and presentable:

The pathway leading up to it:

The tree trunks here are very impressive, as is everything else:

The bottom of the Falls. Note: This boulder was actually quite large, though it is difficult to tell from this image alone:

Closeup of the flow:

A wider view from below the bridge. The people seen here give you a better idea of the scale:

I hope you enjoyed these. Next week: images from the old CA mining town of Columbia - that is if I didn't ruin the film in the overheated trunk of the car on our way back! Wish me luck. Till next time...

wall of buoys

2008-07-28T11:43:00.001-07:00

These snapshots were taken on Orcas Island in Seattle, WA about two years ago. As you can see, the sun was really hot and bright that day, not ideal for picture taking, but I like the combination of colors and textures in the buoys so I decided to post them here. I think the second is the best of the three. They might look good as oil paintings once I improve my skills...let's see, oh, about 10-20 years from now :P or maybe I should just leave them as photos. What do you think?

Hercules

2008-07-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

This morning and afternoon has been filled with numerous computer hassles but I wanted to at least post a photograph of my newest painting subject. I went to The Bone Room in Berkeley on Sunday and perused their extensive insect collection in an effort to find a good specimen of a Hercules moth, one that wasn't already encased in a frame. I want to be able to get a good look at his face, head and antennae while working on the painting. They did have one specimen but his/her wing was torn up so I purchased this one instead. As usual, click on the image itself for a magnified view:

This isn't exactly the species I wanted but his head, antennae and face are close enough. He also shares some of the same orange coloring on his body. The best part of it is that one of his legs are down as though he is standing. Most of these pinned specimens have their legs tightly wrapped up against their body so it's very difficult to get a sense of how they would position themselves in life. This is where additional photo sources become invaluable being that I am unable to travel to foreign countries and get these images myself.

I tried to get a picture of the front part of this specimen's face and body but was unable to. Unfortunately, my digital camera isn't very useful for macro subjects. Also, when I took him outside for the photo shoot just now, a gust of wind swept up under one of the lower wings and made it fly up, thereby weakening the area that holds it up. Now it's drooping a bit. If you are curious though about the way the face and arms look, I recommend doing an image search under Google for "Hercules" or "Atlas Moth" and the word "face." You will also get a glimpse of the caterpillar, which apparently is as big around as my wrist! Can you imagine one of these devouring your tomato plants in the garden?

chirping cricket

2008-07-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is another of my Tisnikar studies. With each one, I have to change the composition and colors a little bit to fit the medium I am working with and proportions of the paper, but hopefully I am able to retain the basic feeling in it. I think I'm learning a lot about the way he uses color and simplified lines to express emotion. This is a good process for me to go through since I have a tendency to follow things too literally with my own work. Of course, my version of this painting is still not as dark and somber as the Tisnikar version. There definitely seems to be a pattern going on in my attempts to capture his style, but not a particularly troublesome one - not yet, at any rate.

Here is the quote that accompanies the painting, from the book Tisnikar; Painter of Death:

The morgue and autopsy room where I work are in a little park set off from the rest of the hospital buildings. While I work during the warm summer nights, only the chirping of crickets break the silence. Not one, but dozens of crickets pipe up one after the other, or all together chirp their endless song. While the town sleeps, I work and they keep me company - they're wide awake, like me.

Once I managed to catch a cricket. He seemed to be chirping on the tree next to the open window. I went out and saw the cricket in the light coming from the window of the autopsy room. I brought him in, took a good look at him and then let him go. In this painting, I show dead people and animals, and the cricket as I remember him.

Perseverance

2008-07-07T09:40:00.001-07:00

I shot this sequence of images for an assignment in a photo design class several years ago. I just got around to scanning them into the computer. This was the first time I got a taste of what it might be like to do animation. Shortly afterwards, I changed my class emphasis from Graphic Design to Film Production. This is what people commonly describe as "catching the bug." I admit it still has a hold on me.

New film project: Tisnikar

2008-06-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

As crazy as it may seem, I have decided to try writing and directing another stop-motion film. I don't have any script or storyboard firmly in place yet but I do have a few loose ideas floating around in my head. The film will be about the painter Joze Tisnikar. There is not a lot of information about him out there on the internet and sadly, not nearly enough images of his paintings. I was fortunate enough to have picked up a copy of the book Tisnikar, Painter of Death many years ago while working at a used book store but the book is now out of print.

A little bit of biographical information about Tisnikar: He was born in a small village in Slovenia on February 28, 1928. He grew up in a poor, one room household with eight siblings and an alcoholic father. His mother worked partly as a servant in order to pay the bills and feed the children while her husband spent much of his income drinking at the local tavern. This is a problem that Tisnikar himself would struggle with later on in life. Following WWII, he worked rebuilding the local mill, then later in a hospital tending to patients with terminal illnesses. After a few years, he took on a full-time job performing autopsies and preparing bodies for burial. It was during the autopsy job that Tisnikar first conceived of the idea of painting the deceased.

Tisnikar died in the late 90s, relatively unknown in the wider art circles, but highly respected as an artist within his own community. He had a few strong proponents of his work during his lifetime, most notably Karel Pecko, the Director of the Municipal Gallery of Slovenj Gradec and Dr. Stane Strnad, the head of the hospital he once worked for. The book Tisnikar, Painter of Death was written by Nebojsa Tomasevic and published in 1978. I imagine it must have brought some publicity and increased interest to his artwork but I was unable to determine just how much from the sparse information available on the net.

Tisnikar's job, philosophy and art were all interrelated. He developed an intimate knowledge of death from his years working in the hospital and morgue. As dark and dismal as this sounds, his paintings express a good variety of human experiences and emotions. Certainly, his images convey feelings of loneliness and despair but there is also evidence of great compassion, kindness and a kind of spiritual hope. He also clearly believed in an afterlife. It is not the idealized carefree existence in the clouds that we have seen depicted in children's Bible illustrations, but more of a collective unification of body and spirit. In several of his paintings, lovers, spouses, mothers and children are seen clutching one another in an eternal embrace. In other works, we see human and animal figures standing together, creating a long chain that twists and winds towards an unknown destination on a deep blue and green horizon. Through this imagery, Tisnikar seems to be suggesting that although the body is weak and temporal, our close relationships and mutual sufferings - indeed, our very mortality, forever binds us to one another.

I admit that as I write this, I am feeling a bit daunted by the idea of trying to convey some of these ideas in a short stop-motion film but I don't want to discourage myself into paralysis just yet. I want to keep the imagery loose and somewhat abstracted/symbolic, more like a visual poem than a straight narrative with a linear plot. For now, I have busied myself with doing some drawings and studies of a few of his paintings. By doing these loose copies, I hope to better understand where he was coming from, both as an artist and as a complicated, troubled personality. This was my first attempt, created in pastel. As usual, click on the image to get a larger view:

The pastel was very messy to work with. I lost control of the details when I got to the feet so I plan on doing the rest in colored pencil or gouache. I am finding his style and colors to be very satisfying to work with. I think I have a feeling for the colors but I have a ways to go with the shape and lines. As you see here, I haven't quite captured the immense feeling of his ravens. Within the world of Tisnikar's iconography, they are supposed to stand as symbolic sentinels to time passing. M remarked that my pastel drawing looked more like a "kid brother" to the original raven in the painting and I immediately saw that he was right. As the project progresses, I'm going to have to keep a vigilant eye out for that and consciously try to resist the cutesy element commonly seen in a lot of stop-motion films.

Emerging Butterfly

2008-06-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is the first painting of a series that I plan on doing of insects and botanicals. It is also my first completed oil painting in over 8 years. I've been primarily focusing on photography, film and other painting mediums but I love the richness of oils so I decided to go for it. The other reason why it's been so long is that I tend to get frustrated with my skill level and destroy the canvas before it is even completed. As I've told a few friends, this guy is just happy to be in one piece!

The image source for this painting is a photograph by A van den Nieuwenhuizen that I found in an old textbook titled "How Insects Live" published by Phaidon Press Ltd. 1976. The painting diverges in several ways from the true appearance of this insect but the general body position and the cocoon are very much the same. I got a little fanciful about halfway through and gave him some animal-like traits such as the long hair on his body and the eyes, both of which resemble that of a mammal more than an insect. I also more or less made up the ground cover area and the pink blossom branch on the upper right corner. The original photo does include a pink blossom branch but it looks entirely different than this one here. I wanted to go for a more patterned, illuminated manuscript type of look with the branch. I have always loved the borders of illuminated manuscripts with their beautiful decorative patterns of florals and butterflies so those types of illustrations are part of the inspiration for this series - that and the insects themselves!

For the future, obtaining source images of exotic and interesting looking insects will be a challenge though. Last weekend, I was talking about this to a painter who works with undersea imagery. She uses a combination of specimens from the Natural History Museum as well as photos and film footage from friends and colleagues who have donated images to her. She also recommended UC Berkeley. Apparently, they have an extensive collection of insects there. I will have to check that out soon. If any of my blog readers are interested in donating one of their original photographs to be used as an image source for one of these paintings, please write to me at scoodler@earthlink.net. Thank you!

Got my head in the clouds

2008-05-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, I've noticed a loose theme developing amongst the ATCs and some photographs I took at the Oakland Columbarium. The first image I worked on was this one created for Shanna D'Antonio for January's ATC:

A month or two later, I created this ATC titled "looking up" for Michael Lownie in San Francisco:

Following that, I paid a visit to the Oakland Columbarium and photographed a few sections of an angel, featured in a stained glass window:

I've decided to recreate the first two images and the following as oil paintings. I'm going to approach them as studies, in the interest of helping me to learn more about creating light in paintings. Also, I like the images and wouldn't mind seeing hanging in the house at certain times of the year.

I can't decide whether to do this one:

or this one:

for the image that will hang to the right of the hand holding the green feather. Looking at them both, I think I'm going to go with the closer crop because so much of my time right now is spent on my foot. The reason for that is on Easter Sunday, I fell down and broke my ankle in three places, all the sections that help to hold you upright as you walk and stand. My view from the garden after falling down was exactly the same as the clouds ATC. I laid there for quite awhile before coming to the conclusion that I wasn't going to be able to stand up and get on with the rest of the day's planned activities. Thirty or forty minutes after that, I was being whisked away in an ambulance and then three days after that, I had surgery. I am posting this now while sitting in a wheelchair in my office.

All of the images shown above were done within a few months time, all were completed prior to the accident (except the proposed paintings, of course) and all of them have something to do with flying/wings, hope, aspirations and a desire to rise above, at least on a symbolic level. Of course, on a purely physical level, I've gone in the opposite direction because the foot injury has severely limited my ability to get up and move around. I do remember that at the time I snapped the hovering foot pictures, I was feeling strangely amused that I would be taking a picture of a foot, especially given the fact that I don't particularly like looking at feet. Now it all seems oddly connected, particularly the foot part.

The good news is that the damage is not permanent and I'm almost finished paying the damn medical bills (a whole other set of trials and tribulations). I should be up and walking within a month or two but I may need the assistance of a cane for awhile. The pins they put into my ankle are permanent though. I guess I'm a prime candidate for setting off the metal detectors at the airport now. Fun times ahead!

Carnival and Amusement Park photos

2008-03-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

a new beginning

2008-03-03T01:14:00.000-08:00

February's ATC theme

This image was inspired by a gift that M and I received from the bridesmaid at our wedding over 10 years ago. The bird and colored stones were tightly contained in a miniature bottle. I think it is meant to be a kind of good luck charm. I tried to find a picture of one of them on Google but couldn't find one. I think they are from Mexico or some other Latin American country (Guatemala, perhaps?) but I'm not sure. The label on the bottom has completely worn away and can no longer be read. The title comes from the words on the little strip of paper attached to the top of the bottle with a pink bow.

I made a much larger watercolor/gouache painting of this bottle within a few months of our wedding so I recreated it for this month's ATC. The contents of the bottle are also very faded now. It is supposed to represent love and hopeful wishes for our marriage. Our relationship is still interesting and vibrant so I decided to make use of the saturated colors accordingly.

two images from a recent portrait session

2008-02-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

The BW image will be included in the "Love & Passion" show at Ashawagh Hall in the Hamptons this weekend. I plan to make the color image into an oil painting later on. Many thanks to my friend A who posed for these images. She looks beautiful, doesn't she?

Two more from New Mexico

2008-01-03T07:22:00.001-08:00

A few BW images from New Mexico

2007-12-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

I printed these pictures a few years ago but only recently got around to scanning them into the computer, so I thought I would share them. I also put them into mats and have them hanging up on the wall above the couch right now. I don't do a lot of black and white photography but I enjoy it for some subjects. I find BW to be a lot more cerebral. It's far less emotional than color and much more about breaking things down to pure form and shadings of black, grey and white. This is why I like to photograph a lot of architecture in BW, as well as cars and other types of structures and machinery.

The Sunflower Fields of Lodi

2007-12-18T10:55:00.000-08:00

Day jobs, late nights, aquarium fish and burritos

2007-08-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

I've been working on creating accordion books the last few nights. These images, taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium are the ones I have been using:

I started out with five images at first but that left the last image exposed on the outside so I think I will stick with using only four. It's been a lot of trial and error with these, just as it was with the last ATC. One of the strategies I learned while attending grad school was to drink mochas in the evening to push me farther. It works but then I'm worn out the next day, with a slight feeling of queasiness. That's where I am right now after three late, late nights of matting, cutting, experimenting and such. This morning I asked M "Do you ever feel that Fridays are overkill?" He replied "Yeah, they're like the last quarter of the burrito. You ask yourself: Do I really need to eat this part too?"

Pictures from my trip to Portland, OR

2007-08-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Japanese Garden

Yoko Ono's Wish Tree - My friend Georgia pointed out that the leaves resemble pot leaves on this plant, an interesting observation that I completely missed while lost in the process of trying to get a good composition out of this subject. I was glad that I was able to get enough of one of the 'wishes' for you to be able to read it here. Strangely enough, the message is somewhat related to Georgia's comment, although it sounds like this person's problem was much more extreme than a simple addiction to pot.

The Rose Garden

This was a small stage adjacent to the Rose Garden. I like the way the structure in the middle looks with the painting of the clouds and the big blue tarp flowing out unto the green lawn. I also like the various people and the different things going on with them there. At first I didn't want to take the picture because of the people walking in the scene, but I'm glad I did it anyway because now I see that it makes the image more interesting.

The Classical Chinese Garden

This is a path leading to the Celestial House of Permeating Fragrance. Other names for the garden areas include the Hall of Brocade Clouds, Knowing the Fish Pavilion, Painted Boat in Misty Rain, Moon-locking Pavilion, Tower of Cosmic Reflections and Half a Window Clustered in Green. They were all very beautiful and serene. The intention is to make each area an inviting place for thought and reflection.

This last one is slightly too soft for my taste but it still looks good as a print because of the colors. Other people who have seen it like it because it is soft. I tried a few different sizes on watercolor paper on my printer at home and that version seems to work out the best overall, although some of the intensity of the colors that you see in the glossy version are lost. One person has already purchased an 11x14 print of this image in the watercolor paper format. I have also printed some small cards which I intend to mail out to a few friends.

Two more cross processed: Monsters!

2007-07-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Japanese Monsters

Baby Rampage!

A few cross-processed images

2007-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

These are images that were taken on regular color negative film and developed as slides. The process transforms the colors in something a lot more pastel, giving them an almost hand-tinted effect. Unfortunately, the last one turned out smaller on the screen due to the horizontal composition, but you can click on it to get a better view.

Three from Mendocino Village

2007-06-24T11:08:00.001-07:00

*note: click on the image to see a larger version.

April's ATC: A Show of Hands

2007-05-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Portrait of M

Three Eggs

2007-04-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last year, (pre-grad school!) I printed this image on watercolor paper and sent them to a few good friends. I only just now got it ready for the web so I am posting it here one year later. I am realizing that a lot of my job as a photographer has to do with reviewing negatives, proofs, slides and cds and then deciding to scan, prepare them for the web and/or make them into prints. As with film, I like the pre-production and production work the best, but post-production is where it all comes together. It is laborious but well worth it when I get good feedback from the public and people I know. Thanks to David Dziemian for showing me how to use the blogger resize button. This is the first image in my blog where you can click on it and view it as a larger image. Check it out!

This month's ATC: Lost & Found

2007-03-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

These images were taken at a junkyard in Oakland. The lighting conditions were far from ideal, but it was a one-time opportunity. So, as is the case with a lot of photos I take out in the world, you work with what you've got in the best way you can. Sadly, this place no longer exists, except in these pictures. I guess that makes it lost and found and lost again. These images are presented in an accordian book format, eight panels on one side, in case my ATC partner wants to display them all together on a shelf or table of some kind. I also have this collection in a large frame of 16 5x7 prints.

Additional note, and strangely related to the *Lost* & Found theme: I was up till 5 am last Friday night looking for the second set of these negs! I thought that they were lost forever. I told myself "Ok, one more look in the closet and then I am going to sleep." and then I saw the corner of the print envelope sticking up behind a bunch of other stuff. I was so relieved, I just stood there for a minute or two letting my eyes take in the fact they were finally in my hands after all that searching.
*phew!* I hate it when I lose stuff!

Spring tulips

2007-03-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

I have this packet of bulbs that my upstairs neighbor gave me three weeks ago and I have yet to plant the things. Before grad school, I would have planted most of my bulbs by late January - mid February. It's interesting - and a little bit sad - the things that get put on the shelf when push comes to shove schedule wise. I plan to try to balance work, play and my creative life a lot better after this semester is over but until then, the garden will have to get by on its own.

A few pics in honor of Mardi Gras 2007

2007-02-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

Fish Dream #1

2007-01-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

"Please watch them while I'm gone. They're easy to take care of. Just feed them once a day." The old man/woman handed me an oval shaped glass bowl filled with murky water. As she walked out of the room, I peered inside the bowl. I could only make out a few shapes, what seemed to be a small squid and two goldfish. I looked down into the bowl feeling both repulsed and intrigued. The creatures looked somewhat sinister as they made their appearance near the surface of the water and then back under in a grey-green algae fog.

I walked over to the other side of the room to set the bowl on the fireplace mantel. It seems that I had not calculated the width of the bowl into the space provided because as soon as I set the bowl down, it fell and came crashing down onto the floor. The dirty water splashed all over my white stockinged legs. For an instant, I felt a soft, mucousy creature brush by my right knee.

I looked down. The contents of the bowl had increased several times over. The entire floor was covered with fish, snails and squid all splashing frantically in the shallow waters. I called the man/woman's name with a strained voice. She came running in "Oh my god! Look what you've done! Pick them up immediately. Can't you see they're dying?!" Muttering apologies, I bent down and attempted to pick up a blood-red crab. As my hand drew close, he reached up with his claw and snapped it shut on my extended fingers. I drew back in pain, "I can't believe there's so many." "What did you expect?" she snapped back. She marched to the corner and grabbed a broom, making derisive sounds as though completely disgusted with my incompetence. She started to sweep them back with violent swift strokes. The creatures splashed and squealed. I stood there powerless and immobile.

SwampLand

2006-12-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

YouTube dilemma resolved, for now...

2006-12-02T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well, as many of you may have noticed, I just deleted my former post about YouTube and replaced it with this one. My original post included some musings on whether or not to post excerpts of my film unto the YouTube site. After a few conversations with several people, I have decided not to do that. I think it's a mixture of things really. M initially suggested it because he loves my film and he thinks it should get more viewers. It screened at multiple festivals and won a few awards. Recently, I just got some great feedback from a friend who saw a book version of my film. His wife and daughter loved it too. So, I was considering this new venue but in the process of deliberating, I realized that I have too many intense personal associations with this film to subject it to the possible anonymous jabs that are common in the online environment.

You see, I labored over this film while my father was dying from cancer. I happened to be in film production classes at the time so when I look at the film, it is inextricably wrapped up with memories of that time period and all of the struggles involved. I do think that a lot of people say things online without thinking about the very real emotional consequences but M doesn't think I will get a negative response. He says that I just feel this way because I have spent too much time on craigslist and craigslist is full of negativity. I think he is partly right although I myself have had mostly positive exchanges and met a lot of great people through cl. It's really the interactions I have observed between others that makes me hesitate to put this particular film up in that kind of environment. Anyways, the only thing I did really want to leave up here was the stills. Here they are:

Dia de los Muertos

2006-11-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is a collection of images I have taken in the past two years at the big Day of the Dead celebration in Fruitvale, CA.

In honor of my father, whom I miss very much. I sense his presence and influence in myself every day and I am grateful for that.

This Month's Artist Trading Card

2006-10-30T14:24:00.000-08:00

Chiaroscuro

|kēˌärəˈsk(y)oŏrō; kēˌarə-|

noun

the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting.

an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something : the chiaroscuro of cobbled streets.

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Italian, from chiaro ‘clear, bright’ (from Latin clarus) + oscuro ‘dark, obscure’ (from Latin obscurus).

bones and things

2006-09-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Puppets!

2006-04-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I spotted an ad on a posting board in the Arts section of the library. A puppet theater group was looking for volunteers to work on their bunraku puppet play. I answered the ad and met with a very nice couple. C was a professional set builder for theater and television. E was in grad school for directing. They had both worked in theater for many years. The play was an adaptation of a Russian tale called "Vasilisa and The Tale Of Baba Yaga." Volunteers could choose to work on any aspect of the production that they wanted so I decided to paint a few of the puppets. The very first puppets I painted were representatives of the three different parts of the day: morning, afternoon and evening. These puppets also marked the three acts of the play:

It turned out that C and E were very pleased with what I had done so they kept on giving me more and more characters until finally, I had painted the entire cast. Regarding the main cast - initially, C and E specifically instructed me not to paint with any distinct outlines to the eyes, mouth and other features. The heads and bodies were somewhat fanciful to begin with, so I think they had it in mind that the painting should also be out of the ordinary - in other words, no wide-eyed cartoon like eyeballs and rosey pinked cheeks. This is what I had in mind when painting the stepsisters and stepmother, as you can see by the pictures posted below.

Stepsister one:

Stepsister two:

I tried to go by instinct alone and use colors that might be associated with feelings of jealousy, envy, and bitterness. This same approach was used when painting the stepmother:

I loved her pendulum-like breasts and fox throw.

The lack of distinct lines worked for the three characters above but it did not work on the remaining characters Vasilisa, her father, the Prince and the dying mother. The first person that had worked on them had attempted to follow C and E's instructions, changing the tones and colors only where there were clear differences created by peaks and valleys in the contours of the face. The result was that Vasilisa and the Prince ended up looking like a pair of very red, raw steaks with large insect-eyes where the sockets are indicated. (no distinct outlines for pupils.)

Many puppets are symbolic and archetypal in nature. The audience needs to be able to look at the puppet and immediately identify him/her as the kind one, the scheming one, the evil one...etc... This was certainly the scenario with this cast of puppets, although the witch Baba Yaga was a little more nuanced and complex - more about her later on.. In the case of Vasilisa, she had to be instantly identified as kind, innocent, young AND attractive. So, I decided to give her smooth, natural-toned skin, wide-open round eyes for that innocent look and a rosebud pale pink mouth. This is how she ended up looking after her makeover. I wish I had the before pics to show you but I didn't think of it till it was way after the fact:

Vasilisa's father:

The sick and dying mother:

The love interest and local Prince:

A closeup of Vasilisa's hands:

These hands were made of fimo, which turned out to be problematic because of its tendency to chip and break off. Vasilisa may even had had a missing thumb in the above shot but I positioned it so that you couldn't completely see the whole thumb. The arms and body of each puppet were made of wood with metal joints. The head was constructed of paper mache. Each puppet was approximately three feet high and needed to be maneuvered by one or two puppeteers. The puppeteers were dressed in black, except for Baba Yaga, which was a full-body puppet.

Baba Yaga was also given to me after another volunteer had attempted to paint her. For some reason, the first painter decided to cover her in blurry rainbow colors - !?!?!. She looked like a Wavy Gravy 60s psychedelic Baba Yaga and not at all like the forest crone and keeper of bones in the fairy tale. I'm not really sure what the first painter was thinking in making these color decisions but it clearly wasn't working. In some ways, it looked worse than the intial raw meat, insect-like appearance of Vasalisa and the Prince because Baba Yaga is intended to make a very dramatic first appearance. I could picture the audience reacting with both puzzlement and laughter if she suddenly appeared in rainbow colors. I wanted to go in the opposite direction so I tried to think of a creature in the wild that was frightening but that would also blend into the forest and reflect the stage lights. I came up with the idea of a shark. With this in mind, I painted her head in pale greys and tan colors, with a slight tinge of blue and green:

She was actually a lot more greenish in tone but you can not really see that in this picture. The bridge of her nose and the eye sockets had several varieties of dark green and brown. Her nostrils are packed with dried green moss and little pieces of bark. She also had a shriveled up deformed hand, which unfortunartely, you can't see in either of these pictures. Here is a newspaper clipping from a review to give you a better visual reference of her actual size:

M and I borrowed this costume for Halloween one year and answered the door as Baba Yaga. The youngest trick-or-treaters were amazed. A little three year old boy took one look at the witch, turned around and went the other way, leaving his nervous sister to collect the treats on her own. The older kids asked us how much she cost and were skeptical when we said that the costume was handmade. I guess that was their way of saying they liked it.

I also used Baba Yaga in my second film, shot on BW super 8 film. I shot the film at the Botanical Gardens in Tilden Park. The BW tones abstracted things, making the visual differences between the natural and the man-made less obvious so she blended right in with the setting. While we were shooting the last scenes of the film, a family with a small child of aged two to three years old decided to watch us. They kindly asked permission first and promised to stay quiet during the filming. We told them not to worry because it was a silent film and not to expect too much because we were only beginning film students. They laid out a picnic blanket and ate their lunch while we continued to film.

In the film sequence, Baba Yaga is seen walking through the forest searching for food. She spots a dragonfly on a rickety bridge but it manages to fly away just out of her reach. We were able to show Baba's rolling eyeballs in that scene as she schemes to catch the dragonfly. Angry and frustrated by the dragonfly's narrow escape, she continues on the path, slouching and panting with her hunched back and shriveled claw-like hand. She spots a giant water bug near the edge of a small creek and begins to chase it down. This is where the family began to watch the filming. She reaches down and picks up the scurrying insect, opens her jaws wide and swallows it whole. A rolling, slurping tongue emerges from her mouth as she licks her chops in satisfaction. Upon seeing this last bit, the child squealed out with delight and approval, clapping her hands several times in pure glee.

That was all it took. I was completely hooked.