Elephant Painting A Self-Portrait!

I'm beginning to feel like I'm posting too many videos - I guess that's just where I'm finding inspiring things these days.

oh boy dusty blog - do I have something for you

Wow, I saw this animated music video by Stefan Nadelman a while ago but it still resonates with me. The first time I saw it I couldn't move for a while after and I had a tear in my eye. Definitely goose bumps. I still get goosebumps but I've added "Why do I make art if this exists?- I cannot do any better than this in my lifetime so why try?" I'm not 4-real, I'm not going to stop making art, but it is a little discouraging. I love this dude and hate him. The cut and paste 2-D in 3-D space with vintage figures and animals and plants is such MY aesthetic but WAY better! Music is great too by Ramona Falls.
It deserves all this hype:

Amy's birthday bash

I almost forgot to do a post on a get together of Portland Photographic Adventures that we had last week. It was Amy's birthday, a sunny perfect day, and a few of us had cupcakes and tromped around downtown. I always have a blast with these girls, they are all easy to relate to. The above photos are mine and a few of the other girls posted some of their photos here. You can tell Summer in the pink dress was the only one that really dressed up for the occassion, hence the amount of feet photos!

getting annoyed with poladroid

So a lot of people out there are abusing this hot program called Poladroid. Especially bloggers, using it so all of their photos look cool. In this desktop program you just drag and drop your photo onto it and after a 2 minute wait or so (they have to make it realistic!) slowly fades in your image with a few old Polariod effects and the trademark white framing. It's often not done well though, call me crazy but it should be treated like any other artistic process to be used appropriately. My friend Cameron was the one that introduced me to this program. I think her images are really great and even though it is kinda cheating, she does it well so who cares. I think what she does that makes it work so great is that she is taking the original photos with her camera phone. The camera phone has a small aperture and low resolution and matches well with the lack of depth of field that the original Polariod has. Using the camera phone also matches the spontaneous feel of Polariods. The awesome photos above are all images of Cameron Jones.

as good as it gets

I thought this week felt uneventful but in retrospect it was pretty interesting after all. Tuesday was Roller-Disco at Oaks Park, and yes, after years of not being on skates I can still skate backwards. I held Josephs hand during couples skating and I felt 13 again. Friday I got a freakin' awesome new dog. It was a cinematic moment, after I fell in love with the dog a day before I found out that someone else was already lined up to adopt him, I was heart-broken. They told me to come in the next day to do an interview anyway because there was a chance they wouldn't follow through or there would be problems with the application process. I did go in and had an interview, I was about ready to leave dogless when someone popped their head in and said that the person that was first in line to adopt the dog called and said that their landlord wouldn't let them have a dog. I was in utter shock with butterflies in my stomach. We now have a dog named Balls Barkely. He's just going to go by Barkley though, especially in public. Can you imagine "Here Balls...Come!" Our other dog Arf is adjusting slowly, liking the little guy a little more each day, their starting to wrestle a bit so I think it's going to work out great. Friday night my friend Sharon came over and we drank and watched Ghost Hunters International episodes. If you didn't know I was a nerd before, you know now. Saturday we had people over to listen to the Flaming Lips "Zairekka" Album. For those who are not in the know this is an album with 4 different discs intended to be played on 4 different stereos simultaneously. We had some pretty great "systems" set up and it was amazing. Panning, echoes, traveling voices, call and response of voices and instruments amongst the 4 stereos, we were surrounded by a sea of sound. Sunday we climbed the mountain we call Mt. Tabor.

breakin'

I was supposed to start my first break dancing class tonight but the instructor was sick. So instead me and my friend Sharon went for a few drinks then I came home to diligently start studying some moves in preparation for next week...

spring summer sunday crafternoon

What a crazy-awesome Sunday. It started off easy enough with a amazing brunch at Vita Cafe. Next we planned on going to this "bathhouse" where indeed we read on their website that clothing was optional. An option we though most would be taking. I came with swimsuit in tow but came to realize it would not be necessary. Everyone was goin nudie-style. We didn't want to offend or make people feel self-conscious so we took the plunge. It was less scary than I expected, I just hid under the bubblie water most the time. The best part was when it started to sprinkle while in the outdoor hot tub.




Next was a crafternoon at Summers house. We glued, we drew, we ate red-velvet cupcakes. It was nice to hang with some like-minded ladies. She had an amazingly colorful kitchy house that made me ready to buy one even more than ever.


I came home to Joseph in the basement circuit-bending an elmo talking kiddie toy to do his musical bidding.