M83 – Midnight City

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It’s time to say goodbye to 2011 and welcome the beginning of the end (or the beginning of more of the same). 2011 was a bit all over the place and I am looking forward to what will likely be a lot of changes in 2012. Here are a few statistics for 2011:

• 3 weddings
• 2 Polaroid exhibits
• 100+ photos of old barns across four states
• 1 ostrich egg decorated for Easter
• 2 county fairs
• 1 run into Lake Michigan on New Years day when it felt like -8F
• 13 concerts (not including Moogfest)
• 18 bands seen at Moogfest
• 0 days of snow in December

All the best for a great new year and please do a little snow dance. This 50F+ degree weather on the last day of 2011 is a little ridiculous.

Warm Ghost – G.T.W.S.

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There is something about bare trees and telephone lines that I am consistently attracted to, especially when shooting black and white film. I think it’s the crispness and graphic nature of the lines that makes them so appealing. This photo was taken a little over a month ago while I was walking around finishing off a roll. I usually don’t expect much of those photos but this one is now my favorite of the bunch.

Speaking of telephone lines, over Thanksgiving weekend I saw the Harry Callahan exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. There are some really great photos in the exhibit, including one very clean photo of telephone lines that I quite enjoyed.

Deru – Peanut Butter & Patience

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was recently commissioned to make two cloisonné pieces as Christmas gifts. This is the second one which was inspired by this pendant for my cousin, but made larger and given a filigree look to it. That’s it for cloisonné in 2011.

Tobacco – Hairy Candy

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As it is starting to get a bit chilly outside, I thought I’d post some photos from the Arlington County Fair I attended when it was hot and muggy just a few months ago. Nothing says a county fair like corn dogs, piglet races, squealing animals (both porcine and human) and vomit-inducing rides. The piglet races were definitely the highlight even though I couldn’t help but want to take a bite out of their haunches. The black and white photos were shot with my Mamiya m645 (R.I.P.) and the color photos were shot with my Holga.

Balam Acab – See Birds (Moon)

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Earlier this autumn I was asked to create two cloisonné pieces as Christmas gifts. Here is the first, which is also my first cloisonné brooch. Below is a photo of the piece right after it came out of the kiln, when the colors were yellower. I might have to find a way to replicate those colors because I always like the transparent colors best when they are just out of the kiln.

Grimes – Vanessa

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I am in love with the wooden spoons made by Allegheny Treenware. They have a tent set up at the Waterford Fair every year and I always want to buy one (or ten) of these ladles and use them as bowls, perhaps for oatmeal. This photo was taken with my Polaroid SX-70 using the The Impossible Project’s “poor pod” film.

Note: Normally not into babyish voices, but I do like this Grimes song and it gets better as the song progresses.

Anika – No One’s There

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Anika – Officer Officer

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This weekend I am at Moogfest in Asheville, NC and although I have been slacking on the updates I could not miss the blog’s four year anniversary. Sadly I wasn’t able to catch up to what should be post #209 (eep!) but I do have ambitious hopes of catching up at some point. There are a number of bands I am excited to see this weekend and thought I’d share this one because she is new to me and her eerie voice suits the Halloween weekend quite well . . . have a listen to Anika.

It doesn’t seem that long ago, but it’s been two years since I etched this piece along with three other copper discs. It has been sitting in my toolbox all this time waiting for me to do something with it and I finally decided to make it a brooch.

Crystal Stilts – Departure

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My friend Dirk moved with his family to DC from Luxembourg three and a half years ago for a temporary work assignment and this past weekend his stay here came to an end and he moved back to Luxembourg. I met him two years ago when I was getting more interested in photographing abandoned places and have really enjoyed getting to know him and going out on photo-excursions with him. He will be missed but I fully intend on making it out to Luxembourg sometime to visit.

As a going away gift, a group of us decided to make him a t-shirt. There were several design ideas going around, but the one we settled on was a graphic of his face in a comic book “kapow!” style. Here is the original design I created and a photo of Dirk wearing the shirt. We had the design printed at CustomInk and were really happy with the results.

The Drums – Money

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Last weekend I was in Michigan honoring my maid of honor duties at my cousin’s wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding where all of the stars aligned at the last minute. The weather was perfect (after pouring rain the day before), the food was delicious and the DJ was by far the best wedding DJ I have ever seen. The dance floor was packed from the first song to the end of the night and people kept asking for more.

Backtrack a few months ago to when I signed up for enamels class after almost a year hiatus. When my cousin asked me to be her maid of honor, I knew I wanted to make her a cloisonné pendant as a gift. I am really happy with how it turned out and might have to make a similar one for myself. Here are some photos of the stages. I didn’t go into quite as much detail with the process here as I did with this commissioned piece, but you get the point.

The Horrors – Still Life

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A few weekends ago I went out to West Virginia with some friends and spent a wonderful time enjoying perfect weather with no bugs in a cabin that was remote and had an amazing view of Germany Valley. It was fantastic. The weather was so perfect that I slept out on the deck under the stars without any pesky bugs trying to suck my blood or go spelunking in my nasal passage.

While we were there we drove up to Blackwater Falls, where I took this photo on my finicky Holga. A while back I discovered that a roll of film had consumed one of the foam pieces in the camera, which led to some funky light leaks. This roll ate up the last remaining piece of foam, as you can see by the nice white sections at the top and bottom. I kind of like it, especially the “9.” that is showing through.