buzzy bee

Holga macros!

A couple weeks ago I picked up the Holga Macro filter set. I've always been a fan of macro and love looking at the awesome little details that you sometimes miss if you just look at the BIG picture. The simplicity of the Holga is part of the fun of it, but a couple of macro filters doesn't make it too much more complex (although it does involve some guesswork since you can't see what's going on through the viewfinder.) I shot the first roll while wandering around my neighborhood and ended up with some awesome results. To say the least, I've been enjoying exploring a new world with the Holga and look forward to what I can do with these filters going forward!

West Botani-Hammer

Despite the fact that I've lived in Los Angeles for about 14 years now, I still find that there are  plenty of new places to explore locally. Yesterday we took a trip down near UCLA and spent the afternoon in Westwood Village. The Hammer Museum recently received some money which is allowing them to have free admission for the next 4 years.We spent a few hours wandering around taking in all of the exhibits although we spent the most time in the permanent collection, a modern art type section and a special exhibit called Tea and Morphine. The permanent collection was enjoyable - it included an awesome dog painting from Toulouse-Lautrec, a surprisingly dark Van Gogh painting and a pretty Renoir among other art of all sorts. The modern art exhibit was a bit overwhelming (some areas seemed like they were trying to shove as much as possible into the space they had), but had some interesting highlights, including a 20 minute film/performance called "Total Recall" by Gretchen Bender. The viewing included 24 tvs and a few extra screens playing different videos. Although it was overwhelming at times when viewed as a whole, the fact that different screens were showing the same things at different times, it also allowed you to watch the same thing over and over again in a somewhat more relaxed fashion. It's kinda interesting to watch now especially since the video consisted of many tv sequences that were familar in the 80's and graphics that were new at the time. 25 years later and 10 years after Bender died, I'm sure it already has a much different impact in some ways. The "Tea and Morphine" exhibit focused on art about women in Paris in the last 1800's/early 1900's who were drug addicts (morphine in particular) & prostitutes  as well as high class and the art depicting the women in their lives. Some of it was a little boring, but there was plenty of interesting pieces to make the exhibit worthwhile. It reminded me of a burlesque performance we saw a few years ago at the CIA in North Hollywood.... I'm wouldn't be surprised if this time period was inspiration for the act.

After the museum, we headed over to the nearby botanical gardens.  I always enjoy walking through naturey areas, so I had a fun time wandering around and looking at the plants and animals for a little while and smelling lemon scented plants. I easily could have spent way more time there taking all sorts of pictures, but it's only open until 4pm on Saturdays. Later we headed back to the main village area where we wandered around and eventually stopped at Native Foods for some yummy vegan Sesame Kale Macro bowels for dinner.

shamrock!.. but on a stem

 

 

I really liked the non-symmetrical petals on these flowers

Overall it was a pretty enjoyable and rather cheap day considering some of the art we got to see. We had free parking, which helped, but besides that we only paid for dinner! I definitely recommend it as a whole outing if you have a free afternoon.

29 faces...7th!

1 more left after this group! I can definitely tell I've been wanting to go more off into abstract territory, which is coming through in the faces, but they are still faces none the less!

25 - pencil on printer paper, using the frottage technique

26 - pen on drawing paper... made from circle-type shapes

27 - colorless oil pastel on watercolor paper with watercolor then applied on top. This is a tricky technique since you can't really see what you're drawing without tilting the paper at an angle, but that's part of the fun. It was kinda exciting to see what I drew appear as I applied the watercolor. This technique has a great deal of potential though and I'll probably play with it more.

28 - watercolor on watercolor paper

29 faces, group 6!

29 Faces! February is over, but I have to admit that I've been really inspired to work on faces the last couple days, especially with all the rain we've been having. Once I first thought of doing rain paintings, I'm always eager to get home and play when it's raining. Considering we've been lacking rain this year in Los Angeles, the opportunities have been few and far between. Just a few more faces left!!!

18- playing with food, making faces. yogurt, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and granola!

20 - rain painting with watercolors on watercolor paper. Rain painting deserves it own post, but yup, glad we got some rain to be able to do this!

21 - gelatos on watercolor paper. I hadn't played with gelatos and water yet, so I thought maybe I'd try them out with the rain. I drew a rough faces and then took it out into the rain. I was expected they would move more, but after 5 or 6 wettings/drying cycles, this is pretty much as much as I got out of it. Oh well! That's how experiments go sometimes!

22 - finger painting with acrylic paint on cardstock!

23 - Rubbing on vellum with a ballpointed/embossing stylus clay tool thingy. I wanted to try this out for a while and was really happy with the results. It looks better against a back lit surface, but here it's against a black piece of cardstock.

24 - another attempt with the Gelatos, watercolor paper and rain. This time I took the paper out into the rain and let a few drops fall on it before drawing, using only 4 colors. I really like the resulting effect where some areas are a little more blended/soft looking than others.