Burning Man 2013 ... colorized

It's hard to believe that we leave for Burning Man in a week! A week! Parts of planning seem to get easier each time, but this also means the chance to spent time getting new things done. I had some tiny books printed up with some of my photos from last year so I could take them along and share them. I've worked on repairs, spruced up old clothes with new ideas and have a feeling of responsibility as the result of taking a person with my extra ticket who has never been before. I've spent more time on the phone and with random people in my apartment than I can really remember period. I feel myself stretching out of my comfort zone again, and it's good.

Last year....

....and that was just through Wednesday!!

burning man 2013 - simplicity

Definitely in full on planning mode for Burning Man. So much has happened with it this past week and as usual, luckily, I have the extra energy that seems to magically appear once I seriously start planning and preparing for Burning Man.

Burning Man 2013 - Arty Bits

More from Burning Man 2013.

I was talking with someone today who was describing the experiences that scents can bring back, memories that sometimes you didn't even know you had. Burning Man has a great deal of those for me. I can't smell bacon, especially the strong smell that comes from cooking way more than a few slices that you get from a restaurant early in the morning, without near instantly going back to Burning Man. When combined with a clear morning with perfect temperatures and the special morning light, that's one of those things that once you experience, you really can't erase. Suddenly my shirt is splattered with the grease that comes from cooking 8lbs of bacons on a camping stove and I'm not biking to work, but instead into the open playa to go experience wonderful art for a while.

Coyote Light

So I have been not so great about posting recently, but it doesn't mean I haven't been busy! Some of the biggest distractions have been making cards and working on stop motion collage paper things. At some point, they should make an appearance, but for now I just have a photo from Burning Man last year. It's getting to be that time of the year again and although I have tickets and vacation time, I'm still trying to figure out what to do about this year. I know I would love to go again, which is always in the back of my mind, but there are always details and specifics to get worked out. In the meantime, I was reminded of how much fun I had shooting film in my Holga at Burning Man last year and that I still haven't posted all my photos from last year!

Full Visible Spectrum

How shall I spend a day of American Independence? Drawing a rainbow eye and listening to Danish music, of course!

colored pencil & acrylic paint on bristol paper, 14x17inches

Sometimes I seem to forget that I'm more productive in some ways artistically not putting on random tv shows in the background (it takes a lot for me to sit in front of the computer or a tv and passively watch) or even specifically "arty" ones, but instead just putting on some music and going. Oops. Just leaving this here as a reminder for myself. That was easier to remember before netflix and youtube and when I was a DJ and made a more regular habit of listening to music in an uninterrupted manner. It was also while I was a DJ at KTRU where I was encourage to explore non-pop music, which lead me to world music where I realized that I actually enjoyed listening to music in languages I didn't speak. The voices and words became more musical to me and less distracting, even when it comes to singing along.

I started this drawing late last night and hours passed without me even realizing it was nearly 2am, but I knew I needed to sleep because I never sleep in too particularly late. I woke up this morning and jumped back into it. Right now I'm in another pausing stage, still not sure if it's done or not, which means I prop it up and keep staring at it. I both very much enjoy and hate having to be my own judge of when I'm done because there's some things I could very well tweak forever. I don't necessarily have a preconceived idea about what the end product should be when I start, just some ideas I've worked though mentally and visions that need to come to fruition for later evaluation. Weee!

Here, There, Everywhere

Flying someplace, likely over Texas or New Mexico, December 2013

First day of summer!

Although there are many exciting things about the summer, I can't help but to be a little sad on the first day of summer. It's an acknowledgement that the amount of daylight has reached the peak for the year and the days are going to be shorter and shorter from that point for the next 6 months. Last evening I decided to go out on a walk for a while and enjoy the longest day of the year.

Union Sparrows

While wandering around Union Station, I decided to stop outside and sit on one of the benches in the courtyard for a bit. Moments after I started digging in my bags, I realized I was surrounded by house sparrows. These guys seem to be well trained by visitors to Union Station to beg and be cute. I took advantage of their tameness and shot some photos of these guys (ok, mostly girls!)

Union Station Instant

Union Station, downtown Los Angeles, CA w/ instax mini, 6/13/14


This past weekend I took Amtrak up to Merced for a baby shower for a long time friend. Unfortunately, there were major delays on the Red Line from my home to Union Station (way worse than my anticipated worse case scenario), so the 30 min padding I had given myself wasn't enough & I missed my bus out of Union Station to Bakersfield. Luckily I was able to change my ticket to the next (& last) train for the day, but I had to wait an extra 2 hours. While I was waiting, I wandered around Union Station a bit and took advantage of the the fact that I had 4 (!) cameras with me.

a bike cannot smile

..but a bike can make me smile!

A few weeks ago I rode a road bike for the first time! We were at Open Roads bicycle (a kinda crazy bike shop in itself run by a very passionate owner in Pasadena) looking at bikes. After feeling somewhat intimidated by all the serious bike around me, I went through the interview process by the owner & he suggested I try out a women's Bianchi bike. It was a bit scary to be on a road bike at first after sitting so upright on my hybrid bike - my face seemed a bit too close to the concrete and my body weight was distributed in weird places on the bike, but I knew it would be weird at first and was reassured by a few people it would get more comfortable.
 After testing out a few different bikes and going back to take out the Bianchi a few more times and thinking about it (and talking to people about it way too much) and reading a coworker's blog post at an opportune moment, I decided to put down some money on the Bianchi. I waited a couple days for a few things to be tweaked, including adding in inline brakes, and then brought home my pretty new bike a couple weeks ago!

So far I've still been using my hybrid as my main daily bike, but then going out on my road bike on longer trips around my neighborhood in the morning or evening. I'm still working on tweaking some settings, I picked up some gloves and I've simply been getting used to the experience of riding the bike, but it's been fun! The bike itself is super smooth and nice to ride and makes my hybrid Trek feel like a brick, but they both have their times & places! I am a little sad that this year's model of this bike is white with just some stripes of the legendary Bianchi Celeste color on the frame instead of being completely turquoise-ish, but obviously it wasn't my main concern. I look forward to going out on some longer rides and to some different places. I definitely recognize that it's MUCH easier to ride faster and longer distances on a road bike vs. a hybrid. At the same time, my hybrid is more comfy in some ways and works well for errands and cost less than half as much, so I feel a little less wary about leaving it locked up. Regardless, you justify things like having multiple bikes when you don't have a car... or something.

meaty lady

Nearly 7 years ago now I created this meaty lady collage with special features. Although I once upon a time scanned it or something, it's true potential was generally only enjoyed in person. Until now. Thank you free stop motion software.

then, instantly

Considering the number of cameras I have at this point, one thing I didn't have at all was an instant camera that was... normal (the one I have is very specialized & I haven't used before. I'm somewhat of an old-film camera magnet from the people around me.) A few years ago, I was wandering along a river in Napa taking photos when I kept running into a woman shooting polarid photos. Ever since then, instant film has been in the back of my mind. This past Christmas, I checked out Instant Love from the Pasadena library. It's a pretty fast read about a variety of instant camera basics and had some of the similar appeal of simpler cameras like the Holga. I knew it was a matter of time before an instant camera would find it's way to me.

A few weeks ago, I finally broke down and bought an Instax Mini 8. I was a little sad, since I later found out about lomography's instant camera that's on kickstarter, which has some better controls and flexibility, but who knows... maybe I'll end up with one at some point. (I also remind myself that it's not available until November anyway.) For now though, I'm enjoying my Instax. It's definitely been a learning experience. At first, I kept forgetting the film was 800 speed, which means some of the outdoor shots were a bit over exposed. I'm also not a huge fan of the flash and am considering covering it in some way. I'm getting a better feel for when the camera works and how to compensate for the viewfinder vs. lens position though (you have to frame your photo, then move the camera slightly to the left and down.) I'm looking forward to taking it along on some of my adventures!

This is the most recent photo I shot. I was walking home from voting yesterday when I noticed this older car parked on the street. I really like the resulting photo - on one hand if it wasn't for the newer cars in the background, it would be hard to identify this as a photo taken in 2014. At the same time, I wish the new cars weren't there, but it is what it is and that's how photography works sometimes!

Descanso Gardens Spring, part 3

spotted towhee

more descanso gardens

paper bits

material: scraps of pages from hollowed out books used as a brayer cleaning surface while making gelli prints, later trimmed down to make books.

rules: Glue down first piece. From then on, the next piece must be placed perpendicular to and overlap the previously pasted piece and cannot overlap a parallel piece. ~ 8 x 12 inches

can you find the beginning and end?