This is the most creative thing I’ve done in the past 2 weeks. It is an illustration drawn for a coworker of a massage technique that bruised the shit out of my neck. My poor cat is having a really hard time since her surgery and I’ve been taking care of her full-time.
Had my first day of working in my studio. I know every artist goes this but it’s always humbling and worrisome when the thing in your head turns out to be a turd in the studio. I didn’t have quite that experience but using a little hyperbole helps to place it a little more clearly [...]
I Photoshopped the the wall in there for now. I really can’t wait to build it but I wanna get some stuff started. I don’t actually need it yet anyway. Soon though.
I’m also going to build a new table as this one is on it’s last leg (none intended). I built it in 1999 and [...]
Spent the day rolling on polyurethane with Brant today. What a back-breaker that is. We got about halfway done and we’re high as hell from the oil base fumes, and not a good high I might add. We decided to finish up on Wednesday. Soon, soon, soon this place will be ready. After the floor [...]
I’m finally out of my old studio and getting things arranged in the new space. It has been slow because of a couple of busy work weeks. Still some work to do before I can start making.
Drilling for water. The building manager says we can drill through the floor to plumb into the water pipe [...]
Moved into a new studio this weekend with a guy named Brant Lavalla that I met via craigslist.org. I’m really excited and exhausted (long work week as well). The guy in the picture is the building manager, Mark. He’s standing on the side I chose, divided by the 2 pillars in the center.
The place looks [...]
Overland Veterinary Clinic Discharge Instructions:
Your pet has been sent home with an Elizabethan collar. This collar should be worn at all times. Please keep collar on for 14 days.
She is gonna hate me for life.
Before and After #41: Nick Cave
I just finished reading a biography on Nick Cave and this before and after is a great illustration of what he was like in his younger years, rebellious for the sake of rebellion, he lived to piss people off
The second photo reminds me of a neglected bass guitar I saw at Goodwill this weekend. It was dark green, beat up and rotten, with “Eat Shit” carelessly written in black, thin marker with adolescent handwriting skills.
Large Hadron Collider nearly ready - The Big Picture - Boston.com
I’ve subscribed to this site since it started and it has never ceased to excite me.
I experienced my first earthquake yesterday, a 5.4. It was pretty scary and totally exciting. My expectations have been formed by what I’ve seen in movies but the actual event was very different. It was as if my apartment building was dropped into a large body of water. First there was a huge, but eerily silent vibration as if a big giant tripped and fell in our upstairs neighbor’s apartment, and then the swaying back and forth like floating in a wave pool. Both E and I ran into the center of the apt and stood under the hallway doors while staring at each other with wide eyes. My first thought was “what the hell just hit our building?”. We quickly figured out that we were having an earthquake and then I was suddenly worried that I had no shoes on and my toes were going to get cut off.
The apt. silently swayed for about 10 seconds after the initial shake in a very smooth, aquatic nature. Looking out our open windows really heightened the effect as the view was going back and forth. I remember seeing a women out on the sidewalk with a stroller cruising along as if nothing had happened. It made me second guess my understanding of what just happened for a millisecond, “wait, maybe something did hit us!”.
Afterwards, I called my mom because I’m perpetually dead in a ditch somewhere if she hasn’t heard from me even after a hard rain. I waited maybe five minutes to call her. By the time she picked up and I told her the news she had turned on the local news in Ohio which already had a story about it. Pretty damn fast.
Later, at work in Santa Monica, I witnessed part of a power grid explode, taking all the electricity in the area with it. I’ve seen individual transformers blow on telephone poles but this was like something out of a movie. First there was an extremely loud electrocution noise, but on steroids, when I looked over at the grid I saw huge flames shooting into the air with the power of a rocket. Maybe 15 to 20 feet up. That lasted only a few seconds. Then an enormous, beige mushroom cloud, pushed sideways by the wind, came over the street. I got to go home early.
It was a very non-relaxing day to say the least.
Holy Crap!
Brainstorm: Painting 2.0 - Chronicle.com
cartoon, couple in bed, one says to the other, “What should we have sex about?”
Great comment from Laurie Fendrich’s article about painting’s current relationship to big ideas
[...] but the young painters today, unlike my generation of painters, find it almost impossible to locate truly inspiring contemporary artists for whom painting’s meaning can be derived from what a painting looks like. Instead, the few remaining artists who are sticking to painting who are making any name for themselves are making paintings that derive their meaning from the “ideas” behind their paintings. The result is that young artists feel compelled to offer long, complicated explanations about their intentions [...]
The most beautiful suicide (kottke.org)
Every time I’ve seen this picture it has truly depressed me. Not because it’s an attractive woman, but because she looks like she’s sleeping. Like there is still a chance. I want to believe that this isn’t true.
I’m an so desensitized to gory pictures and movies that this just sneaks up on me.
Elizabeth and I went to see Carmina Burana at the Holywood Bowl last night (tickets start at $1) and had a really great time. Most people don’t know the actual title of the composition but have heard it in many a movie. Here is the most famous part, (recorded during the performance and only performed at the beginning and end):
It was beautiful. The conductor (Bramwell Tovey) performed one his own compositions first (Urban Runway) as well as Don Juan by Richard Strauss. He was very vocal about his inspirations which at first I found a little more than I wanted to hear (on with the music, right?) but once the music started I found that I was really able, for the first time, to see how inspiration leads to music as opposed to an object. This may seem rudimentary to some but it was a valuable discovery for me. I was able to visualize the music. Big stuff.
Anyway, the Bowl is beautiful. The air is crisp, the sound is sharp and the view is memorable. We are definitely going back.
YouTube - Joe McNally - Empire State Building
Shooting the beacon of the Empire State building. This is death defying stuff and with my fear of heights I was really feeling it in the you-know-what’s. The end gives you the actual shots. Amazing.
YouTube - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand
This live one is waaaay better.
