A new art form is born: scat lying

Overexposure

Determined to work in the studio today, I have pulled out the strobes. I was hoping to be able to use nothing more than the modeling lights, but they were insufficient. The strobes, however, are like sledgehammers. Even at their lowest setting and with the camera at its smallest ISO. Part of the problem is the tiny studio space - the strobes are only a few feet from my subject. So I am getting more than a few of these:


There may be a way to make lemonade with that, but I'm not sure yet.

This morning's work came to a screeching halt when I attempted to isolate one of the blossoms by trimming another off the stem. The snap of the clippers was enough to send the pollen of the remaining blossom all over the place - including all over the pure white lily.

a pilgrimage of sorts

For more than 20 years I have been a mail order customer of the art supply store Daniel Smith. In that time, the company impressed me with the variety of high quality materials and good customer service. They haven't made the transition to the web as well, and that, combined with the fact that I own enough quite enough artist supplies that I have need of almost nothing, has made me an infrequent customer.

Yesterday, finding myself in the southern end of Seattle (I needed to buy a replacement bulb for the modeling light in one of my strobes.) I remembered that Daniel Smith was nearby and decided to drop in. Given the wide range of supplies available in their catalog, I was expecting a warehouse filled to the brim. But it turned out to be a modest store, with an emphasis on the practical.



The only item I purchased is a Golden Acrylics medium to experiment with. I want to see if I can seal digital prints sufficiently to paint over them....

A strange bright orb in the sky

The sun came out today - so I stepped out to enjoy it.

A white lily

A white lily opened today.


Seattle is very cold today. A light dusting of snow was evident in some neighborhoods this morning. And in the afternoon very light snow flurries came and went. The weather forecast tempts us with sun tomorrow.

You Will Also Get A Puppy

One of the many unattributed post-inaugural things flying around the internet, so I am unable to credit the photographer.

Voting welcome! (October Leaf & Shell Study)

I'm preparing some new promotional materials at my gallery's request. The front is pretty standard:

But the back, which will be a simple, 7" x 5" detail of the image, is a little more difficult to determine. If anyone has a clear preference, I'd like to know about it...

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David Carson, another TedTalk

Another good design talk from TED

In the spirit of the day.....

Marvin Gaye:

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Jose Feliciano:

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Jake Shimabukuro

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And last, but certainly not least, Hendrix at Woodstock:

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my favorite exchange in Perelandra

"Where will this end?" said the Lady, speaking more to herself than to him....

"...First to have learned that I walk from good to good with my own feet . . . that was stretch enough. But now it seems that good is not the same in all worlds; that Maleldil has forbidden in one what he allows in another."

"Perhaps my world is wrong about this," said Ransom rather feebly, for he was dismayed at what he'd done.

"It is not so," said she. "Maleldil Himself has told me now. And it could not be so, if your world has no floating lands. But He is not telling me why He has forbidden it to us."

"There's probably some good reason," began Ransom, when he was interrupted by her sudden laughter.

"Oh Piebald, Piebald," she said still laughing. "How often the people of your race speak!"

"I'm sorry," saod Ransom, a little put out.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I am sorry if you think I talk too much."

"Too much? How can I tell what would be too much for you to talk?"

"In our world when they say a man talks much they mean him to be silent."

"If that is what they mean, why do they not say it?"

"What made you laugh?" asked Ransom, finding her question too hard.

"I laughed, Piebald, because you were wondering, as I was, about this law which Maleldil has made for one world and not for another. And you had nothing to say about it and yet you made the nothing up into words."

from C. S. Lewis' Perelandra

fog and ice

Woke to dense fog in Ballard. Over on Phinney Ridge, it was icy. Some windshields were covered with elaborate patterns.



The Phinney Ridge tree was decked out for winter...


And when I got back to my car, the windshield had frozen. As I waited for it to thaw, I took a few photos.


And at Ballard Market this morning, they were ready with treats for your inauguration festivities.

the beginnings of the 7th season

The intense schedule of rehearsals has begun for the team this week. This morning the performance team was back in Fremont Abbey for the first time since early December. Playing in this space is important. Practices held and Bob & Jaxie's or at Curt's are valuable of course, but in those small rooms, the players sit knee to knee. At Fremont Abbey they must account for the distances and the sound of unamplified guitars from across the room. And still, rehearsals are still many steps away from performance where the presence of the audience changes so much, including absorbing the sound.

A great talk on design and play and seriousness vs. solemnity

Another bitterly cold week

The cold is hard on me. It is partly an irrational sense of unfairness and partly physical. The unfairness has to do with having already endured the storms of December and aren't we due already for warmth and a little sunshine?

The new Behemoth (yes, it deserves a new name) arrived last week. So far, so good!


The old Behemoth made its departure this week.




The apartment Curt lives in is near the base Phinney Ridge and looks west toward the Olympic peninsula. He has a window in his apartment that faces west and has arranged his desk to face that window. As a result whenever one of us approaches for the various visits, meetings and guitar sessions, a common sight is Mr Golden in the catbird seat of his apartment. I have long wanted to photograph this classic experience of being in Seattle - and finally did so last week.

Scott McCloud Tedtalk

Whole Earth Catalog / Co-Evolution Quarterly

In 1980 I attended some sort of expo event a Fort Mason in San Francisco. One of the booths was for the publisher's of the Whole Earth Catalog. I bought a copy of the 'Next Whole Earth Catalog' and a few back issues of Co-Evolution Quarterly. I don't recall if I subscribed at that time, but I know I got a subscription pretty quickly. Co-Evolution Quarterly had a profound influence on my life, exposing me to ideas, tools and writers I might never have found otherwise.

As I prepared to move to Seattle and needed to radically reduce my possessions, I reluctantly sold all the back issues of Co-Evolution Quarterly and it's replacement publication, the Whole Earth Review.

Now I learn that someone has produced an online version of the whole suite of publications.

www.wholeearth.com

The interface is lousy, but I'm pleased as can be that this curious treasure is now available.

Lilac demise

It seems I forgot to post this photo of the lilac downed by the last snowstorm.

The Brave New World of Getting a Job

Today I encountered a job posting that concluded with this sentence:

Please apply by forwarding to us a link to your public profile on LinkedIn.

Oh lord, what have we come to...

Not again! Yes, it's snowing.

Still regaining my health after getting walloped by the flu and getting laid low for almost ten days. Just getting my life back in order - especially getting ready for the arrival of the Behemoth II which is supposed to arrive tomorrow. So, the sight of falling snow came as quite a surprise. As was the sound of half the lilac in the backyard crashing down to the ground from the weight of the snow.


Hopefully this will all turn to rain before the night is up.

Claiborne Pell 1918-2009

Among Senator Pells achievements listed in his NYTimes obit was this:

Mr. Pell also was the author of the National Foundation of the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965. That legislation paved the way for the National Endowment for the Arts, which makes federal grants to artists and arts organizations, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which channels federal money in literature, history, language and philosophy, among other fields.

The creation of the National Endowment for the Arts did much over the years to foster avant-garde styles and techniques that made American artists renowned worldwide for work that Mr. Pell personally disliked.

“I don’t like abstract paintings,” he told an interviewer in 1996, saying he had no use for any artwork “more abstract than Picasso’s Blue Period.”

“I think that many of the grants made to artists by the endowment were mistakes,” he said, adding quickly, “But I’ll never intrude.”