Inspired by life

Recently I've been embrassing our role as observers. When you really take time to observe something, the meaning of it changes, and so does your previous thoughts. And in a way, your understanding also starts to veer. As to not get too philosophical (because really what do I know, I haven't even taken the class yet) here is a glimpses of what I'm talking about. Ideas can come from everywhere and life is inspirational.

RED. One night I was making some salsa and I just stopped. With only the stove light on, everything that was in front of me had this mellow, calm, mood surrounded by red. Even the pepper I used was red . . too bad I didn't get a shot of that. Anyway, I ran upstairs, got my camera and documented.

Later (or before . . I forget) I was at a bar and I saw this candle. Again, same colors, same feeling, same impulse to take a picture of it. The weird part of all of this is that its not a project that I am focusing on. It's just pictures I've been taking in the last couple weeks and upon looking back I saw some themes.

This is the table at the bar.

BLUE. Later I saw this. Originally I took a picture of it as a study of something shinny. My art teacher two summers ago said that artists only paint shinny, metallic/glassy things as their focus to show off and prove that they are capable of doing it (because its such a difficult thing to do). Well, if I'm going to be an egotistical artist, I better get started! Nah, this would just be good practice and experience that will be nice to keep in my back pocket for later.

Looking up, I saw what was making this happen. "Black" light. I wonder why they didn't just call it violet . . that's what the wavelength is nicknamed. Anyway,I think it kind of looks like a moon. Lets call it a modern moon, cause really, now days people see more CFL that they do the moon.

GREEN. I took this as a study for my next painting. As much as I've been on this earth, I've only reproduced it a handful of times on paper. Even something as simple as grass needs studying. The main reason, which I've come to learn over this past year: Randomness is one of the hardest things to imitate. (maybe that's why there's only one of me? haha, just kidding kids)

Yes, I randomly stop eating to take pictures. These kiwis were so fricking delicious. I bought it last weekend at the farmers market and you can bet I'm going to buy 3 times as much this weekend. Ill probably make a meal out of it. Anyway, I couldn't resist the the bright (almost neon) green color these furry guys were emitting. From now on I will no longer used green, but kiwi for the specific color. IE, "with a tinge of kiwi" like "a hint of avocado." Sorry, inside joke.

That's the end of my color series. Here are a couple of fun shots I took of my friends at dinner (yes I randomly run upstairs, grab my camera, point it at my friends, make them uncomfortable, and take photos). I was at the bottom of my stemless wine glass and got inspired.

I shall call these, "ripping off Britt . . Cool idea, glad I could steal it!" Here's Casey [spitefully] drinking her wine while wearing my new hat with ears. My favorite part is her hand.

And Richmond being bashful. At least pictures of him come out good (most of the time) I always feel weird getting my pictures taken also, but mine come out awkward and lame. I like this one because it makes his head fit his ego. JUST KIDDING, don't kill me in my sleep.

So, the other night I was listening to the new Radiohead album. It is exceptional. Anyone who reads this should go to inrainbows.com and download it. There is no reason not to since you can set your own price and even download it for free. Anyway, I was inspired by what my ears were hearing. I'm not sure if you're going to understand this, but it was like I was in an isolated place that only consisted of my desk and things that were in a 2ft radius of me.

This is what my night felt like. I was so inspired by the music I started taking notes about. Actually, I was doing research on Jeremy Fish (my last JOpinion on http://www.jotiumitch.com/) and my note taking continued into the music. I had a little snack of cherry tomatoes and squash as well.

One night I was driving home and saw this in the middle of the intersection. Someone just decided to draw a flower and write lovely in the middle of the road. Even better, someone decided to draw a flower and someone else saw it and wrote lovely in the middle of the road. Needless to say, I was inspired.

These past few weeks have been good for me. Apart from stressful workdays and not enough time for things, my outlook has somewhat changed and its cool to realize things like that.

UpDated: The past few days

Its been a while since my last life update, so be warned that this one is long . . but mostly pictures.


A few Saturdays ago some friends and I woke up at 6 to go to the farmers market under the freeway. It was huge, at least compared to what were used to, and we bought way too much food.

Here's a picture of the bike ride back (slightly edited) This is one of my favorites. Later that night (maybe the next Saturday night . . it was a while ago) we went to a 21st birthday party for 3 . . Casey, John and Jordan.

We kicked off the night with some beer pong. Jenn (the one laughing) is one of the most light hearted people I know . . not to mention easily distracted. The game came down to one cup each, and yours truly closed the game with the sweetest shot in Beirut history. Not really. It took about 15 minutes to finally finish while these two irritating chicks kept whining. "Come on, finish the game!" I hope they puked that night.

Of course we got into a "lets take pictures mood" and here's one the better ones.

A couple Thursdays ago I went to San Francisco for a conference. It was pretty cool, but walking around the city was a bit better. I kept stopping to take pictures of street art . . .I'm sure my co-worker was happy about that.

Here's a cool and huge piece I saw. I swear I know that artist. Anyone know who it is?

The next day I went to see a little concert of Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem. I won't go into here as I am planning on writing a review of it on Jotiumitch, but I will say it was freakin awesome (that's right, no G)

Here's one of the better pictures of the night.

Now for current events aka Jon's time-hopping weekend. This past Saturday I went to San Francisco. I did a bit of shopping (mostly not for myself), saw some art and was pleasantly surprised by the festivities I walked in to. I got off the BART at Powell and was greeted with the loud roar of reggeaton.

When I got to the street I saw this. I couldn't stop staring at the hot "angel." There were several platforms with music blasting and people dancing. Everyone in the streets were dancing as well . . not to mention dressed (or nearly dressed) in bright colors. Later I found out the parade was headed to City Hall.

But, I didn't come to the city for LoveFest. On my way to the galleries I saw some street art. Here's a cool little wheatpaste I found. It was actually sideways, but I figured this was the best way to see it. Medusa?

I got to White Walls and got to see Richard Coleman's exhibit "The Ghost." I saw a picture of this sculpture but didn't realize it was so huge. This sucker must have been at least 7 ft tall. Plus, it was on a 2 foot platform, so it was towering.

Here is a great example of Mr. Coleman's work. Very detailed, very colorful, very though provoking with strange (but not-so-strange) images. Not sure if I could take pictures, but the dude wasn't paying attention, so I snuck it.

Across the way at the Shooting Gallery was Eric Joyner's exhibit. This "Robots and Donuts" show was pretty interesting and gave me pretty good insight on painting techniques. His work is playful and always has some type of robot, not just the boxing type.

More street art. I got really excited about this one because I've seen this guys work before. I just wish I could remember who the artist was. In any case, it was pretty cool seeing something in real life that you've seen a few times before online.


I walked down Larkin to the Civic Center BART station to get to a book store before heading home. As I mentioned before, I soon found out that the parade ended at City Hall. Since I had to go through it, I thought I might as well hang out for a bit. So, I spent some time mingling through the festivities.

Turned out to be pretty fun. Lovefest made me feel like I was in San Francisco in the 60s/70s. There were people being free, dancing, drinking, smoking, living. It was pretty amazing to be there.
I like this picture of one of the platforms in front of City Hall. The prestige of the dome with the liberal happenings in front.
This Go Go was on top of a bus, just dancing and wiggling.

Tutu man was on top of the bus as well . .trying to listen to the music.
And then there was naked man. This dude was awesome just because he was walking around, butt naked in the middle of the city with a pack of beer and slippers on. You have to have some gonads to do that.

After I got to my book store I got a Char Sui Bow aka Manapua aka BBQ pork bun, ate it while waiting for the BART and headed home. That was a pretty cool day full of visuals.

The next day I snuck into an orchard with Casey. Turned out to be a walnut orchard. We sat around, listening to music, doing some breathing exercises, drawing a bit and talking about life. We felt like we were in another decade.

View on my back.

View of me taking a view on my back taken by Casey.

Told you there were walnuts.

View on my front.

After some time we decided it was time to leave. We packed up and started walking out. We soon noticed that we were walking extremely close to farm property. Right around the time that thought entered our minds we heard a dog barking (or maybe it was the dog that made us think that . .?). Anyway, we started to run (for fun) and then realized the dog was chasing us. We got to the fence, slid underneath, and enjoyed the fact that we were no longer trespassing. That was some crazy fun.

When we got out, we noticed the beauty of our surroundings. There's something about the afternoon sun that makes everything look pensive and calm. That was a good weekend.


Oh, I painted Teahupoo. My very first landscape. It wasn't as boring as I though it was going to be. Anyway, here it is.

So, I finally found the artist of the street art I couldn't remember. His name is Shepard Fairey and his work is insane. Maybe a future JOpinion?