Life Update

Looking through my pictures, I guess there isn't much to update about life.  Things are going steady and well and I've just been enjoying life in the city and the sunny weekends we've been having here.  There have a been a few things worth sharing though and here are some pictures to illustrate.

I forgot to post these before, but I took these while flying from Iceland to Seattle.  These are the magnificent Rockies on the Canadian side.  It's amazing how far the range of mountains goes.

 Here's another shot with some river action.  I'm so glad I got the window seat on this leg of the trip!

Mom visited us recently and we took her to Point Reyes and Sonoma while also showing her around San Francisco.

When I thought about Point Reyes, I was picturing a nice, hot, sunny day with blue water against red rocks and green cliffs.  Instead, we got grey, which is alright for me!  I'm actually really happy that we were in these conditions because it seems so northern California to me.

 Plus, I think the grey gives everything a certain feeling.

Here's my mom taking her shot.  She taught me a lot about my camera on this trip and it was a lot of fun shooting with her.  

While we were at Point Reyes, we also did a bit of hiking.  It provided a whole different atmosphere and photo ops.  I just liked this one because the branches seemed to make a spiral.

Leaving Point Reyes, the rest of these are in San Francisco.  It's nice having someone to show around because you get to experience the best of the city, which generally isn't part of my everyday life.  We started at Ocean Beach, where seal rock is.

I'm pretty sure these rocks were called Seal Rocks because seals used to hang out here.  But the seals have moved on and now they are just a bunch of cool rocks painted in seagull droppings.  Its really meditative to look out at these rocks and watch the birds fly while listening to the waves. 

Here's another cool rock that we found on a hike at Land's End.  Land's End is the western most point of the continental United States, so its the closest (longitudinally) to Hawaii!  I probably took more than 20 pictures of this rock, just because of the size and colors.  It would make a good painting.

I also probably took more 20 pictures of seagulls in flight.  It was addictive.  But now I have some really good images of flight to work with.  

We also went up Coit Tower, which is perched atop Telegraph Hill, giving one a 360 degree view of the city.  

I took this one before we went up, but in the middle right you can see the famous Lombard Street with its insane curves lined with the insanely priced homes.  

I love seeing views of cities like this because I like thinking about myself wandering around in it, being so tiny.  It really puts things in perspective.  It also makes me feel pretty healthy for biking around all over this place.  

The TransAmerican Building is probably the most iconic piece in our skyline.  

No trip to San Francisco would be complete without the Golden Gate Bridge. 

My mom took this one while we were driving back from Point Reyes.  I tweaked it a bit to make it a bit more interesting.  The composition feels very design forward.  

I feel like everyone has this shot, but I really like the fog covering the top.  It is such a common sight that when I see pictures of the bridge on a clear day, it seems almost inauthentic.


And here's mom with the bridge and her gigantic camera.  That thing is a lot of fun!

Well there you have it, a bunch of pictures from a bunch of places.  I've got some fun things planned for the coming months and hopefully I'll be more diligent at sharing.

Artwork Update

I'm becoming more and more truant with these posts.  For a while I just wasn't posting because I didn't really have any work I felt was worth posting.  But now that I look at what I've got, I think there's a few that I can share. 

Lately, I've been working with my designer friend on building a website for the cafe I work at.  There are a number of things in the cafe that are representative of our style and aesthetic and I've been doing some detailed line drawings of those for the site.  Here are a few:

Coffee plant.

Print of a fish.

Another fish.

 Big horned sheep (there is a rad sculpture of these guys in the cafe)

I've also made a few paintings, although not as many as I'd like.  Mostly, I've just been experimenting and enjoying the act of painting without too much concern for content.  

This first one doesn't really apply to what I just said.  I made it as an entry for a group show.  I didn't get in, but I'm really happy with how this came out.  The theme of the show was on memories and  our relationship with them.  I was fascinated with how our brain recalls a memory.  The brain doesn't work like a filing cabinet, putting specific memories in certain locations, but rather has to construct all the elements of a memory when we remember.  This painting represents all the different pieces of a memory coming together.  The figure is falling into the memory and watching it form at the same time.  I think everyone has experienced falling and feeling like it happened in slow motion.  That was kind of the idea here: because the figure is watching everything in slow motion and she gets to see the rapidly forming memory.  Ultimately, when she touches down, its that "A-ha" moment when you instantly remember something.

These last two were just for fun.  I found some awesome images of animals in kind of a somber, almost depressed state.  I have no idea why I'm attracted to that kind of imagery, but I find it interesting and love to paint it, probably just because I like to paint in grey.  Anyhow, here are few new ones:

I have hopes to post again shortly with a "Life Update" to fill everyone in on what's been going on.  Not much to report, but some cool pictures to show.  Check back soon!