I don’t really like flying. I usually get stressed out, and even though driving is far more dangerous, I always assume I’m going to crash on a plane. If I traveled more often that would probably change… I always get a window seat though, because I absolutely love seeing the world from a different perspective. This is my view landing in Philadelphia at night. The city lights of Philly look like the complex motherboard of some super computer.
RIP Ram Dass. 1931-2019.
This man had a huge impact on my life, helped me through some very hard times, made me laugh, made me cry, and made me realize I have so much to learn about life. I never met him, but his countless hours of lectures, talks, and stories have made him my teacher. People like this die, but never go away… Remember: We’re all just walking each other home.
Just realized I had all the makings of $120,000 art here in my house. Decided to include two bananas to go the extra conceptual mile… At first glance I dissed Maurizio Cattelan for his “Comedian” piece. With more thought though, he might be genius. It seems to be a joke, sarcasm, and a statement about art today. It’s like he gave the finger to the art world, and still they took out their wallets and handed them over.
This image on it’s own is not anything spectacular or fascinating. It’s a nice composition, but nothing special. What gives this image importance is that soon this pier will no longer exist. What has been around for 25 years and walked on by thousands will soon be nothing but air.
It is likely that after the busy season in 2020, the pier will close down and deconstruction will begin. The good news is that a new one is planned to be built, however we will have to wait about 2 years for it all to come together. I’ll be here. I’ll be waiting.
Focus is overrated… Okay, perhaps I am getting a little conceptual here, but if you think about it, photographers (in the modern digital age especially) seem to be obsessed with the crisp and perfect image. So in a world of all sharp photographs, one that breaks those rules stands out.
When I photograph sunsets I look for that interesting view. Today I couldn’t find it – that silhouette, that object, that perspective. There was just nothing different to point my camera at, and I didn’t want just a plain old sunset – so I turned my lens until I everything was WAY out of focus. Suddenly, there it was, the alternative view I was searching for.
I got tickets to the Phish shows here in Charleston, a band that I have seen dozens of times since I was young. My all time favorite group. One of the best parts about this band is the community, the fans. I decided to create something to hand out at the shows.
I painted this in Virtual Reality with a program that makes you feel like you are spray painting on a gigantic wall. It’s awesome how you can “trick” your brain into thinking you are holding a can of paint and make you feel like you are in an alleyway or subway. I saved the final art and turned it into a sticker… I handed out about 60 of these at the shows.
My job ain’t too difficult here. Sometimes all I have to do is visit the beach, and the ocean washes up all kinds of art for me… This evening I was walking along the waves waiting for the sunset when I noticed this sea sponge that looked like a tiny tree. I dug a hole, placed it, moved some shells around, and snapped a photograph.
I took this photograph of the sun today… If you look closely, there is a tiny black dot inside of it. That is the planet Mercury making it’s transit – passing between the Earth and the Sun – something that only happens a handful of times every century. This will not happen again until 2032, so we’ll have to wait 13 years.
Fun Fact: Mercury goes around the Sun very quickly, but spins very slowly, meaning a year would go by before a day does… So that Phish lyric was correct: “Your day is longer than your year!”
When I take my camera out, my goal is to come home with one image that has potential. This evening I wanted to chase the sunset, but clouds blew in. Almost everything was covered, so I turned my eyes in other directions.
I noticed a black feather laying in the sand. I picked it up. I then noticed a little area of the beach that was catching light. I stuck the feather in the ground and called it macaroni… wait, no. I then zoomed way in, focused, and waited for waves to come in and out. This exposure with bubbles created a nice contrast. To me, even though simple, an image like this can speak to us on an emotional level that 95% of photography just can’t do. We shouldn’t be making photographs, we should be making poetry.
Many times my work as an artist is unplanned. I do something, that turns into something else, then I combine it with something I did even before. Like a tadpole becoming a frog, it evolves and changes right in front of my eyes. Planning is good, but over-thinking can get in the way of unexpected progress.
Creating patterns from photographs has been an obsession of mine for the past year. Now I am spending a lot of time watching the sun. I decided to combine a mandala pattern (created from a photograph of sand on the beach) with a sunset image. To me, watching the sun is spiritual, and so the combination is quite nice. This quote really matches the feel of the image for me: “Emotions are like waves… Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.” – Ram Dass