Happy 4th of July!

This was supposed to be for a GOYA a while back, but didn't get developed until this past weekend. But, it is appropriate, no? So have a good one!

GOYA Friday - Chinatown

On Sunday I was in Chinatown again to attend a seminar hosted by the Fraser Gallery entitled "Success as an Artist", and I figured while I was there, I could use the opportunity to make some more Holga photos of that general part of DC. I just love the textures that I find down there, and have a few rolls from that adventure. One of those is not yet developed, so I'll have to wait to see what else I have when I have a chance to process it.

The seminar was quite good, by the way, so if any of you are thinking about attending in the future, I'd highly recommend it. I saw quite a few ArtDC.org people there like Alexandra Silverthorne, Matt Achhammer, and Angela Kleis, so that was cool too.

GOYA Friday - Aliyah

The other day, I was out in the yard watching the neighbor kids play. Well, the youngest of these is Aliyah, who is just growing so fast. It seems like yesterday that she was born. Now she has teeth, is trying to talk, and is running and trying to keep up with her older brother and sister! And she's only 1. This is a close up of Aliyah just after she ate a cracker (hence the crumbs on her chin). Such a cutie, I thought that she would be a good substitute for my Holga work for this week's GOYA.

Pixel of the Day

Hey, everyone! I am the human pixel pin up girl for May 16, 2006! I posted about this project a while back, but if you haven't checked it out yet (and if you're an artist, haven't participated), you should do so now. The Human Pixel Project.

GOYA Friday - National Museum of the American Indian, DC

This image was made a while ago, but was on a roll that I didn't get to process and print until this week. This was shot from the top of the National Museum of the American Indian in DC. It's a really cool place, and I'm glad something came out well from there to show off the architecture. These are shots of the lobby and of the ceiling directly above it. I like to find repeating shapes wherever I can, just because it creates a relationship where one might not have existed otherwise. Not to get too new age on you all, but I think there are relationships everywhere, and we just need to look hard enough to find them... it's kind of a comforting thought in a way, and that's one of the reasons I started this Holga project in the first place. Having only lived in DC for five years now, I still feel like there's so much I haven't seen and that needs to be explored. On the surface, DC isn't the prettiest town, or even the most interesting visually, but looking at it in terms of connections and relationships, it becomes so much more than what's on the surface.

GOYA Friday - Art and Dogs

This past weekend, we went into DC twice... on Saturday we went to visit Devlan and Ed and their new puppy, Abbie. She's the little black dog sitting so nicely at the edge of the street waiting to cross. Don't let her fool you though - she's cute and she knows it! After we visited and ate some dinner, we all went to the ArtDC.com studio art show / open house on T street. Whoever had the idea to combine a real estate open house with an art show is a pure genius. There were so many people there, and it was quite a diverse crowd. And Flor's catering rocked, as usual. Cute dog, cool art, cool people... what more could a person ask for?

On Sunday, we went with Andy's family to see the Native American Museum on the Mall in DC. My holga photos were a bit overexposed, so I'm not posting any of those here right now. I have some more that I have yet to process, so maybe I'll have something more usable in that batch. It's a very cool museum, by the way. And free. So you have no excuse not to go if you are in the area : )

GOYA Friday - Summer means Haircuts for ALL!

The start of summer means haircuts for all! Yes, that's right: I got my hair cut, and then the next week Maurice got his hair cut. Or, I should say, Andy and I cut his hair. I don't have any real qualifications to do this, other than I used to cut everyone's hair in college, but that was when we were all poor and for the most part car-less, and had no other options. Desperation will make a person do strange things, including allowing me to give them a mohawk. But I digress...

Step One: Prepare the Sasquatch
(This consists of putting him on a folding table so he can't run away.)



Step Two: Begin shaving the Sasquatch



(Note spindly little tail that hides beneath 5+ inches of fur)



Step Three: Trim Ears
(Note all the fur around the table... this filled an entire large garbage bag!)



(Note my intense expression as I try not to mess this part up)



Step Four: Pet dog as a reward for being so good for the last hour and a half
(I know it looks like I'm grabbing his scruff rather harshly, but he likes it, honest!)



And that, my friends, is how you go from Sasquatch to Spider Monkey in less than two hours!

And, finally, MY new haircut:



So now everyone is cool, comfortable, and ready to begin summer!

GOYA Friday - 7th Street

The other week I went to a meeting for Artomatic, which is a huge arts event here in DC. Since I don't get to make it down to the District as much as I would like, I decided to take some photos on the way to and from the meeting. This is right outside the Warehouse Cafe on 7th Street in Chinatown, and there were a lot of interesting textures and shapes to be found just within that block alone. I got a lot of photos that day, but these are my favorites so far.

Easter Fun

Over the weekend, I had a chance to visit with family, which is very nice these days since I only get to see my family a couple of times a year. We spent Saturday with my mom's side of the family at my cousin's house, and spent Sunday at my grandmother's house - that's her on the left. I thought these photos really captured her, since she's always the life of the party and fun to be around. She's also the family member I most resemble as far as looks go, so let's just hope I look as good as she does when I'm her age! In keeping with the tradition on both sides of the family, there was so much food. I think I went into sugar shock several times over the course of the weekend. Is my family the only one that serves an Easter lasagna, or are there others out there with some unique Easter traditions? My family is full of strange holiday traditions. The Antognolis play Bingo every Christmas Eve, and I think it may be safe to say that we are indeed the only ones who do that. My grandmother calls out the numbers, but she uses a mix of English, Italian, and some made up language so it makes it really hard to win (without cheating) : )

On Sunday, I also got to see my cousin, her husband and two daughters. They just keep getting bigger and bigger. They were big hams for the camera, so I got a lot of shots of them (see below).





And finally, what Easter would be complete without a sasquatch? It's getting warmer, which means Maurice will be getting all his hair cut off very soon. He just can't do much of anything with 5+ inches of fur when it's 90 degrees out. So if I want to make a quick buck by taking some blurry photos of him running through the woods and selling them to bigfoot hunters, I have to do it in the next couple of weeks!

GOYA Friday - The ArtDC.org studio

I'm posting this a day early again, but I have a good excuse - not much time to post tomorrow!

In any case, this past weekend, Andy and I made a trip down to the ArtDC studio for a meeting, and also just to check the place out. It's an awesome space, and I look forward to holding classes there and possibly teaching one or two of them! It rained the whole day, so it was pretty miserable out, but Jesse, ArtDC.org founder, was kind enough to pick us up from the metro so we didn't have to get too soaked.

A few of these photos were taken near the loading dock of the studio, and since I couldn't decide which one I liked best, I'm posting several! The exit sign is inside the building, and the crane is near the NY Ave. metro stop. Cranes are seemingly permanent fixtures here in the DC metro area. Something is always being torn down or rebuilt.

And for all you artists out there, you should really visit Artdc.org and consider joining. It's a valuable resource, and awesome for networking with other local artists. I've met some really cool and talented people through my association, and look forward to working with them to promote the arts here in DC.

For whatever reason, I can't post the other two photos! But I'll post what I have, and update when blogger is feeling better...

Edit: Haha... better!

GOYA Friday - Cherry Blossoms

(Let's pretend it's Friday... Ok?)

This week I decided to take some photos of the cherry tree in my yard, since this is the time they're in full bloom. There's a very narrow window of opportunity for this, as they only stay in bloom for about a week before the petals start to fall and the green leaves start to bud.

I realize these aren't the typical tourist-attracting cherry blossom shots that everyone would expect, but that's ok. I like different. This is my shot of the same cherry tree from this week last year:



Again, not the typical cherry tree shot, and very different from this year's photos as well. This is a self portrait, actually. I wonder what I'll think of to do with photographing this tree next year?

GOYA Friday - The Human Pixel Project

For this week's GOYA, I am showing the final results of my participation in The Human Pixel Project. You can check out the overall goals and information at the web site, but to sum up, each participating artist gets 10 2x2 inch pieces of wood and are asked to alter them any way they see fit, so long as the finished squares represent one or all of the color swatches listed on the site. I chose to make one of each color for some diversity. Once the "pixels' are gathered, they will be used to make larger pictures.

This project was a lot of fun, but quite challenging because of the small size. My pixels are made with oil paint, sharpies, and torn photos and paper. The gray pixel is actually acrylic because I realized after starting that I didn't have any black oil paint, only a black oil stick... which didn't work very well for gray. Who doesn't have black paint? Ugh. Anyway, I think it all turned out ok, and am happy to have participated. Once these are completely dry, I'll ship them in to Human Pixel headquaters and see what becomes of them.

Munktiki Madness!

Last weekend, Andy and I photographed our friends' Munktiki collection. One of the artists who made a lot of their collection put out a call for any photos of the pieces that told a little about the people who owned them. Our friends are animal lovers like we are, and have a few rescued animals around. We had to bribe the cat with a tasty treat in order to get him to stay on the table with the skull piece, and then we released the snake. We soon realized this probably wasn't the best idea, as the snake darted behind the bookcases and put up a fight before being recaptured and put back in his tank. But we did manage to get some good photos of them all... and nothing broke!

Andy took most of the photos that day, including the one above of the cat. I took the snake photos.

And after that was done, we ate at The Vegetable Garden, which is incredible, especially for those of us being vegetarian and vegan (that would be all of us present that evening!). The menu is huge, and we can eat anything on it... heaven!

GOYA Friday - The Flag

This week I decided to stop at the parking lot I pass on a regular basis to take some Holga photos there. There's a car dealership there, and they have this huge flag that can be seen for miles. In that same parking lot is a vegetarian Indian restaurant that I absolutely love, and that area is the subject of the non-flag photo. I think I need to find a flag closer to the ground so that I can really move around it and get up close, since that was my original intention in making these photos. But all in all, not a bad roll...

GOYA Friday - Newton White Mansion

This past Saturday, I photographed alongside friends Jamie and Natalie of Borrowed Blue Photography at Newton White Mansion for Kymberly and Tony's wedding. Mainly, I wanted to test my new camera and to get back into the swing of things for the start of wedding season, but also I wanted to take out the Holga and play at a wedding! The images above are a few of the Holga photos I made that day. I have some normal images as well (quite a few, actually!), and I will post s few of them soon.

I had a lot of fun, and want to thank Jamie and Natalie for letting me tag along, and also to thank Kymberly and Tony for allowing me to be a part of their day and make some photos!

Elizabeth

I had the pleasure of photographing 3 month old Elizabeth over the weekend. Not only was she photogenic and full of expression, but she stayed awake just long enough for me to put together a really nice session! This was also a nice opportunity for me to test out my new camera (D200... yay!), and so far I'm really liking what it can do for me. Expect more photos of children and babies, as well as more images from this sweet camera in the future : )

GOYA Friday - The Gas Station

This week I took my Holga to the gas station because, well, I didn't have any better ideas! I think the last time I took a camera of any kind to a gas station was when I lived in Savannah, and I was working on a project that consisted of dressing up my mannequin, Diana (the world was ready for another!), and putting her in situations that I would normally be in. I took one photo of her pumping gas at the station near my apartment there. It must have looked really strange to see me start the gas pump, whip mannequin parts out of the trunk and assemble them, take some photos, take the mannequin apart and put her back in the trunk and drive off. But that's ok... it amused me for five minutes.

Other photos of Diana included her getting ready in the morning, sitting in my classes at my desk, checking my e-mail in the computer lab, riding the elevator, waiting at the bus stop, touring River Street, and grocery shopping. Oh, the stares I would get. I should dig up some of those photos and share them. I haven't looked at them for at least 7 or 8 years since I made them.

Art shows are for the birds...

You all might remember this post and photo where I talked about entering the bird-themed juried show, Icarus, being held by Savannah College of Art & Design. Well, not only the bird bone photo was chosen, but this photo of Andy on the rooftop in Kolkata was chosen as well, in addition to the self portrait posted above. That's 3 out of 3 that I entered! So I'm pretty happy about it, since entering juried shows is a test of perseverance more than anything. You just never know who is going to like what you have to offer, so you just have to keep trying and hope for the best. And this time around, I made out pretty well :)

So, details about these shows... there will be two shows, one in Atlanta and one in Savannah (both in Georgia). Icarus is scheduled to run from March 28th through April 29th at Savannah Gallery located at Roswell Road, Atlanta, GA, and from July 29th to August 27th at Red Gallery located at 201E. Broughton Street, Savannah, GA. These are actually two separate shows (the work will not travel), and my work will be at the Atlanta venue. Once I figure out when the opening receptions are being held, I will let everyone know!

GOYA Friday - sort of...

Yeah, I know it's only Thursday again. I'm such a rebel. But I finished my latest Holga roll, and since I can't shoot it on Friday and have it ready for that same day, it's not like I GOMA on Friday anyway...

My brain hurts now. Less thinking, more typing...

Anyway, I only had one shot on this roll that I liked, hence only one image posted. This is rush hour in Potomac. "Rush hour" is a bit of a misnomer, because it actually lasts about 4 hours, with a short break, and then picks back up again for another 4 hours. Such is life in the burbs. But if I can make this scene look at all interesting (read: staring at the back of an Audi for what seems like an eternity), then I can do anything!