My Other Half

My wonderful and talented husband Andy just put up his gallery of digitally manipulated photographs based on photos he took while on our trip to India this past December. Check out the images here.

The Family Antognoli

On Sunday, I attended my annual family reunion in Ohio. My father's father had something like 16 brothers and sisters, and as you can imagine, that produced a ton of relatives! The group photo above isn't even a fraction of them, for scale. I try and make it back for as many of these reunions as I can, because if you miss even one, there are so many new faces or growing up faces that you don't recognize, like these ones:







My grandmother was there, and she is always fun to see. She seems so much younger than she is, and I can only hope that I look that good when I'm her age!


My mother has been in charge of the games for the kids for years. They do all sorts of fun things, and then cap it off with a whirl at the pinata. We had to instate the rule that the pinatas would not resemble anything living though, because one year my mother brought a rabbit pinata, and the kids went all lord of the flies on us and were fighting over the body and head, which had become separated. So now only shapes, and colorful streamers are allowed!



My brother brought his guitar and was playing with a few other family members. I think I left when they went into a rendition of "Freebird" though. That's my limit, I'm afraid...


I have absolutely no idea what is going on here, and I took the photo!


Even family puppies gather for the reunion. I wanted to take this one home with me. He kind of looks like Maurice, only 75 pounds lighter : )


So thus ends another reunion, and thank you again to my second cousin Holly for hosting all of us crazy relatives!

I can see clearly now...

As I mentioned in a previous entry here, I had pretty big news that I would elaborate on later. Well, now is later. I didn't want to jinx myself by talking about it too much beforehand, so only a few people knew it would be happening... but I finally broke down and got lasik surgery! Yes, that's right, I can now see 20/20 without any vision enhancing apparatus. No contact lenses, no glasses... I can practically see through walls, that's how well this has worked!

So why would I go and do this after 18 years of wearing contacts well, you might ask? I suddenly became allergic to my contact lenses in June. They say when you live in DC long enough, it's bound to happen sooner or later. Wearing glasses was ok, but I found it difficult to be a photographer with them on. My career ultimately spurred my decision to go to the same doctor that performed the surgery on my father and younger brother, so I traveled to Niagara Falls to seek him out.

My family has a lot of great traits, but one bad one is our horrible eyesight. The reason my brother went to Canada a few years back is because they offered a type of lasik, Zyoptic, that was not offered here in the states. It is better for those of us hovering around -5 and worse. It also cuts way down on the risk of night halos, regression of correction, and is more accurate for the heavier prescriptions. So that's why the travel...

The day before the surgery, Andy and I wandered around the Falls, and I "found" this written on one of the nearby pillars:


No, I did not put it there. I FOUND it that way. I know some of you still don't believe me... you know who you are.

In case you are wondering, Niagara Falls is big. How big? THIS BIG:


So now it's DAY 4, and my eyes will be a bit swollen for a few more days. I have to wear these special shades outdoors, both to protect my eyes from UV rays, and also to hide my bloodshot eyes. Next week I should look pretty normal, I think. So if you see me around, I will look like this:


This photo was taken by Andy at my family reunion, which happened on Sunday (this was less than 48 hours after the surgery, btw). I will post some photos from that in a separate entry once I get through editing and am able to pull a few photos to share.

I might also post photos of some of my Canadian socks. Most people go on vacations and come back with souvenirs resembling something remotely normal, but not me. All I came back with were really cool, knee high, multicolored socks. You should have seen the customs officer at the Peace Bridge - he asked what we were bringing into the States, and Andy just paused and said, "socks". The guy got this puzzled look and then waved us on our way. I managed not to laugh until the window was rolled back up and we were a safe distance away.

Ah, yes, when I say "my adventures or lack thereof," you really don't know what you're going to get, do you? : )

With Great Power Comes Great Something Something...

I was joking the other week with a photographer friend from North Carolina that I could levitate a book because I had such awesome powers of mind control. Well, she asked me how it was going, and of course, I can't NOT respond to that. So I figured I'd do even better than levitating a book - I would levitate a person! Myself, to be specific. So I set up a camera on a tripod and recorded my telekinetic ability for all posterity.


^^^ Hmmm... the kitchen looks like as good a place as any to start with this. I ponder my strategy...


^^^ Whoa! It's working! I'm off the ground! Wait 'til Charo sees this!!!


^^^ I am so totally awesome! I can FLY! No more dealing with rush hour traffic for me... I'll be above all that! Suckers!


^^^ But wait... my powers were too great! It seems I not only levitated myself, but all the furniture and appliances as well. What was that quote from Spider Man? "With great power comes great something something..." . I'll have to reconsider this whole levitation deal until I have a better grasp on it.


^^^ Oh... so THAT's where all the furniture went. Great. Just great. I always wanted to do my laundry in the middle of the dining room... -

(To be continued...)

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Yeah, I know it's been forever since I last posted in my blog. I really hate to let it go so long without entering something, but I've just been really busy!

So what's new with me?

I've been spending a lot of time printing my holga work in the hopes of getting a show of that collection in the future. I forgot to bring up a lot of music to listen to, so had to listen to whatever was in Andy's car for the duration of my 8 hour print session. That's not entirely a bad thing, because I discovered a really cool band - Cloud Cult. I must have listened to the Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus album about 3 times during that time, and it still hasn't gotten old. If you check out my LastFM playlist (look to the right) and like a lot of the other music I listen to, you should give this one a try. Also on the playlist during my print session was NIN, Cibo Matto and Modest Mouse. LIkewise, I'm always looking for new music, so if you have any to suggest, I'm all 1's and 0's.

We got a new floor in the kitchen this week. Between having knocked out an old counter and Maurice biting the old linoleum floor when we first got him, it really needed to be replaced. Now we have cool ceramic tile, and it just makes the kitchen look 10 times better. I will post photos soon... but I have a plan for them, and I'm not finished yet (insert diabolical laugh here).

I've been working with some other area artists on a project that I will tell more about later once it is up and running. It should be pretty cool though, and there's a lot of talent involved.

I have another big "to do" on the horizon, but I don't want to mention what it is until after it is done... it's a pretty big deal for me though.

So, in a nutshell, I am not dead, I am just busy. And I will try to update with some images of various kinds soon : )

Busy Weekend

This weekend was a busy one for me. I celebrated my birthday, my wedding anniversary, and my parents made a trip out from Western Pennsylvania to come and visit and do a little sight seeing. My in-laws joined us on Saturday when we all went down to the Mall to see some of the memorials, as my mother had never seen any of them before. It was incredibly hot, but was still enjoyable. We then headed over to the Folger Shakespeare museum, since my parents are both Literature teachers, and they enjoyed that as well. The photo above is a quick one I took of myself, my father and the Lincoln Memorial reflecting in my mother's sunglasses. I took plenty of plain old touristy pictures (read - boring) so I won't be posting those ones... they are mainly just for my parents!

So I had a lot of fun this weekend, but now it's back to work for me!

Artists Interview Artists

Hey everyone! Check out my interview on J.T. Kirkland's blog "Thinking About Art", where artists submit 5 questions to be put into a pool and eventually answered by another artist. It's a cool thing J.T. has going there, and I really enjoyed participating.

Here's the link: Artists Interview Artists - Erin Antognoli

GOYA Friday - Believe

I'm posting my GOYA Friday a day early because I will be working all weekend on various photo related things and don't know if I'll have time to post it tomorrow...

Baltimore is still considered DC territory... at least as far as arts and commuting go, at least : ) So this week's photos come from Fells Point in the Inner Harbor. I was a bit puzzled by all the "Believe" signs everywhere. They were on all of the trash cans, for one thing. I do believe in trash, so I decided to take a somewhat self portrait there with my shadow and the cans.

There was a big debate on a photography forum I frequent a while back about "objective" photography, and really, I don't think such a thing exists. Yeah, in most cases something has to actually be in front of us in order for us to capture its likeness on film. The expression "the camera never lies" comes from this nature of the medium. But composition, vantage point, lighting, and in my case, multiple exposing can mean that the exact same subject can be portrayed countless ways depending on how each individual photographer is reacting to it. I think by looking at this Holga series I'm making, it's very easy to see a personality coming through, and so I thought it would be fun to actually include myself in one of them somehow.

Anyway, I've narrowed down my Holga project to 36 photos that I think are fit to print large. But I'm still shooting, so I don't know where that number will end up when it comes time for me to actually hang a show...

In other news, Andy is going to be hanging some of his digital photos that he created from photos he took while we were in India this past December. For the record, EVERYTHING looks 10 times better when it's matted and framed, and these images looked great to begin with, which means a lot considering I don't really care for most heavily digitally-manipulated art. They are incredible, and I'll try to see if I can nab a shot or two of some of them before they head off to be displayed.

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!