When screenprinting, my son often starts with a photo and then Does Stuff to it in Photoshop and Illustrator before he prints the result, giving the image a new and remarkable story to tell.
With the right software you can make a guy pink.
Or you can add a lot of tattoos.
Or you can throw in some UFOs.
These were all done as class projects. Now he is talking about scrapping art as a major. Sigh. His choice. His life. His choice. His life. His…
Old time printing presses are now used exclusively by artists. I’ve learned this from my son, who made the letterpress prints below.
I think he’s got fabulous talent. I am allowed to say that because he doesn’t read my blog.
I love watching pelicans. Their wave-skimming flight, their tight formations with many birds veering as one, their precision dives – they always get their fish! Watching pelicans reminds me of Gary Larsen’s Far Side frame with the buzzards wearing shades and the caption “birds of prey know they’re cool”.
Every once in a while, I catch some pelicanness on camera.
Pelican at sunrise, East River, NYC.
Pelicans at sunrise, Carlsbad Beach, San Diego County, CA
They’re up there. Really.
Words to live by!
Sorry I cannot give credit for this quote – a friend heard somebody say it once at an AA meeting some years ago…
At last, some footage to demonstrate the potential in this methodology! (See this post for the other six steps.) Also, at last I have fulfilled my obligation as a citizen of the 21st century – I have posted a cat video to YouTube.
Wildfires can be so destructive and at one time I hated to look at a recently burned hillside. However, I have come to realize that a burned slope has a unique, stark beauty.
The Station fire was a large wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains (near my southern CA home) in 2009.
The fire burned hot and fast and the slopes looked like this afterward.
But, a few months later, each of those moonscape skeletons already showed regrowth.
Within a couple years, the hills were back to looking like this.
Of course, part of my appreciation may come from knowing that around here, the hill likely holds native chaparral plants which are adapted to wildfire and usually bounce back, no matter how dead they initially seem.
Everywhere in Florida there are Beware of Alligators warning signs but after several trips to Florida with no ‘gator sightings, I was despondent. So the family took us to a long walkway inserted into the Everglades, and I saw this alligator – dive below the surface. See him? Right where those rings are.
Alligator evidence.
Note to other travelers: we visited the Everglades in late summer. Mosquito season. Not recommended. (With three applications of bug spray, wearing long sleeves and pants, we got away easy with only a few thousand bites. Each.)
(Posted as part of the Weekly Photo Challenge.)
I want my garage doors to look like these!
Lower Manhattan – left door
September 2012 – right door
(Posted as part of the Weekly Photo Challenge.)
Required Writing 