Two of the Same (updated/with sound)

Two of the same

This is my first stop motion piece. It was made in response to a workshop in which I learned a charcoaling process. Both of the nests are charcoal. I hope to add some sound to this soon, but for now here it is.

A morning of mock ups

Mock up for potential photo...

paper water

water will be in two shades of blue plus white in some areas

Another mock up for a diorama I'm just starting to work on... a bunny burrow.

Project addition

Yet to be titled...
This image was taken with 4"x5" negative sheet film as well (a digital image is shown here). I plan to print this, along with others, large, 44" wide.

New projects

Working on some new stuff over the winter break. I'm shooting with film again, large format 4"x5" sheet film so hopefully I will have something nice to work from and be able to print some mural size prints, 44" across! For now, though, here are a couple images I took with my digital camera.

Images from "Wild Pet" 12/2011

Below: the beginning of another project in which I will be re-leafing a small dead tree.

Some 300, or so, leaves on just this one branch. So far I have hand cut around 2000 felt leaves but still have  a very long way to go!

My first semester of grad school

Well, I have to say that my first semester of grad school went well. I, somewhat foolishly, only took 2 classes as I was unsure what my work load would be like with my TA appointment and schoolwork. I found that I ended up having a lot of free time! So, next semester I will be taking 4 classes. I thought I would share some of the photos I made over the semester though.

Disco Cicada

Masked Cicada

Wrapped Cicada

Candy dots Cicada

Acrobat Cicadas

Bedazzled Cicada

Fortune Cicada

Open Cicada

Painted Cicada

As is to be expected I had a lot of people asking me what my deal was/is with the cicadas. Well, there was plenty going on with these little guys for me... Firstly, I loved collecting them and how the act of looking for them really made me pay attention to my surroundings and notice other things that I probably would have overlooked. I also liked the delicate way in which I had to handle them and all the little things I noticed about them when I was working with them.  I also really liked the idea of challenging the perception that these are just ugly, annoying little creatures.  It's funny how quickly and easily something turns from "oh ick!" to "that's so cool" just by some simple adornment... it's still the same thing, it's just wearing a different shirt/dress/jacket. I also liked the idea of placing the newly adored shells back out in the world, in their new flashy outfits, as a way of saying "hey, look at me! I was nature and I was awesome but you didn't see me until someone made me all shiny... look around, you're missing cool stuff all the time!". Does that come through in the images? Well, you can be the judge, but those were the things I was thinking about when I was working on this project. I will probably end up incorporating a couple of these images into a larger more varied body of work instead of having these images stand alone as a project. There were a few more cicadas, which I've chosen not to show here and I also have more plain/unadorned shells in my studio, but I'm unsure whether I will make any more fancy cicadas.

The most expensive photo in the world!

So, it has come to my attention that I have been rather neglectful of my blog. I plan to change that this weekend and try to get things up to date!

I thought I'd throw out an interesting little tidbit to get things rolling.

German photographer, Andreas Gursky, is the current record holder for producing the most expensive photograph at $4,338,500. And here it is.....

Rhein II, 1999, C-print mounted to plexi, 81 x 140" (6.75' x 11.6')

Photographing "large, anonymous, man-made spaces" Gursky prints and presents on a massive scale, which creates an encompassing presence, transporting the viewer.

99 cents II Diptychon, 2001, C-print mounted to glass, 2x 207 x 307 centimeter (I'd convert this to inches but I don't like math)
This was sold for $3.34 million on February 7, 2007 and was the record holder for most expensive photograph until Cindy Sherman's Untitled #96 sold for $3.89 million in May 2011.

Untitled #96, 1981

Of course Gursky before there was Gursky or Sherman their was Edward Steichen's "Pond -- Moonlight" which sold for $2.92 million in February 2006 (on a side note I really dislike the way February is spelled!).

The Pond -- Moonlight, 1904

So it goes like this:
Gursky - Rhein II, 1999 = $4.33 million
Sherman - Untitled #96, 1981 = $3.89 million
Gursky - 99 cents II Diptychon, 2001 = $3.34 million
Steichen - Pond -- Moonlight, 1901= $2.92 million