Icelandic horses

While traveling in Iceland, it is common to see the horses that are unique to the country. There is something special about them - thick coats, disposition, hardiness...I'm not sure and I've done zero research on them. I can tell you that they're generally friendly and curious. They are also very beautiful with thick manes.

Embroidered piece

I've been working on a large embroidered piece with tree images on it and have been going a little nutso with the fine detail work so I decided to take a breather and work on something smaller. I started this on Thursday or Friday and finished it last night. The creases and wrinkles are a bit vexing. I've pressed it once already and am planning to try another method of getting it to lay flat. I don't know if I'll be 100% successful with that plan, since there is crinoline acting as the substrate for the fabric and it has a tendency to keep its creases. We'll see...I'm feeling as though I'm still in experimental mode for how best to work these pieces. Perhaps I need to move to a frame or hoop system (currently, I'm doing everything by just holding the piece in my hands).

It may not be perfect, but I really feel as though I'm making some progress.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Toadstool

We're lucky in the Northwest to have so much rainfall and generally moist weather since we get the craziest mushrooms and fungi. I've been working on a portfolio of black and white images of fungus for a while now. This image isn't included in the collection since it's a different camera (a Lomo super fisheye) but I like it so I thought I'd share.

Apple Orchard - Easton, Connecticut

In honor of the Winter's exit: a little reminder of how beautiful it can be.

Leaping Man

Leaping man - digital collage

I've recently received a couple very old scrapbooks. One is from my great-grandmother and the other is from my grandmother (both on my father's side). In one of the scrapbooks, I found an odd little magazine clipping of a performer named Hal Sherman. The promotional photograph was from a revue called "Hellz-a-Poppin." I don't know who the writer was but Sherman was referred to as "..a misfit, a little man in a big world; still a tramp, but a worldly Broadway tramp, a bitter, dancing humorist of the banana-peel school." I like that.

I created the background by scanning a hand-written letter from my great-grandmother and repeating and overlapping the text. The "leaping man" is Sherman.

Madame Marie

Madam Marie's - Asbury Park, December 2013

"Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do.

For me this boardwalk life is through babe. 

You ought to quit this scene too." 

- Bruce Springsteen

Greetings from Prague

I've reworked this photo of Prague apartment building that was partially demolished using a variety of filters. I think it has that antique, "Wish you were here" postcard feel.

Industrial remains - Ostrava, Czech Republic

I guess I'm in post-pictures-of-empty-places mode. This is a former industrial complex that has been converted to a large concert venue. I attended the Colours of Ostrava two summers ago. Rufus Wainwright, who was performing, talked during his set about how he imagined many people died in this place. I'm sure he was right - it probably manufactured all sorts of nasty chemicals and I can't imagine that there was a strong emphasis on worker safety during the Communist era.

Don't lick the walls.

Wheatridge Grange

This is a film photograph I took in Eastern Washington a couple years ago. I may have posted the original before (though I don't think so). This is a version where I've used filters to "scuff" it up a bit (uh...just a bit). This picture just makes me feel sad when I look at it...completely covered with siding, no windows, abandoned. The only people who see it are the few people that pass by it as they're speeding down the road.