Archive for the 'Art' Category

big art weekend

When I headed out to enjoy the sun this weekend, I did not expect to see as many new giant sculptures as I did.

Big orange cones at the Olympic Sculpture Park:

this is art

A huge wave made out of 2×4’s in the pond at Bellevue Downtown Park (yes, the art is still constructing it):

building wave

And giant metal balls that I incorporated into a 365 Days shot:

die, giant metal ball!

Outdoor art is fun!

a few weekend projects

finally up

weekend projects

Since the weather was crappy and I was still recovering from my cold, I decided to work on printing, framing, and hanging some photos. I already had six images framed and hung those up first. For some reason, my neighbors didn’t like me hammering on the wall at 6 PM, so I only got half done on Saturday and finished the rest on Sunday afternoon. I eyeballed everything, so things aren’t too perfect, but they look pretty good to me. I might mess with the arrangement a bit later.

I also printed up three of my recent Holga photos and framed those up. I really like how the colors worked with the black frames. Very bold and simple. I think those will look great on my walls. I wish I had more of those square black frames, but I cleaned out Aaron Brothers last time I was there. Hopefully they’ll get another shipment soon.

My final project this weekend was the beginnings of a photo album for my ever-growing stack of Polaroids. I picked up the album and some extra pages at Aaron Brothers on Sunday afternoon (they love me there now) and started to plan out how I’m going to mount the photos in the book. I’m thinking I’m going to go in chronological order and mount Polaroids as I shoot them. It should be a nice on-going project.

cooling off after a busy weekend

the storm lurks overhead

After a couple of weeks of mostly uninterrupted sunny days and warm weather, we finally got a mostly cloudy and somewhat rainy day here on the east side (can’t speak for the other side of the lake, since I didn’t go over there today). It was still a bit on the warm and humid side, but the rain was rather refreshing. I ended up spending most of the day chilling at the bookstore, running errands, and just lazying about the apartment. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

The rest of the weekend was pretty busy. Actually, I’ve been quite active since last Thursday, so it was good to have a relaxing day. Thursday evening was the monthly Seattle Flickrite’s Brews and Views meetup. We all met up at Bal-Mar in Ballard for a night of photography, drinks, and general goofiness. The meetup was quite fun, but driving over there was absolute hell. In addition to the normal evening rush-hour traffic, a car was stalled on the 520 bridge, effectively making it a one-lane highway. That turned a 40-minute drive into a 90-minute trek. It really sucked.

Despite the unusually long drive across the lake, the rest of the evening was a blast. I got to hang out and have drinks with most of the Seattle Flickr Meetup regulars and got to meet a few new faces. As expected, cameras were out and firing most of the evening, and I got a few good shots which are now in my Flickr photostream.

Friday night was guys’ night out. We had dinner and beer at Rock Bottom at Bellevue Galleria, then we went over to Lincoln Cinemas to catch the premiere of Miami Vice. Despite what a lot of reviews and critics have said, I though it was a good movie. It was totally about style and mood and atmosphere. Dialog was pretty slim, events moved pretty quickly, but it really felt like a nice modern update for the 80’s TV show.

Saturday was the day of the arts for me. I spent the entire afternoon walking around the Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair in downtown Bellevue. Although there were 120+ artists exhibiting work there, I zeroed in on all of the photography booths. Most of them were pretty nice, but I had more than my fill of landscape photographers. One photographer, Lisa Kristine, was the standout artist of the show for me. Her work ranges from portraits to landscapes to abstract textural images, and all of them feel like they in the Magnum Photographer and National Geographic league. Simply amazing work.

On Saturday evening, I met up with the gang over at the Luther Burbank Park Amphitheater on Mercer Island for Wooden O Theatre’s free performance of Hamlet. I hadn’t actually seen a live performance of a Shakespeare play in years, so I was really excited to see one, especially since it was free. It wasn’t the best version of Hamlet I’ve ever seen, but it was still fun. Everyone in the audience knew the play, many of them regulars of Wooden O’s performances, so that made the whole experience very enjoyable. Add to it sitting on the lawn out in the warm evening air, snacking on chips and drinking water, and you’ve got a nice way to spend a Saturday evening. Afterwards, we all migrated over to The 9 lb Hammer in Georgetown to cap off the night with beer and peanuts.

And now it’s almost 2 AM on Monday morning, and I have to be up in a few hours for work. I really should’ve spent time earlier today writing this blog post. Oh well. Thank goodness for flexible work hours. :P

spc - pop art #2

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Self Portrait Challenge: Pop Art

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