May 29, 2010

opposites attract & a light leak

Been finding myself in opposing environments quite often lately. Here are some recent filmy shots to prove it. Ocean, meet the desert. Desert, meet the ocean. Redwoods, meet Andreas Söderström. The light found it's way through my old clunky 35 mm which I don't always dig, but the leak on these shots seem to celebrate the silence. In the first 3 shots, look for the pink line. Light!




This is near Vanessa's families house in Joshua Tree that Neil built. These are tangerine's picked earlier in the day from her other family house in Ojai. Ojai tangerines are diamonds.


Out in the Sunset. San Francisco beaches.








These shots were taken during a week where Swedish buddy Andreas Söderström came to visit us in California. We were helping Terri make a video for a song off his new album 'Salt Marsh' while hanging out in Joshua Tree, Ojai, and San Francisco. A hint for the video vibe? Dominoes.

May 19, 2010

Johansing for Short

In celebration of today and it's goings on.... Today is the album release party/show for my buddy Kacey Johansing. I met her on a plane from Berlin to Paris last fall. That meeting resulted in some next level dancing, singing, slo-jam talks, and late night walks. Also, I did the artwork and some photography for her new album. Below is the stuff. Also, I wanted to share with you more artwork I did for friends "Franklin for Short"- who are about to tour with Norwegian buddies- Kings of Convenience. Starting June 1 on the east coast of the USA. I introduced the Kings to 'Franklin' when I asked Franklin for Short to play a party the night before my sis got married in Ojai almost 2 years ago... So glad to have worlds collide. Venn diagram!
I asked Kacey to give some personal totem items that she felt really connected to. I got a box of feathers, some redwood tree clippings, and a lock of her hair. This is the result.





I spent an afternoon with Seth and Trevor from Franklin for Short recently... They picked me up while I was down in Santa Barbara at my folks place. I took them up the mountain and we talked about how I should approach the artwork of their new record 'dark cloud.' These were the words-of-consciousness. Colors of sounds, purple, bacharach, light, butch cassidy, my dress, california, the beach, lightning, bob seger, a bull, rock formations, the desert, color contrast, sunrise and sunset, winds from the east, sunset, the magic hour, and M*A*S*H. The front cover photo was taken from inside a wave. In the ocean.





May 4, 2010

Wood is Wonderful.

I've always thought wood was good. I think my career as a graphic designer has been an excuse to navigate a way to express myself through shapes and forms. Lines and empty space. Nature and contradiction. Telling vs showing. The 'not' there vs the 'there'. My own little world where I can enjoy putting things in their place and learn from the process. I've never felt quite satisfied though. I want to explore a bigger space. I'm ready. The thing that first hooked my desire of design was wood and fashion. Specifially chairs and men's suits/women's shoes from the 1950's-early 60's. I got my first book on chair design when I was 18. I used to collect chairs from dumpsters, streets, thrift stores. I saw so much character in each form. There they were, to hold us while we did absolute everything. This obsession was the spark of something bigger. The big thing. Noticing everything and seeing how it took up space. I was very sure that people should not live in right angled houses. I became very interested in curves and circles. In nature, in food, in old magazine, on album and book covers. I still am convinced that even though the right angle is a very strong structural motive, when I sit in a room that has rounded corners and arches...mixed with the right angles, this is the ideal space for ideas and internal thoughts to not get stuck. The conversations in that room have an open ended life. Unsure of what I really wanted to study in college besides art and music, I thought I would end up an architect or a furniture designer....then after sharing a dorm with architecture students, I saw the science behind it and somehow thought that the science and rigid math was in no way going to work for me. I've almost always thought that science destroyed something very spontaneous and able about the instinctual first head-to-hand gesture. The making of things. I'm impulsive. I get a lot done and some of it doesn't work. I usually do a small amount of research and then try it. Try it again and then see if I enjoyed the process or result enough to keep going with it. I regret not making more wooden objects. This is going to change. I've recently become aware of the J.B. Blunk House (and residency program) after hanging with the daughter of J.B. Blunk, Mariah Nielson and her dear friend (and my current roommate) Vanessa Gates. At a dinner at the Blunk house in Inverness, I met a lot of resident artists that have been inspired to make wooden scupltures. Since then, I've had the pleasure to visit one of the coolest wood mills in California. Surrounded by tissue-thin ribbons of wood everywhere, this was a place to get things done. Maybe my time with wood has finally arrived. Naturally. The best way.
Above, the first chair that ignited the excitement for chair design and molded plywood. Design by Norman Cherner. The arms!



Above, a chair by J.B. Blunk- "invisible presence"

Lounge chair by Londoners 'Sixixis'
The 'Topos' chair by Mark Naden
Wooden block house by Sou Fujimoto.



Summer rolling house!
My drive through the redwoods to Marshall, Ca.







Japanese hand planes. I couldn't believe how thin the shavings were from these things. Redwood tissue paper.
On the way home...Tomales Bay.