Trey and the vanishing points

Title please

My friend Trey and I. Taken by timer at the Blanton Museum of Art.

self-portrait

Christmas Day Jackson Pollock Homage

A photo in the spirit of a happy Jackson Pollock, had he been a happy man. Of course, had he been a happy man, he wouldn't have been Jackson Pollock. Certainly not the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Maybe a happy Jackson Pollock chef. Or happy Jackson Pollock cab driver. Which would have been worse for the art world but, most likely, better for him. Certainly better for his wife.

I took this photo (the untouched original is the last image below) on Christmas Day playing on our back porch with my Mother-in-law, a woman who has become more ambitious artistically by the year. Impressive. And inspiring. She invited me on Christmas day to play on the porch with her by ruining some images from magazines with a dissolvant. Sounded like fun to me, and it was. The photo you see is actually of cellophane covering what I know not, probably a smudged magazine image. I can't remember. Then I played with the photo with my software. I love this image. I can't remember the last time I printed one of my photos, but I may print this one and display it in my house. I think it's lovely. I'm more of a form and contrast guy than a color guy, but these colors are so very satisfying to me.

So what you gots here is a bit of the Jackson streaks and lines (below).


And you throw in a dash of Matisse's boldness in color...



And a touch of Kandinsky's abstract swirls (below)...



And you can convert this (below) to what's up above.

Juli's feet at the end of the hall

Chair on black and white tiling

Clown and my good ol' buddy Stephen, to whom I owe a great debt. And how.

Poor poor Stephen.

Of course, if you knew Stephen you'd understand how untrue and unfair all of this is. Technically, it's not a clown but a clown-like figurine. Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

Skeleton and bug (and door)

A composite photo of skeletons, a bug, and, you guessed it, a door. It feels like I've posted it before. Have I? And if not, why not?

upside down sidewalk

Swirling metal

That image came from this one. Much improved, no?

Mr. Hank "The Tank" (Hanky) DeMarea

Hank, oh you're such a good dog!!


Come here, Hank, and give me some love. SUCH a good boy, you are, Hank!! GOOD BOY!!!

(Sorry, got carried away there for a minute.)

Look Dad: No hands OR feet!!

My dear Stumpy, how you've earned your nickname.

oh, you dancing all right

Eyeball self-portrait

Behold my eyeball, people.

Eyeball.

Eye.

Ball.

Ball o' eye.

Cars

Chicago portraits, pt. 1

Quite the mime, this dude. I like these performance artists you find in the big cities. Their poverty is my entertainment gain, I fear.



Woman picking through the trash for breakfast. When I go to Chicago (for professional conferences) I spend much of my time (while not at the conference) stuffing my face with Dunkin Donuts a la Homer Simpson. My town (blessedly) does not have a Dunkin Donuts, but Chicago has about forty-seven hundred of them per square mile. Which is all to my liking. Homeless dudes like to hang outside of my favorite one, and I've often bought them a cup of joe and a couple of donuts. It's agonizing. I know that I should buy them a warm breakfast, and yet if I were homeless and hanging outside the Dunkin Donuts (which is where I'd hang) it's because I want a donut. I typically would go chocolate with sprinkles, but then I suffered from pangs of conscience prompted by fears that they may think the sprinkles were a little too cheery, a subtle attempt to mock them.

But then I thought, "Sprinkles be sprinkles." Whether you're homeless or whether you're living in a high rise penthouse, baby, sprinkles are happy. Not happy enough to overcome the soul-crushing pain of living in abject poverty. But better than a day in soul-crushing pain of living in abject poverty without sprinkles.

Or so I thought. As I said, it was agonizing. But not agonizing enough for me not to enjoy my donuts.

Oh Dunkin Donuts cake donuts: You are made for me and I'm made for you.



Wish this weren't so fuzzy. I want to title this "caught." Because I think she caught me taking a picture of her. I know this because she came up to me and asked me what in the world I was doing and told me to mind my own business.

Okay, that's what did not happen. Except in my mind. Which is nearly as bad as if it had happened if you know what it's like to be in mind. And you don't, count your lucky stars.



"And for my next trick I will proceed to mesmerize the young ladies with my two....with my two....my two...ahem....my 'props.'

Shazam!!"

Chicago portraits, pt. 2

Taken from the train I took riding from the city north to Kristin's and David's (and Caleb's) place. I enjoyed riding the second story; I found the relative solitariness agreeable, and I found the clackety-clack of the train soothing. I spent my time swimming in a reverie, playing hide-and-seek with my thoughts for a most agreeable hour or so home. For this picture I reached my camera into the middle of the train as far as I could while still trying to be unnoticed. It's not a perfect photo, but I like how it clearly captures a shared moment (if nothing but the passing of the paper) between a couple.




This little rascal was having great fun pretending to be a lion cub. Despite what Justcurious says, this is one instance that I couldn't will the hundred thousand people on the sidewalk away. It would have been a nicer capture without Mr. Businessman.



Oh, the teeming masses going to work in the a.m. This photo is ruined, of course. You know why. And if you don't, I won't tell you. Unless you ask. That's how I roll: backbone of a banana and all.

landscape

Presented in the original form. Or not. Here's the original photo. It was an art deco-style wall at the top of the Rockefelle Center in NYC. Yes, another NYC photo. But I converted it to something distinctly un-NYC like.

Trip like I do....

through the eyeballs. The world is so visually freaky freaky and funky funky, there's no need to take drugs.

Putting it Where the Sun Don't Shine

Blair came close with, "What to do with an Elephant."