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Focus

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I am having a hard time focusing my camera lately. It seems a little late in the game to be having this problem, but all my pictures are coming out fuzzy! It’s really irritating, but I’ve adjusted my diopter again so hopefully I will see results.

I have been noticing how I wish I had turned the camera just a little bit over, or tilted it just a little bit up… I’m cutting off the edges that are interesting to include blank space, not big enough to hold importance. One solution would be to simply crop over, but I’m a purest when it comes to cropping, not liking to alter my dimensions more than a few hairs. I guess what I have learned today is, keep checking that viewfinder, move slower so I take the time to see rather than simply react. Slow down so I am able to look at all the edges, move it around, crop in camera, to get the best shot once the shutter is released and before my pictures hit Photoshop. Because what I’m seeing in my photographs is that I am not really focusing when I shop. I am moving haphazardly through photography, hoping for good composition and light. Maybe I believe the myth that you are born with it (the ability to create, succeed), and in some ways you are. But more importantly, once you have been called by your talents, you must perfect them through hard work and paying attention.

It frustrates me that I have to try to be good. Maybe because I know no matter “good” I become, or how successful there will always be more we can do, more we wish we were capable of. Everything feels out of reach, and sometimes that makes my friends want to give up.

Blog Entry

high heels are bad for you

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Earlier this week Justin and I thought up our million-dollar idea. It was brillant, and had never been done before. We were going to create the first high- heeled tennis shoes. Women could wear them to the gym so they could stay sexy while working out. We would even get a doctor to say they had done a study proving that high heeled workout shoes were actually beneficial to the body.

Later that day I got an email from my mom, linking to an article titled “high heels are bad for you”. The article details a study in which they prove that high heels are indeed bad for you, causing damage to the body more quickly than originally thought. High heels place women at a greater risk of injury when working out, since their feet and legs have been formed to stand on the ball of the foot. When they come down off their heels injury is more likely to occur since tendons and ligaments have been shorted in the legs. Well, what if ladies didn’t have to come down off their heels? What if there was a shoe that allowed your foot to stay pointed during a work out, making the possibility of injury less likely. We had our market.

That evening as I was cooking my spicy mixed vegetables, or “vinaigrette”, I realized I was out of vinegar. I went down to Harry’s Market to pick some up. Harry was down to his last bottle, and I was making a big batch, so I headed up to Summit Foods to check their supply.

Next door to Summit a little thrift shop had just opened. I wondered in to check it out. It was surprisingly cool, much cuter than the previous incarnation. The space was very clean with high quality items, and super low prices. I browsed the boots, but sadly could find nothing in my size.

Then my eyes feel upon them, the purple satin Converse high top heels, with long pale green velvet ribbons. I had to get them! I didn’t care if they didn’t fit, I would find someone to wear them so I could at least photograph them. As I sat down to examine them against my feet, I noticed inside printed a size 38. It seemed too good to be true; I slipped them on and they were perfect. They weren’t comfortable, but the weren’t bad for heels. I could totally handle walking like 4 blocks in them.

Giggling with delight, I brought shoes up to the register telling the shopkeeper how my boyfriend and I had been planning our million-dollar idea, and then here it was! “Oh yeah, those were huge in the 90s!” she told me, instantly dashing Justin and I’s big get-rich-quick scheme. She then began to tell a story about a time she was visiting her in-laws in Italy. As she and her family prepared to go for a long walk together she noticed her mother-in-law had put on shoes like the ones I was about to buy. When she asked her mother-in-law if she was sure about wearing those shoes, as she certainly didn’t look comfortable in them, her mother-in-law replied, “I don’t want to look comfortable, I want to look good,” and damn sexy the little 60-year-old Italian woman looked.

She sold me the shoes for a mere $15, and with prices like that I will definitely be going back.

With laces slung over my shoulder, I walked down the street to Summit Foods, pretending that I’d just had a hard workout at the gym.

Blog Entry

Organizing my Art Supplies

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I’ve been going through my art supplies- old photographs I’ve printed, small boxes, knick knacks I’ve been carrying around for years…. I keep reorganizing this stuff, yet it never feels accessible. I keep thinking ‘Once I get this all organized then I will start making art.’ Sometimes I think maybe if I had a studio space that would encourage me to create some things. I want to just make something! I want to glue some things together so that they tell a story. But these things are my treasures, and I am afraid that if I use them to make art and the art doesn’t turn out beautiful (and why would it turn out beautiful since I never practice and have not perfected my artform?) that I will lose these treasures forever.

magazines, labels, acrylic paint, glitter, glue sticks, mat board, and card stock piled onto the floor

I tried to throw away some magazines, but when I picked them up to thumb through and see if there was anything worth saving, I just wanted to clip and save and use the images I found inside.

I have to get started! But there is so much going on with family and friends and traveling and romance and partying and socializing and working and schooling and cleaning and eating and washing and being pretty and being lazy.

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Day in Design

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On our most recent art date Justin and I took the I-90 bridge to Bellevue. Bellevue has one of the most exciting, stimulating museums in the area. Curators at the BAM focus on bringing in local artists for their unique, all sensory shows. The main exhibit going on now is George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher. In celebration of what would be the famous, innovative designers 100th birthday, the BAM has put together an exhibition highlighing the forward thinkers career. From fancy wall clocks, to the modeluar living cubes that are remincient of todays suburbs, to the iconic furntiture we now see as the norm.

It was interesting to see this exhibit on design and the innovations in chair architecture right after going to home depot to buy an office chair for myself.

This weekend I saw a King 5 special edition on the mega store, Target. They were talking about how Target was the first discount retailer to offer designer products. It all started with Michael Graves and his designs exlusivly for Target of home products, including tea kettles, clocks, and toilet bowl brushes.

I felt like this week really lead up to the show at BAM. Though I am not really a design person it felt like a little mini course. Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m in school, but its really fun and I’m learning all the things I’m interested in. Life school.

The real show stopper was Janice Arnold’s felt installation in the Travelers: Objects of Dream and Revelation exhibit. The hand woven felt tent had been woven and then burned to create lacy and inconsistant textures. Crimson red reached to the ceiling, and viewers were given magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the textures of the felt.