What blew me away about this story was the two photos of the church before and after the earthquake.

Although I hate the way AOL writes their news, I think this story is really worth looking at.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080519/ap_on_re_us/speared_by_javelin

Also, Art Parade committee meeting Thursday May 15 at 1pm, or be in touch with me via email. photos of past parades.

Speaking of ART these are projects that happened at my house recently - accompanied by live accordion.

happy spring into summer to you. Erika

Just wanted to thank you for all of your hard work this semester (and cool shoes)

Have a great summer

Oh, and Michael's excellent shoes as well...

Best,
Mark

"It is the way in which you somehow have something, but do not have it, that offers the greatest potential."

http://blog.photoshelter.com/2008/05/bill-henson-at-the-opera-1.html

ed templeton is a painter/photographer and has some really rad work, he has the sickest presentation ive ever seen, http://www.robertsandtilton.com/artists/templeton/templeton.html

this site is basically where I learned photography, lurk hard
http://forums.skateperception.com/index.php?showforum=64

Running the Numbers
An American Self-Portrait

This series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so. The series is a work in progress, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.

~chris jordan, Seattle, 2007

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

My thoughts have gone all over the place here and there worrying and not, but I figure it might be smarter for you to just read this article that was posted today that gave an interesting view on what's been crossing my mind.

For Sale: Art and Optimism

That, and it would keep me from rambling on here rather than studying for my art history final.

Good luck with this week everyone!

Hey everybody,

This past weekend Derek generously let me borrow his Hasselblad because I'm thinking of investing in one of my own. I've finally come to accept that when I'm using a digital camera I do less thinking and more shooting. The main reason I've enjoyed using the Hasselblad is that it really is an entirely new experience. There's patience that goes with changing the film, focusing, and of course it's a waste level viewfinder so I'm in an entirely different position while shooting. Some of my exposures weren't as accurate as I would have liked them to be but with practice it will come. I also had a problem with focusing and so many of my shots look extremely posed or unnatural because the subject had to sit there and listen to me say "wait, wait, wait... okay" before I could take any shot.

Although the sharpness blew me away and so did the tones I was able to pull from the film. It's an entirely new palette for me. It's softer, and I really like that. Although I suppose this review of sorts is pointless since a vast majority of you guys already own one.

From here on out, I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Here are two of my favorites:

and don't forget to look at Dennis' as well...

MEGADIK

What happens when you come to this "dead-end?" What happens when you find out that someone got there first? Do you still keep going with what you have? Do you stop and look for something new? Do you respond? If so, to who? To ALL of the artists you've ever seen? Is there an original I can create anymore? I almost feel cheated. Now I'm stuck, almost scared to create any more.

Everybody is always striving for the next big thing, desperately trying to reach for any last drop of originality that remains out there, calling for that muse who would give him the prodigious voice. I was talking to Charley about this earlier, and he suggests that we should just keep doing what we're doing and do it how we do it. He gives the example of how so many bands sound so much alike but we still like them for different reasons. I can see how photography can be very much like this, but to what extent does one thing get old? What is the fine line that defines redundancy, tedium and boredom? "Oh, that's been done before...who are you trying to be?... etc."

Peter says that it's all been done; there's nothing for us left. So what do I make now? Why create work that imitates the masters when we can just appreciate what they have created, given to us?

True, we are all of the same world, planet, species. We are all experiencing the same type of life in the same dimension. We are all beholden to those big categories up there. Jung was right to the extent that we are all somewhat part of a collective unconscious; it's only inevitable that we create or recreate the same thing, the same ideas, especially now when we have become even more unified with the continually faster-developing and the even quicker-advancing technology. I guess when we all live on Pangea 2008 on the train called Web 2.0, we are all bound to pick up the same knowledge and intellectual thoughts. And yes, we live or have lived in the postmodern ear. So what's new?

"You do not wait for fullfillment, but brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independendntly of you,"

I feel that this is apparent to the viewer when seeing his images. Many do have dots of dusts and scratches, but the overwhelming feeling from the images seems to outweigh the technical flaws.

Another interesting quote from the interview,

A lot of people see my books as kind of sad, but I don't see it that way, i definitely don't see it that way. That they are kind of depressing, you know, what i show, but i don't think so . I like what i show, i like what's in the photographs, even if its sometimes something that looks kind of depressing, it exists in the world, and it exists in much worse things than what i show. I kind of embrace it, without making it romantic, but it exists in this world, and i think that to me that is not ugly.

Take a look at some of his work here, and see if you get the same sad and depressing feelings others get when viewing his work.

And the last quote i will leave you with from Engstrom is,

I think when i photograph, or since i am a photographer, I don't think i look better at the world than other people, but I think I might look more concentrated, focused, and think about what I see.

Anyway i hope you enjoyed my rant, but if any of you are interested in hearing the whole interview just let me know, he did have quite a few interesting ideas.