What developed.

I had nearly forgotten about these rolls of film that I shot this spring. I had to dig around in some boxes to find my darkroom bag so I could get the film out of my Holga. I'm not totally sure how I feel about the 35mm adapter that I bought for it. I chose to get that so I don't have to spend a lot getting my 120 film developed, but I'm not loving the results yet. I'll shoot another roll before I decide to ditch it though. And of course, my broken Pop Cam...I'm so glad it broke. The results are always so ethereal and dreamy, and full of color. I'm beginning to think it has some major delay in the shutter that I don't notice because it always seems to produce remnants of images that I know I never shot, like my feet, or things that would have been to the side of something that I did shoot. These images are typically blurred, as if I wasn't holding the camera still while it was shooting. It's sort of eerie and lovely all at once. But anyways, some of my favorites from these two rolls of film are below.

Today:

- I love Cleveland. More than usual.

- Went to Made in the 216 and got inspired.

- Treated myself to one of the Pantone mugs I've been eyeing for a year or so.

- Ate delicious sample food at Whole Foods and homemade chocolate chip cookies.

- "Voted best burgers and wings in Little Italy"...I'm pretty sure they won by default considering every other restaurant in Little Italy only serves Italian food, not burgers and wings.

- Finally developed some rolls of film I've had in my cameras for months.

- I'm getting even more excited about the wedding now that the flowers that I'm growing for it are finally starting to bloom.

- Starting to pack random things, although we still don't know where we will live.

- I need to learn how to properly sew a zipper into something.

- Drawing, drawing, drawing.

Summer storms.

Wonderful, wonderful things.

Chicago: Part four. Sights.

Chicago: Part three. The mosaics.

I spent a good amount of my last two days in Chicago walking around by myself. That's one thing I really enjoy about Chicago, the sense of security in the downtown area amidst all the activity. Anyways, I happened to come across mosaics everywhere. Maybe it's just that I have been thinking about them a lot lately, how I'd like to create one in my dream garden one day...but I couldn't resist taking pictures of some of these that inspired me and had gorgeous color combinations.

Chicago: Part two. In which we took a terribly slow carriage ride.

It was definitely a night we will remember for a long time. So ridiculous and fun. I realized that night that all Apple stores smell alike. I was standing outside taking this picture when someone opened the door to the store and I got a blast of cool air conditioning and "Apple smell". It was so familiar, like coming home. That may sound so cheesy, but it's true...at least for me.

Chicago: Part one. The booth, the work.

I've been in Chicago for the past 5 days working for my aunt to build their company's booth for the International Plastics Showcase. The event is held every three years in Chicago and it's always an incredible amount of work. I posted some pictures before of the enormous panels that Julia, Aaron and I had been painting for the globe structure in the booth. But there were many, many other things to be painted and assembled and decorated once I was there. It was hard, but it was fun. With so much random splatter and drip painting I was beginning to feel a bit like Pollock.

                  

Straight from the Crate.

I finished up my pieces for the Straight from the Crate show last night. A lot of creative people that I work with are also participating so I'm really looking forward to seeing everything. Should be a good time. I did some experimenting with masking layers of the vinyl and painting on top of it. I'm pretty pleased with how that turned out. The other piece is just typical me.

Chores.

Watering the garden.

Petting the cat.

Hanging the laundry to dry, and then bringing it inside after it starts to rain.

I leave for Chicago tomorrow. I'm working on the set up of a trade show booth for several days. It's been a couple years since I've been to that city and I'm really looking forward to it. I bought Ratatat's LP3 to accompany me.

New Moleskine.

Tonight. So ready for it.

Home is where the heart is.

It's impossible not to miss him the very second I walk away.

Shvitzing in Florida.

You may want to stop eating seafood.

I am a flood of emotions when I learn about things like this: 200 billion pounds of plastic floating in our oceans, absorbing chemicals and being eaten by the animals that live out there and potentially end up on our dinner plates. The fact that there is very little we can do to clean up or stop this problem without somehow controlling the entire world's dumping of plastic into the ocean, or the production of plastic all together. It makes me feel furious, and sad and hopeless. A problem like this should take priority over so many other things in this world. It's our planet. We can't get a new one.

(click on the image to enlarge. Found at GOOD Magazine.com)

There is also this video at VBS.tv of a group of people that go out to actually see this "garbage island" and collect samples: http://www.vbs.tv/watch/toxic/alberta-3-of-3