Just around the riverbend...

The end of high school is just around the riverbend! I'm ready.

I suppose I will reflect on the year in AP Art (boooooring I know)...
1. Fall was crazy. I look back and realize that I did so much in a short amount of time as far as creating a portfolio for schools. Wow.
2. I fully enjoyed creating a concentration. By doing photoshoots, I was able to expand my connections with others in the school, use my resources, and discover some very pretty places.
3. I'm bummed that I didn't make any art besides photographs. I remember having a lot of fun doing the self-portrait project at the beginning of the year. The Japan fundraising project will be good for me then, I suppose!
4. While I've always known that I was destined for a creative career path, I think that AP Art really fortified that. Many aspects of the class---critiquing, producing work in a scheduled timeframe, having to manage oneself with no instructional time, etc---I all quite enjoyed.

All I can say is that I am truly, undeniably excited for the future. The future of my fellow artist classmates who will depart on their own adventures, and my own future in the Big Apple!

Now.... about the next 26 days of school... not feelin' it.

A supercool dude

Tim Walker is a fashion photographer I especially love. He's shot many many editorial spreads for superb fashion magazines across the globe. He is the king of his profession and is constantly coming up with interesting items to incorporate into his images and beautiful locations to shoot them at.

city of zee angels

Went to LA this weekend.

I had a lot of fun and got a sense of LA just so that I know what it's like since I did get into Otis. LA is a crazy place, and while I liked it and could see myself there, I still feel that NYC is my future home. Yay. Resassuring. Mother is happy I explored my options.

The friends I was staying with were a group of kids I met in San Francisco. We went on many artistic adventures which was great! Got to see LACMA-- some cool contemporary art in which neon lights and electricity in general were used often. Went to see the Rodarte exhibit which was AMAZING since Rodarte is one of my favorite designers. Look them up. They designed the costumes for Black Swan. Also went to a Los Angeles high school art benefit event and got to see loads of work from people our age. It was very interesting to compare their work to the work at Portland's Scholastic show and the OCAC show. Seemed like high schoolers down in LA focus more on finding new, beautiful ways to create art using new substrates and methods of using pigments and pens. Didn't see ONE classic portrait or landscape. At all. Much more experimental, maybe less strong in a traditional sense of using the "rules" of art like thirds and all that crap. Nonetheless, I wouldn't say Portland is too far behind :)

wahoo

I got into Pratt and Parsons!! So relieving. I'm 99.9% sure I will be attending Pratt in Brooklyn NY next year. It's very thrilling and strange. I'm beyond happy.
Here is a photo of Pratt's campus (lush and green ooo aah):
The double-block rectangular campus is enclosed by an ornamental black wrought iron fence. Bordering campus for blocks are rows of historic brownstone buildings:

Then just beyond that-- the classic NYC cityscape! :
This is what immediately drew me into Pratt-- you get a little serenity in the most bustling exciting city. That's perfect for me.

AND the Marcy Houses, the projects where Jay-Z (my idol) grew up as a young child, are 5 min walking distance from campus, which is so cool.
So, baby Jay-Z:

Just Checking In

I'll find out in the next 2.5 weeks whether I have been accepted to Parsons and Pratt. This is killing me slowly. I've been waiting for months !!! bleh

On Thursday I was at Critter Cabana and there was a glass room where a mama cat and her babies were living. The babies were a 12 days old and they were trying to walk but they couldn't. Think Bambi learning to walk but fluffier. It was the most precious magical sight I had ever seen in my life. They were mewing and slip sliding around and quivering. I tried to go into the room (disregarding the DO NOT ENTER AT ANY TIME sign) but it was locked. I will find a way in. I will. And if anyone has access to newborn (week old) kittens let me know. I want to hold them.

They look like this:
Oh, tomorrow (Monday) is my 18th Birthday. Yay prison!

Conexiones

I'm currently interning at the shoe company Solestruck. The brand manager who lives in Brooklyn has been in the office all week to plan Fall 2011 merchandise, and when I casually mentioned I was doing a shoot this weekend, he told me I NEEDED to borrow some shoes from the company. It was really exciting! Long story short, he gave me two pairs of Jeffery Campbell shoes for my model to wear. I'm not going to post the final photos but I will give you a sneak peak of the shoes hehe. They are: the XXL and the Solvang in black leather.
I'm looking forward to the critique!

Calikartel

Hello hello
I thought I'd share one of my favorite photo blogs! I draw inspiration from this source and admire the featured photographers' work.
**Precaution: there might be some boobage in some of the images so if you're not mature enough to handle it, don't look at it .

http://calikartel.com/

Critique

Here are my two pieces for the month of January. My concentration is "exploring how textures of fabrics and environments work together."

#1
This one is focused on knits.

#2
I made this dress out of bath towels as a part of a required project to apply to Parsons. Coincidentally, it fit well with my concentration. This one is focused on softness, delicateness, fog, steam...

January Sucks

1. The rain is ruining my creative flow. It means I have to photograph undercover/inside and both options stink.
2. I want this kitten:
3. This is Nellie, my least favorite character of Little House On The Prairie. I hate her guts because she's always really mean to Laura and is a stuck up brat. Nonetheless, if I could do these facial expressions, I'd be more successful in life. Observe here:
Well bye.

Oh I finished both of my concentration shoots for this month, but I'll keep the results secret until the critique.

Bye.

Sundrop

Today I photographed for a band of Lakeridge kids, Sundrop. It was awesome to get to know some people I've never talked to before. Great group, lots of fun!
Here's a link to their music http://www.myspace.com/555883068

Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens

Results from my photo shoot at 7 a.m. are officially posted!

I really enjoyed watching the day begin in such a picturesque location. I'd like to do this more often!

A Dress... made out of TOWELS

So I made towel dress. I've been working on it for a few weeks and was very close to lighting it on fire or something. I was inspiration-less. But after powering through it, I completed it! And I created these little tortolini things that look like flower buds cascading across the front, which I'm glad I added. It makes the dress pop a little more. I'd really like to photograph it on a human, but that's more complicated. I'll get that done by the end of break.

100 Photos Preview

I like this

Sunlight in the Winter?

For my next two photo projects, I think I'm going to focus on sunlight and light. My first concept is to use my friend Maddie as the model, and the focal props being a oil burning lamp and an old-fashioned quilt. The setting will be a soft sandy scene, so I'm considering using the George Roger's Park beach. I really want to experiment with photographing at different times of the day, so I'm going to shoot at around 6 or 7 a.m.
My second project is more of a commission-based assignment that I think I can use for one of my pieces. Johnny Morford & Kyle Winkler's band needs photographs, so I'm going to shoot for them! It should be fun. I want to highlight the mix-and-match flannel patterns in their wardrobes.
I look forward to my upcoming photo shoots!

New Shoot Results!

Input would be much appreciated!

Concentration shoot #1

Last weekend, I held photo shoot with my pal Devon. We had a loads of fun playing in the leaves in and around the Sellwood area.. it was the perfect fall day, very sunny and crisp, which I was thankful of. The lighting was perfect. I created two series with the results, and I'm very happy with them! I really wanted to play off of primary colors.
Next weekend, I'm doing a more extreme, dismal shoot with Morgan and Jenna Hawkes and Ephraim. I'm looking forward to it. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head. I'm worried about the weather, so I'm going to talk to my bosses at Portland Garment Factory and see if they will let me shoot inside their white-washed warehouse. It will be interesting to see how these images turn out without any natural light..hmm.
Anyways, here are the series from the color shoot:

A Concept for My Concentration

Soo, for my concentration, I'm going to do photography. Because I'm interested in Fashion, Photography, and Journalism alike, I thought an interesting concept for my concentration could be displaying fashion and style in a sort of raw, non-glamourous, stripped, honest way to tell a story about the person. My photos would reflect the garments exactly as how they are, without adding effects and whatnot to make them look more appealing. But at the same time, doing this would somehow attract the eye. My concentration would comment on how fashion is so very deceiving.
Here are some images I particularly like from one of my favorite fashion websites, The Sartorialist. The photographer for this website is absolutely fantastic, and he only shoots people from the streets in which he travels. There's something very truthful about that in my mind.

Fieldtripping

I feel as though I got some nice shots from our field trip on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the digital camera pooped out on me early into the day, so I used my Pentax for almost the entirety of the trip. Regardless, I like the images I got and was especially happy to be able to take a few shots of people.