Ezekiel’s Vision

Every August the firm I work for participates in a city wide art competition that showcases art that their employees have done. I felt motivated this year and plan on submitting two pieces. The first is “seven circles” in which all I needed to do was make a frame for (I’ll post photos of the frame tomorrow). The second is an illustration of the first chapter of Ezekiel.

Thought not exactly what I was going for it turned out alright. I played with it in Corel yesterday to produce a highly altered version. It did add some of the natural power I was trying to convey but with the cost of an artificial flavor.

Just for my own reference I am adding a link to the photo-shopping page of the wonderful illustrator Cory Godbey. http://thephotoshopexperiment.blogspot.com/

IF - Idle

So I am experimenting with digital coloring. Came out pretty nice for my first pass.

Reburbia

I entered the Reburbia Competition today. For more information on the competition go here: http://www.re-burbia.com/

Here is my submission:

“In an effort to improve the aesthetic, health, sustainability, and identity of a suburban neighborhood this proposal creates public parkland flowing through existing developments by eliminating excess streets and reallocating lot portions.

The resulting design significantly reduces storm water runoff and significantly increases the usability, safety, and beauty of the neighborhood. It sacrifices private front yards for a public space in which the entire community can interact, play, and relax.

It reduces the area in the community in which cars are allowed. This increases the safety and usability by smaller children and provides an opportunity for walk-ability from their adult counterparts.

It creates areas of wildlife refuge which provides opportunities for wildlife viewing and a greater interaction between the community and the natural world.

While an individual neighborhood would benefit from this design, the long term goal would be a connected system of parkland weaving throughout the entire city. This design also provides the base for more invasive architectural solutions once the houses become unusable.”

Denton

At the moment it seems pretty likely we will be living in Denton in a month. We found a house for rent that is cheaper per month than our apartment. We went to see it yesterday. On the down side it is small (really small) and old. On the bright side it has a good yard, will have relatively cheap utilities, has an old garage that I could make into a workshop, and will allow dogs.

We also have someone interested in taking over our rent (which would save us about a thousand dollars in breakage/re-letting fees). Things seem to be working out.

Snakebit Trailer

An upcoming documentary on Sam Mockbee and the Rural Studio:

Pennington

This weekend we traveled to Pennington TX to spend a weekend with friends. Had a lot of fun fishing and catching up. I doubt I can be grateful enough to have such awesome people in my life.

The four couples and the two little ones.

We found a small “Lawn Motorcycle” in the garage and had some fun.

The girls wishing they were riding the motorcycle…I mean having fun painting.

Me shooting my rocket launcher. This was the test run. Later I actually fired four at one time but due to the terrorized photographers we didn’t get a picture. We did get a funny, if chaotic, video out of it.

Fishing

Rachel with her prize catch.

Laura and Shonda having a wizard’s duel.

IF- Tango

What is Architecture?

Cool short video I found, explaining architecture:

(he also has a similar video explaining information)

Architecture from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

IF- Hollow

Oklahoma Visit

My parents and sister came up this weekend and we all went up to Oklahoma this weekend to visit my great aunt Sut and great uncle Buck. Some pictures of early morning fishing.

Insect Lab

Ran across an interesting site while doing some image research for the new IF topic. This guy takes dead insects (and arachnids) and adds old machine parts. Really fascinating. Here is the link: http://www.insectlabstudio.com/

Grave of the Fireflies (movie review)

Grave of the Fireflies
Genres: Anime, World War II, Drama
Plot: Two orphaned Japanese children try to survive the latter part of WWII.

Thoughts: A meticulously animated, unveiled look into the horrors that humanity throws upon itself and must subsequently contend with. Shows both large scale depravity (the war) and small scale depravity (selfishly turning away kids for starvation) from the point of view of a 12 year old boy and his 4 year old sister. One of the most depressing movies I have ever seen.

I came away from this movie with the thought that “survival mode” is inherently anti-Christian. If I ever find myself in a position of desperation, I would hope that God grants me enough grace so that I will continue to look for opportunities to serve and uplift humanity around me.

IF- Shaky

I found a cool site called Illustration Friday, in which every week a topic is posted and anybody who wants to participate is invited to illustrate the topic. It is a great way to have some fun and keep up my illustration skills. This week’s topic is “Shaky” and here is my drawing:

Blowing Things Up

It is the fourth of July this weekend. Do all the parades, patriotism, flags, sentimentalizing of nationalism make this one of my favorite holidays? Not really. Does a cultural acceptance of explosives make it one of my favorites? You bet.

Ever since I was a kid, I released my inner pyro-technician (or what some would label pyromaniac) on the fourth of July; splicing fuses and spilling powder to my heart’s content, hoping to set off a truly impressive explosion.

To continue a well honed tradition, this year (with the help of my handy-dandy laser cutter) I made a shoulder mounted four cylinder bottle rocket launcher complete with fold-up sights and hinged storage mode. Here are some pics:

And here is the warning sign I etched into it: