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I was looking for an excuse to try Photoshop’s photomerge function and was pretty impressed with the job it did. Not flawless by any means, but it found and blended the content as well as I ever could by hand. My only complaint was that it was a 360 panorama, but I wasn’t able to tell it where I wanted the center point to be. This is probably a better tool to use for compositing 2-3 photos together within a smaller viewing angle.

Hott Sheets Art Exhibition
When: Friday, June 25, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe and Studio, Lawrence

I’ve been thinking about starting a series of flat, graphic African masks since I really love working with the shapes, colors and emotion. This piece is an initial exploration of this concept, painted in acrylics.

This piece is based on the nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

There are some very colorful explanations of what this nursery rhyme means, so I thought I’d work that into the piece as well! I also wanted to work on some drawn type, so this seemed like a great place to experiment with that.

Sub-zero wind chills here in Lawrence this morning. I think it’s safe to say that winter has arrived!

There’s one more show I’d like to encourage everyone to go check out! Heather Smith Jones has some of her beautiful work up at The Merc at 901 Iowa St. in Lawrence, KS. The show ends on February 1, 2009, but if you can’t make it to the gallery, be sure and check out her Etsy shop.

Also, if you didn’t see it, I did a studio visit with Heather recently and showcased some of her great artwork!

I have to say that it’s been a power week for gallery shows. There’s a lot to see right now, so get out there and support some artists!

In case you missed it, I did a studio tour with Justin in early 2008 that was a lot of fun!

Event Details:
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Place: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery & How!
803 Massachusetts (Below Casbah Market)
Lawrence, KS

From the artist:

Imagine a world filled with hope for new beginnings where reflection can heal in a time of change. In the past it has seemed as if this prospect of change could only exist in the imagination. Presently, however, millions of disenchanted citizens have come together to transform a broken world. This change of mind has finally forced a reevaluation of the past onto a 21st century landscape. In this body of work, I observe the surrounding social and physical landscape to retrieve bits and pieces of its present state. As with any kind of change, there can be the worry for its sustainability. How long can change hold on before it becomes a victim of its lingering past? True change requires innovation, imagination, creativity, optimism, and action, along with the will power of people to transform ideas into reality. With the bad comes the good and with the good comes the bad. In an endless balancing act, one will outweigh the other at times. In these prints I critique the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the wrong and the right, to better understand this balance that continually exists in the world. In my imagination I can always dream of a better world, but to physically see hope in this vast sea of change, gives me assurance that beauty can prevail even when all seems lost.

Above image courtesy of Justin Marable

In his words:

“The photographs culminate 40 years of my work in the topic of Chinese migration and the emergence of China in an unprecedented pace that shocked the world. I question the process and the cost of how these monumental and irreversible changes affect the faces of the ordinary common folk of this monstrous and diverse nation.”

If you’re interested in seeing more of his work, you can visit his website at www.pokchilau.com where you’ll find a nice gallery of his photographs and you can order his book Flow China as well as his first book Dreams of the Golden Mountain. Pok Chi’s images are fascinating, shocking, humorous, haunting and beautiful and his books are a great addition to any collection. As an added bonus, proceeds from the sales of his books will used for scholarships and charity!

Mainly, the processing is just adjusting the colors and adding a little vignetting and noise to the images. I really like the look and the mood that they create. I’m starting to realize a lot of potential in digital photography to produce “art” photos and I hope to do some more experimenting in the near future.

This is the Murphy-Bromelsick House that was recently renovated with the help of the guys from Struct/restruct.

OK, so one graphic design note: don’t you think Barack Obama’s campaign identity is way cooler than Hillary Clinton’s? Maybe it’s just me…

Not everyone was so excited to be there. Lots of standing and it was pretty hot with all of those people in there.

The energy of the crowd was very electric. People were holding up signs and chanting slogans. Everyone was very friendly and despite the waiting and the heat, everyone had high spirits.

Waiting in line to be counted. I was lucky number 13 in my row!