This is one of the coolest, most clever combinations of wall art and animation I’ve ever seen.
On an outing on Fourth St. in Berkeley I wandered into Miki’s Paper, a purveyor of Japanese hand stenciled paper. While browsing the store I found blank sheets of cherry wood paper. I’ve never seen nor worked on wood paper before so I bought a sheet to see what I could do with it. After staring at the grain for days I finally found some inspiration and went to town on it. The final result is a Japanese inspired scene with cherry blossom and a Mt. Fuji-esque mountain in the background incorporated in my style.
Here is the final piece:
My newborn son is due to show up any day now and my wife and I couldn’t be more excited. In lieu of painting the baby’s room we opted to use our creativity and come up with another way to dress up the walls. We decided that we would paint six canvases, each one with a different animal, three sea creatures and three land dwellers. On a trip to the art store we found wood canvases. I have never seen these before, they were right up our alley and match the crib and dresser in his room so we figured, what the hell, let’s go for it.
I sketched out all the animals first, drew them on the wood next, then we painted them. We’re so happy with how they came out. I think at some point I may screen print some sets and make them available. In the interim we’ve turned the paintings into graphics for thank you cards — a line we’re calling “Ziggy’s Zoo.”
We love knowing that our little guy is going to fall asleep and wake up in a room of happy animals; we can’t wait for him to name them all.
Here are the finished paintings.
Finally bit the bullet and got my first DSLR, a Canon 40D with a 28-135mm lens. So far I’ve only taken some random shots, nothing too fancy, just getting the feel for the new equipment. Here’s a sampling of some of my latest shots.
An old cold storage building being torn down in Seattle.
Reflection in debris pile - Seattle, Wa.
Bare tree and Campanile on UC Berkeley campus.
Bee and blooming bush - Berkeley, Ca.
At the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) trade show last week in San Diego I snapped off some pics at the skate park. Below is a sampling of the action.
Yesterday I boarded the 1001 bus and headed south to a peninsula called Buzios.
The 3.5 hour bus ride was easy when you´re tired and you have mangos to eat on the way. I slept for most of the ride but was able to catch a glimpse of some rolling green hills and wide open spaces through my tinted window.I arrived in the Centro and immediately took a taxi to Geriba beach. I put myself up at the Blue Marlin on a recommendation from a friend in Rio. The place is nice, clean and quiet, just what I needed.
I´m a short block away from the beach and that is pretty much where I´ve been spending my time. On the way to Ferradurinha Beach one day I encountered this crab. He was just walking along the path wall and didn’t seem to mind me taking his picture.
Ferradurinha Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been on. The water was clear, was practically void of people which made for quiet and peaceful days at the beach.
Our last two shooting days took us all over Rio, each place more diverse than the next. The first location we hit was Lapa, home of an old aqueduct that once brought water from the Carioca River to the city population, now it serves as a big elevated platform for the Santa Teresa streetcar.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Rio is a city of contrasts, and Lapa epitomizes that statement. Here, the aqueduct, built in the middle of the 18th century, lies against two of Rio’s most recognizable modern buildings in the Financial District. The pyramid shaped building reminds me of the large structure in ‘the future’ from the movie “The Time Machine” from the 60’s.
After we shot the aqueduct we headed up to the Tijuca National Park. At the top you get an amazing vista of Rio, here is my attempt to show the scope in a six image, stitched panoramic. The view starts on the north end of Rio with Sugarloaf Mtn. rising up, and ends on the Corcovado (Christ Statue).
Our last day of shooting had a call time of 5:30 am so we could catch sunrise over the rocks and beach at the point where Copacabana and Ipanema beaches meet. As we headed south towards the point, the sun was a huge, bright orange disc just over the horizon. By the time we got out to our spot the sun wasn’t quite as huge as it had appeared minutes prior, but it looked pretty spectacular.
Our photographer, David Stoecklein making it happen.
After the beach we headed back to the Selaron Stairs to get some of the early morning light. When we were there earlier in the week the sun had gotten to high in the sky for us to shoot. Selaron, the artist was there working so we asked if he’d want to talk to a couple of cute girls, of course he couldn’t say no.
Our last location of the day and the shoot took place in an antique market in Lapa. The market ran for about three long blocks and had everything from old stopwatches to twin lens reflex cameras circa 1960, toys, paintings, you name it, it was there.
Now that the photo shoot is over I am off to Buzios for a few days to sit on the beach and do nothing…except read my book, “2012″ by Daniel Pinchbeck, sleep, soak in the sun and swim in the ocean.
We worked with a lot of crew on the shoot but two people in particular we couldn’t have worked without, Walter, our driver and Ajus, our security guard. Walter spoke great English and had a great sense of humor. Ajus, a firefighter and ex-cop, spoke no English, but did an amazing job keeping us safe at every location. Thanks guys!
Walter
Ajus
Tonight it’s all about the graffiti. Here in Rio the graffiti is world class and is on the same level as some of the most prolific street artists in the USA or around the world.
In Rio there are two different types of graffiti:
The messy tags that gangs use to mark their territory.
And the ornate and creative street art developed to beautify neighborhoods. It’s funny, the messy taggers will no doubt cover most available space on a wall to let you know they’re around, but you never see taggers messing up the good graffiti art.
In the town of Santa Teresa wall art is prevalent and viewable around most bends in the road. A slice of the good stuff is represented here.
Rio just happens to be a giant canvas so no matter what neighborhood you happen to be in you’ll more than likely see talent on every block. I spent part of the day Saturday in Lapa, a town just down the hill from Santa Teresa. Lucky for me I found some more wall art that was equally inspiring…
An electrical box and light post just outside of my hotel.
In Rio every VW bus is white, if it’s not all white, it’s white with an advertisement on the side. Walking north up Ipanema Beach I found this one. I looks like it’s from the same artist who did the electrical box above.
And last but not least, a peaceful girl meditating with the sound of the ocean nearby.
Today we got a later start than usual so we could sleep in a bit, it was going to be a long day. We spent the entire day at Teresópolis, the ranch we scouted the other day, over two hours outside of Rio. The sky on the drive out to Teresópolis was overcast. The whole time I was hoping the sky would break but as we got closer we had no such luck. We knew we were going to start at this wonderful waterfall just inside the ranch. The road that winds through the grounds is bumpy and curvy…and you never know what you’re going to encounter…
Around the next bend we found ourselves face to face with the waterfall.
We spent about an hour here shooting various senarios, the crew as usual was hard at work.
The clouds were still around and we struggled to find good light, but leave it to David to make it all work. His photographs today were outstanding, a fine addition to the JanSport photo library.
On our way to the next location on the ranch, we happened upon the ranch owner, Geraldo, and his horse. Here he’s giving us the “everything is good” sign.
After shooting in one canyon for a bit, we moved into the adjacent canyon to catch up with the light that was trying to fight it’s way through the pea soup above. We found a hike to send the models on, but because the hike was far away from where David was going to be shooting I suggested I go along. We found ourselves atop a rolling green hill with an amazing vista, the only thing is the fog moved into the canyon and didn’t provide us with much of a vista. I snapped this pic from behind a tree while the models were being photographed.
The day grew darker eventually so it was time for us to leave the ranch and head back to Rio. Exhausted and hungry, our ranch host Geraldo took us out to his favorite local joint for some beans, rice, meat and potatoes. Another delicious Brazilian meal, good beers and laughs.
Soon after we were back on our van and enjoyed a sleepy ride back into Rio.
Our second day of scouting took us to a wonderful ranch called Teresópolis, about a two hour drive from Rio. We hit some rain and fog while navigating some hairy switch-backs along the way. When we got to the ranch, the owner drove us around his grounds in a flatbed truck which we rode in the back.
The ranch itself was pretty spectacular, but when we rounded this one bend to see the granite slabs in front of us we were all in awe. It reminded me of Yosemite, the way Half Dome’s sheer face changes color in the afternoon light.
Today was our first official shoot day. We spent the morning at the Jardim Botanico then boarded a ferry for the hour long ride to Paquetá Island. The models were great and the day was overall a success. The sun peeked in and out most of the day. When the sun wasn’t out the light was very flat and made shooting difficult, but when the sun came out it was magical. Our photographer, David Stoecklein, is a pro when it comes to making it work even when the conditions aren’t the best. Below is a sampling of some shots I snapped over the course of the day.
The view from my room at the Ipanema Plaza.
Sunset from ferry.
