We WISH You A Happy Holidays?... and a Happy New Year!

Finished up my Christmas shopping today and even though the stores are all decked out in Christmas decorations it seems like NO ONE says Merry Christmas anymore! Since Chanukah just ended and Ramadan ended in September this year, it should be all Merry until New Year's. 

I think in spite of the recession or maybe because of it I've managed to get my loved ones some really creative and touching presents.  I would normally do a wish list around this time of all the geeky photo stuff and equipment i want but this year I've been very blessed.  My family is happy and healthy, I'm surrounded by talented and inspiring individuals, I'm in love and am loved, and have had so many amazing opportunities this year, I couldn't ask for anything more. 

Happy Holidays!

Sweet Memories

"This time last year..."  is a favorite saying of my mom's. Especially after the holidays or trips. She might say something like "this time last week we were in Madrid!" She does this a lot and usually remembers the exact day and time of things a week or even a year later!  I was recently organizing some images and came across this snapshot of my Uncle and I at the Sydney aquarium and I actually thought to myself "this time last year me and uncle Al were just back from our trip to Australia!" Ha! Thought I'd share this funny picture of us, me in my geeky camera t-shirt and Uncle Al's hand unknowingly mirroring the gesture of the sign behind him. 

Photos and Philly Cheese-Steaks!

Photo by Klara Kallstrom
The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center presents it's second exhibition Going from Nowhere: Accumulated Images curated by Sarah Stolfa and Christopher Gianunzio.
For this exhibition, the Internet becomes both a practical means of acquiring imagery as well as a conceptual strategy. The exhibition includes works from 8 artists from around the world shooting with any digital device (camera, phone, computer), who will then submit images electronically to PPAC each week. PPAC will print the images and add them to the exhibition, thereby taking the show from nothing to a full show over 3 months. The exhibition space will continuously change and grow, starting with 2 photographs by each artist and ending with 24.
Rather than presenting finished bodies of work, the aim of this exhibition is to discover what happens when new projects are shown together. The end result is a group show whose appearance may resemble that of a studio rather than the traditional white cube. The gallery will be transformed into a non-traditional exhibition space; work will be hung salon style, without frames and printed at various sizes. This method of presenting work serves as a metaphor for our image saturated culture and reflects how digital imaging and the Internet has changed the way we experience and create photographs.

Artist included are:
Nathan Baker, Berlin, Germany
Jen Davis, New York, United States
Emmanuel Guillaud, Tokyo, Japan
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt, Gothenburg, Sweden
Conor O’Brien, Sydney, Australia
Michael Schmelling, New York, United States
Suyeon Yun, Seoul, South Korea

December 1, 2009 – February 28, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: December 10, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Lecture by Lucy Gallun, Curatorial Fellow of ICA, 7:00 pm

Back to Work

Back in the studio today. Only shot one picture. Will see if its any good tomorrow. Worked on some applications but couldn't stand the smell of some rotting fruit I was using so I had to get out of there. If the negs look good i will throw out the aesthetically beautiful yet offensive smelling fruit asap. The picture above is from a shoot i did earlier in the week. Glad i shared my grapefruit and got someone else to peel it. Working on pushing the compositions in the still lifes.

Fun and Games

This is definitely a late night post but I just found this Burger Shop game online and have been playing it for over an hour and I love it! Its hilarious! Maybe my brain is fried from all the applications that I've been working on lately but this game is an instant stress alleviator. My bf just got the latest Call Of Duty and has been playing it for hours on end and I just can't get into it. I think I tried to go into the virtual kitchen at the airport and grab a snack mid-fighting so I guess its fitting i would like this game! Here is a free trial of Burger Shop: http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=burgershop try it, its funny.

Still Life Saga Continues

Worked in the studio yesterday for over 6 hours. Setting up, not liking anything, starting all over and over and over. I did manage to get some images that i like though so it makes it all worth it. Here is a new still life from yesterday's shoot.

Wednesday is the new Thursday?

Clifford Owens, Text Piece (video stills), 2008, Courtesy the artist and On Stellar Rays Gallery, New York, NY

There are so many things going on tonight it will be hard to make it to all of them. I will definitely be at the Studio Museum tonight for the opening of 30 Seconds Off an Inch. Fellow LMCC resident Paul Mpagi Sepuya  will be showing two pieces from his project "Mpagi Sepuya (Or, with your names, you come here, you are home)" 2009. This group show is filled with so many amazingly talented artists: Adel Abdessemed, Edgar Arceneux, Jabu Arnell, Kabir Carter, William Cordova, Thierry Fontaine, Charles Gaines, Deborah Grant, Rashawn Griffin, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Leslie Hewitt, Wayne Hodge, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Jayson Keeling, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Dave McKenzie, Nicole Miller, My Barbarian, Kori Newkirk, Chris Ofili, Demetrius Oliver, Karyn Olivier, John Outterbridge, Clifford Owens, Akosua Adoma Owusu, William Pope.L, Michael Queenland, Robin Rhode, Jimmy Robert, Nadine Robinson, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Gary Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, Shinique Smith, Soda_Jerk, Kianja Strobert, Stacy-Lynn Waddell, and Nari Ward. Also on view will be Wardell Milan's Drawings of Harlem.

This evening also marks the final show at Melanie Flood Projects in Clinton Hill. Even though Melanie is moving out of her current space I'm sure that she is moving on to bigger and better things and I personally can't wait to see what's next for her. I'm hoping to end my evening there to see Erica Allen's Untitled Gentleman series.  

I was also invited to the opening of Sharon Core's Early Americans, at the Hermes Gallery tonight which I would love to see. I missed her exhibition at Yancey Richardson last year but am a big fan of this beautiful still life work.

Don't know how I'm gonna make it from Midtown to Harlem to Brooklyn all in the course of a few hours but I'm gonna try.