The Brown's Photo Shoot!

This past Wednesday I photographed Stacy, her three beautiful girls and her husband, Ben. They are such a fun family to photograph because they can really get into the poses and even come with creative ideas. I love it! We took a ridiculous amount of photos but here are a couple of my favorites...

This one was Stacy's idea and I absolutely love it.

I love that the girls were all wearing the same flip flops in different colors.

So perfect! I love this one.

And the laughing that ensued afterwards. haha.

An Unlikely Solution

So I'm posting some more about my latest art project that I worked tirelessly on for the past few weeks. I wanted to take pictures through the progression...

The idea was to illustrate the number of homeless in Lakeland to the number of vacant residential properties. I started by doing some research. In Lakeland, FL there are 768 vacant residential properties listed, numerous retail and office buildings and over two million (yes, I said million) square feet in industrial space. There are currently 675 people living homeless in Lakeland. I decided to focus primarily on the residential properties and was trying to think of a way to illustrate this basic need with this basic solution. So... I came up with a basic answer. Pegs and Holes.

Step 1.
Buy wood and supplies.

Step 2.

Measure and make chalk lines for the holes to be drilled.

Step 3.

Drill 1443 holes. Wonder why you got yourself into this project on hole 53.

Step 4.

Sand and stain the wood.

Step 5.

Stain the pegs.

Step 6.

Add the frame work around the sides and hammer in the pegs.

Step 7.

Polyurethane the wood and add the "finishing touch".

I'm not posting a picture of this yet because I want it to make it's "debut" at the Platform Art Party tomorrow. But I'm VERY excited about it! I really hope that it inspires thought. I am also entering it into the Lakeland themed Arts on the Park show, so hopefully it will be seen there next Friday night as well. Here is my artist statement that I am posting with it:

Ever wondered how many homes sit empty in the city of Lakeland? As of now, there are 768 registered vacant residential homes. That is 93 more than the number of homeless that have been counted within our city. 

Each peg represents one of those homeless individuals. 

Each hole represents one of the homes that sits vacant. 

I’m not suggesting that the solution is to give every homeless person a free house... I’m just seeing a basic need and a basic solution. A need for shelter, and an empty roof. Beyond residential there are vacant retail and office properties and over two million square feet of vacant industrial space, all the while builders are still building and individuals walk the streets and sleep on benches, store fronts and concrete rain or shine. A need and a solution so close but separated by countless rules and regulations.

It's Wednesday.

12 days and counting...

So life has been a wee bit crazy lately. On top of graphic design work (loads of graphic design work) I've been getting ready for two shows. Platform's Art Party on September 26th and Art on the Park's Paint the Town show which all entries are due also on September 26th. I'm really excited about them but they are a lot of work. October should be a breath of fresh air!

For the AOP show, the theme is Lakeland... but I wanted to do something different. Different than swans and lakes and downtown buildings... not that there's anything wrong with that, but I didn't want to get lost in the 8th photograph of a swan on Lake Morton. So I'm doing something REALLY different... and out of my comfort zone a little bit. I don't want to share too much, but I'm hoping it turns out to be a visually solid piece with some great meaning behind it. Today I finished buying all of the supplies for the piece and wondered if I was a bit crazy to spend so much money on a potential art piece that isn't even guaranteed to get in the show. It's my credit card leap of faith. I can't believe I only have 12 days to get it to a completed state though! Ack! I'm making out a schedule for myself now so I can make sure to have enough time. I can't wait to post about the finished product!

reflection

New Work

So exciting things have been happening in the realm of my world. As a reminder, I have two shows opening this Friday night. One is at the Arts on the Park Gallery downtown Lakeland, from 6-9PM. They have free wine and appetizers. The other show is the Emerge The Good, The Bad and The Ugly show at the Tampa Artist Emporium in Tampa, from 7-10PM. Both photographs will hang in the galleries for the month of September.

I've also been working on some new pieces for the Platform Art show that is on September 26th. I'm not sure if these will be in the show or not, but here is some new work of mine...

Golden Gate Bridge

Grandmother Redwood (do you see what I see?)

I'm hoping for a trip to Chicago in January for some new travel photography! I'll just have to bring about 23 layers to stay warm!