New York: Day 3

DAY 3

Today I spent a lot of time outside in the woods.  I traced all the trails we blazed so far and then walked the old trails as well, meanwhile I tracked my progress on a GPS tracking app on my smartphone. According to the app I walked a distance of 3.31 miles, in 3 hours ten minutes.  This is a screenshot of the satellite view (with no identifying landmarks, no I'm not dumb enough to show anyone where this place is) The paths I took are marked in red.

The original trail cleared by my grandfather and uncle is the top line. it goes more or less straight back to a clearing, where it turns and goes down a steep hill into the deep woods, a marshy swamp where the trail abruptly ends; they were not able to push it any further. There's a massive boulder back there about the size of a minivan, which marks the end of the old trail. I was told that this boulder might have been moved there by a glacier many thousands of years ago. Rocks that size don't just roll downhill.

What my father and I have done is extend this trail and connect it to another one, which only exists in our GPS devices. We marked off trees along the route with orange caution tape. Now this bottom route is over very uneven ground, and we have no idea if it will be passable in the summer when the foliage is grown up.

My trail is the more or less straight one that goes through the middle. The area inside this 'circle' has never been explored or charted. It is actually a nice walk over fairly even ground. The beginning of this trail follows some deep ruts left by wagon wheels over a hundred years ago when this place was a farm. Then it feeds into a natural path frequented by many deer and other animals.

Personally, I'm excited about this. If only my grandparents had lived to see the wonders of technology. I always wanted to make a map of the forest since I was a kid, and now thanks to smartphones, mobile GPS and satellites, we now have a perfect map far better than any we could draw ourselves.  It always seemed kind of boring how we'd walk back as far as we could go then have to turn around and come all the way back. And so now we have a closed loop that brings us back to the starting point.  This is a groundbreaking achievement if you ask me.

So anyway, here's some of my pictures from today.

This is how we marked our new trails. Now to see if they hold up until the spring.

The existing trail. Those are my footprints. I retraced my path 3 times to walk every
foot of the known paths plus our new ones.

This is a lean-to shelter I built from a Boy Scout handbook several years ago. It's held up
long then my other shelters I have built before.

This forest is about 60 years old....but there is always new life.

Mom tells me that these huge holes in the tree were dug out by a Pileated woodpecker.

Aren't these pines magnificent?? These form a huge gate almost...a gate to the deep, deep forest.

More magnificent pines. I never get tired of seeing them.

...And finally, some critters!

A chickadee on a branch. These things are so tame, they aren't afraid of humans at all.
The only way I could have captured this was by standing less than 5 feet away, and using my medium range lens.
This could very well be my favorite bird picture ever taken by me.

And finally, some deer!  These walked right into the backyard and were visible out the back window.

New York: Day 2

New York, Day 2:

I really like how the house faces East. The morning sun is just amazing, how it makes everything glow. This is looking out the kitchen window at the flag on the garage.

The forecast is sunny all day, but bitterly cold. Right now it's 16 out. Everyday after this it looks like we will be getting a lake-effect snow storm. So I guess I'd better go out and retrieve my camera before it gets buried. I did mount it in the clearing last night, peering across it into the entrance to the deep woods. I'll post any results later today. I'm walking back to show Dad the new trail I blazed just before sundown. I'm excited.

But right now we are going to an art museum in Utica, so I'll see how that goes.

Utica is the closest thing to a major city up in this neck of the woods. It was a major industrial center at the turn of the century, at one time everything Onieda county residents ate, wore, bought and used was manufactured here. Factories galore. Now most of these are abandoned. But there is much to see in this city if you like history. Visit the Saranac Brewery, Onieda County Historical Society, any number of small curio museums and one fairly large art museum, the Munson-William-Proctor Art Institute, home to minor paintings by world famous artists. (The four paintings by Thomas Cole entitled The Voyage of Life were my Mom's favorite as a kid and they were housed there, but they've since been moved to the National Art Gallery in DC) 

Currently there is an exhibit on Tiffany glass there. Photography isn't allowed in the museum but I can link to the exhibit's website (ask me later). The center pieces of this exhibit are seven stained glass windows depicting archangels, representing the seven great Byzantine churches in what is now Turkey. Interestingly , one church is named Philadelphia and another is called Smyrna. They were found in a deplorable state inside dirty barns scattered through the region and took decades to clean and preserve. Altogether they are made of over 1,400 pieces of handmade glass. They are being shown in public for the first time. Did I mention how much I love old churches? 

Okay so I quietly snuck a pic with the iPod camera...

So next we went to the Onieda County Historical Society, to check out the exhibits there. Dad said there was a lot of Civil War artifacts on display the last time he went. But it seems they had to put them back in storage to make room for the enormous electric train set.

By now it's noon, so we head back to the house and I get to show Dad the new trail I blazed yesterday. We took the GPS with us and a printed satellite view...it turns out I found a way through a part of the forest we had never seen. Nice! It even reconnects with the end of the existing trail.

Oh, one last thing. I FINALLY started concept art for the books! It only took me 2 years of procrastinating... I will scan the two sketches I made so far tomorrow. 

New York: Day 1

DAY 1

No sticky snow here so far. All we had was a light sprinkle of sugary snow that melted when it hit the ground. Oh well. At least it isn't raining. Temperatures hovered around 25 degrees and it actually got colder instead of warming up in the afternoon.  The remote camera appears to work, but so far it hasn't caught anything. I will try moving it further back in the woods, maybe in the clearing at the halfway point of our trail. I have seen little piles of deer pellets so I know they are back there.

We know we are close to the house when all we can see on either side of the road are pine trees.

This trailer across the street is for sale if anyone wants to be neighbors. $34,000 for 38 acres of undeveloped land...get it before it's gone!

Yep, the house is still standing.

I ventured out with Dad to check out a new trail he blazed
with some orange flags four months ago. It turned out to be much wetter
than expected. He took it right through the middle of a swamp. We bought a few hundred yards of
orange caution tape at a local hardware store and this is what we tie around the trees. I don't think this
is a practical trail to follow year round, but we did find some neato things at ground level.

These little things are everywhere once you get past the first stone wall. Resembling fuzzy green bottle brushes or pipe cleaners, this stuff forms a thick green carpet in some areas of the forest floor. I thought these were baby pine trees,
but it turns out they are a form of oversized moss called Lycopodeum.
They don't get any bigger than this, about 2 inches in height.

I noticed an interesting thing about the thin ice that forms from puddles of water.
You can see these odd ripples or contour lines. I remarked it looks like a tiny topographical map.

A new tree growing from the fallen log of a dead one. That's kinda cool.

I have NO IDEA how this ice forms. These are ice crystals that appear to have somehow
'grown' from a patch of very wet mud. I wonder if it's frozen water vapor?

When i stumbled on this I thought was some kind of fungus.

...But on close inspection, it's very thin fibers of ice.
Have you ever seen ice form this way? They shatter like glass.

 I saw no furry things really, except a white tail deer about 50 yards away that bounded into a thicket when he heard me. They move so fast, the only thing I even notice is the white tail. One of these days I will snag a pic of one. They are such majestic creatures, they move like they only weigh a few ounces.

What gets me about this place is how utterly black it gets at night.
Back home we have have so much light pollution from Wilmington and Philadelphia
that it never really gets dark,  the sky glows orangey pink at night. Here it is so
pitch black without the moon, you cannot see your hand in front of your face.
You can't tell from this picture, but the stars are very bright.

This shot was taken from the back deck on a tripod, with about a 25 second exposure. Very nice lens flare.

The best part of being out in the cold...
coming back in to get toasty in front of Grandma's wood stove in the kitchen.

New York Sabbatical Entry #1: Night of Arrival

December 28, 2014
Location: Adirondacks, undisclosed location near Boonville, NY
Weather: Cloudy, scattered snow, 34 degrees. 30% chance of snow 11pm-12am

So I have returned to my sanctuary at last, on this much needed holiday. It's always strange and a bit of an uneasy feeling to come back and see Grandma's house so cold and empty; a place which was always filled with warmth, light and friendly faces each year around Christmas. Every time my family pulls in to that final rest stop before we get on Route 12, I have to suppress the urge to call the house and tell Grandma we are almost there. Some quiet nights at home I want to just dial the number on the phone, so I can hear it ring... as if I half expect to hear her voice pick up on the other end of the line and somehow speak to her from beyond. But alas, it just rings... As we crawl up the driveway I wait for the light to come on and see the screen door open, and Grandma step on to the porch to give us a warm hug, but the house sits dark and silent.  On the flip side, it reminds me of my absolute favorite thing about leaving a place for several months at a time: coming back and finding everything exactly as you forgot you left it.

It always hurts a little bit to see the house inside, now that everything is different. Her old armchair is gone, along with 80% of the original items in the house. We are slowly building it back up and redecorating, trying to breathe new life into this home while at the same time respecting the age in which it was built. We do most of our furniture shopping at antique stores and thrift stores, looking for things which are dated and well-used or new pieces which have a traditional charm to them.

So far, the only room which has remained relatively untouched is the radio room upstairs, which was my Grandfather's exclusive domain. There are still some of his things on the shelves, mostly undisturbed since the 1990's. Dad has hooked up the old Ten-Tec radio to the antenna mast, and his mobile rig still sits there in working condition. Of course, we aren't allowed to transmit, only listen. My Dad's ham license expired fifteen years ago.  I still remember sitting on his lap, and 'helping' him tune around on the airwaves. The old Fire/Police/911 scanner is still here; we dusted it off and plugged it in.  Leaving it on in the daytime and hearing its familiar beeps and tones makes the house feel a bit more alive. Mom also likes it because we can hear what is going on locally, and sometimes when we hear a siren go past us we hear the radio chatter and know where the vehicle is going. That tends to relieve Mom's anxiety somewhat, just the comfort of knowing help is on the way and somebody is going to be alright.

As I sit here at Grandma's old desk writing this journal, we are watching a light sprinkle of snow outside. Just a few fluffy flakes spiraling to the ground.

I want to write more, but I promised myself only an hour or two of computer time each night. Chiefly to update this journal.

So, without much further ado...here are my objectives.

1. To see my cousins who I haven't seen since Grandma's funeral, and maybe pay a visit to my Aunt and Uncle on their farm. I really do miss everyone so much. My family seems disparate and scattered since the loss of the Matriarch, but the last two years have been a turbulent time of many changes.

2. To stop procrastinating on my art projects and get some stuff done. I have a wonderful short story for Stephanie that I have barely touched all year, despite being off to such a good start. I have illustration work to do for my book trilogy, now published for 2 years with a whopping two dedicated readers. Maybe if I start doing some related art for it, it will get people interested who are into the whole fantasy genre.  I think this work is so monumental that none of my art skills can do it any real justice, but maybe I should start small. Maybe do some concept sketches or drawings of specific people, creatures or things from my fiction universe. What the archangels' armor or swords look like, and maybe start some concept work on the dragons, which I intend to make as ugly, horrible and frightening as possible. (No Pokemon-style cuddly creatures in this saga!) I have a few DVD's, some art books and all the movie soundtracks I can find which inspire me. This will be an odyssey into the mind. I am keeping a sketchbook, all the supplies and books I need right next to me in bed, so I can start drawing the moment it strikes me. I will be sure to scan and post any promising results.

3. Photography.  I have a brand new Canon EOS Rebel T5i, and I plan to use it. I will go out for a walk near sunrise and sunset every day, and see what I can find. My hope is that the sun will come out and I may get to observe some furry or feathery things, or maybe some tiny plants poking their heads out of the dead ground. I invested in some tools to help me accomplish this: a new set of RealTree camouflage, some improvised animal blinds from old bedsheets, and this wonderful toy which I just bought with one of my gift cards: an Infra-red motion activated scout camera from Wild Game Innovations. It's the entry-level model, it takes SD cards and links via USB like any webcam. I bungee-corded it to one of the deck posts for tonight. It's aimed at the backyard where we see the most deer come peeping out, and who will maybe it will catch something bigger. The flash is invisible and it's fully capable of night photos. I plan to check it each morning. Maybe later I will move it further from the house or back on the trail, tonight we are just testing it.

That's all for tonight. I plan to get up and see the sun rise tomorrow. We have a great majestic view out the kitchen window and it faces directly East.

The adventure starts tomorrow. Thanks for reading and goodnight!

DIY Light Table

This is not a new project, it's been kicking around my studio space for about two years. A light table built from stuff I found in my Dad's basement. I was so tired of not having one that I made it.

1 piece of plywood, four 2x4s, 3 old flourescent tubes, plexiglas and one rescued electric cord from a broken lamp. The downside: no on/off switch. Just plug it in and unplug it. It's also very heavy but it does the job. The light fixtures were ceiling lights from his old kitchen.  They take a few seconds to warm up.

Is This Art?

The paradox of making art from a lack of ideas.

Sharpie marker on an index card.  Created late one night when I couldn't think of anything to draw.  I kind of like this font style. Maybe I will find another use for it someday.

Abstract Photo Art

This started with a low-angle picture of a communication signal tower I took several years ago.I can make some interesting patterns just by mirroring images of man-made structures and messing with color hues and saturation.

Original photo

Mirrored original

A quick digital painting

Revisiting an abstract painting I did almost exactly two years ago, I decided to see if I could recreate it digitally. This was done using a spiral shape imported from Adobe Illustrator and various gradients, layer effects and the "drips" added with the stylus of my Wacom tablet in Photoshop.


Abstract art really isn't "my thing" but I think I'll have to learn how to do it because realism is obsolete these days.

I like digital art because it's fun, easy to undo mistakes and no mess to clean up afterward.  It also satisfies my OCD by approaching a level of 'perfection' not possible with traditional media.

For a visual of the actual painting.

Blue Spiral Redux, October 2014

Sometimes we all feel like we suck once in a while. And you know what? It's okay.

New skill acquired: Chinese brush painting

Brush painting as an art form is over 2,000 years old (from the Han Dynasty which spanned BC to AD) and it predates paper in that culture. The first painters in China used rolls of silk or bamboo. About the year 105 by the Western calendar, paper came into widespread use and the art form really evolved.

Chinese brush painting involves using watercolor pigments, the simplest and yet most difficult of mediums. Though many young kids try it in grade school art class due to its minimal mess cleanup, It's deceptively difficult because it dries in seconds and mistakes can't be painted over or erased. 

Brush painting is a forced lesson in patience, calmness and fine brush control. They say do not rest your hand on the paper, but hold the brush almost vertically, gripped gently, and use a feathery stroke, barely touching the paper. The emphasis is not on detail, but on rapid, fluid strokes to suggest the shape and form. The traditional Chinese script writing evolved the same way, if you think about it each character is a tiny simplified gesture painting. 

I bought my art partner a Chinese brush painting set last christmas, and after we both played with it, I liked hers so much I went back out and bought the same one for myself. These can be found at Barnes & Noble sometimes, or I'm sure they can be ordered online. Here's what the set looks like.

The set has colored watercolor tubes, a mixing bowl, a tiny water dish and spoon for adding water a few drops at a time, a black ink stick and square grinding stone,  two brush handles and 8 interchangeable tips made of different animal hairs. The crown shaped thing on the bottom is to lean the brush handle on, keeping the brush head in its pointed shape. 

 A small 40 page accompanying lesson book is included. The only thing it doesn't come with is very much paper.  There's only about 10 small sheets, which I wouldn't waste practicing. They recommend rice paper, but that isn't easy to find. So I'm just using a watercolor pad with thick tear-off pages for now.

If you buy this set, I would recommend this book also to supplement it.

The book is 145 pages, with many more lessons to try and there is also a calligraphy section in the back. 

Before you get serious about painting, do a five to ten minute warm-up session of practice strokes on scrap paper. This lets you find the correct mixture of water and pigment, and develop the kind of strokes you want to use while painting.  Here are some of my practice sheets as examples. I have to do it a lot until I get the right feel to it.

The first thing the book teaches is how to paint bamboo leaves, because the stems branching out into the long, tapering leaves uses all the basic strokes. Here was one of my early attempts at bamboo. Again, it's not as easy as it looks. It uses very thin and very thick strokes, and the leaf starts out thick and tapers to a point. It needs heavier pressure and then less and less until your brush is lifted off the paper. As you can see, my strokes are not consistent.

It's also a challenge to use enough water to let the color flow smoothly, but not enough to dilute it.

My attempt at cherry tree branches was not great either. I couldn't make them very thin; I used too much water and the loaded brush flattened out, widening the lines.

6 months later, I revisited this art form and decided to try my hand at panda bears instead, following an example in the book. This picture below is today's result, the first painting I feel is finished and I'm happy with. 

This art form is extremely hard for me, because I have a hand tremor that wreaks havoc with my fine motor skills. But I put on some relaxing meditation music, moved very slowly and did this in about 30-45 minutes. It seems my brush control is improving.

Each one I do is getting better!  This takes practice and lots of patience but I think I should keep doing it. 

Whenever it's a rainy day I like to paint. The sound of the raindrops helps me relax and focus. So maybe I should practice whenever it rains.

Here comes the rain

Rainy day, but we badly needed some rain. I got down on my knees and took this oak leaf on a sidewalk while coming home from work.  Rainy days are when I should be working on my art. This counts, right?

I think there is so much interesting stuff to see even on ugly days that busy people just trying to get somewhere don't notice.

Arts Awareness Posters

Every so often I choose to pick up an old school assignment I didn't like and redo it now that my design skills are better. Here's some examples of some completely "reimagined" posters to promote arts education which I originally designed for Advanced Computer Graphics. 

ORIGINAL 2007 DESIGN BRIEF

Advanced Computer Graphics

Spring 2007

Research Stimulus: PSA Poster

THE ISSUE: Importance of an Arts Education

THE FACTS: Schools all over the country are reducing funding for and even dropping arts from their curriculum.

STATISTICS: Young students who participate in artistic and creative activities at least 3 hours a day, 3 times each week are between 3 and 4 times more likely to:

-be recognized for academic achievements,

-be elected into a class office,

-win an award for school attendance

-win an award for an essay or poem

-attend music, art and dance classes

-read for pleasure nearly twice as often

-perform community service

Art also has a significant affect on reducing delinquent behavior and improving the academic performance of struggling students by giving them an alternate means of expression. It teaches them to be more tolerant and open to other people’s ideas. It gives them the freedom to be creative and explore new possibilities. The arts also cultivate a sense of individuality, increase self-esteem, and improve academic performance by renewing a child’s interest in school.

Statistics show that 89% of American parents believe an education in the arts is important and should be a part of a school curriculum, but it is a sad fact that kids spend more time at their lockers in between classes than they do in an actual arts class.

Most businesses also understand the value of an art education. They have found that an art education creates an environment of competitiveness, discipline and academic thought that is beneficial to future members of a workforce. It also develops trends of high quality work ethics and setting of goals; all excellent life skills that will help a student both today and tomorrow. The arts also encourage parents to get involved and become active in the community alongside the students, with a dedication to volunteer works, fundraisers and mentoring programs.

In addition to making students and parents more community-minded, they foster an awareness of a global community and provide a fascinating opportunity to learn about other locations and cultures.

Americans For The Arts understands that a parent’s voice has the greatest influence on the education a child gets. Their goal is to provide parents and families with all the help and information they need to make a difference in their learning community.

(http://www.americansforthearts.org/public_awareness/facts/default.asp)

The audiences targeted for this PSA are the parents of young students in middle and high schools, which are in need of a more valuable and diverse arts education program. The message should reflect contemporary issues, but have a message or image that could also be timeless. It should reflect research in the relevant field and include a link to the website for a foundation or company that supports arts advocacy. This issue is a relevant one all throughout the country because many schools are de-emphasizing arts education in favor of sciences and sports, under the perception that the arts are less important and a career path in the arts is less rewarding, despite the evidence in academic and business communities all over the country that shows otherwise. In short, schools are cutting arts out of their curriculum simply for budget reasons or a lack of good art teachers. However, they seem not to realize that the reason there is a shortage of art teachers is because so many schools have fired their art teachers or forced them to leave because of drastic pay cuts to their departments and individual salaries. As current events have shown, smaller private schools and colleges are equally subject to these pay cuts as public or government-funded schools or universities.

This is the original assignment that I turned in during that senior course in 2007. It was actually my least favorite of all the concepts.  I don't like the green.

My birdhouses, one year later

The set of 3 whimsical birdhouses I made last July were installed at the Talley Day Park Library this spring by the Wilmington Garden Club. It looks like the birds have already started scratching them up, so I wanted to snap some pictures of them in place while they still look nice.