Saturday, July 30, 2011

World of One: Paradox 2.0



I thought I could do better, and I believe I have. This is "Paradox 2.0." You could say the image I shared in my last post was like the prototype for this one. I meant to show this earlier this week but it took me a lot longer to put this together than I thought it would.

When I went back to the drawing board after making the first "Paradox," I realized I what I thought was missing was the movement/drama in my composition that you see in the other World of One pictures. The day that we went to go shoot, I also decided that I was sick of looking at the same kind of background and picked a different location for the shoot (this one is by Chinatown).

Special thanks to my buddy Ivan for pressing the button and for helping with the shoot!!! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Check back in a few days, the next naruto/ninja inspired picture in this series is already in the works.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

On Failure



The road to success is paved in failure. These are words that I firmly believe in. Pretty much all my heroes these days attribute epic failures as an integral part of their successes. For me, this image was a complete fail. But as a result, I learned much more about myself from this image, than any of the others I've created in this series. I put close to three days worth of work into this picture, and when I was finished, it was the most complicated image I had ever put together. But for one reason or another I was just not that into it, and promptly decided it was a failure. It's not that I thought this image was bad, but I knew I could make it better. I knew that there was something missing from it that made me not like it.

The image I'm working on right now, is the 2.0 version. It's already crashed on me once (never happened to me before), wiping out over an hour's worth of work. I was livid, but now I know that when this is done I can be proud, and it'll all be worth it.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

World of One: Focus



We don't all look the same!!! Except when we all look the same...

My ideas for these projects are starting to build off one another. At first I wanted to just mess with the configurations of the different figures (for some reason I never think of the guys in these images as myself) but I think I will start to do more of these imaginary instillations in other areas now too. I've started using the term "imaginary instillations" probably because people look at me like I'm crazy when I'm shooting them, and also because they don't really exist except in the reality I've created with my pictures. The more of these I do, the more technically savvy I feel like I am becoming. Each one is has become increasingly more complex than the last. As a good friend of mine would say "Progression is here!!!"

I just finished shooting another one of these earlier this week, and will be putting it together later today. I'm starting to get restless with this project, not because I think what I'm doing is not worthwhile, but more because I want to start working on some other projects, but this one eats up so much time. My drawings thus far have been a fail, but I think i'm gonna start drawing more stuff that I like, and actually take some time to make it good. It makes a huge difference when I actually try, but for some reason or another (laziness...mostly laziness) I sometimes don't.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Midnight Storms





Been having some trouble sleeping at night. But on a night like this, it's probably more exciting to stay awake anyway. Currently trying to make some changes in my life and get my shit together. I'm making 1 drawing and taking 1 picture everyday now, in an attempt to push myself artistically (still hate drawing) and increase output. It's dawned on me that if I wanna do a lot of the stuff I wanna do, i'm going to have to really learn how to draw sooner or later. Maybe if I ever draw something I actually really like i'll put it up. But until then, here are some more pictures of my window.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Sleepless Nights

The words of artist David Choe ring in my ears "You got to wok harda, you know? While you're sleeping i'm still drawing'. I'm on tour i'm drawing. I go home, i'm drawing. I wake up in the morning I'm drawing in the mirror. I don't have to, but I like to so, you have to try harda, you have to wok harda."

You see all kinds of cool shit when everyone else is sleeping. I myself have always loved night photography. As photographers we always remember that first picture we made that got us hooked. Most people in the world know what it's like to take a picture, but when you make that first image that becomes more than a social document, you will remember it forever. For a guy like me, one of my biggest influences in art are the surrealists (obviously). But in particular there was this one guy named Brassai, whose pictures showed me that the world can be surreal if you're looking for it.

I was looking out my window last night and I saw some guys working on the mass pike near my apartment. Whenever I pass by night workers on the highway at night, I always feel like i'm entering a strange and different world. Them big lights just make everything look so freaking cool. So as the world slept, I went out to capture what I saw, and I'm glad that I did.







Tuesday, July 5, 2011

When in Doubt

Sometimes it's good to revisit old ideas with what newfound knowledge you might have earned. I've been working all weekend on some new World of One stuff, and failing miserably at it. This is the first time I've failed making an image for this series (and is also reminding me why I've been so adamant about doing more). I think I know how to fix it now though so that really just translates to more work this week. It's not even that the image came out bad, it's just that I know it's not as good as it probably could and should be. It can really suck knowing what you're doing at times, so I've decided that I'm probably over thinking it and am just gonna blast it with random elements.

All that is gonna have to wait until later though, mostly because i'm actually gonna have to reshoot that idea. So for today I decided to work on other stuff instead. I was gonna shoot my buddy ivan with my t-shirt on in an attempt to make it more marketable to dudes (it's suppose to be a unisex tee after all). But then again I figured you can't really beat a cute girl, so I'm not even gonna try. This is what we came up with kinda just fuckin' around with ideas.


Herro! Peekaboo!



Yo gimme a hand here!