Kissing the Lipless

Called to see
If your back
Was still aligned
And your sheets
Were growing grass
All on the corners of your bed

Inspired by the Shins song, I have been dying to do these photographs since February when the idea first crossed my mind. Similar to another set of photographs inspired by music by the Shins, these photographs will be in my show this fall. The idea has barely evolved since I've been sketching it for months. I don't want to get too much into content, but I loved the green and white color palette, the quality of environment I created with natural aspects, and challenging reality. Anyways, here they are, as promised!

The Incident of the Baby Squirrels Waterskiing

Someone sent me this dream about baby squirrels waterskiing and I was immediately inspired to make art about this for my show in the fall. I used watercolors, prismacolors, chalk pastels, marker, and embroidery on stonehenge paper.

Untitled (Sleeper on The Porch)

Tonight after work around sunset-time, I borrowed my friend Mikey to model in a shoot for my gallery show this fall. Obviously, the main drive behind the work is sleep. So I gave him a blanket. And a pillow. And shot pictures of him outside my house. I made him wear pajamas too that he didnt really need because you could never see them. Anyways, this shot is on my porch. My cat, Zoe, was quite curious as to what we were doing but although her "cuteness" may consider to be a damaging factor behind this shot, I think it is somewhat appropriate that she is in the shot. Someone pondering why Mike is outside on the porch sleeping...gives the photo a bit more life. I have more to edit but I really like the lighting in this one and obviously the slight intereaction between the subjects! I also finished a drawing and I plan on photographing it to show you all. I may post more as I complete pieces, but at the same time I want it to be somewhat of a surprise. But we will see how I feel as more work happens. I hope you enjoy the shot! I must think of a title though...

Fireworks

I shot these on the Fourth of July at a park in Elm Brook, Wisconsin. These shots were taken during the grand finale. I loved how the "plumes" of the fireworks shot from the landscape mimicking the shape of the large tree on the horizon line and lit up the haze from the fireworks from earlier in the show. I like one shot better for its colors, but the other I like better for the amount of light on the horizon line. Obviously the more colorful shot came at the beginning of the finale, because there is more haze in the second photo to light up. Both photographs were shot under the same manual settings. I hope you enjoy these!

Also, PLEASE check out my Nature/Landscapes set on Flickr!! I have tons of new shots from an excursion to the domes this past week!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilybartos