STRANGER DANGER ART/MUSIC EXHIBIT

Thank you to all who made "STRANGER DANGER" possible, it was a blast!! espeically Shawn Remfry (BLOG) of FOURTH FRONT for helping out tremendously! He painted the beautiful wooden/gold patterns on our frame base. there was great art and great music to drink to all night (BYOB is fantastic!) ! It was held at the foundation , which is a unique place to hold events. Located n the historic WEST BOTTOMS, the old tattered wooden floors and exposed brick wall adds its own edgy/historical character to it's name. i'd say a whoppin' 300 people showed up! I was very surprised and happy to hear people were interested in buying some pieces, however they were not for sale at the this time.

The theme of my photo illustration was developed under the idea of using the 3 wise monkeys as a vehicle for the premise of the storyboad of events. The title was "THREE NIGHTS OF KOSHIN". those awkard instances of stranger danger consisting of uncomfortable eye contact, violent drunken politics, and awkward silences demonstrates the three wise monkey's (SEE:HEAR:SPEAK NO EVIL). As these events occurr the character is uncomfortable, distracted and alert to avoid dissapointing the Ten-Tei. After researching about the monkeys of the Japanese temple, i titled it accordingly. I used the monkey as a like a "good/bad conscience" figure, and used props to emphasize the three actions.

STRANGER DANGER

(Photos from our environmental expedition/experiments and sets)

Michael Adams, a friend from high school, has crated a great event, which consists of great local music/art talents this Saturday at THE FOUNDATION. He posts on facebook:

“Stranger Danger.”

What does it mean to you?

A dead body strewn on the side of the road? Michael Jackson’s latest nose-job? That kid that used to sit a little too close to you in 5th grade? Tits?

Saturday, June 27th presents a marvelous opportunity to not only find out how area artists interpret that question, but to also witness the blossoming relationship between the Kansas City/Lawrence arts and music scenes.

To this effect, we have painters, illustrators, designers , performance artists, musicians etc. ready to display their work
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It was a great opportunity to explore lighting and experiment different techniques of photography, showcase the photographs, incorporate some of the graphic tee designs I made while in NY for this summer (www.originalpenguin.com) , and keep fueling the creative juices while out of school. Shawn and I kind of created a collaborative concept for the small photo series. With his help of direction, we were able to work with real strangers who had passed by. Originaly I thought I wanted to use animal masks and do a play of DARE--but that was too obvious. so--We had the idea of creating a story about a person who encounters different situations of strangers who either subtly or obliviously and obstrusively invades our personal "bubble" by the touch of their hand, the glare of a stare, or the seat too close. --But as we explored we diverted from the idea abit. (i didn't want to associate the character wearing the tees in a negative way--so we made him the victim of stranger dangers) There would be no obvious storyboard of events from different scenes, but more of telling a story and keeping it different with the characters/events, but yet cohesive with it's environments. The subtle props and body language say a lot...
That's all for now...

1,500 mile Adventure = Inspiration Vacation

FACEBOOK ALBUM 1
FACEBOOK ALBUM 2

FLICKr ADVENTURE
Your probably wondering why I've 3 links. The first two seperates our trip consecutively, and the Flickr is slowly being updated so I can view in a slideshow preview.

After a crazy and stressful month durring graduation, I planned a trip to go to California and do lots of road trippin' through the west coast. We started in San Diego, up to Hollywood, down to Orange, Newport beach, Venice, Santa Monica, Pacific Beach, Hunntington Beach, and Ocean Beach--THEN to phoenix, Grandcanyon, Las Vegas, back to San Diego, and LA. It's pretty crazy how the different social status and cultures of people change in a matter of street intersections. The weather was quite chilly for "sunny california" It was about mid-60's--but the lack of humidity was Amazing! I guess that's why they call it "gloom june"? I wanted to play with lighting and exposure, but when you are traveling, it's difficult to not look so "touristy". I'd like to go back to those places and set up shop. They've very fun and interesting environments.