aperture

some kind of scary depth to this one.

leo

rem_

Topanga_29aug10

it never ceases to amaze me how different the conditions can be at a single place day after day.
it's like a developing relationship where you learn another thing about the other each time you meet that sometimes surprises you, sometimes fills you with happiness, and sometimes scares you.

Hollyhock house_tonal study

Vista

Breaking moves_spotted in silverlake_29aug10

A love supreme

El diablito

Ola kitty!

South winds bite

Elevate

The taco guy!

inside the mind of ben bernanke

sometimes our thoughts manifest themselves in mysterious forms.

sonic

the moment at which a jet fighter passes the sound barrier.

chamo-me mister T

yes, i was speechless as well..

eva hesse

i'll catch you

ningbo

pretty amazing tapestry of rough materials and textures.  would have been amazing to see a time-lapsed video of the construction...

what lurks below

fred sandback

i remember experiencing a fred sandback exhibition at dia chelsea years ago and how it opened my eyes to a new level of sensitized perception. 

A sailor's delight over LA

Short Stories - DARK SIDE OF THE LENS

in the middle of the storm. 
"if i only scrape a living, at least it's a living worth scraping.
if there's no future in it, at least it's a present worth remembering".

for rafael

009_4'10"x21"x2.5" mini-simms_for rafael.  spooned the nose out a bit and gave it a slight forward concave.  going to pick up some marine ply keel fins tomorrow for javier to glass on this weekend.  going to give it a light yellow resin tint (rafael's favorite color).  i hope he lets me try it...

spin templates

i love these spin templates as abstract objects.

009_railbands

Studio city_21aug10

just liked this closing perspective.

Topanga_new south 185

009_roughcuts_4'10" Mini-Simmons

Next victims...

5'10" blue
Us blanks

6'1" red
Blairfoam

by angel's wings

i didn't believe these images when i first saw them.
there seems something so sinister about this phenomenon of vorticies.  one of those bizarre coincidences that beg some sort of higher explanation of their significance.  I guess that it parallels the paradox relationship between two of the four favored angels, gabriel and raphael: the angels of destruction and healing.

Book em Dan-o

wow, i still remember growing up watching this show with my family.  that entry music, and that epic pipe wave breaking at the end...classique nes pas?

losing out

something i've thought about for some time is the inability to progress, or even visualize progress, by taking a more conservative course.  the best analogy i can find is in surfing:  i often find myself wishing i could elevate to another level in terms of control or consistency, but often debate with myself when actually riding waves whether i should try something new, untried, or unexpected? or whether i should just play it safe hoping to get to the next section or get a little further on the wave.  most often, the wave either closes out or dies out anyway leaving me wishing i had played it differently.  the thing is, you sometimes have to be willing to lose out on the possibility of going a bit further in order to learn and thus really progress.  i know, situations (crowded or otherwise critical) often foster a conservative position because you never know when your next opportunity might be to 'lose out'.  i guess this goes along with my earlier thoughts on restraint and patience.  and understanding that larger cycles and patterns exist that will shift or ebb allowing you another chance.  have you ever been out when you see some guy sitting way further out or out of the packed lineup than everyone else, seemingly out of it and otherwise lost at sea?  he may sit there for a long time, all the while you're stressing through the throngs, when all of a sudden that one rogue wide one swings in and of all people, he's the only one in position to actually deal with it.  sometimes the one epic wave can be enough and be worth the wait.  i can still remember particular epic waves imbibed in my memory bank from decades prior.  that's how indelible those memories are and how special individual waves can be.  thus, making it difficult to jeapordize those moments...but what actually may make those moments particular are their existence outside the bounds of complacency.

true meaning.

i was feeling recently that i want to make a change here.
up until now, i've been using this as a venue to store all of the imagery and thoughts that come flying by, but due to constraints or situational issues it's become more images than the thoughts that should accompany them.  i want to change that.  life's funny that way; at different moments, particularities become more apparent or strangely rise to the surface adding a new clarity to otherwise cloudy existence.  i've come to really appreciate the virtue of restraint.  in all aspects.  some might argue that the word restraint holds a negative or barrier-like connotation, but i actually feel that with restraint comes an implied patience and with that, balance and the space behind the word which allows us reassess.  rethink.  revisualize.  reconceptualize. 
it's also been hitting me hard lately how much closer we should think of ourselves as important parts of the critical and evolving world.  not merely to come to grips with the detriment we're causing ourselves and our successors through our current policies of selfish misuse and shortsightedness, but also to try to somehow give more meaning to our short and fragile existence here.  of anything that we could ever do, or learn to do in that short time, it should largely be angled towards understanding how we can preserve our existence because with out it, well...nothing (read-absolutely nothing) will matter.  not money, not oil, not governments, not policies, not physical strength, not beauty, and sadly not even friends and family, not you or me will matter unless WE can fundamentally change ourselves and the way we look on ourselves and one another.  restraint, patience, balance.  discipline, intelligence, senses and emotion, true meaning. 
to make a long story short (if that's possible now), i'm valuing meaning in a larger sense, not merely visual.
i'm going to try to get visceral thoughts down in a more regular way.

Arrifana_julho 2010

A fraction of it's former self.
Quite a bit smaller this year on the point at kanguru, but lines still

wrapping in. The bay had some decent peaks to be had. Hadn't broken

a leash in 4 years in California, but the second day in Portugal and

guess what...really made me remember how powerful the ocean can be and

how sheltered it is in most parts of southern California. Breakinga

leash is one of the strangest feelings, especially in big surf. That

feeling of extreme tension then that sudden release...all of a sudden

you feel like an astronaut who's been left behind by the space

shuttle. You start feeling very small and insignificant in the larger

scheme of the world.