A Little Video

So when I got back to Pont-Aven from Paris, it was windy and raining. I walked around saying that there was a tempest outside because that’s the term my host dad uses during this weather. I love this term and said it constantly to anyone who indulged me. During this time (it might have been around 10p.m.) it was raining so hard that I had to go over to the windows to watch the storm. There is this orange light fixture outside the studio that was casting an awesome glow inside and also casting the shadow of the rain on a nearby wall. As I took in this beautiful spectacle I thought, “What ould Barry do?” Instantaneously I knew, “Why take pictures of course!” So I started my photo shoot. What turned out were some pretty odd pictures of my shadows and the rain. Then, an epiphany. I was taking photos that blurred my motion and when I was running through the shots I decided to put them together into a small video and this is what happened:

http://vimeo.com/7687587

I think I want to add sound to this later, but I’m not sure what type of sound yet. Rain? Music? Combo of both? I’ll keep you all posted as to what becomes of this little dance!

I might also post some stills of that night, but I’m not sure. I don’t want the stills to undermine the video, but the stills are pretty interesting. What do you think?

Listening to Crows

Characters that I often focus on in my artwork are birds. Since I was little, birds have been a fascination and envy of mine. While in Paris, I was able to see some shenanigans that the crows by the Eiffel Tower got up to.

Crows are one of the most intelligent birds around, but they always get a bad wrap. While watching them, I started thinking about a story where these crows tried to live up to this idea of being evil omens and always up to no good, but failing miserably.  For instance, the head crow would be sitting on a bench glaring at the pedestrians across from him while the crow above is pulling things out of the trash.

“Stop it will you?! I can’t give a proper, ‘You are doomed for eternity’ glare with you banging through the trash!”

“What? I’m hungry. Oooh, potato chips! Want some?”

A silent blank one-eyed stare. “What kind are they?”

My love of graffiti . . .

I will and forever always love graffiti. Actually that is too vague. I love graffiti that takes the artists some time and thought into their work. In L.A. especially, I often just see letters scrawled on walls or overpasses. Any child can do it and the risk of being caught is minimal since it shouldn’t take that long to complete. Now those graffiti artists who put time and effort are risking more and creating better work. I admire them and love to document any graffiti that I see around me. Here are some works that I saw in Paris.

I think that this work might have been commissioned, but if it wasn’t than it is even more impressive.

In the pictures above, the graffiti wasn’t on the windows, but was being reflected since it was on the building across from those windows. When I saw this reflection, however, I had to take a shot.

Sights from Paris

While I was in Paris I was noticing all the different types of architecture and structures around me.  I have always been fascinated by how architecture is made to be aesthetically pleasing almost everywhere in Europe.  America can at times have buildings that are also aesthetically pleasing, but usually a building is just a building.

The photos above were taken in the crypts below the Pantheon in Paris.

This was one of the paths down from Sacré Coeur Basilica in  Montmartre. I loved this walk at night.

There are so many pictures of the Eiffel Tower that I was surprised to find myself taking such a cliché picture . . . sometimes you just can’t help yourself!

When I was wandering around the Latin Quarter I came across this Hotel and had to laugh! Then of course I had the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Darn you Eagles!