creative thoughts in typed form

Since the beginnings of my blog, I've slowly developed an interest in writing. It started as a need to craft better workhorse copy but is now a strong focus on the creative aspects of written and typed words. Sketching, communication, creativity, documentation, they're all reasons for my writing.

Recently, I became a member of the editred online writing community. It's proven to be a good place to share writing, access writing resources, and interact with other word artists. Although I'm working on an art/writing project offline, I've uploaded a sample of my work here...

http://www.editred.com/JoeBlend

I'll upload more work as its produced. I'm very excited to merge writing, art, and graphic design in a way that allows the words to take a more unique form while still doing justice to the content; I'll post more on that soon.

book review and author spotlight

Normally I post my review of a book and call it a day but in this case, I wanted to comment on both the book and its author.

[the book, above-left, copyright © 2003 Mark Haddon, book design by Maria Carella]

As an artist, I'm drawn to things that are visually interesting. Book design is one factor that I take into account when browsing through a bookstore; more often than not it's led to a great read. This book is no exception. It grabs you before you read the first page, the description on the back of the book is enough to send you scrambling for the check-out counter. Check out reviews and information here...

http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400032716

[the author, above-right]

I found it interesting that Mark Haddon not only writes but creates art; I found his notebooks to be inspirational...

http://www.markhaddon.com/Home.htm

part sketchbook, part journal

{first things first}...the art journal that I was so excited about, the one with the accordion pockets...that idea didn't work out the way I thought it would. I couldn't deal with the fact that in order to draw or write, I had to remove the pages from the book which I felt took away from the experience of using the journal. And don't even get me started on how annoying it was to look through individual pages in a small folder. Anyway, I will post more on that another day but my reason for including the back story was to lead into my new, "working out better than I imagined" art journal which looks quite a bit different than the one previously posted...

{the original purpose of this post}

subject: coffee cup




subject: faces and pencils




subject: inspirational quotes and random drawing



© 2008 joe blend. All rights reserved.

random sketchbook stuff

Here are some random sketchbook pages that I've been working on recently; there are more but these are the most interesting.

comments, and chalk drawings from chalk board at Caribou Coffee




random objects




some thoughts on R.E.M.




random objects




writing on a glass coaster, clocks, and construction



"Caribou Coffee" and the R.E.M. name/logo/song titles belong to their respective owners, and include any applicable copyrights and trademarks.

all other work © 2008 joe blend. All rights reserved.

black and white polaroids

This photograph is the first formal polaroid in my portfolio.

Although I love regular polaroids, and have been shooting them for quite a while, I wanted some of them to be a bit larger than the standard 3" x 3" image area. Not knowing what would result from scanning an already imperfect image, I scanned this shot at high resolution, enlarged it to 5"x5" (image area, not white border), slightly cropped the subject, and converted it to black and white.

The result was an incredibly rewarding process. Not only was I able to successfully convert a polaroid to a larger photograph, the black and white conversion really showcased the imperfections without degrading the original image.

"...will I ever enlarge a polaroid beyond 5" x 5" ?"

I'd like to try for 8" x 8" but I don't think it would be smart to try for anything larger than that; I'm not even convinced 8" x 8" will be successful. But in all honesty, I don't know if it would be a good idea to even try. I mean one of the great qualities of a polaroid is the small, almost pocket size dimensions. Although I didn't go too much larger with my print, I don't think taking it farther would be worthwhile...it could really take away from the origins of the photograph.

subject: building and power lines
location: Occoquan, VA



{edit}
After letting the photo sit for a few days, I realized I wasn't happy with the cropping so I re-edited the photograph and uploaded the new crop. It's still 5" x 5" but with a little less of the brick building and secondary building.

© 2008 joe blend. All rights reserved.