featured creatives and new directions

For quite a while I've been posting articles about featured artists, designers, photographers, etc; until now the selected individuals or studios had been within the realm of the visual arts. In order to broaden the base of inspiration within my blog, I've decided to include creatives from other disciplines and industries such as musicians or individuals that have started creative endeavors (profit or non-profit).

I hope you enjoy the new additions to this group of articles!

caffeinated update...

It's funny how much you can accomplish when you nearly cut yourself off from the rest of the world! Ok, so I didn't cut myself off completely but sometimes you have to step back and focus in order to make progress.

I've been hard at work on some mixed media and illustration work, I'm gettting ready to start on a new graphic design project, and the additional photography that I am installing in Capitol Eyes is almost ready for matting/framing so things are moving along! I've started on a new "journal" along the lines of my journal that I wrote about a while back...it's a different direction, more idea-based, but it's proving to be very interesting and useful.

I've decided to post a new article every week to keep things fresh; if there are any topics you would like to read articles about in my blog, feel free to contact me at "info at joe blend dot com". Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that all ideas will be accepted (for various reasons) but I'll do my best to tailor some articles around specific interests of my readers. Thanks again for all your support and check back soon for new stuff!

Joe Blend and Capitol Eyes: a gallery experience

A couple of months ago, the owner of an eyeglass boutique in Washington DC commissioned six of my photographs for display/sale in his store. After a couple of stressful months of shooting/editing/matting/framing, the work is finally installed (the sixth photograph will be installed on Tuesday May 22nd). Both myself and the store owner are very happy with the results; upon installation, he commissioned another four pieces so it's back to work for another exciting round of art production!

Anyway, here are four of the photographs that I selected for display/sale...

Flamingos:



Empire State Building:



Cherry Blossoms and random zoo plant (respectively)



I'll post a preview of the additions after they're installed. For those of you in and around the DC Metro area that are interested in checking the work out in person, here's the address of the store:

Capitol Eyes
1201 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004

I'd like to say thanks to all of you that have supported me and my work in one way or another over the years and thanks to Dr. Allouche of Capitol Eyes for this incredible experience!

portable creativity

As artists, designers, photographers, sculptors, and “insert creative discipline here”, we are constantly looking for inspiration and a unique perspective…or at least we should be. We all struggle at times to find a reason for creating, a solid direction to follow for a particular project, or some other need that is preventing us from making progress on a current project(s). Sometimes it’s the act of “growing as an artist” that seems stifled. Whatever the reason, a journal can be the solution. One of my biggest reasons for starting an art journal was to engage in creative activities while outside of my work. Not that I wanted to photograph subjects 24/7, I just felt as if something was missing and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a journal was the answer. Not only could it serve as a source of inspiration but it could be an archive of notes, a list of objectives and goals for a given period of time, and most important an ongoing experiment.

Sitting in my workspace was a nice leather bound journal from Borders (very nice, two flaps of leather covering the pages, a small leather strap holds it closed) so I figured that was the best place to start. I’ll be honest, it was pretty daunting at first; so many pages and not the slightest idea as to what to fill them with. My first instinct was to start writing down everything from ideas for photography subjects to notes on my favorite artists and designers. Later, I added everything from blog article ideas to favorite websites and around six months ago, I began to add images. After filling quite a few pages, I felt as if my journal needed to be kicked up a notch. Images were the natural next step but I wanted to do it in a thoughtful way. I gathered all my design and photography magazines and cut out anything that grabbed my attention for more than a few moments; this included type, pictures, and illustrations...for all you graphic designers out there, you know how hard it was to get the courage to butcher up well designed magazines! That quickly led to cutting out whole paragraphs and eventually entire articles.

When gluing the images and forms to the journal pages, I pushed the limits of graphic design and created compositions that either supported the image/form or that made me curious as to how well they’d work from an editorial design standpoint. Sometimes I created spreads that were mundane and straightforward whereas other times, I’d use photos that needed to be folded over (sometimes for a reason and other times simply because I could). The more I engaged in this kind of activity, the more I got inspired and the more curious I became about type and its relation to concept and message. I began to break apart articles that interested me and adhere them to the journal pages in ways that where interesting to me or somehow supported the article’s content; other times, I had no idea why I did what I did, I just knew that’s the way I wanted to do it!

What I have now is a thick journal that is nothing short of an exciting work in progress. You might be asking what has come from all this. Simply put, I feel as if I have an outlet for exploration that also serves as a source for inspiration and information. At any given time, I can open my journal and flip through it perhaps finding something new or even adding to it. I can look at fascinating textures, interesting articles, or random thoughts that one day may serve as the spark for a great idea. The bottom line is that I now have a portable outlet that helps expose me to ideas and other creative disciplines while strengthening my own work and creativity.

Images from my journal:

inside front cover:


spread dedictated to typography:


another spread dedicated to typography:


random spread with one of my favorite
Jack Kerouac quotes:


random spread (left page focuses on expression,
right page tries to decide what "it" is):


intro to pages about what exactly "art" is:


spread showcasing an artists work:



a spread that deals with some interesting books:

a spread dealing with the conflict between elite

and "average" people (inspired by an article on

Henry Rollins):

a sample page from a section on quotes (I used

found typography to replace two of the words in

the quote):

a random spread:

theme#34 "Long": first place photograph

Title: Tentacles
Description: Wouldn't want to get caught up in these!
Photographer: Lynn Pilewski
Location: Atlanta, GA
Date: March 10, 2007

www.photofortnight.com

running to catch up...

It's amazing how far behind certain things can get if you get extremely busy! The last few months have proven to be some of the busiest yet for me...I've been shooting a lot of new photography as well as working on some new facets to my studio work.

I recently got a commission for six pieces to be displayed in an eyeglass boutique in downtown Washington DC with more work to be provided as needed! It's a great opportunity since it's an open ended gig, not to mention a great location and a great client. Anyway, I've been working on those pieces (as well as framing and matting) but I'll post when the work is up and I have some photos of the work in the space! I have a couple of articles that I'm pretty excited about but I won't promise when they'll be posted...just kidding!...I should have them published within the next two weeks.

To sum up, I'm still around so continue to check back for new stuff!

PhotoFortnight first place photographs

Well, it's been a while but I'm finally starting to catch up!

Theme#33 "Street": First place photograph



Title: I Walk The Line
Description: A candid street shot of a man set against a backdrop of horizontal and vertical lines
Photographer: Jonathan Morton (mort)
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Date: February 18, 2007
Technical: Canon 400d, Canon 17-40L, ISO 200, F9, 1/80 sec, BW conversion using channel mixer, levels and unsharpen mask.

Theme#32 "Line": First place photograph



Title: Drawing the line
Photographer: Greg Barry
Location: Mayo
Date: February 15, 2007

Theme#31 "Car": First place photograph



Title: Worn out
Description: This gem was found in an arboretum in Arizona.
Photographer: Jenn
Location: Arizona
Date: January 13, 2007

Theme#30 "Holiday": First place photograph



Title: Night
Description: Lit by a full moon, the Caribbean Sea shows off its colours on my New Year's holiday in Cuba.
Photographer: Jeope Wolfe
Location: Playa Lindemar – Cayo Largo, Cuba
Date: January 3, 2006
Technical: Canon Digital Rebel, kit lens, ten-second exposure with time-value mode; levels, sharpening and dodging in Photoshop.

Theme#29 "Speed": First place photograph



Title: Carousel Gallop
Photographer: Christopher Teske
Location: Spokane, WA USA
Date: November 26, 2006
Technical: Nikon D70s w/ Sigma 14mm ultra-wide, .5 exp. @ 2.8 w/ rear-curtain flash, tweaked in PS

www.photofortnight.com

happy holidays!

I'd like to thank everyone for their interest and support in my continuing efforts to make abstractLatte an interesting and helpful resource for everyone! Enjoy the holidays!

theme#28 "Urban": first place photograph

Title: The Wall
Description: The Berlin Wall
Photographer: Sarah-Marie McGuckin
Location: Berlin
Date: October 17, 2006
Technical: Samsung pro 815 digital SLR

www.photofortnight.com

PhotoFortnight first place photographs

In an effort to play catch up I have grouped all of the recent Photofortnight first place themes in one post. I apologize to the recent first place participants for not getting their shots up sooner. Anyway, here they are in all their glory starting with Theme 22 and ending with Theme 27:

Theme 22: "Work"
Title: "Overworked Designer"
Photographer: David Barry



Theme 23: "Blue"
Title: "Agapanthus"
Photographer: Steve Simpson



Theme 24: "Truth"
Title: "The Truth Shall Set You Free"
Photographer: Jenn



Theme 25: "Multiplicity"
Title: "dream spiral"
Photographer: pantone



Theme 26: "Fruit"
Title: "Lychees"
Photographer: Sarah O'Sullivan



Theme 27: "Autumn"
Title: "The Crow"
Photographer: Karen Chappell



On behalf of the PhotoFortnight editorial staff, I'd like to say congratulations and thanks for contributing such great work!