Wind Chime Revisited

During the Labor Day weekend, a friend's daughter came over and was enamored by the wind chimes that hung by our front door. Little did she know the inspiration of making them came from the Bishop Museum and a wall display. Inspired to own this display I set out to make two panels by nailing over 3500 pailettes to these two boards. I purchased the pailettes from Cartright Sequins. She asked if she could pay me $.25 to make her a small panel. I made an offer that she couldn't refuse.
 I said, " What if I did this for you for free?"
Her eyes lit up and everyone in the room thought that I was just putting her on but here I am creating a hot pink board for her with left over pailettes.

Making a 2x2 ft. Wind Chime takes over 600 pailettes

She'll be so surprised when she receives this.

2 2x6 ft. wind chime boards that took over 3500 pailettes to create and over 40 hours of labor nailing them

Photos from the Brownie Hawkeye

So the results are in. . . I took a bunch of pictures with the 120mm film and they the camera yielded hazy and dream like photos. Actually pretty difficult to achieve naturally in this day and age with digital. The wonderful and unique thing about these photos are that they are 5x5" and not just the ordinary 4x6" or 5x7". The camera is from the mid-century and it had built up dust particles throughout the viewfinder and the lens behind the shutter. So, I took it apart and cleaned it. Currently I'm shooting another roll of film to see if the picture quality will improve.

Brownie Hawkeye Beauty

Browsing through piles of stuff that people have collected over the years at the Hawaii's Annual Collector's Show, there was one thing that caught my eye. A brown box with a lens that called me over from across the room. My eyes opened wide in excitement when I saw that the price was right and I asked the vendor if this Brownie Hawkeye still worked and he handed it to me while snapping the shutter to show me that it was in perfect working condition aside from a few scuff marks from 50 plus years of wear and tear. I reached into my pocket and handed him his money and I said, "I'll take it!" Two rolls of 120mm film are in development.  I'll post some pictures when I get them back from the lab.

The Contemporary Museum Art Spree

The event was about a family day filled with activities. The exhibit was about meditation and quiet time. There were mermaids, synchronized swimming, a cabaret, food, activities, and fun... oh yes, and art!

A Double Hibiscus

Sometimes a flower isn't just a flower. Usually a hibiscus flower has five petals, and this one has double.

The Bus and the The Egg

What stood out was the yellow yolk and the whiteness of the shell both contrasting against the dark cast iron pan. For a moment it reminded me of the colors and the design for the Honolulu Bus. As weird as it may seem hurling an egg into a pan and watching it splat became inspiration for bus photographs!

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Phonographs and vinyl revolutionized the film industry lending voices and music to moving pictures. As they became popular, they sold as household appliance and played a part of the American culture that makes up the fabric of this society. Records were heaven sent showcasing musical talents giving opportunity to both musicians and the general public to own their works. 

Then came the digital age, that made these wonderful machines obsolete. I purchased the above phonograph off of Craigslist for $15, repainted it, and it was used as a prop in a photo shoot. In it's retirement, it has lost its voice but not it's mobility. Using a hot glue gun my son and I found small plastic toys to adhere onto vinyl records creating various interchangeable scenes and remaking the use of the analog phonograph. It is art!

Tilt Shift Effect

There are lens called tilt-shift lens made by Lensbaby that allows one to capture a unique perspective of wide angle shots. The resulting effects are images that look miniature and toy like. This can also be achieved by using photo editing programs such a Photoshop or Lightroom. I'm not one to spend a lot of money on equipment as long as I can bring it home with the end results so I opted to use photo editing to enhance the pictures for the same tilt shift look. I may one day decide to make a tilt-shift lens.

Tippy Toe

While I was waiting for my ride, I was armed with my shoes and a camera. I figured that I'd come up with various ways to shoot photos of my shoes to entertain myself.

Empty Bowl 2011

There is an annual event put on in Chinatown called the Empty Bowl event to help to wipe out hunger. You can buy ceramic bowls for $20 and a bowl of soup is included along with the purchase. They are all donated and handmade by various ceramicist. This year, there were over 4000 bowls to choose from. The line ran from Mark's garage down Nuuanu Street and it wrapped around King street. There was a large turnout. Many local restaurants helped by donating soup which made it a successful event. Art collectors like me could choose and buy a piece and at the same time help to fight hunger in Hawaii.

Above are the two bowls that we purchased. They were made by no named artists.  They symbolize night and day for us.

Sake' Sets

Hello to all of you who frequent this blog. I recently experienced artist block which was far from having ideas bottled up, or even the lack of motivation to create, but more accurately finding nothing very interesting to share... that is until now. I had lunch with a friend today who asked if I kept up my posts on Apartment Art and my response was that I had slowed down quite a bit. He articulated that he likes to find small artistic pieces whenever he travels because of the ideas that he has read from this blog. I was inspired by his comments so I wanted to thank  Elijah for the positves!

Recently, I was shopping at a Japanese market called Marukai. Frequenting the household items I found this sake' glass set with a sumo motif. They were very unique and I knew that they would be wonderful conversation pieces for dinners with friends who enjoy Japanese rice wine or sake'. There are five different poses by five different wrestlers.

The glasses are about 1.5"in height even though the photos make them appear larger.

Me and My Son

My wife took this picture of me and my son at the beach.

People and Events

It's been a while since I've updated this blog mainly because things have been hectic. The only art that I've have had time for is taking photos. Here are some fun pictures at a local carnival.

 

Inspired by Japan: Hawaii Potter's Guild

Esther Shimazu, "Cleaning My Head I and II"

My family and I left our car at Jiffy Lube for a jiffy lube and we decided to walk around the corner to get a burger for lunch. Before arriving at the burger joint we noticed that there was an event taking place at the Japanese Cultural Center which we decided to check out. There in the distance was my high school English teacher Pat Takeshita who articulated that we were at a ceramics show sponsored by the Toshiko Takaezu Foundation. The work speaks for itself with a very high level of talent from the Hawaii Potter's Guild. I hope that you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed the show!

Shelle Avecilla, "Smoke Stacks"

Judy Okimoto, "Angelina Flying"

Domenica Sattler, "Light:Happiness"

Yoko Haar, "Drifting"

Patti Gallagher-Jones, "Lost at Sea Fish"

 Pat Takeshita, "Copper Earth Willow"

Queenie Kwock, "Dimpled Shadows"

 Esther Shimazu, "Cleaning My Head I and II"

 Aaron Padilla, "Red Swril"

 Esther Norwell, "Lion Dogs"

Maile Yawata, "Boy Soldier"