Alaskan caribou

Another absolutely beautiful animal is the caribou. Their antlers probably my 2nd favorite because they are so different and interesting.
Domestic caribou are often called reindeer but they are the same species but their are subspecies. So when you think of Santa's reindeers, here's it is!

Caribou can symbolize a personal or spiritual journey. In some cultures the caribou spirit is a guide, carrying and leading people to the spirit world and back.

Quote of the day

"I'VE SEEN A LOOK IN A DOG'S EYES...

I AM CONVINCED THAT BASICALLY

DOGS THINK HUMANS ARE NUTS."

Baby Goats

I love this time of the year when it seems like all the animals are having babies. I look forward to baby goats all year long. Most have two babies but a mother this year had four but one was born dead. Last year I saw one in the barn that had been born dead that day. It was so sad.

The baby goat i'm holding in the picture was born that morning. It still had some birthing fluid on it's head.

I just learned that a lot of the time the baby goats stick together and only find their mother when they are hungry. (this happens with calfs too).

bull bugle

I think elk are gorgeous. I absolutely love the way their antlers grow, their antlers are my favorite even over deer.

Have you ever heard a bull bugle? It's the weirdest sound you'd ever hear and you'd never guess a sound like that would come out of such a large animal. I still love it... here's a *youtube clip* to hear their call. Watch it! It's only 40 seconds long.

The elk symbolizes nobility, power, freedom, strength and agility.

Transparent House

I accidentally clicked on [Next Blog] at the top of the screen and it lead me to a pretty cool blog. They blogged about this concrete design and I thought it was perfect for some people's projects. I thought the designs were absolutely gorgeous. Whenever I have a house of my own, I want concrete floors like this! The designs sort of remind me of Tord Boontje.
Transparent house is a 3d design & Visualization studio who make these concrete floors. They said in their statement that it was exciting for them to "discover new and uncustomary aspects in objects around us."

MAN VS WILD

One thing that came up in class the other day was blogging about things we like. It's the ground work of our aesthetic and can maybe be used as ideas later down the line in future work. So, I took that as, we should gather things we like because it makes up who we are. It influences our lives in some way like why we buy the things we do, what decisions we make, etc. One thing I absolutely LOVE is MAN VS WILD on the discovery channel! I was a true fan from the beginning and still cannot function when a marathon is on. I mean come on, I named my dog Bear Grylls when I got him Jan '07.

I don't know why I'm so drawn to it but I am! I love watching him out in crazy places, eating disgusting things, building fires, showing you techniques of survival. It's amazing. It's by far my favorite show on tv. I can see a connection between that show and INTO THE WILD (my favorite movie). It's experiencing nature, getting out of the everyday routine, getting away from people, and having an adventure. I want that! Maybe that's why I am so drawn to antlers and bones?? I'm still trying to figure out myself. It surprises me sometimes the things I like. I want to establish my own style. I want people to know my art when they see it.

Blood Diamonds projects

CASTING:

Here's some of the blood diamonds projects. I took some pictures before the critique. I wish I had gotten a chance to take pictures of everyone's projects including mine. I don't know why I didn't because I know there's not going to be another good chance to get everyone together with their projects.

I thought this project was so cool because everyone's was so different even though it was about the same subject.

I know everyone worked super hard and it definately showed.

From the top:

-Megan (top 2 images)

-Sherri (2 images)

-Danielle

-Katy

Hampstead Bypass

Department of Transportation
State Highway Administration

Hampstead Bypass

Route 30 is a heavily traveled main road through my town that leads from Hanover, PA to 795. People commonly take route 30 for their commute and everyday it's at stopped traffic during rush hours.

Across the street there is a huge farm that has been there for over 25 years but the bypass is going to go through part of it. They were forced to sell their property to the bypass and housing developments. It's such a shame to see farms, fields, and woods buldozed for this road. It's all happened in the last two years but now it's really underway.

This picture is from the MDSHA website of part of the area

right near my house. They've built this part as an underpass

of a road I travel all the time. It seemed so bizarre to drive

over all the time.

watch dog

BEAR even came out with me to see a closer look at the cows.

Being an artist, I feel like you notice beautiful things in objects that would seem just ordinary. Just walking around, I notice myself constantly taking a mental note of interesting things. This particular day I had my camera but i don't most days.

The chain on the gate reminded me of my blood diamonds chain. I love the mix of the delicate, sharp chain and the chunky, thick chain especially against the texture of the wood post. I didn't realize that I had caught some of the red gate in the background but I think it's really nice.

The sky that day had a cool pattern left from the airplanes.

This old pile of hay left out was even cool to me.

more pictures:

While doing some research for the ART413 project, I found out alot of distrubing information about beef regulations (or lack there of) in the US. It really makes me happy when I eat steak from John's farm because I know what they were fed and how they were raised. Although, it's a little weird to know you're eating Floppy. Cattle from large commerical ranches are pumped up with all sorts of medicine and are raised in horrible conditions. There's information out there about the beef you buy from the groccery store that's shocking and I had to stop reading it.

(top) view from the pasture (left) view of the pond (right) one of the corn fields

more cow pics

More cow pictures from the farm:

The cow crossing signs that inspired mine and Whitney's project are a symbol of industry over riding nature.

Where ever there are cow crossing signs, there are roads near farms. Farms used to be away from main roads and high traffic areas but with the mass building in my area, the "back roads" are now as busy as a main road. The problem is that the back roads tend to have a high speed limit than the main and are windy and narrow. People fly down the road and cut corners without thinking. I was going to take my picture with a cow crossing sign near by my house but the road it's on is too dangerous.

Man & Nature

I took this picture while walking around the farm but I thought it was a really cool subjects, barbed wire and a thorn bush.
[one of nature's defense mechanism + man's version]

Farm inspiration

As a creative caffine for myself, I decided to go around and take pictures around my boyfriend's family farm. They have a hobby farm because it's not their main source of income, they have a good amount of cattle and grow a lot of their own produce. I spend any free time I have, here. I love it because it's beautiful and peaceful.

Females cows have horns too! It's not just the bulls that have horns. I didn't realize this fact until i was pointed out that i was very wrong. Ever seen the animated movie Barynard? Ever notice anything strange?? ... the male characters have utters!... that's so wrong.

new blog to check out

http://rust-belt.org/blog/

"We hope that our research will be useful to other designers and help to create a more transparent jewelry manufacturing industry. We will continue to update."

photographs by David Maisel

"Managing Environmental Effects of Metal Mining: Interview with Mark Logsdon" Mining Law and Land use, Materials- March 31, 2008

From the website RUST BELT there was an interview with ther president of Geochimica on metal mine issues. I found there were many interesting facts about metal mining and some really cool images. Here are some of the facts:

- gold and silver mines only have a 10-15 year life span (bigger open mines have more of a 20-25 year life span)

- after a mine is no longer useful there is a closure plan: 1.plow any slopes so it is safe and stable 2.some kind of water quality management 3.settle up with employees and town

- there are usually funds left for clean up and maintanence but usually no one to do the job or anyone to regulate the process

- mine closures can cost millions- billions of dollars

-few tailing ponds are lined

chi chi chi chia

Whitney and I finally got our yellow, acrylic PONOKO cow signs!! Yay!

We can start constructing the copper backings with tabs so it can slide in with the grass section in the middle. We've decided to try to make most of them into pins and try a few as pendants.

Since our original design only used the sign parts, we thought about we could use the cow silhouette pop out pieces. It might be nice to make them scatter pins and group a few together to make a herd. I want to wear a herd RIGHT now!

The Chia pet seeds are growing!

I've been experiementing with growing grass since we got the project sheet. I bought patching grass seeds and planted it in a small pot, tried to grow it on burlap, and burlap with a thin layer of soil underneath. The best way to grow that grass was through the burlap with the layer of soil. I also tried to grow 3 kinds of herbs in a pot incase the grass didn't grow. Some are growing but I don't know which kind it is. Then, Whitney ordered Chia pet seeds online and when we got them in we tried growing them on gauze pads - so it would lay flat in the pendants. At first they wouldn't sprout but just recently it's been growing quite rapidly.

So, as of right now I have patch grass about 3 inches high, chia pet sprouts, and 1 kind of herbs. It's a start!

antler candelabra

I found this article in TIME magazine a long time ago, ripped the page out and saved it somewhere. Until now i forgot about it but i found the image again when searching "antlers".
I think this is really beautiful and i love the design. It's very creative!

[Channing Stag five-light candelabrum in brass, $1,995]

i want this!

GHOST ANTLER COAT RACK

- designed by Erich Ginder
-Velocity Art and Design $230
-cast resin antlers

- amazing!