Sea Serpents

I fell in love with these paintings by Klimt. I think they are so beautiful and serene. The juxtaposition of abstract shapes as scenery and the ladies really appeals to me, its mystical yet real. I love that he calls them sea serpents because they seem so harmless and enchanting. Maybe its a reflection on the dangers of a beautiful woman. Whatever, I like them.

Camping

Steve and I went camping again this weekend up in Spanish Fork canyon. It was fun to get out of Orem and be in nature and to spend some time together "roughing" it.

Steve with all the wood we gathered, it doens't look that big of a pile here but it really was quite inpressive.

Steve burning his LSAT book! Down with the LSAT!

Instead of doing tinfoil dinners we kept it simple with hot dogs. They were kosher and 97% fat free. Hey, all hot dogs taste good with a little bit of smoky campifire char on them.

DO you like how everything is in focus but me? Thats our tent in the background.

(See other blog for more artistic intepretations of camping)

I Love Apple

Steve and I love our new IMAC. I haven't had a computer since my freshman days of the 20 lb laptop and lets just ne honest it had nothing cool about it except that it was a laptop. When we were shopping around for a new desktop I immediately fell in love with apple computers, so user friendly, so clean and yes, Sexy!
Plus, it has an in-house photo booth which is so fun

Dwight Sight-ing

Steve and I often drive by this spray painted tribute to Dwight on an electrical box in Orem and I have been looking for more of them because it was made with a stencil and I just thought it was hilarious. Oh Dwight, you karate-beet-farmer-assistant-to-the-regional-manager-nut!

Empty Carnival

There might be nothing as depressing as an empty carnival, well I'm sure there is but I would say the carnival is definitely up there. On Sunday I decided to trek out into the heat again in search of something to photograph. I had wanted to take pictures of the carnival as it was happening but there were just too many people and I get all embarrassed when people are around.

So I went back on Sunday to capture the "magic" of the event, as I suspected no one was there except some carnies lounging in the shade taking a lunch break. I asked if I could take pictures and got the go ahead.

There just isn't a whole lot of magic when you strip a carnival down to what it really is, old booths, rickety metal buckets and trucks and boats in 3 inches of water but it was good practice and I even got to talk with some carnies. I have to admit I never wanted to run away to the circus as a child but I was interested in being a carnie because their food is just so darn good. After seeing it all empty I was very glad I had never decided to make carnivals my life's work.

OremFest!

Steve and I had a good weekend, we went camping and also went down to Orem SummerFest which we kept calling OremFest for some reason. I love the summer festivals around here although I prefer the small town ones to the Orem one. There is something so summery about people being ripped off on tickets to ride shaky rides and standing in line in the heat. We also caught the tail end of the Orem Tap Pros show, cute little girls tap dancing and some sad middle-aged women tapping too. Then we came back for the fireworks show and I have to admit I love fireworks and Orem had a pretty impressive display. Ah the summer...

Steve enjoying a Flavor Blast ice cream cone

Pretty Pretty Pyrotechnics

Jeff Wall

Steve and I saw this photographer's exhibit when we were in New York and I loved his huge light-boxed prints, I think there were less than 50 on display but it was striking.

I like that his pictures look so real yet they are composites. Its very intriguing to me and makes me happy that even professionals use photoshop.

I love this one, its a flooded grave full of maritime treasures.

Stephen Shore

I stumbled across a book of his yesterday at the Orem Public Library and immediately was stricken by his work. The book was Uncommon Places republished in 2002. I have to say I love his look at American life. His pictures cause us to stop and think about why someone would take a picture of a parking lot yet his work has no center focus, no subject to look at, every eye can wander as it pleases in the work. I like it. Its real and banal but somehow its beautiful. (Plus all these pictures are from the 1970's and I have always had a fascination with american culture from 1950-1970.)

Skeleton O Mystery

What is it? It wasn't longer than my whole arm. Cat? Any guesses?

Abandoned

I drive by this abandoned truck on my way to Walmart and thought it would make an interesting photgraphic study. Yesterday I ventured out into the boiling heat and high contrast lighting, learned how to control my shutter speed and aperture and captured the beauty and nitty gritty detail of something left to mother nature and the elements. (I also found a cool skeleton completely free of flesh but perfectly intact, I cannot figure out what it is and decided it was too yucky to put on here)

Our Favorite Little Artist!

We got a fantastic surprise in the mail on Saturday. Thank you Rachel!