Saturday, June 29, 2013

Bunnies


I've always loved rabbits since I was a kid. Since we were two years old, my twin sister and I would always get a bunny rabbit at easter time. The obsession of cute fuzzy things spawned from there, hence the reference to rabbits in the title of this blog.

It's weird... even though I love rabbits, I don't ever want to own one. I know there are domesticated rabbits, many of them who need good homes, but I think it's one of those types of things of "you want what you can't have" for me. Rabbits are something to be admired from a distance, and squealed at up close, but only for short periods of time.







Friday, June 28, 2013

Diana F+




One of my favorite things to do is taking photos with my Diana camera. In regards to photography, it's relatively cheap and easy to use and process. There's only four options for aperture settings, three options for focus, and little options after that. What you do with this minimalist camera after that is up to the imagination! Rolls can be hit or miss, but overall it's been one of the best investments I've made.

While the Diana can be used with the typical 35mm (as seen with the photo with sprocket holes), I tend to stick with the medium format 120mm. I've played with a lot of different film options, including black and white, color negative, and slide film. I find that slide film, although the most expensive, is the most fun. The two photos surrounding this text were cross-processed with slide film, and I consider them to be some of my best.






Thursday, June 27, 2013

Indoor Gardens


I can't imagine living without indoor plants. My mom always had a green thumb, and between the chaoticly manicured backyard and abundant indoor plants, I grew up surrounded by green things. The sad thing is that I tend to kill most things (including jade plants, spider plants, cacti, and the like) but Jon has a magical necromancer touch to bring any plant back from the dead. We have a number of plants in our current apartment, but we'll have to give most away before our upcoming road trip.Victoria is known for its temperate climate and ability to grow and sustain most plants, so we'll have to begin anew-- perhaps leaving a door open for us to start gardening!







Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Art Nouveau

Alphonse Mucha

Art Nouveau is a style that has always attracted me aesthetically-- something about the beautiful people and clothes with swirls and dreamy backgrounds I found very appealing. I ended up using Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde's Salome in my final project on image-text analysis, which happened rather serendipitously. I remember telling my thesis advisor that I couldn't think of anything to focus on, and I told him that I was thinking about looking at an illustrated canonical text. He suggested Beardsley and Wilde's art nouveau styled Salome, which was right up my alley. I couldn't have asked for a better match! Nowadays I'm still drawn to anything with an art nouveau aesthetic, and intend on incorporating some of it in my new apartment.

Alphonse Mucha

Jules Cheret

Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec 

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Ode to: Boston

The skyline on a recent kayak trip

I'll admit it: when I moved here I did not love Boston. Every time I looked at the skyline I remember always thinking, "Where's the rest of it?" I thought it was a small town with a big-town attitude, and I did not care for it. I was, for the most part, bored, sad, and lonely. Every (seemingly) desperate attempt I made to make friends seemed to be shallow and not in earnest, and I missed my friends and family back home so much it hurt. I cried almost every day.

Eventually the coldness I had for Boston warmed over and I began to make friends with my classmates, coworkers, and acquaintances. I began to love Boston's quirks and gems, and I soon began to find a circle of friends that I admired, respected, and had tons of fun with. I feel like there's always something going on in this city, whether it be brunch, a DJ night, a poetry reading, book signings, guest speakers, or friend's band playing. Now that we're leaving after my two years here, I'm feeling a sincere and despairing sadness. I love Boston. Well, Cambridge. ;)

At a friend's DJ night

Ice skating on Frog Pond for Valentine's Day

The Red Sox playing last year

The Boston Commons

The harbor seen during a sunset cruise 

A view of Harvard building


From Walden Pond, outside the city

From Spectacle Island

Monday, June 24, 2013

Looking Forward: Victoria & Vancouver Island

The Inner Harbor with the British Columbia Parliament Buildings

So the purpose of this blog is to give myself a creative outlet while I prepare and move to Victoria, BC. As mentioned in the first post, my husband Jon was accepted to a PhD program there, so we're packing up everything and moving west. We've never been there (the closest we've been was Portland, Oregon!) but from what I've seen and heard it's supposed to be beautiful. I'm an avid adventurer and with the moderate climate there should be hiking and camping available all year round on this mostly remote island. There seems to be a lot of water sporting to be had, lots of hiking on a mid-sized mountain range, and access to beautiful parks and trails.

Victoria itself is mostly known as a vacation town, with the motto that it's for "the newly wed and nearly dead." Its retired population is reportedly large, but with a lot of younger hippie-types enjoying the beauty of the island. I'm a little worried about finding work there, but the island will probably offer a lot of distractions if I'm unemployed for a bit.

Butchart Gardens

Downtown Victoria

Juan de Fuca Trail on Vancouver Island

Orca Whale Watching off the Coast of Vancouver Island

Long Beach, Vancouver Island

Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Wall Collages


Bohemian Wornest

When we move to Victoria, I intend on doing some type of wall collage-- something that was inspired via Pinterest (where most of these images came from). I like the idea of using different shapes, sizes, and mediums (so not just all photographs or art) and possibly to incorporate some mirrors.

In our current apartment (before we took most of it down), we had a lot of hanging pieces of art and photos that took up the space well. White walls are boring to me and we weren't allowed to paint, so hanging fun pieces up was the best next thing. I think with a wall collage not only will it give our apartment a funky bohemian/eclectic aesthetic, it will also allow room for new pieces!