Bryce Homick Lite

Map Project

2011-06-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me to map out the land of my childhood for a reason I can't remember.

It was fun to do :)

Good Riddance, 2009

2009-12-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

2008 was by far your superior.

that is all

Show Kickoff

2009-07-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

The show was a blast. Everything looked good, the lighting was fantastic, and all the work was wonderfully displayed. Everyone dressed up, and I took an opportunity to try out a new dress shirt and tie under my suit, to great sucess. I think I'm going to buy another suit or two, firstly because they make me look awesome and secondly because my current suit is a little big, though in places it needn't be - its a little tight across the shoulders. I'd also like to try out a different cut.

Fun fact: Wearing a suit to the airport makes you look less suspicious and less likely to be pulled aside for a magnet-search.

Back to the show! I made a big bowl full of beef jerky which was gone in 30 minutes of course, and I got almost as much attention for that as for the pieces, which also seemed to be a big hit. Nacho showed up for the opening too, which was wonderful because I haven't seen her in like 4 months. Its a shame she didn't take this class again. I think in two years, when its offered again, I'll drop everything to take it once more. Hopefully in another 6 months to a year we'll do another Anagama firing on our own outside of MICA. I'm sure it'd definitely be cheaper.

I was quite happy because within the first 20 minutes I sold 3 of the 12 faces i had made. Hopefully someone will find the rest of the pieces to their liking and take them off my hands, except for the postcard piece, which I've priced high because I want. :P

Left early unfortunately to fly home for the weekend, but its really, really good to be back. I'm looking forward to running in my old neighborhood; a change from hunt valley at the very least. I'm also going to go swimming at last, as well as some stalking through the rather extensive woods. Its good to be home.

Tomorrow I finally throw all of my work online for the world to see. Then later on, perhaps, I'll add the artist statement, though I don't know if that will be necessary. Whatever. It'll be nice to actually update the blog with something worth showing.

Show Set up Sucess!

2009-06-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

Welp saturday from 9:30 to 3:00 I spent the day setting up the show, and I'm absolutely thrilled by the result. Everybody's work looks super excellent, and I definitely gotta give props to Barnes for setting up the show. I'm also really thrilled that Chris and Erica Bonner's work is going to be up as well - the whole space, while small, feels real complete. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how Sarah Hrvoski's main piece is going to look, as that was the only thing not set up (it involved chains and dry wall anchors)

The lighting hasn't been done, so things will probably look even better when I return Thursday Night for the opening. The piece on the postcard (mine) is wonderfully displayed in the window of the gallery, and I have no complaints about any of the positions of my work. I think in general everyone's work is wonderfully displayed, and hopefully everyone's gonna make some moolah! Tomorrow I flood my company with postcards and invite everyone I know to come see the work ... I've got a feeling that the tiny little Meredith gallery is going to be -packed- thursday night. I'll be wearing my suit too, and making beef jerky for gallery food.

Unfortunately, due to my own stupidity I booked a flight home leaving at 8:45 so I'll have to leave early from the opening to hop a flight back to CT, but hey, I'll be in CT for two and a half days which will be absolutely wonderful, so I shouldn't really complain. It'll be great to see my parents and perhaps visit some old friends while I'm there.

Since the Anagama trip everything in my life has just felt so damned good. I finally have a goal ... no several goals to work towards, and pretty much every weekend has been appropriately busy or relaxing. I'm at clayworks 3 times a week, and while I don't exactly have an aim for work I've a general idea about where I want to go, so I'll be able to make some cool stuff while I start to build up another body of work.

Also finally saw 'Up' this weekend, which was absolutely excellent, as I expected. Particularly poignant in my mind was the mini-story of Carl's life - were at home I'd surely be bawling. Definitely buying the DVD when it comes out.

blah blah blah i'm off to do some more working out before hittin the sack early tonight

New stuff soon

2009-06-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

I've not shown my core work from the Anagama class yet because I'm waiting for the show to open on the 2nd of July. I didn't want any of my coworkers to see it so they'd go to the show. I've also been trying to come up with a sort of artist's statement to go along with the work to help describe it; so far nothing quite right on that front, which is a little bit problematic if I want to go to grad school ... gotta learn to express myself verbally, though part of me wonders wether thats a redundant thing; I feel like in a lot of cases art is a means to describe something without words, or because words aren't enough. Perhaps a statement is moreso meant to describe the circumstances leading up to the expression that is art, a cue in the right direction, in order to force the viewer to see the work in the right light ... I dunno

Its particularly hard with personal work to describe it to others; during my critique I felt naked and exposed, and the act of talking about the work seemed superfluous and painful.

Lately i've been throwing 25lbs of clay, with decent results, as I've been taking a class with Jim Dugan about throwing large, but I'm filled with doubts as to my reason for pursuing this particular skill - the prior statement effectively exhausted the built vessel as a metaphor ... what is its purpose now?

Tomorrow I set up the show, and I'm super excited!

Snippet of Anagama #2

2009-06-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

It was evening. I had been unable to get to sleep as I had wanted to prior to my 12 am to 6 am shift with Jon, so with the last hour of my rest time I decided to get up and wander through the forest. As I quietly left the nearly empty cabin of my sleepy comrades, I was immediately struck by the brightness of the moon that was high in the sky, outshining the stars around it.

I hesitated a moment, and then walked back into the cabin to turn the outside light off, getting onto the nearby picnic table and lying down face up, letting my eyes adjust. Georgia O'Keefe's painting Lawrence Tree is an insult to the beauty I saw. The trees, with their leaves fully opened were black, the sky behind being a bright navy blue, with the stars not obscured by the moon shining through. The air was laden with moisture, and as such it picked up the rays of moonlight that shafted through the forest, so crisp it felt as though I could reach out and shatter them with a touch. The fractal nature of existence pressed upon me; the world is a dazzling explosion of detail and intricacy, fanning out from all points, and collapsing inward from everywhere simultaneously.

I imagined the perspective of the ant crawling along my leg, and let my perception expand to encompass the table I lay back upon, further to the rough trees around me, and for a moment I zoomed into its crevices, an endless, living, breathing, mountain range. Upward from there the immense number of leaves moving in the wind of the evening, each current shifting and changing from each surface of the leaf to another. The leaves from all the trees in the forest melding together into yet another fractal shape; an endless silhouette against the stars beyond, far far beyond. I was small, so small in the forest, on the planet, in the universe, but so much a part of the system. I was an anomaly of animation upon the surface of a spherical rock, caught in the gravity well of a massive, yet astronomically small star, lost in the outer part of a still-larger galaxy. I was then a tiny voice among the millions in this country, a single creature silently contributing my part to the ecosystem which so verdantly surrounded me. I then came back to where I was, surrounded by old growth trees, quietly respirating in the night.

Humbled, I shed my shoes and proceeded into the forest - where I live now, rarely do I get the opportunity to walk barefooted - stalking quietly as I had learned, eventually I came upon two other classmates, quietly enjoying a cigarette and each other's company. Startled at my sudden, soundless arrival, they declined my invitation to travel down to the water, and I continued onward into the forest happily alone.

Again I was suddenly struck by the beauty of the night, as moonlight reached the lower trees in a small open space, created by the death of a very old tree, who remained majestic in its final recline. I stood silently for a while, slowly letting the film in my mind develop, before moving on, slow and steady through the nearly pitch black forest.

Through the trees the blue of the lake's surface became slowly more visible, as did movement before it. I froze, attention snapped on the silhouette 30 feet ahead of me. A mother and a fawn paced as carefully as I had along the shore of the lake. Recalling the distress of a mother deer I once encountered while painting in the forest behind the house in Connecticut, I halted my progress and watched the two slowly depart, before once again turning back to the cabin.

The light of the cabin was on, as my shift partner had awoken, preparing for the night's work.

Snippet of Anagama #1

2009-06-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

I awoke to the day early, arisen by the alarm clock I was used to waking to during work. Unable to fall back asleep I decided that i wanted to see the lake were camping around, so I quietly pulled on some pants and let myself out into the verdant forest that surrounded us. Its a rare thing that I get to walk through a forest and happen on a lake without running into other human beings, and the scents of their passage. One of the most wonderful parts of being in that part of PA was the absolute lack of human scents, fire aside. I felt as though each breath I took washed away the filth of the city from my lungs, and greedily inhaled deeply, splatter-visioning my eyes to further take in the forest, and enjoying the soft murmurs and whispers of the trees that surrounded me.

It had rained the previous night and the rich scent of the planet was delightfully inescapable, with masculine subtleties, the leaves gave silently beneath my bare feet and soon I was upon the lake, stunned by its stillness. The flies were out and the fish were jumping, carefully adjusting my focus I saw through the sky's reflection and found one fish to follow. I carefully sat down upon the sand and gazed out across the lake, hands idly gliding over the wet debris, happening upon a strand of discarded fishing line, to which I married with a twig, wrapping the two around one another till they lay cozily together. This process repeated itself twice more, and then my blurred eyes sensed movement.

A large bird flew directly towards me, its heavy wings struggling to gain altitude in the cool, thermal-less morning air. Mesmerized it inexorably glided across the lake, gaining speed until it was nearly upon me, too lost in thoughts of buzzards to notice the white head until the magnificent creature banked to my left, its gigantic wings blowing air upon me harder than a window fan, before disappearing into the trees. Promptly, the still water became blurred as a wind swept across the lake, crashing upon me and chilling me.

sated, I got up and wandered back to the cabin

Mica Commencement Show 2009

2009-05-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

yeah yeah I've not updated this blog in a while I know i've been BUSY

In the meantime I got to briefly (as in super brief) see the commencement show at Mica this year. I'm pretty bummed actually that I didn't get to see more of it, I checked out some of my friends' work, as well as most of the illustration department, but didn't have enough time to see more. They really need to extend the length of the show because two or three days isn't enough at all.

Anyway, I took some photos of the more interesting works I saw, all of which can be found here:

http://zombat.roosteredge.com/mica2009/

I've chosen a couple from the directory just to keep things simple.

this young woman had three different parts to her show, but my favorites were the actor/actress portraits, such as this one. The photo really doesn't do it justice, but it seemed as if the three portraits she did in this style were a more contemporary art nouveau (lol redundant)

This next one was just three awesome monster printouts. Really awesome color, and dynamic posing.

This fellow was just off the wall in general. I wish I had gotten more shots, but as I was seeing the show before work and I didn't want to get yelled at for being TOO late I took about 3 closeups of the rest of his work. I love it!

This young illustrator had an incredible series; a really unique style which might not be the best suited for sequential, but they looked BEAUTIFUL in my opinion anyway.

I played soccer with this young illustrator, who reminds me of Nancy Mueller's work ... hardcore. Her thesis was based around what a child would do with a couple wishes; for instance this one was 'if I could move objects with my mind' ... cool :)

Other notable artists in the illustration department, though I didn't photograph them all, would be Isaac Orloff (who has come a LONG way - his stuff looks great! I couldn't photograph it because the gallery lighting was off for no good reason) Peter Wogstad (the last image in the directory) and Sam Bosma - I enjoyed his black and white work specifically, though the color work was a little bit lacking, by comparison.

Cool stuff

NIFTY PORCH SETUP

2009-04-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

GOT REALLY BORED TODAY SO I DECIDED TO MAKE A SORT OF BENCH WHERE I COULD PUT MY BONSAI TREES AND THEN THEY'D GET FULL SUN. FUN FACT: THEY SIT ATOP A LARGE SHEET OF PLEXIGLASS, WHICH RUNS THE WATER OFF THE EDGE OF THE DECK AND HARMLESSLY INTO THE IRISES 20 FEET BELOW. NO MORE PISSING MY NEIGHBORS OFF WITH EXCESS WATER AND PLANT JUICE, BOY HOWDY!

IN ADDITION IM WORKING ON A VEGETABLE GARDEN OF SORTS (YOU CAN SEE SOME OF THE BOXES TOWARDS THE MIDDLE OF THE BELOW PHOTO - THEY ARE SUSPENDED AND RECEIVE DECENT SUNLIGHT. HOWEVER I NEEDED TO READJUST MY WATERING SYSTEM

SO IN THE ABOVE PHOTO YOU MAY NOTICE THE BUCKET HANGING FROM THE WALL IN THE FAR RIGHT. THAT HANGS BENEATH A LEAKY DOWNSPOUT, SO IT REFILS WHEN IT RAINS. THE BUCKET IS HIGH ENOUGH THAT ALL PLANTS ARE BELOW, AND IT ALLOWS FOR A SIPHON. I THEN HANG THE TUBES ON THE STAIRS WHEN I'M DONE WATERING AND THEY ARE HIGH ENOUGH THAT THE PRESSURE OF THE SIPHON IS STILL HELD BUT ITS NOT LEAKING EVERYWHERE. FROM THERE ALL I HAVE TO DO IS TAKE THE TUBES OFF THE HOOKS AND BAM FRESH WATER.

I SHALL BE GROWING GREAN BEANS, SNOW PEAS, TOMATOES, CILANTRO, LETTUCE AND CUCUMBERS. ALL ORGANIC SO THAT I CAN SAVE SEEDS AND REPLANT NEXT YEAR, SELECTING FROM ONLY THE FINEST FRUITS. SELECTIVE BREEDING FTW

more is coming

2008-09-01T21:11:00.001-07:00

No images, sorry!

I moved into my new apartment on the lovely sulgrave av of Mt. Washington, and I love it. Its big, second floor, a/c all over, but I've never needed to use it because there's a constant breeze and the air is fresh and crisp, I look out the window and all i see are trees ... its hard to believe i'm still in baltimore city.

I started letting biff out and she's been lovin it; so much that she's managed to kill like 4 birds and 2 mice; my little girl is growin up :3 I'm probably going to get another cat soon to keep her company though she's got a friend outside who seems nice enough.

The bonsai are doing well, particularly the Russian Olive ... I beat the hell out of that thing when I was home, and it sprung right back to life. I'm letting it grow big before winter hits, at which time I'll do some hard pruning. Been making grow boxes and doing some repotting for the more pot-bound and struggling plants. I might lose some this winter, which would definitely be a bummer, but I've heard that you gotta kill like 100 trees before you get good at bonsai so whatever.

Anyway, pics soon when I get the chance to upload

A lil bored

2008-07-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Back in Baltimore, or Mt. Washington, that is. Lovely neighborhood, great air, good neighbors. The problem is its too darn populated to find a place to shoot arrows, and I took a train to get here so I was unable to bring my bonsai with me. They'll come down with Biff in August when I move into a more permanent apartment.

In other news I've begun to work out again, the place I'm staying has a great fitness center, and it feels great to be active once again. I've even started running, oddly. I can still do a mile in just over 9 minutes. I hope to get that time down to about 8:15 to 8:30 by the end of my stay here.

Work is great. I really really wish I could put some of my work online, as I'm really pleased with it, but alas, I cannot!

A most productive day!

2008-06-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

This morning i got up, and felt a great sense of purpose!

well, not really, but I woke up early so i had 4 more 'extra hours' to evade boredom, so I did some preparatory stuff to get ready for my glorious return to Maryland.

FIRSTLY, I took the time and put another (my last) japanese maple into the ground. Here's the maple in its oversized pot, which it had actually grown in enough to hold all the dirt together!! Thrilled. Its a little bit thin. in fact, its very thin, but I like the branches so BY PUTTING IT IN THE GROUND it'll grow a lot faster because the roots will be uninhibited. Also, I put a piece of wood beneath it so that when it grows, the roots don't go down, but outward.

Here are the rest of my japanese maples along the driveway, in partial sun. They're lovin it ...

Just look at all the new growth!! (light green is new)

From there I repotted a Black Birch that I have from a crappy, badly draining sandy soil to a more rich, better draining loamy/stone dust mix, and a little Aluminum Sulphate to increase the acidity in the soil. I also added some Alumina to the Highbush Blueberry. Then I went out to the woods and came back to a cluster of Highbush blueberries that had caught my eyes as I patrolled the woods for trespassers (damn kids and their smirnoff ices)

As with moth Highbush Blueberries that I've found, there is a significant amount of deadwood, in this case, of the veritable forest we have here, only about 2 trunks are still alive. The rest are dead. I think this is going to be my first forest-style (yose ue)

As you can see, its a pretty sizable bonsai. My largest, in fact. Its going to be a little hard to get this down to Maryland, and find a place for the box, but I'll manage, hopefully.

Here it is in its grow box. you can see how big this one is. I need to make some kind of ceramic vessel for this eventually. It'll be my largest one yet.

Then I went out to the archery range and shot some more. After tightening a couple screws that were loose and rattling, I evidently needed to re calibrate the sights for some reason, so my shooting was pretty crappy at full length. my half-length however, is excellent. And at about 18 yards or so I can repeatedly shoot a 50 or so out of 60 points, sometimes more. My personal record for the longer 25 yard was also broken when I scored a 51 after finally recalibrating. The problem however, was that the arrows were so close together one of the bullseye (10 points) arrows got hit by another arrow that also hit the bulls, so I needed a new nock on that one. Still, unlike the last time I shot, I was shooting a smaller target (40 cm, i think) so I'm definitely progressing.

I concentrated most on using only my trapezius muscles and waiting till i sight the target steadily before releasing, and after a breif adjustment period out came the 51. I need a new sight though, its too easy in readjusting my current one to screw up the adjustment entirely.

Eventually I came home, and decided to recycle an old ripped pair or shorts, some oatmeal containers and some wire, and pissed away 3 hours making this handy-dandy quiver, which was a fun excersize in making use of stuff. I'm really not keen on blowing a ton of money on something as simple as this, so I was pleased with my result.

This'll make shooting at home a little easier as I won't have to spend so much time getting the arrows back to the shooting spot or something. I dunno it'll make me look cool. or a dork. or both, whatever who cares

Finally Figured it out

2008-06-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

... what that big crazy one with the cool trunk's was. That is, what the species of the tree is:

Highbush Blueberry (Caccinium Corymbosum)

(many thanks to Leslie!!)

Woot! SO know I know why its dying and what to do to save it! Here are some fun facts:

Choose a planting site with full sunlight and protection from strong winds. Avoid low areas that drain poorly or are prone to early frosts. Blueberries prefer a well-drained, sandy loam soil, rich in organic matter. Heavy, clay soils should be avoided, but may be made more suitable for blueberries with the addition of organic matter, such as peatmoss, sawdust and composted manure. All perennial weeds should be eliminated from the site before planting. If necessary, grow cover crops such as buckwheat, rye or oats on the site and plow them under for one to two seasons before planting blueberries to eliminate the weeds. Planting cover crops will also add valuable organic matter to the soil.

Have your soil tested to determine its pH and fertility status. Unlike many other garden crops, blueberries require a relatively acid soil for good growth. The soil pH should be within the range of 4.5 to 5.2.

I had put it in grow box with clay and pine needles - the pine needles were probably a good thing, but not the clay. Not enough acid (as Leslie pointed out, by the veins on the trees) and not enough drainage - when I pulled it out of the box, the box was pretty much mud.

So today I made up a new soil, and used the hose to clean off all the crappy soil, which exposed the feeder roots of the old plant. The soil was 1 part stone dust, 1 part potting soil ( which was mostly peat moss based) and 1/2 part compost. On initial watering, I noticed a super-awesome amount of draining by comparison to whatever i had in it before. Eventually I'm gonna get some acid-y fertilizer which I'll hit it with as soon as I can. I'm hoping that i'll see some new growth in the next month, as its a really cool stump, and definitely has potential.

As a side note I've been looking around my property and found a couple more highbush blueberry plants with a similar, awesome base. I'm gonna look around the area even further before I go back to Baltimore. This Cultivar shows much potential for bonsai - Produces flowers, fruits, and turns bright orange/red in fall, not to mention having a beautiful trunk when collected from the wild.

Some more Highbush Blueberry notes (for myself)

Management

Ideal soil for cultivation is moist, high in organic

matter, highly acidic (4.5-5.5), and well-drained. The

plants grow in full sun to partial shade, but those in

open sites produce more flowers and have brighter

fall foliage color.

Adaptation and Distribution

Widespread in eastern North America, the highbush

blueberry has been introduced outside of its natural

range for commercial berry production. The most

common native habitat is in moist or wet peat of

moderate to high acidity – in and around marshes,

swamps, lakes and flood-prone areas. V.

corymbosum also occurs in drier areas such as dunes

and barrier beaches, rocky hillsides, oak woods, and

pinewoods.

'arrowed'

2008-06-17T18:44:00.000-07:00

Welp the "whisker biscuit" is working! after a little trial and error, my accuracy is getting real good! This was the last round today - the small dark patch is about 4" in diameter, and this is from about 10 meters. This seems like pretty close, I know, but the idea with learning to shoot is to start out close, and learn the form. If I can manage to do this spread consistently, I'll push the target back another 10 yards, and then another 10, and then perhaps another 10.

anyway I was just real proud of this last rally :)

Thoughts for saving the world

2008-06-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

SO I think we can all agree that serious lifestyle changes are in the future of us Americans - with oil prices skyrocketing, driving gas, energy, and food bills through the roof, its easy to believe in a dark, dark, uncertain future. As almost every facet of society is heavily dependent on the black substance, what happens when 'the oil runs out?' The oil's not going to run out. Its just going to become so expensive that its hardly worth getting, unless you're rich. In the meantime, I have full confidence in the ingenuity of scientists and inventors all over the world. However, our comfort and way of life will probably change by other methods than simply 'running out' of oil - the rainforests are smaller than ever, and as a result, Carbon Dioxide and Methane emissions aren't being as efficiently filtered, and are becoming a lot more concentrated in the atmosphere, which of course, leads to warming on a global scale, which could and probably will lead to massive climatic changes and severe/unpredictable weather, if it hasn't already. As everyone rushes to use Ethanol, the conversion of grain fields into ethanol fields hikes up the prices of meat, and the grain they depend on, as well as food for everyone else. So i've been trying to change the way I live to have less of an impact, using less water, mass transit, etc, but I've also been thinking about other methods to solve multiple problems - like the tubes of algae that thrive off of coal plant emissions - basically, rows of clear plastic tubes where the exhaust is rerouted to, that are full of water and a type of algae that filters out the carbon and carbon dioxide. The resulting bacteria can be then rendered down into biodiesel. (There is an display of this at the Boston Museum of Science) I read about how some were experimenting with the use of regular grass on the roof of their house instead of regular tar roofing that has to be replaced every 20 years or so - the grass absorbs heat and disperses it better than tar does, so its easier to maintain a cooler house in the summer, and the sod insulates in the winter. Additionally, since they were not using tar roofing, the petroleum use was cut in half or more. The only thing at the time that I could think would be a drawback for that type of roofing would be the increased cost for the compensation of the roof's weight, and the problem of mowing it ... I feel like this idea could be taken a lot further - in the cities I see row after row of ... rowhouses :p that have flat roofs, some silver (to reflect light) some black (cuz the landlord is poor or lazy) But why put regular grass on the roof? Why not something like Switchgrass? There are acres and acres of land just waiting to be used atop of buildings and numerous houses across the world.

Option 1: Switchgrass - the tall grass that grows quickly and easily and can be reduced into ethanol would help to solve the cooling/heating bill, and the crops could be sold and used for fuel. In addition, the grass would help filter CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Option 2: the forest! - Why leave it with only one species - throw dirt on the flat roofs and let anything that wants to grow, throw acorns and berries and mountain laurel - whatever grows in the area and let it grow out - when the trees get too big, cut 'em down and harvest them for use in paper or lumber. Since trees regulate the temperature on their leaves, not only would this help to cool down cities in the summer (which I think we all know get really really hot) but it would again, help filter the air, and allow space for animals that have been pushed out due to development. And why go to a park that could become a crimespot at night, when you could just climb the stairs and find a woods right above where you live?

The key would be designing a roof or roof conversion that would be relatively inexpensive and efficient, especially for old buildings, so efficient that it would not only be a green thing to do, but also cheaper than having to maintain a tar or shingle roof - this would probably more likely happen with switchgrass than with trees. Its expensive and its more difficult to do right now but its necessary for us as humans to start sooner than later. 2012 can either be the ragnarok that the mayans predicted, or the wide scale mental, sociological, and lifestyle change of the human race.

But can you imagine a city where the business buildings tower over what appears to be a gridded forest? something to paint in the future, for sure.

Whisker Biscuit and new Shimpaku!

2008-06-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

I wasn't really planning on getting another tree, 11 is a good number but I couldn't help looking through a nursery when I passed it today, and managed to catch this gem before they were gonna throw it in a dumpster - marked down from 40 to 20, they couldn't get rid of it because its a little sickly looking and scraggly, not as filled in and healthy. when I examined the container it was in later when I brought it home, it appears to be a solid ball of roots; it really really needs a root pruning. Additionally, the plant was in the sun all day long and its been hot - shimpaku junipers enjoy lots of sun, but not direct middday sun, which is what it had been getting. Additionally based off of the color I think it was being overwatered.

So before they threw it in a dumpster, I offered 'em 10 bucks, which they readily accepted.

Its a beast - two feet tall at least, and as I said, scraggly looking. But with the right attention, that can be changed.

size 14 male foot, and the beast of a tree.

But on close examination ...

Gold! Lookit that trunk! the bark is great, and the photos don't do it justice, but the trunk is 2-3 inches thick, and I've been lookin for a thick trunk (I've got a lot of big pots lyin around)

A view from afar - after I've cleared away some of the bad stuff.

another shot of the trunk.
And some more clearing done. I'm not going to rush through this one, because its a big tree, and there are a lot of things to think about. More later

--------------

So for my Birthday my parents got me a gift certificate to the nearby archery range because I asked for a "whisker biscuit" which is an attachment for my bow. The problem was that they come in different sizes, hence the gift certificate. Mom/Dad if you're reading this THANKS! I love it!!

For those who don't know, a Whisker Biscuit is an arrow rest - on older bows (think native americans) the shooter will rest the arrow on a finger, or some sort of protrusion, while pulling the end of the arrow back before shooting (loosing) the problem, is that this ends up doing two things - firstly, it hurts the fletches (think feathers) on the arrow, and can end up ruining arrows. Secondly, and somewhat more importantly, the fletches that hit the finger or the bow after being released end up putting the arrow on a wobbly flight, which can ruin accuracy, and consistent shooting. A whisker Biscuit is a bristle circle thing. welp, pictures help. So here's my bow: Its a Bear DeerHunter, from the 80's - a double cam compound bow that shoots (currently) at 60 lbs, which is enough to take down a deer (as the name would imply)

here's the shooting block - looks fancy, but the three pins on the top are there for aiming based off of range - they still need to be adjusted, but basically they'll end up being 30, 60, and 120 feet. Beneath them you see the circular thing - thats the whisker biscuit. You drop the arrow in from the opening in the right, and the darker black bristles hold the arrow up while the brown arrows hold it centered and allow for the fletches to pass cleanly through.

here we see the arrow in the biscuit!

After attaching this and adjusting a couple things, I hit 3 bullseyes in a row from 30 feet - which is AWESOME before fine-tuning. Also thats almost good enough for bowfishing and small game. So I'm pretty excited for my future shooting!

Squamata Wiring and Procumbens

2008-06-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today's work was pretty much finishing up wiring the tree, and once wired, I could do some more pinching and thinning of the foliage. I'm very happy with the way this is going.

This is my second-ever bonsai, and its starting to fill in nicely now, a Juniperus Procumbens Nana, or Japanese Dwarf Garden Juniper. The pot beneath is one I made earlier in the year, Red Kyanite clay with VCAA green applied overtop and wood fired. I'm quite happy with how it looks with this tree.

And here is a possible future look for it:

This post is for Ethan

2008-05-31T17:06:00.000-07:00

Soooo I visited a nursery today :> and got my very first pair of concave cutters!!

For those who don't know what they are, concave cutters are a bonsai artist's best friend; they cut a - you guessed it - concave chunk out of the tree, so when you cut the branch close enough to the trunk, it heals over without bulging out, which is critical for maintaining a smooth taper up the trunk.

My adorable cat wondered exactly what I was doing when I put ...

... this hairball of a plant on the deck table! Juniperus Squamata, more commonly known as "Blue Juniper" I've been looking for another conifer, particularly with a blue hue about it so I can put it in one of my blue pots, and unfortunately the Cedars were a little bit out of my pricerange. However,

One look at this trunk, and the cheaper plant looks mighty fine.

what I was looking for when I went to the nursery was not the branches of the leaves - both of those can be grown and added later - the trunk was the more important part, as were the roots. Notice here the zig-zag the trunk takes, as well as the taper; good stuff.

Firstly I cleared away the significant longer growth - the distance between cones (leaves on conifers) was far too much on the new growth that shot outwards, and they were distracting and in the way. Additionally, the thickness of the trunk demanded a substantially smaller overall foliage, so gettin rid of the excess was important.

In order to get a better idea about the trunk and to start thinking about where the 'front' of the tree was going to be, I cut off the ring of the plastic container and used it like a hairband.

Then I cleared away all the smaller foliage - the small stuff near/growing off of the trunk, so I could get a better look at how the trunk and the major branches interact. Most older trees (elms aside) don't have such foliage and in clearing it away helps to age the tree, as well as helps you visualize what you want to do with the tree.

Took away some of the larger branches to push it further off the ground.

As you can see I thinned out a lot of the foliage, wired a branch to straighten it and make it longer on one side. I'll pinch back any new growth on the main part of umbrage to force that one branch to grow some more and bush up, making the umbrage a scalene triangle - right now its a little too even. I need a thinner gauge wire for some of the branches, and once I have that I'll wire some more of the branches as well as do some more pruning. Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome!

Russian Olive Dreams

2008-05-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

I'm really hopin this one turns out well - i dug it out of the ground yesterday and spent a good 3 hours today rootpruning, repotting, pruning and then styling a little.

had a couple problems initially with draining but got that fixed up and now things are alright, but I don't think i'm going to need to water this one as often as my others, perhaps.

I've not seen anyone use the Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) in bonsai (I am, of course, very new to bonsai, so correct me if I'm wrong here) but up here in CT they grow like weeds, and fast. Trees that I saw as whips not 6 years ago are already 20 feet tall! They grow fast, and they can take a lot of abuse; repeated, brutal hackings, boiling water, weed killer ... nothing works. Additionally, the leaves don't get too big, and I think the tree would respond well to leaf-shrinking techniques, and ultimately become an excellent species for use in bonsai. They even fruit later on the summer, as well as have a pretty yellow flower in early spring.

My only concern is how well the species takes to healing, as what I've seen in the wild isnt perhaps the most beautiful thing. I had to go into the cuts I made today and re trim the bark back because it was flaking out (man, do I need a spherical or concave cutter)

Tomorrow i go to a nursery to see if I can get one of those two tools and to see if there is any other nursery stock worth purchasing. Lookin forward to it!

Today's Treasure!

2008-05-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

Went a-yamadori-ing today and stumbled (literally) across this beeeauutiful uh... huckleberry? No... not entirely sure about what type of tree this is, but it looks pretty darn old, judging by the two huge rotting trunks, and super-thick roots. The photos really don't do it justice, but I'm quite pleased with it anyway. Still, I got about 2 years before things are finished.

Three more trees tomorrow, I hope

Burnsai

2008-05-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Bonsai as I understand it seeks to capture the essence of a tree, illustrating some greater theme by using the tree itself as a medium, as John Naka famously did with his Goshin, which he made to illustrate his grandchildren. So I've been experimenting with the idea of the human hand in nature, which is so crisply illustrated in the entire art of bonsai - a human takes a tree from nature, to control it and make it look more natural, a miniaturized sample of nature. I find it very amusing in an ironic sort of way.

These bonsai trees have been burned on purpose. I think that there is a certain amount of beauty in the bleached white bare trunks of trees that perished in a forest fire, something I tried to capture here, as well as making commentary on that ironic human control thing, and perhaps a statment or two on the future of 'nature.'

One day I'll write up a more concise statement, but I guess thats the general jist of things here.

A new era

2008-05-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Welp now that I'm home in CT for a little while I've found a little bit of spare time on my hands (woot!) and as a result I've decided to get into some of the other things that interest me aside from concept art and illustration. Seeing as how I'd like to keep my other blog a little bit more "professional" -- which basically means that I'd like to keep it illustration and concept art, so that potential employers can look and see immediately stuff I'm into without having to go through other stuff.

So for this blog I'm going to be putting up my Bonsai, Abstract, Ceramic, and Sculptural work, as well as anything else I might be interested in (which could be scientific articles or just random jabberings).

I look forward to updating this as frequently as my other!