A gloomy afternoon in the San Francisco Bay.

 

A few years back, a friend and I were walking on Market street in San Francisco and noticed a boarded up wall with a small square cut into it. It was as if the small window was begging for people passing by to take a peek inside. To our surprise, there was a bunch of interesting graffiti and a number of people camped out in there. (Peep the barbed wire clothesline!). What was most interesting though was how this scene was directly neighboring the sleek new building below. Such a contrast!

 

A moment to cool off in the summer heat.

Then, it’s time to record the guitar parts for a new song.

 

Last night, my neighbors from downstairs thought it would be a good idea to sing karaoke until the wee hours of the morning. As the sounds echoed up into my apartment, I desperately needed to escape the onslaught of 90′s hits being sung. So, what’s a guy to do in a situation like that?

Refuge was found by pulling out a canvas and some art supplies. An ipod full of great music and noise canceling headphones sealed the deal. As the music started and the paint began to splash across the canvas, I forgot about the karaoke madness going on downstairs. Ideas about the relationship between humanity and the natural world began to fill my head and make their way into this painting.

On a side note… If you’re ever looking for some nice songs to drown out the sound of noisy neighbors, here are a few to help you out. Haha.

Aoki Takamasa & Tujiko Noriko – “Fly” (Variation)
Louis Jordan – “Five Guys Named Moe”
IAMX – “Volatile Times”
The Weeknd –  ”House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls”
Greetings from Tuskan – “Lullabies for the Warriors”

The other day, I wandered around town, in hopes of feeling inspired. This tree caught my eye, with its vibrant leaves.

There have been so many amazing clouds out lately. Some of them make me wonder if they’ve blown in from another planet, or something, because the colors and textures are so different than anything I’ve seen before. I snapped some photos a few weeks back and forgot they were on my camera, until stumbling upon them today.

I came across this picture of the neighborhood where I used to live, in San Francisco. It’s funny how a place can look totally different, after you haven’t been there in a little while. Living where the city met the sea was quite inspiring! There was such a contrast of elements. On the one hand you have graffiti, mass transit, and concrete everywhere. But if you were to follow the cold fog a few blocks west, you’d end up at the ocean, staring out into a vast, empty space. When I look at this picture again, it makes me realize just how much our surroundings play a role in our perception of the world and the things we (humans) create, whether we’re aware of it, or not.