I got a book a while back and with the new year here it popped back into my mind. Figured I’d share a little something.  Its called QUITTER. Its by Jon Acuff.

The whole first chapter talks about how our generation (mid 20′s-30′s) and how many of us look at quitting our jobs to follow dreams as being heroic. The co-worker who runs off to blog full time or travel as a photographer or records an album… “man oh man they have it made! Gah! So couragous!” And we think, “Ah man, thats gonna be me next.”As we so enviously watch them gather up their belongings and walk out those double doors for the last time without even a glance back. Its so funny, and so true, at least in my rounds.

John’s got some amazing points in the first chapter and I think it sets the rest of the book up great because it psychs you up like crazy although he remains focused on wisdom and the fact that just dropping your job while you jump off a cliff isn’t the greatest idea if you can’t yet fly.

My dad is a carpenter. I grew up noticing how tough his hands looked. I could always smell the sawdust on his clothes. He usually had a beard and sometimes a mullet. His boots were always muddy and his truck smelled like coffee and sweat. Oh, and he knew Karate hence my dad being tougher than your dad.

I’ve tried my hand at carpentry, while in high school I spent three months helping my dad and grandfather build my uncles house back in Charlton Massachusetts. I never felt more like one of the guys as then. That was a great time. Oh and when me and Tess had Olive, our first little kiddo…. We needed to make some extra money so I worked construction for a summer. It was good. It was tough.

There is a part of me that wants to rip some wood on a table saw and hammer some nails and it peaks its head out every once in a while. More so lately. Its nostalgic for me to smell saw dust. I’ve been mounting my prints on birch as of late and its been really fun and it’s a nice change from normal framing of photos. I get my prints done through Wallblank. Archival inks on heavy duty archival paper. Then using some acid free sealant I seal off the sanded birch and use an acid free adhesive to get the print to stick. Drill a small hole in the back and you’ve got a mounted photo hanging flush on the wall. Sliiiiick.

It’s a gift and honor for me to shoot peoples portraits nevermind have the trust of photographing a wedding.  My reason and love for photography stems from my love for people, emotion and creativity. Personal touches are awesome and fun.

This is a little wedding gift I put together for couple whose wedding I recently shot. Im constantly in and out of thrift and antique shops just looking for things that catch my eye. I used to run a vintage tee store on Ebay back before I got hitched. It was epic and that thrift store bug has never left. So while looking for cool things that may suit my style I also look for little things that I can personalize specifically for my family, friends AND clients.

I scored this cool little box that just looks awesome. Found some old vintage stock cards that show off some Colorado landscapes (where this couple spent quality dating time). I pulled some inspiration from Caseys (the groom) amazing beard and searched out an old pocket knife. Every guy needs a good pocket knife. And for Aimee (the bride), her great dreads and cool style helped me find this little feather neclace.

Finishing touches of shredded kraft paper (recycled!), personalized price tags, old string, and a note on thin basswood brings the whole thing home.

Figured I’d share. Thanks for reading!

Dahhhhhh. Been really busy. I’ve let the blog go silent for a bit… but that means I’ve got a lot of work to be posting here for a while:) Been really productive, being creative, having lots of great fun.

So theres this thing me and a few guys came up with… BRAZILLASAURUS. Check out our humble beginnings as a blog… it will soon fill up with wonderful things.

Brazillasaurus is the brainchild of four dudes that love God, art, storytelling, and fun. It will be a written-narrative-photographic-outlet for the aforementioned gentlemen. There will be art. There will be stories. There will be love. There will be gnawesomeness. We’ll be heading down to Brazil as a part of the RESOUND team. We’re going to hit the ground in Rio and spend a day in an orphanage just hanging with the little ones, we’ll be spending a day in one of the worst hit areas of a recent tsunami that left massive destruction, and we’ll be putting on a Resound Worship Conference with a focus of spreading the love of Jesus and encouraging creativity in worship.

Now this is all “the plan” although everything and anything can change once there. My focus will be to find stories and follow those threads. We all really want to have very meaningful connections with each person we encounter. I’ll be bringing my cameras to document, to capture stories, to connect with people, to encourage, to instill wonder, fun and love in the hearts of children, youth and adults.

Now… since we’re a bunch of broke artists:) We’ve brainstormed and come up with this crazy thing that I believe will grow because of its massive hunger. Brazillasaurus is an avenue for us to sell off some of our art to raise money so that this trip can actually be paid for. None of us are getting paid to go down there (its a missions trip!) and the only expense that is covered is housing while there.

Head over to our shop and fish around for something. If it catches your eye, dont think twice!! Buy it, pay for it through paypal and you’ll have some awesome art to hang on your wall along with contributing to something much bigger!

PLEASE!! Share the heck out of this post on facebook!!! Link at bottom of post:)

And for some fun follow BSaurus on twitter: @brazillasaurus

Scott Schumann, The Sartorialist. Got this blog set in my reader. The guy has a great eye for style and this here is an awesome little film for you creatives.

Just be yourself and realize there are no rules. Take what you do know and use it…keep using it.

So, totally forgot to post this blog a couple months ago. Here it is. A bit about my tattoo and baby girl.

She came with a most awesome story.

First. Her name. Sailor. We had that name picked out for our third little one for over a year before we had her. No matter if it was a boy or girl, Sailor it was. Leading up to her little birthday we didn’t know which it would be. Kept it a surprise. Great way to do it.

Second. We woke up one morning and made our way to the hospital. This particular morning was warm and humid and foggy, in Colorado! … seagulls were cawing in the Starbucks parking lot. Yep. (Stopped and got coffee) But It felt so coastal. We loved it. You dont even know how bad me and Tess want to live on the coast and starting our birthing day off like that was so surreal — Coastal morning… Sailor being born. Connection there.

Third. She was an authentic Caul Birth, meaning the water never broke so she was born in a bubble so to say. Now, the crazy connection here… throughout history children born like this (1 in 200,000+) were called”CaulBearers” and were looked on as being good luck, protected from evil, they were sought after by kings, and funny enough… sought after by SAILORS! Why? Because they were believed to never die by drowning:) Ha. Sailor. Weird.

Anyways… thats the short end of it. She’s 4 months old now and so beautiful.

My kids inspire me by the way. They calm my heart. They stress me out:) haha. I’m proud of them and love to show them off a bit, hope you don’t mind me posting stuff like this. It’s my life.

The Tattoo

Got this tattoo by the insanely talented Shawn Degan from Perfection Tattoo in San Antonio. (His site is down right now, can’t link to it) Anyways… this guy is legit old school. My brother has 80% of a full sleeve finished by the dude, amazing work. Shawn is carrying on old school style in his tattooing. He’s got history and I couldn’t have had a better experience in that shop. All I told him was I wanted the Helm of a ship and the name Sailor. In about half an hour he had it sketched out and 3 hours later, no breaks, not even for 2 minutes it was completely finished, my face was pale, but I had a grin from ear to ear. Still do. The grin.

THE LANTERNROOM COLLECTION shop is now open.

Hey!  So, here is an exclusive little surprise for my blog readers who are also polaroid enthusiasts. Had a contest a while back and gave away a set of my handmade frames… well, they’re about to drop on the market through a very special company that has made a lot of things possible for us all. haha!

I’ve got 6 sets available to you blog reading folks only! From all the requests and feedback I’ve gotten about these, the six will be gone an in instant. ha. instant:) Anyways… FREE SHIPPING in U.S.

Grab’em and drop me a note that you read it here!

I was able to attend most of RESOUND 2010. Its worship and arts conference at Vinelife Community Church in Boulder, Colorado. Did a little bit of design work for them and also set up the FotoLounge. It was a good time for sure. At the heart of Resound is the encouragement of art and our unique perspectives on this life and God and why its important to be ourselves and produce art for the community and as an act of worship. There was a good line up of musicians hanging around including Aaron Strumpel, Daniel Bashta and John Mark McMillan. They had breakout sessions/group talks that were based on everything from technical songwriting to book War of Art.

The few long conversations I got into ended up revolving around the same types of things. Being excited about who God is and who we are and not allow fear/resistance to overtake our creativity but to put in the work it takes to bring our ideas to life in whatever form of art we produce. To say the least, my conversations were deep and real, thought provoking and very encouraging.

The photos above are from the last night.

A couple links you guys should check out: Behance and The 99 Percent.

Organization is a hard thing for me. My mind is usually flying at a million miles an hour with ideas and things I want to or need to do… well that usually takes up all my mental power so I’m left with 100 yellow sticky notes of cool things and not so cool things. This leads me to feeling quite overwhelmed and most of those ideas just blow away with the wind. Not anymore!! haha. Well, I was refered to Behance and 99% a little while back and I was inspired. Of course I can justify my excitement of getting organized if I get to buy some cool notebooks that will help me get there. Hence the photos of a nice little shipment I got yesterday. Nothing like seeing that bright orange sticker yelling out “Make Ideas Happen.” haha. Thats what I want to do:)  Now on to the follow through. Lets do this.

–If you follow music, art, and culture of the American South, sooner or later you’re bound to run into the letters, images, and unmistakable “look” of Hatch Show Print. We’re one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America, and over the years our posters have featured a host of country music performers, ranging from Country Music Hall of Famers Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, and Johnny Cash to contemporary stars such as Garth Brooks and Wynonna.

“Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms.”
- The Hatch Brothers

We’ve done it all without losing that irresistible appeal of turn-of-the-century Hatch posters, which were used to promote vaudeville, circus, and minstrel shows across the country. There’s a reason why music lovers, Americana buffs, graphic arts collectors and designers, and commercial advertisers of all persuasions continue to turn to Hatch for inspiration. We are, indeed, a tonic for the information age.–

So anyways. That place is awesome! Coolest people working there, so freakin nice and polite:)  The designs are so classic and have got me very interested in printing press especially since I recently picked up a GOCCO printer. I’m on the look out now for a table top press:)

Also here are a couple polaroids of Olive and Boston from about a year ago… taken on Polaroid 600 film through my Polaroid SX-70 cam.

Enough Said. Get a FORAGE Bowtie

Initial concept photography for the Denver band Ambient You. Did some general photography for these guys a while back so they could start out with some small promotional items and post up some images on Myspace. You can check out a few images here.

I’m really diggin this whole deal… First of four composites. The other 3 band members will be in other scenes…. possibly — a junk yard, the ocean, empty room …. not sure yet, still playing with it. I’ll be having these printed off with high quality archival stock and inks. For the most part this is a little teaser post just to see what you all think about the direction. What do you get from this image? Feel anything? like the vibe?

Not gonna lie about my inspirations… just watched my childhood favorites  A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and of course Return of the Jedi.

It’s definitely official. I loved shooting this wedding.  I must thank Erik and Brianne for being freakin amazing! From the minute the day started to the last few people left dancing and drinking at the reception (at the killer Rembrandt Yard). And a HUGE thanks to Shannon for assisting, couldn’t have done it without you! We also set up the FOTOLOUNGE… find some of those shots HERE.

So here are some legit photos I want you to check out. Let me know what you think! Its a big post with like a million photos. not really that big though.

THE BOYS

THE GIRLS

THE BIG THING

TO THE PARTY

Here is a little design work I did for Vinelife Church in Boulder, Colorado. This is a 6×9 flyer which will be sent out by mail and handed out at other events around the country for the next few months. The art and design for the whole conference is a collaborative effort including Luke Humbrecht and Chase Beck. Between the 3 of us we’ll be putting together some killer stuff throughout the summer and fall for this thing.

The conference itself is going to be an amazing time. It’ll be a full weekend of teaching, equipping and mad creativity oozing everywhere. It’s gonna be all about the arts…..arts…..arts.

A little time-lapse action of a mixed media/image transfer painting for you to enjoy. Super easy to do and at least for me, its a very free form of visual art. Me. I am not even slightly patient, its definitely something that I constantly work on but it has kept me far from using paint in general as a medium. I don’t ever want to wait for the layers to dry and I’ve always been a perfectionist and have had a hard time learning the art of acrylic or oil, because of the waiting process, ha! soooo…. with this type of stuff I feel like its okay to just let the magic happen. I don’t get too worried about being sloppy, its actually almost part of it. With this video I ended up running out of tape before I finished the painting. What you don’t see is the last layers of paint and stenciling of the letters. Anyways…. Here is my general process:

1. Pick out some images

2. Hit up KULER and find the color palette that catches your eye.

3. Put a composition together in Photoshop using images, colors, whatever else you want in there. This gives you a good idea on how to go about layering and general direction.

4. Throw down some background paint or design and realize that this will all show through and be the background of the images transfered.

5. Print out whatever images you want to be a transfer. I just print off using a color lazer printer on standard paper. Apply acrylic medium to the face of the image (which is mirrored!) Place and let dry a good 24 hours. Then when its dry I use a sponge to get the paper all soaked up and slowly rub away the paper and you’ll see the image has transferred. Be careful not to wipe away the image though, take your time with this.

6. Finish off with more paint to blend everything. Easy.

Really these are loose steps. Do whatever you want, everytime I put one together I tend to go about it differently when it comes to the details. Just let it flow and realize you can paint over things you don’t like.

I’ll put in anywhere from 10-30 minutes at a time then let dry overnight and come back to it the next day. Nice and quick and gives you some time to develop other ideas to impliment. Boom.

Post some links to your art! I’d love to check it out and so would everyone else who jumps on this site!

(Music by Shipwrek Check out his music! )

Mixed Media / Image Transfer from Jarrod Renaud on Vimeo.

I read this book a little while back and am going through it a second time. This time around I’m going to be posting some excerpts and thoughts as I go. 1. Ignore everybody.

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the cartoon-on-back-of-bizcard format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn’t I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever?

So true but often very overwhelming and very counter to how we’ve been conditioned. As artists we get ideas all the time and I’m not sure about you but I think most of us let the majority of those ideas slip by. We can easily convince ourselves that the idea isn’t really as grand as we first thought (when the rush of emotion is tied to it). Our brains start to resist by throwing in a dash of doubt and the reality that solid ideas require lots of work and follow through. Somebody else can do it better or already has, right? I’ve seen this pattern play out in my life over and over. I believe the first step in over coming this is to acknowledge this resistence.

Nobody knows for sure whether an original idea is going to be good, or even great. But the fact that it came to you one night at 3am or during a quick daydream during an important office meeting means something and I think you should go with that gut instinct.

This chapter  touches on the fact that original ideas that start to take root and grow will also begin to change you. This makes sense for sure. You have a great idea that you believe in and you start putting things together with the crayons, glue, and paper and get all excited about it. You’re glowing from the inside out and some people might not like that, they might be put off because of the natural cynicism this world imbeds in us. They’ll compare themselves to you and may start to feel inadequate because more of your attention is on this ‘idea’ and why don’t they have an ‘idea.’ etc. They’ll shoot those little doubting phrases at you about how its not practical or even just give you the little “Hmm, yeah, I like it,” and then change the subject while you over analize the glint in his eye and tone of his inauthentic, artist destroying voice. You can see how some little feelings and observations can snowball into massive self doubt which can snuff out the flame.

Bottom line is. When you have an idea that is your own. Don’t compare it to anything else out there. Don’t you dare care about how it measures up to someone elses idea. Put in the work and chase the light, make it happen and realize you will face resistance along the way. The journey is never easy. Even just flying from Denver to San Diego for a beach vacation isn’t easy, you’ll be so excited about the destination that you’ll speed past the sneaky police officer who is about to write you a ticket that cost half as much as the vacation. Don’t let that stuff ruin everything. Put a smile on your face and keep driving. Right?

Let me know if these kind of posts are worth your time? If you really digg it then theres a twitter, digg, and facebook button below. peace.

Right? And I don’t think its just true for artists. I think any time that anyone is walking on the path which brings them the most joy and satisfaction, the thing that burns in their heart, the thing they are truely passionate about there comes a wave of resistance and then another and then another. There is always something that just needs to come up and get in your face to distract and stress you out thus keeping you from the ‘thing.’

I find this to be true in my life. Its very dangerous, especially in this day and age when our culture has been forming our young minds into thinking that things should come easily. But its not easy, the thing that we’re, (let me say) “were made to do,”  that thing is not going to be easy and if we give up everytime we hit an obstacle then we will be tormented on the inside. This brings up another point;  our focus and measurment of ‘success,’ I believe, is skewed.  Its not the final grade that counts, its not the final product, its not the size of the bank account. Success measured in all this gold and glitter is a false end and will lead you to want more. It seems that when success is measured in a tangible outcome there will always be dissapointment.

The success is in the process.

The process is the point.

There are obstacles in the process, victories and defeat. But to learn and to grow and to push through and realize that all of this is where the magic lies. This is where we live and love… in the process.

Is this relevant? Ring true with you? Lets talk about this. I’d like to hear your thoughts –

Wow. Can’t believe the amount of work that goes into the photographing of a wedding! Seriously a lot of time and energy but thats pretty much okay because it’s been fun. Here is something I put together for Erik and Brianne before the wedding pulling inspiration from the engagement shoot we did. Its a 12×12″ mixed media painting using acrylic paint, some patterned paper, pieces of a 1979 calander and some transfered images. The image transfer is the key, its something I was introduced to in art school a million years ago but was reignited after seeing Promise Tangemen bust it out (she’s a killer artist). So here is the finished product and I’ll soon post a little stop motion of the process.

So let me know what you think! I’m learning the whole wedding scene and have some ideas floating around on how to let my creativeness drive the final product for these couples. I really want to bring something special to the couple other than some rad photos, you know?  If you’re in the same boat post up some links to your stuff in the comment section! Peace. By the way, thanks for checking out the blog!