My Secret Modeling Career

So I guess it was last summer that I modeled for friend and tremendously talented illustrator Jonathan Barkat.  Our friend Kevon, who is also an illustrator,  came to man the lighting while Jon shot and helped lug the metric ton of gear, most of which was there "just in case".  We drove down to Cape May, NJ at 4am and it was a beautiful drive, we reminisced as we took in the solitude that only that hour of the morning could give.  We arrived a little too early, the sky was too dark, Jon wanted the sky to function like a giant softbox while being able to control the direction of the light with his studio lights.  Before too long I changed in to a wet suit and put on regular clothes over the wet suit; man, I'll tell you, wearing that thing was a work-out!  It gets water-logged and you get sand in places sand isn't meant to go.  To get the right kind of shots, I had to walk into the waves (should I mention I'm not the strongest swimmer?) and at one point Jon puts on wading pants and comes out and shoots from in the water.  I think we were all holding our breath as the waves at various times, got pretty close to Jon's camera.  Here are the results of that day:  shot one, shot two, shot three *all images are copyright of Jonathan Barkat

The "Join the Revolution, Nuclear Disarmament Art Exhibit"

    I created this image for the BANG-USA [Ban All Nukes Generation, the youth outreach branch of the Project for Nuclear Awareness] disarmament show.  I was thinking along the lines of ticking time bomb and trying to capture this sudden realization as this guy is reading about nuclear weapons in the paper.  A great many honors came out of this exhibit:  I received an honorable mention from the jury, was chosen for the audience choice award and P.N.A. purchased my framed print to gift to Seymour Hersh!  In addition to that, I was invited to a dinner with P.N.A.'s trustees to hear Mr. Hersh speak very candidly about the situation in the Middle East.  It was very scary when you couple the instability of many middle and far east countries with the destructive force that a nuclear weapon could bring about.  No matter what political party you are or faith, nuclear weapons are a bad idea- they are the end of everything everywhere.  If you support a Pro Life point of view, a Green movement outlook, an animal lover, if you are a parent or grandparent, you are betraying your beliefs by doing nothing. 

I uploaded some of the other works in the show to my Flickr- I promise that artist credits and proper titles are coming soon!!!

Drowning in the Media Ocean

In the last few weeks I've been re-designing my website, working on the look of this blog that you're reading, creating an artist page for both facebook and myspace, a twitter account and thinking about doing a linked-in page!  You would be amazed at how much time passes while doing these things, it's like taking on a part-time job- especially since I'm not the most tech. savvy person.  I know it's all going to be worth it in the end though, just venting.  At least I'm going to have a night out, first to see Sita Sings the Blues and then on to Pedro's B-Day party, which I'm sure is going to get out of hand!