so i decided to get a wacom bamboo tablet around christmas time but am just now getting around to playing with it. the first drawing was of myself, second of my better half (aka, child, aka the russian, aka my dog).
i referenced photos the whole time so don’t get too stoked on me.
also, the text on the misha pic doesn’t mean anything, i was just listening to thrice while i was drawing.
sweet. happy dayz. steal this sh*t and i’ll rip your throat out.
my blog has been down for forever and so I haven’t updated anything, but a few posts down are some images from this fashion shoot I did with Jared Birt last spring in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. He asked me to put together a sort of behind the scenes video and this is what eventually evolved.
100% stop motion, with a 5D mk 1.
HE DID HOW MANY TATTOOS IN ONE DAY?! 34, in case you don’t want to count.
HUGE thanks to Branden Harvey for shooting most of these images for me on our tag team effort to video this escapade. Video itself to come soon.
my friend jared set up an event for a church program called ‘change for a dollar’ where they give money to people they find in the community who need it (like single moms who can’t make it to doctors appointments due to no car and too many kids, elderly people who can’t afford food, etc.), and did his spin on it of “portrait for a dollar” of which all the aforementioned doll hairs go to the ‘change for a dollar’ program. ian and jared both had set-ups and i assisted while bekah and hannah (wo)manned the front area and gave instructions to all our sweet subjects.
i took some documentary photos during.
*note ian’s rad tripod stance. : )
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hey look missus milkmaid braid. you can’t just watch a tutorial on youtube and try your hand at some fancy free hairpieces and then go be happy about it.
but in other news, while you judge me quietly for learning how to do hair finally at the ripe old age of , i’m going to tell you that i remind myself of saint lucia. not the island idiot, the person, the saint, the perfect blond swedish girlnextdoor firehead. how do i know about her you ask? well let me tell you my name is kaarin.

that lucky dame of the town who gets to play saint lucia every december the 13th is little miss center of attention for an afternoon. i’m quite sure she floats across the ground not much like a goddess but more like the good witch of the west. glenda i think her name was. with a vivacious and definitely-in-violation-of-fire-code-#132 crown of flaming candles. why the dickens you put an unstable ring of fire atop a young girls head is beyond me, but i think it’s the danger in it all, fair people catch fire quicker i hear, and we all know that a true swede is hitler’s epitome.
speaking of adolf, HERE’S SOME HISTORICAL FACT BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ONION OF RELIABLE SOURCES wikipedia:
In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, Lucy (called Lucia) it is venerated on December 13 in a ceremony where a girl is elected to portray Lucia. Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to take St. Lucia’s life when she was sentenced to be burned. The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness. Each Scandinavian country has lyrics in their native tongues. After finishing this song, the procession sings Christmas carols or more songs about Lucia. A similar version occurs in Scandinavian communities and churches in the United States.
St. Lucy/Lucia is one of few saints celebrated by the overwhelmingly LutheranScandinavian peoples (Danes, Swedes, Finns and Norwegians). The St. Lucy’s Day celebrations retain many indigenous Germanic pagan, pre-Christian midwinter elements, and the practices associated with the day, predates the adoption of Christianity in Scandinavia, and is like much of Scandinavian folklore, and even religiosity today, based on the annual struggle between light and darkness.
The Nordic observation of St. Lucy is first attested in the Middle Ages, and continued after the Protestant Reformation in the 1520s and 1530s, although the modern celebration is only about 200 years old. It is likely that tradition owes its popularity in the Nordic countries to the extreme change in daylight hours between the seasons in this region.
The pre-Christian holiday of Yule, or jól, was the most important holiday in Scandinavia and Northern Europe. Originally the observance of the winter solstice, and the rebirth of the sun, it brought about many practices that remain in the Advent and Christmas celebrations today. The Yule season was a time for feasting, drinking, gift-giving, and gatherings, but also the season of awareness and fear of the forces of the dark.
so essentially this is why i was so effed up as a kid. joan of arc, saint lucia – my heroes all got burned at the stake and heard voices (what does that leave a girl to look forward to?! puts prom in perspective i guess). all i know is that when i was a kid my house suddenly became swedenland (like, twice, ever) and i was thrown into a white robe, put christmas lights on my head and walked through the house bearing pastries, and delivered a few to the neighbors on my way to the table for good measure. what? i don’t know. this is normal for you too right? the bread didn’t even taste that good, but i highly doubt we ever made it with true saffron, we should have added more sugar, mm, sugar would have turned glenda into a siren, i’ll tell you what.
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i’ve been taking photos of my outfits lately, as it helps motivate me to wear more than jeans and tshirts, which is terrible how easily i default to that. and considering i finally GOT A JOB i have been trying to up my game. i’ve always been curious about fashion, but never felt worth it. so we are working to change that. and my normal documentation via iphone camera and mirrors has been insufficient to some viewers, so we are attempting to upgrade to the 5D daily, as we can. that only began on monday of this week however, so here are the last three days. i don’t know how much i’ll post these here to my proper blog, they generally go to the tumblr and perhaps flickr here and there.
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Therefore, my dear sir, I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths whence your life wells forth; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it as it sounds, without inquiring too closely into every word. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take your fate upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking for that reward which might come from without. For the creator must be a world for himself, and find everything within himself, and in Nature to which he has attached himself.
- Rainer Maria Rilke