It's Cold!

Well, in an attempt to not let my blog languish, I'm updating this to say - it's cold.

Collabo Sneak Peak

I had a shoot today, collaborating with colleagues and business friends. Without revealing too much (more to come!), here are some of the stunning flowers provided and styled by Cathy of Sprout Flowers on June Street in Worcester. If you're into the Twitter thing, follow @eInvite, @FestivalCreativ, @SproutFlowers, @NeenahPaper, and myself, @adoniramsides, to see more in the very, very near future. Stay tuned~

Moar Testing

This time, with those little Godiva pearls. This bit of lighting needs some work too, and I really should have strung in a "pearl" necklace, made with the chocolates. The composition is good, though. The type will need to be re-set before it really looks decent, and I'd like to have a beautiful pen flourish beneath the logotype, but that might be overkill and I can't actually get a good, even flourish. Which means I'd need to find someone who can do it.

©2010 Adoniram Sides, Logo, Brand, etc © Godiva

Fresh Testing

Right out of the oven. It was a good opportunity to try out some new lighting techniques and I learned some new things about specular spread that I'll need to go back and alter (if at first you don't succeed, try again). I think with a bit of work, you could come away with a good concept and a good shot, down this path. It's always nice to feel that you've learned something. It's funny how much this lighting pulls the damaged bits of the apple out. Picking produce will have to matter a lot more if I want to get something book-worthy out of this. I'll also have to do a fair bit more retouching to balanced out the gradient on the left and right (or take more time setting the head next time).

©2010 Adoniram Sides

A Visit to Bonsai West

I spent this past Sunday at Bonsai West, in Littleton, MA. This is the world-renowned bonsai center run by Micheal Levin, whom reportedly has one of the more impressive collections of bonsai in all of the United States, and certainly has the finest I have ever seen. He keeps a small business through sales, but it seems like Bonsai West relies mostly on giving classes and caring for the bonsai of others, which imparts a very caring, human aspect to the place. It has none of the qualities of a "business" and all of the qualities of the private gardens of a horticulturalist. That matters a great deal to me, because the transactional business of garden centers renders out all the love and passion that has kept the art alive for as long as agriculture has existed.



Micheal started by showing the trimming technique on this slightly bonsai that had gotten a bit between the growing season and its over-wintering. I managed to grab this image of it, before it got chopped to its proper shape. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the "finished" state, as he spirited it away quickly. They have some wonderful tools at Bonsai West, one of which was this impressive wire spooling device, which made it possible for Glen (Michael's student and co-worker) to wire trees very quickly (a method that he advocated).


Glen used the spool to wire the next tree, a beautiful piece of Redwood stock whose inner shape was very hidden to the audience, other than the most simple gesture of form. I have tried to claim stock from the wild before, as is done in the traditional art of bonsai, and this was very inspirational to me, as I might have avoided a tree that looked this crazy. See below:


After a half hour of shaping, pruning, and wiring, the tree's inner beauty was quickly revealed. A nice break at the crown of the main trunk of the tree would have been perfect for a natural jin, in my opinion, but Glen took a different direction, which I must admit is very beautiful, particularly once it heals and fills in. Working with redwood is something I had not considered, given that it is not native to this part of the country. Hopefully they'll offer a redwood workshop. See the finished results below!


While it may be difficult to see now, that tree will be stunningly beautiful as it grows and takes the shape it seeks. Wonderful work by Michael and Glen, and more wonderful - the entire three hour workshop was free!

Economists say, "The Market..."

I was romanticizing, not too long ago, about a rose-colored past where humans believed in myth and legend; where we put ourselves into the hands of the unknown and relied on shamans to read the threads that fate wove. Then, it struck me suddenly that we haven't lost mythology or belief in clairvoyance at all. Here's a fun experiment. Consider the following sentence,

"After a couple of surprising predictions, the Oracles say that the Gods may be heading toward a turnaround."

Sounds like some ancient Roman or Greek history. Now if I replace the words: "the Oracles," "that the Gods," and "predictions", with "economists," "the market," and "reports," the result becomes,

"After a couple of surprising reports, economists say the market may be heading toward a turnaround."

That gives you a quote from CNN Money. Not just a quote, but a sub-heading! Economists have the same performance evaluation standards that television meteorologists do, and "the market" has become our omniscient, omnipotent god, whose mind and ways are beyond the knowledge of mortals.

I find it hard to believe that there could be any doubt regarding the thesis of the transformation of a pseudoscience into a faith, with myriad acolytes. I don't intend to use the word "pseudoscience" as a weasel word, but rather by its definition,

"a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific" - Merriam Webster

that precisely describes what the popular media call "economics" but is, in fact, a great deal of discussion not limited to academic study (where economics gets as close to science as it can, in the realm of social science). I tried a second experiment. I used a search engine and typed the words "economists say" including the quotation marks. The results were phenomenonal. Wild, outrageous statements, contradictory claims, and utter nonsense (speaking in tongues?) are quite normal. The first two results, published only three days apart, were,


I wouldn't be surprised if both editorials could cite their sources. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the sources were respected professional economists. It would be a more reasonable matter if there was a body of knowledge that was generally agreed upon, but had disagreements upon esoteric details (like those found in physics, for example), but in the popular study of economics, every aspect of every study is up for debate. There is no reason, no method; it is just a series of popular myths that wax and then wane, born of a dumb hope to simplify a tremendously complex system into broad, grandiose statements that always have an inherently political and ideological underpinning.

The faith that we put into this "science," particularly now that we are in a time of financial constraint, is no different than the faith our ancestors put into their polytheistic traditions. If we consider the latter to be absurd, than we must also consider our current behavior to also be absurd, and abandon the efforts that our belief in charlatans has required. To borrow their own language, we should "reinvest" in the culture and communication of our own communities, and ignore wholly what the Oracles say.

Discovering Artists

During my time off, I've tried to travel to as many local galleries as possible. In doing so, I've come across some contemporary artists whom are new to me. A few that stood out in particular were Barry Moser, Gordon Thorne, Dave Fullam, and Christopher Armstrong.

Barry Moser is an illustrator and print-maker. I found his work in Northampton at the R. Michelson Gallery, but it can be seen around the world in myriad publications. I wrote a small piece about him that you can read here: eInvite's Insights.

Gordon Thorne is a co-owner of Thorne's market and the founder of the A.P.E. art space (also in Northampton). He had an interesting show of interactive devices that slowly created art by natural mechanisms, such as wind. Some of it was a bit absurd and unrefined, but some of it (particularly the work on water) was very thoughtful and polished.

Dave Fullam is an illustrator, represented by Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA. His style is a sort of impressionism cum illustration, and his work is fairly large (one piece that the curator showed us privately was about 5' in width). Photographs do it no justice, like much of art in an impressionist style, it needs to be seen personally to be appreciated.

Christopher Armstrong's work was simply astounding. Another artist represented by Clark Gallery, the curator told us that he worked only with water as a subject. The level of study is obvious and almost unnerving. One piece in particular, "Dorsal" was on display, and the heat and haze of the summer in midday sun was palpable.

Image: Clark Gallery ©2009 (Fair Use)

His perspectives range from a standing eyeline to just a few inches above the water, the latter of which is quite terrifying. "Strata" is a work that is composed from this lower angle, and though the waves are calm, the low angle and utter sense of isolation makes the fear of slipping beneath the waves very real.

Image: Clark Gallery ©2009 (Fair Use)

The Clark Gallery is quite excellent, though hidden. If it were not for Google Maps, I'd probably never have found it. I intend to visit them again. Their curator (whose name I unfortunately didn't catch) was quite kind and personable, and was more than willing to pull work out for us to see, though we were obviously not intending to make a purchase. I think that making a good impression on every walk-in makes a difference, though. It's nice to see this put into practice.