Christmas presents from the past

One of my absolute favorite toys I received for Christmas from ‘santa’. Fisher Price circus train. My vintage collection of toys and decor is pretty eclectic and I love it. I love elephants as well. But of course not in a circus but rather in Africa. I suppose one day I should go on an African safari to just shoot animals. With a camera. The image above is my dad and I. Playing on the shag carpet with Christmas toys. I’m thankful my mom took this. I’m thankful she was always there to document our lives growing up both in USA and Norway. I miss my dad. So many people close to me are gone. But still, never forgotten. These photos make my happy. I hold on to those memories and continue to document my everyday life of people and animals and then the stuff. 

New Years word of the year is ‘create’. Someone said it and I feel it too. Keep creating. What makes you happy. What gets you up in the morning. Life move fast. If you don’t stop to look around, you might miss it. Love that. 

S

Pet portrait painting process.....lengthy indeed, but incredibly satisfying in the end.

Norway. A different perspective

Spending two weeks in a different country on the other side of the world gives you a new fresh perspective on life. This was a vacation to reconnect with family and friends again. Eat a lot of delicious food. And soak in the fresh, clean Norwegian LUFT. Frogner Parken, the world's only statue park, created by one human, (super touristy-but hey, we're tourists) was a must on the visit list. Sagene, the oldest district of Oslo, where mom grew up and us kids visited every summer was nostalgic. Beautiful Kristiansand, the southern edge of Norway, where the ZOO lies, had to be revisited, even though most sections were closed, I went nuts with the nature shots. Troll shops, fish, chocolate, waffels, goat cheese and beer. Basically food, family and nature.
Norway, a beautiful country. A lovely culture. And marvelous food!!! Will need to bring lots of cash next time I visit (everything is expensive) but it's def worth it!

Creating crazy cat art even with writers/painters block

I like this Ginger friend. It started out as a bunch of colorful blobs and looked nothing like him. Things take shape and morph into something bigger and better. A little dark and mysterious. Would love to stick a bloody mouse in his naughty mouth. It's what cats do best. Eat stinky crap. This painting thing is a work in progress. I find great satisfaction in slapping globs of paint onto a canvas. Been bouncing back and forth with paint and photography. Always improving and learning. Obsessing over plants and flowers along with pets as my subjects. Currently finishing up painting from an old vintage slide/photo. There is a rooster in it. And he will be lovely. But I stop for weeks at a time and freeze. No snapping of pictures. No picking up brushes. The block. It eats at ya. Makes you feel guilty. This particular piece at the time (painted in a day believe it or not) made me happy and I feel good about him and am excited to be slapping on even more globs to make interesting and eye catching pieces! Time is precious and nothing feels better than creating art. LOVE!

Kodak slide transparancy restoration

Old photos are truly what I love to pour my creative energy into. Restoring to protect and preserve for future generations is crucial. So I'm investigating a new film scanner for this. I could just send them rather quickly and cheaply to LEGACY BOX. But, I'm much more interested in the creative control. I'm pretty certain they pop slides into a machine and press a button and whammo- you've got a box of 'forever goodies'. Kinda like the PHOTOMAT back in the day. Most people aren't picky simply because they are not artists and don't think thoughtfully about the story and details (curves, hues, noise and tone) of an image. And that's great for that company to succeed. I thoroughly enjoy controlling all aspects of these images. This guy above is my dad, Jack. Photographed by my mom, Anne-Lise. Honeymooning to VEGAS across I80 driving this thing. SHWEET. The file size is large enough for printing up to 40x40. And I have another 200 to go. This is a satisfying project I'm working on and also painting from these color slides. Stuff that trips my trigger. Walter T. Foster books (delightfully enjoyable) are teaching me how and I'm loving every moment.
Photography and painting.
Obsessed.
Love.

Happy 4th of July!

Stumbled across this golden gem while organizing my thousands of images. Innocent and true. These are some of the essentials we all want in life. My little beautiful patriotic American girl. Love.

Dark and moody and dramatic. Feeling Peony Flower.

New products for sale on RED BUBBLE! 
Here's the link: https://www.redbubble.com/people/puppycat80s?ref=account-nav-dropdown&asc=uRed Bubble
         
Creating art for myself is pretty exciting. But to be able to transfer my designs to cool products is super rewarding! I have to say this is an oldie but goodie image of a simply gorgeous peony flower in bloom. Shot with my trusty Olympus back in the day at the Omaha Botanical Gardens with a dear friend of mine. It's an accidental shot. Just walked by it. Boom take a snapshot and later come to find out it's as lovely as pie. Originally in full color, and converted to a dramatic black and white. It's moody. It's dark. It wants you to feel it. Feeling Peony is his name. And you can buy a king size duvet with this design on RED BUBBLE. LOVE. Simply.

When you lose stuff during a big move.

Made in JAPAN Shnapps-O-Flex whiskey flask. A 70's/80's kid playing around grandma's house, I was always curious about it sitting up high on a retro bar shelf with other fancy and bizarre chachskies and nick knacks in the basement of grandma and grandpa's swank bar and wondering about the fact that it's a shiny camera that is sitting on display in a wet bar. I was a kid with curiosities. Inherited it 20 years ago and placed it in a box for safe keeping. Until last year after I made this epic decision to downsize and move. I told myself I would display this cool vintage item and all the cool sentimental stuff in the new apartment home! Stuff that meant something. Yeah!
I remember packing this guy with a shit ton of really good bubble. You know the kind that makes the cool popping sound and makes all your stress and anxiety go away. Which means it would be in a big box. I downsized from 3000 sq ft to 1000 sq ft and 6 months later I still haven't found the 'big' box. Well, it's either been donated or thrown away by an unfortunate accident. Maybe one day it'll turn up unexpectedly. Or not. Stuff. You can't take it with you. Nuff said.

Happy National Puppy Day!

   New shoes and puppy smells. Every day should be national puppy day. In 2005 we adopted this cute little guy and named him Kenobi. (Star Wars Fan ya think?) Obi kenobi kenobi Obi. I've been photographing people portraits and other subjects for years by this time but after ruff housing with this little unruly dude and seeing these particular pics that unfolded, I was hooked for life. These were shot with a 'happy snap' camera at the time. A $600 (yikes) Olympus. My starter cam. Worked for the time. But def not fast enough for moving dogs! Today on Instagram I posted 3 of my top puppy pics. All shot with a Canon. With all time fave lens 50mm F1.4. Kenobi was a part of our lives for 7 years. Too young to die. He inspired me. Yes, he is my brand up there at the top of my blog page. He brought stinky joy to me. He was a POS a lot. He was Furby's BFF. He was my baybay. Still dream about you man. Miss you you big butthead. Wish puppies were forever. Love.

Ariana Falerni Templates are gorgeous and THIS is how you WOW your walls!

Been messing around with CS5 lately (I've got some free time on my hands...more on that later) and just knew I had to start updating my website and blog. This is the stuff that drives me. What I'm passionate about. What gets me going in the morning (besides Furby and coffee). It's a new year and a same old me. Lol. I love to play with COLOR and I'm excited to bring these fabulous, fresh, rich, earthy flavors to my old website. This is just the beginning. I'm in the process of upgrading all kinds of things and equipment.  Ariani Falerni has created some super duper cool templates for photographers and their clients. This makes decision making so much simpler!! Love!