Houses and Homes

Friends or followers of jESiOwastaken know I shoot photography around the 757---and that it's largely comprised of bands (like the recent Flaming Lips concert ) or architectural angles. This post isn't really about that.

I'm trying to get a part time gig with my day job shooting Airbnb listings but don't have a fancy, schmancy portfolio....and I'm limited on real estate type shots. I should probably put one together at some point but seem to be doing okay (getting lucky) referring people to this blog.

Anyway, here are some pics from my, ahem, portfolio that are house-y or home-y enough to submit for entry. So, regular readers consider this kind of off topic blog post a necessity in my future happiness. And Airbnb photography department: let's talk!  

Recognize this place? Thought you might.

And this guy? Yeah, he's my boss too!

Environment example

Pretend my husband wasn't there. 

Fancy listings have fountains, no?

Who doesn't love hardwoods and houseplants?

Models aside, check out this loft in downtown Norfolk! Wouldn't you want to throw a party there?

So there's some random examples. A full monty of my blog photography can be found here. Also, I get published sometimes:

Gallery Show

Chalking of Ghent

Courtney freakin' Love

Went to a wedding last month at New Canton Plantation in Church Hill, TN. This also marked another Airbnb trip for me.  I got stay at Hannah's lovely little house in historic Abingdon. She was an actress and had all sorts of cool books and theater swag in the space. It was great because it allowed me to spend the weekend wondering around an 1840s plantation in between visiting The Trail Cafe and an operational mill from the 1700s. Here are some pics of the wedding and plantation. For the full monty, check out the Flickr.

This window is older than the Civil War. Like whoa.

The Atlanta based artist Bill Birdsong owns the plantation. His work and other fine art is on display throughout. 

There was also a plethora of vintage photography.

I love these ladies.

And that gentleman.

We had full access to the mansion because we were family of the wedding party.

Hipstacubicle

Hipstamatic can even make my cube look cool. I need glasses made from it.

Weg the Dog

Hansel and Gretel

Here's another peek into the art collection at my day job, William Wegman's "Hansel and Gretel." Wegman is most famous for incorporating his dogs into his art. In fact, in 1982, the Village Voice named his dog Man Ray "Man of the Year."

This, of course, is prompting me to make Rigby AltDaily's "Woman of the Year" for 2012. She also looks good in art, so I feel she can accomplish this dream:

collage by me (jESiO)

Pets in art is a tricky, slippery slope. When done well, it's great, and I think Wegman's a prime example of that. Michel Keck, of course, rocks at it. (She does dog collage. I own the Boston Terrier piece used as mascot for this blog.) However, it can get gimicky real quick. The last few Stockley Gardens I've gone to (they're Norfolk's bi-annual art festival) have had mediocre, faux pop, dog and cat portraitists en masse. And more show up every time! Yes, everyone wants a cute pic of their pet. No, that doesn't mean a generic stencil of a dog and adding five colors in blotches counts as "art."

We only own the one Wegman piece above, but here are a few more examples of his work (aka: the right way to incorporate animals into art):

"On Set"

"Canon Aside"

Cliches

Cliche: North American Indian

This is the first part of a new series on the blog. My (dumdumdum) day job owns a pretty fantastic art collection that I get to peruse every single day. This is awesome in many ways (until that whole "lost in focus in color" thing rears its head.) Anyway, here's the first of many examples of the best part of the cubicle.

I just got out of a meeting where the walls are covered in the original works of John Baldessari, whose work uses "found photographs of people are amended with colorful dots that blot out the heads of the subjects, redirecting the viewer's attention towards marginal detail. (Amazon)" Above is a digital copy of his "Cliche: North American Indian" which looks way better in person (less intense--more subtelties in color differentiation.)

It's part of the "Cliche" series my company owns. "Cliche" is a set of three lithographs (I believe 50 were made in 1995) that, when viewed together distract me from everything else going on in the room.

Cliche: Japanese

Cliche: Eskimo

Looking at them on a screen diminishes how vibrant and varied the rectangled sections of the series are. In "Cliche: Japanese" (in person) the circles over select faces are faded enough to see the person underneath, but not for everybody. You can't tell this is occurring online.

Also in "Cliche: Eskimo," the pallette is gentle in its transition from pale blue to periwinkle. And the bear's case is much more yellow-orangey than appears here.

Seeing these works on such a regular basis has encouraged me to explore his work further, and I find I absolutely love it. He's really rivalling Maggie Taylor as my favorite living artist now. I just wishlisted his book "John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation" which has over 140 color plates spanning forty years of his work. I'll do a book review later in the year on it, so stay tuned.

Work also owns this one, "Exterior Views, 1986"

In the meantime, enjoy a few more of my other favorites: