bat for lashes

her music is a little unusual in that it sounds slightly fantastical. i'm not overly versed in her music but i found out about her after reading of praise she received from thom yorke, whose little band she opened for recently. her voice is at at times pj harvey, tori amos, bjork...and maybe even cat power. still, i don't think you could mix her up with any of those ladies. she hails from britain. she's half pakistani. while working as a nursery school teacher, she put together her first album, sheryl crow styles. natasha khan in moleskine.

ravens 2

i'm not too sure why i'm a bit fascinated with these birds (aside from the way the look) but i think it's because of the different interpretations they lead to, depending on the culture. they're scavengers, plain and simple. they're smart but they apply their intelligence mostly for their scavenging ways. historically, those in the west seem to have thought them to be more ominous and negative on account of their blackness and what they eat. yet in parts of asia, they were thought of as gods. they're just there, to me; just part of the chain of things. i didn't know that they're the official bird of the yukon. corvus corax in moleskine, 9x10"

sensitive dependence on initial conditions

i haven't bothered taking any photos in quite some time. i blame the weather. a trip to a zoo and nature conservatory helped squelch that though. i have mixed feelings about my ability with a camera. having talked to some amateur and professional photographers, it sounds simpler coming from them than it seems to me. i have to admit that i have not taken the time to really understand what all the blasted settings and configurations do for a photo so that probably doesn't help my cause. add yet another thing to that good old list of things to try and do. if i ever do understand what the stuff with the stuff does and how to use it, i'm sure my photos will suffer more than benefit, ha ha. that them there's a postman butterly, i reckon.

panda

i seem to do a lot of portraits but i do enjoy drawing the odd animal or two, among other things. i do prefer candid images or those that are simply uncharacteristic of the subject in terms of general perception. pandas always seemed to me to be rather harmless, sedentary beings so i thought that i would try one that looked, well, angry. i knew that they like to mow down on some bamboo action usually but i didn't know that it is actually 99% of their diets. they are still taxonomically deemed to be carnivorous though and they do crave the odd bit of meat, fish, eggs or what have you.

i'm also fond of this checkered/basketweave texture/pattern as of late. i suppose i'm reminded slightly of pixels as well. in retrospect i probably should've tried more of a gradual enlargement of the 'fadeout' to the larger patches but hey. hindsight is a friend that shows up the party invited but a bit late sometimes. an angry asian ailuropoda or my boy dj panda in moleskine, 9x10"

yes this is a double post to i.f. sorry, couldn't resist.

kanye west

i was recently in chicago so it seemed a bit appropriate to put up a doodle of yeezy. i'll admit that i do follow his blog. i've dismissed his music based on his arrogance in the past but music has been so blah in the last year that i decided to give 808s a proper listen and it's not a bad album. he now seems tamer from that arrogance perspective and i think it's cool that he regularly pays homage to other designers, musicians, artists, etc. he worships thom yorke, which presents some common ground. i like that he appreciates good design and art and that seems to have reflected in 808s. kanye west in moleskine, 9 x 10"