"The Passion" takes the streets in Central America

Here are a few pictures I took of a religious procession in CR during Easter Week.  CR is a mainly catholic country, with each town built around a church (and a soccer field).  Nearly every town has its own religious processions during easter week, each varying in quality and realism.  The people who "play" Jesus take their roles very seriously and try their best to inherit his pain and suffering, actually dragging behind a real wooden cross and receiving multiple whippings and beatings from those who "play" Roman soldiers.  At the end, supposedly he is put up on the cross, but as these processions are hours long, I didn't have the patience to stay and see it through to the end.  Maybe next year :)
Take a look a the pictures and click on them if you would like to see them enlarged/in more detail.

  the beginning of the procession...

These kids were clearly bored

One of the thieves. Obviously the blood is fake, but I wouldn't be surprised if this man

found himself covered in bruises and scratches the following day.

There was an impressive group of drummers following the procession.  It sounded like a death march.

Jesus dragging his cross in the scorching sun for several hours

As I said, it was a good sized cross

Thats all, thanks for looking

labyrinth earrings

 

I made these earrings with copper wire which is pretty fun and easy to shape.  I tried soldering the edges, but then just ended up burning my finger and screaming out in frustration and agony.  Mainly agony.  I suppose I just don't have to patience to solder metal with a puny nearly-useless soldering iron.  Blast!  I kind of wish I would have put another bead in the center, but alas, I thought of it after my coils were already formed.

schwarzwälder kirschtorte

I made a gluten-free schwarzwälder kirschtorte!

 

earrings!

I thought I'd try my hand at jewelry-making...its sort of fun and easy!  So here are my first three pairs of earrings ever.  They're pretty sloppy since I'm just learning how to do this, but not too terrible for a first timer, I guess :-P

sideways glances

Just a few leftover self-portrait shots that I didn't realize I liked until now :-P

if I had a body guard...

I clearly have a thing for octopuses!  And yes, its strange, but apparently grammatically speaking, octopuses is actually the correct plural for octopus.  Contrary to popular belief, it is not octopi.  Did I just shoot down all of your your dreams and hopes of achieving grammatical perfection at the young ripe age of ***?  Take heart in knowing that your grammar will always be better than mine ;)

So, here is the photo I was working off of... http://img.wallpaperstock.net:81/octopus-wallpapers_13744_1680x1050.jpg

...and here is my charcoal drawing ( 16x 24 inches)

sloppy charcoal!

Its been a while since I last did charcoal...you can tell, this is pretty awful!  This is a 18x24 inch charcoal slop that I whipped up in 30 minutes or so.  Charcoal always feels sort of relieving to me (attack the paper!).  Its quick, satisfying and always looks wonderfully bold.

zombification!

It has been too long since I last posted a blog.  Let me just say, happy time is over!  Brooding time begins yet again!  You know what that means??  Art!  Or in the case of this post, a ponderance of sorts (firefox seems to disagree with me concerning the existance of the word ponderance.  Suck it, firefox!).  The question in mind is this: if I were a zombie, what would I look like?

drumroll please...

These photos were heavily photoshopped, aside from the eyes.  Those are "wild eyes" prescription contacts.  They are suprisingly comfortable for "fun" contacts, but the slight peripheral view impingement is more than annoying to me.  I rely on my peripheral vision to keep an eye on the creepers ;)

agitated octopus

I can't believe I once ate a plate of baby octopus once (smothered in a delicious curry sauce, sadly).  They are such intelligent and amazing creatures.  Did you know that they smell/taste with their suckers??  Amazing.  And they can solve complex puzzles, and have one hell of a memory.  So here is my ode to the octopi!  Its a double canvas painting, to be hung in such a way that the painting flows from one canvas to the next (or from one end of a tentacle to the next).

another quickie

I tried another one of these black canvas/highlight paintings.  This is Two Hatchet of the Kiowa tribe.

the creep

I made this on a tiny 5 inch by 5 inch canvas. I wanted to try a tecnique I saw in a hand painted graphic novel, where the canvas is painted black and then highlights are painted on.