Waiting for the Train to Kuala Lumpur

The clock at the train station moved quite slow. It was scheduled for 5:30 if my memory serves me correctly.





Street Lamp Beauty





I love signage and the fence just seemed to reinforce the sign's message. It just makes you want to go see whatever it is that is being forbidden. Are we not sons of Eve? Or daughters of Adam? Or whichever combination makes you feel the most uncomfortable . . . or fuzzy . . . or politically correct.





Three perspectives of the same photo messed around with in "Levels". Which one "does it" for you?













Pruitt took this pic and I cropped it. Way to go! It's a beauty.





Riley spent most of his time at the rail station with the cat and kittens.





This was not at the rail station. It was at the zoo. I am sorting my pics in reverse order. At least I am sorting them. I might eventually get back to posting the rest of my blog-worthy Nepal photos.

Beauty in Ashes

I spent $3.50 USD for a new electric hot plate (good deal!). It was a contraption made out of concrete, a clay plate with coiled wire inside, and a cord with open wires at all of the connecting points. A true disaster waiting to happen. I had the bright idea of setting it on my desk (formica/particle board) to melt a pot of wax. After a while a strange smell started emanating from the stove. I thought maybe the wires just had to burn off a little of their coating (that's what I had to do with my new kiln wires). It began to smell a bit more serious! One of my co-workers thought that maybe the two wires were crossed and that their shorting out would cause the smoke. I scoffed as I sputtered in the smoke filled room. It smelled like burning tires. Not pleasant at all. Finally after about 20 minutes of increased smoke I decided to turn it off (even though the wax was not entirely melted). When I moved the hot plate, this is what I saw. After berating myself repeatedly. I spent the rest of the afternoon surrounded by my co-workers coming by to see the damage. Now I am further humiliating myself by putting it on my blog . . . but the result is truly a piece of art. Is this not one of the most beautiful burn marks you have ever seen?

Giraffe: Pattern and Profile

I can't get over these beautiful creatures. In a zoo it is sometimes hard to get shots without a fence in it. Fortunately this dude or dudette is a bit tall and decided to go for a snack in the leafy background. This is at Zoo Negara in KL, Malaysia.

Vignettes from Malaysia

What can I say...I love rope and this "save the tree" contraption with wood and wire and rope was fascinating to me.





What can I say . . . I love grids. I was walking back to the entrance of the canopy-walk park with my family (me, lagging behind with my camera) and found this grid on the road. I like that it follows all of the rules and yet still does not conform. I was struck with the contrast of new leaves sprouting from below with old ones fallen from above and their complementary colors. I hereby proclaim this photo a window of contemplation. Ha! Spiritualize it. Psychoanalyze it. Deconstruct it. Criticize it. Write a poem about it. It is very versatile. I did resurrect it's squareness in Photoshop with the "skew" tool due to lack of a tripod and a latent desire to maintain the natural lighting (as if that couldn't be dealt with in Photoshop as well).

Batik Training in Kuala Lumpur Part II

Yep, that's me wielding the tjanting.






Layer of wax #1





Layer of wax #4? Sideways If you want to see the finished product...visit me





The scale grows. How am I going to deal with those unsightly wax drips? Is it not ruined? Of course not . . . it's handmade.





Batik doodles on cotton.





Blue and green (for you my love), on handwoven cotton (a pain to batik).





The result of a tchap that I had made on Old Elephant Road. A tchap is basically a metal stamp used to transfer the design from hot wax receptacle to the fabric (in this case Caritas Silk). This method is used in more commercial batik applications. As you may imagine this design would have taken a lot more belaborment with a tjanting.

Batik Training in Kuala Lumpur

Emelia Tan, my stalwart batik guru and a piece that I did on the last day of my training. Unfortunately it looks much better on this picture than it did when I washed the wax out and fixed the dye. The contrast between the background and foreground is now even less. Ach vell! Live and learn.





This is the new signboard for TMS Art Centre. By the way, I highly recommend the training. Warning, batik is a very seductive art form!