Today was the Autumnal Equinox -- a rare opportunity for eggs to stand up on end! Here are two eggs that I spent some time photographing this afternoon by candlelight...

...different angle...

...sepia toned...'cause I liked the way this looked too!

...sepia toned again...




And finally, by natural light, just for the fun of it. Took this one with my phone camera -- still came out pretty good for a phone picture!

Hello, Autumn! Let the Dance of the Leaves begin...

Labels: art, AutumnalEquinox, beauty, butterfly, eggs, fall, hobbies, photos, pictures

Another thing I love...this box...it contains my collection of tavern puzzles. They often get mistaken for Medieval torture devices which rather amuses me. But, I also think they are beautiful examples of Blacksmith art.


I do not have a very large collection -- I only have eight puzzles currently, but I would like to expand it further. This is a good Christmas gift idea for anyone who wants to jot it down [Hint: mom].


We have pictured here, left to right, top to bottom:

Row 1: Double Bypass, Blackbeard's Revenge, Dirty Dog
Row 2: Patience Puzzle, Long Island Catch, Satan's Stirrup
Row 3: Double Trouble, Matched Set



For more information on these puzzles, visit the wonderful world of Tucker-Jones House, Inc.

Labels: art, beauty, design, favorites, games, gifts, hobbies, photos, puzzles, recreation, TuckerJonesHouse

Sorry. I have not been much in the mood for blogging this week. We have been a little bit busy with stuff I will tell you all about another time.

Since the Facial Symmetry Study of Amber Valletta was enjoyed by all, I thought I would show a few more of other famous people. Many of these faces have much more asymmetry...as you will see. Watch out for Meryl Streep -- she's a beautiful lady, but not when it comes to symmetry! And Sarah Jessica Parker's Right-Side Symmetry looks like it could be her transexual brother! As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.


















Photo Credits:

Ray Romano Photo
Photo by Lester Cohen - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Sarah Jessica Parker nonTAN Photo
Photo by Steve Granitz - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Sarah Jessica Parker TAN Photo
Photo by James Devaney - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Tom Cruise Photo
Photo by Lester Cohen - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Jerry Seinfeld Photo
Photo by James Devaney - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Meryl Streep Photo
Photo by Steve Granitz - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Labels: art, asymmetry, experiments, famous faces, funny, hobbies, photos, recreation, studies, symmetry

As a graphic designer, photo editing softwares like Photoshop and Fireworks are a part of my everyday life. But, when I am not using these programs for a design project, I love to edit and manipulate photos purely for the fun of it. I suppose you could call it one of my "hobbies"...

One of my favorite things to do is a Facial Symmetry study. The majority of us have extremely assymetrical features...and, if you have ever done one of these on yourself, you will probably get very disturbing results! Typically, one side (half) of the face reflecting itself to create a "symmetrical whole" will produce a very strange-looking wide head, and the other half becomes a narrower head, or has what I call a "pinched" face. Trust me, generally, it is not very attractive. When I have done my own face in the past, one side produces a cute, wide-eyed and wide-foreheaded, semi-retarded-looking girl and the other side, looks like I was squeezed in a vice as a child...I shall call her "pinhead"!

Not too long ago, I was listening to an NPR or PRI podcast -- and I heard a story regarding the study of facial symmetry and attractiveness. I seem to recall it had something to do with criminals as well, but I have been unable to find the exact story on either website. [Connections between lack of symmetrical features = perceived ugliness = less-liked and fewer opportunities = tendency toward anti-social behavior = crime, etc.?? Something like that...]

Anyway, scientists have been doing variations of these facial symmetry studies, body proportion ratios, genetic health, etc. for a long time. The thing that stuck out to me in this story, is that they mentioned studying the faces of many people, famous and not famous, that were perceived universally by subjects as "beautiful" -- and it always came back to having high symmetry and particular facial size-ratios. The model Amber Valletta was mentioned as having one of the highest measured facial symmetries and almost perfect size-ratios -- and therefore, in the study, she rated very high with subjects on her "perceived" beauty. This got me thinking...it would be interesting to do one of my Facial Symmetry studies on Amber Valletta's face!

I needed to find photos that were as "forward facing" as possible, preferably with a relatively "even" or "neutral" expression. I found three very interesting pictures to work with that I thought would yield interesting artistic results. As I began to work on them, I was truly amazed...I have never seen anything like this...





There is almost no difference between her Left-Side Symmetry and her Normal Front View -- while she does still have some asymmetry (crooked smile, slight nostril difference, etc. which, personally, I think creates her most charming attribute, her impish grin) -- it is so slight that her Left-Side Symmetry could be a post-plastic-surgery "after" photo, displaying a minute nose job correction and right side chin implant. I would say this is her "too perfect" incarnation.

What is even more unusual, is that her Right-Side Symmetry looks completely normal. It does not look as much alike to her Normal View as the Left-Side Symmetry did, but it is still so much like her that it could be a slightly different "twin" sister. Neither one of these symmetries has any hint of being abnormal-looking, like you would expect to see with most faces. Indeed, apart from the "overly perfect" aspect of the exact-mirror symmetry, these women could be triplet sisters with small facial differences. This is incredibly unusual and I am amazed at how these pictures turned out.


These next two groups were very bizarre! I did them purely for the crazy symmetry fun of it -- to see what would happen! She still looks like a beautiful lady, but with some serious...ummmmmmm...birth defects?!? Yikes.





Here is a body series, but again, aside from the weird shadows on the face and the crazy bodies, look at how much the face on the Right-Side Symmetry version still looks very normal!

[ I would recommend clicking on the image to zoom in on the face -- you'll see better how "normal" it looks close up. ]







Photo credits:

Picture #1: Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/0684-mes/valetta2.mbe.html?seq=2

Picture #2: Photo by Raymond Burrows
http://www.lucire.com/2004a/0627ll0.shtml

Picture #3: http://www.luxe.com/Lagerfeld/gallery.htm

Labels: AmberValletta, art, beauty, experiments, favorites, hobbies, pictures, pretty, studies, symmetry

I'm tellin' ya...those folks over at Twitter Mosaic sure do like my butterfly icon! I was a little bummed that I was not in the Transformers mosaic, but that is A-OK because I think the Silence of the Lambs one turned out much better. You can see my "occurrences" in the picture on the left -- or the original versions with the members list at www.twittermosaic.com -- and of course, you can follow twitter_mosaic to become a "part of the art."

In cat news, Trudy-the-Cat has her ultrasound appointment tomorrow (Monday) at 3PM. She's not allowed to eat for 12 hours before the appointment -- before I go to bed, I have to take away everybody's food (Eat up, Cats!! You only have a few more hours...) We will finally find out what is going on with this cat's liver so they can get her on some medicine to help it -- or we find out something worse (hopefully not) and make her as comfortable as she can be, until it is time to say goodbye. It will be a rip-roaring drive to the specialist's office, drooling all the way...Good Luck, ChooChoo!

Labels: art, blogs, cats, ChooChoo, friends, mosaics, pets, pictures, twitter, vet, web, wishes

This lamp, which sits amongst my plants in our living room, is one of my most favorite possessions in the world. Which is sort of funny, because it is basically worthless on a "parts" level...it was made from a coffee can, a piece of wood, a bulb socket and some wiring. One of my parents' fellow hippie friends made it for us as a gift when we lived in Sacramento, California. I don't remember who the person was -- because I was only a baby at the time -- but, I have loved this lamp my whole life. And last year, my mom let me take it home!

We recently replaced the wiring to ensure its continued safe use in our home. I never get tired of seeing the beautiful swirly patterns it makes all over the ceiling and on my plants. It just goes to show you, recycling can be beautiful! ;-)

Anyone else out there have a monetarily worthless, prized possession? Why not tell me about it in the comments section? I would love to hear from you! :-D

Labels: art, design, family, friends, gifts, mom, photos, pretty, recycling

With the most recent upgrades to our area's cable service, we now have VH1 Classic -- which is really great incidentally -- because we get to see all kinds of old music documentaries and vintage videos. Periodically, I will see a Smiths' video and it will make me laugh...I have never gotten over the enormity of Morrissey's head and that extreme-high hair of his. He was like a caricature...or a bobblehead! Whenever I think of The Smiths, I see him in my mind's eye with his big head, high-styled hair, a loose plaid shirt, and drooping Levi's with substantial footwear, dancing around the stage in that lazy-crazy "I don't give a shit" way. Reminds me so much of my NYU days and all of the serious brooding types (gay and straight) that I knew.

[Photo credit: Steven Wright http://www.wrightphoto.co.uk ]


But, it also makes me think of how my mom, her friend Robert and I were all so tickled by the lyrics of one of our favorite Smith's songs:




[Morrissey photo: The uncropped version can be found here.]

Labels: art, bands, favorites, funny, lizzard, mom, music, pictures, TV, VH1, videos, vintage

Remember my recent post where I mentioned that I was part of the Big Blue Marble Negative Twitter Mosaic?? For those who do not, you can refer to it here.

Well, the newest mosaic has just been completed -- Soylent Green -- I made it in again! This time my icon is more rare...I was only able find it once. Which is kind of cool, I think, that it had its perfect spot with no repeats. You can see the original picture and the list of included folks (who knows, you might be in it!) at www.twittermosaic.com -- also, you can become a part of future mosaics by adding twitter_mosaic to your Twitter friends' list.

And, of course, you can see my modified version of the picture where I circled my occurrence here.

Labels: art, blogs, friends, mosaics, pictures, twitter, web