Expedited Decay and an homage to Bernini by James Grashow

Ny times coverage of the exposition in Connecticut here.

Moody musings on Victorian beach days by the cliffhouse, a cold winter day spent in the glass castle Sutro baths in San Francisco, wearing my finest hosiery and crown to the beach.

Wedding Band Commission

Earlier in the year I was commissioned to do wedding bands for the June Wedding of Mark and Julie. The rings were to be simple with a private image inside. For this we created silver rings bound with a gold band on the outside. Having made overly thick unwearable rings for my own wedding, we paired down the thickness and detail to a simple timeless look. Inside the rings a DNA pattern was engraved, symbolic of binding like a rope and the structure of family. For the bridesmaids, we created and Artemis necklace. Silver chain connecting to two ends of a bow and arrow. At the tip of the arrow a diamond was set and connected the pendant to the opposing side's chain. Artemis is a Greek Goddess and protector of women, like the Greek and badass bride. She is represented by bow and arrow as well as the constellations: Big bear and little bear AKA, big dipper and little dipper. The little dipper is composed of 6 stars, like the bridal party, and the top star is Polaris, or the North Star. The stars represent the binding friendship between the bride and her bridesmaids, as the North Star interpreted by the diamond represents the moral compass of friendship. Below are some sketches, works in progress, a scene from the big day and perhaps the best wedding shot of all time, apparently the weather blessed them with rainfall on their wedding day, so since they were wet, they went all the way.

Sexy Global Warming

In one of their better ad campaigns Diesel paints a picture of life in China, Rio and New York in the times of global warming. It harkens to the Science Fiction novel, The Drowned World, by JG Ballard.

Schadenfreude at Sea Shepherds Scuttle

reposted from OLD SALT BLOG. The reality TV stars, the Sea Shepherds, took their newest speed boat, the Brigitte Bardot, out on the Southern Ocean recently, which proved to be more than it could handle. The Brigitte Bardot reportedly cracked its main hull and severely damaged the port pontoon in heavy seas. No crew were reported to be injured and the boat will return to Freemantle Australia for repairs. The Brigitte Bardot is the ex-Ocean_7_Adventurer, a high-tech 115 ft stabilized monohull twin diesel powered vessel built built to circumnavigate the world in less than 80 days. (It succeeded in rounding the world in 74 days in 1998.) The Sea Shepherd’s acquired the boat after sinking their previous speed boat, the Ady Gil, the ex-Earthrace, a biodiesel powered wave-piecing trimaran, which completed a circumnavigation in just 60 days 23 hours and 49 minutes. Sea Shepherd anti-whaling boat damaged by wave Contrary to their claims, the Sea Shepherds do effectively nothing to protect endangered whales by their use of vigilante violence. While we do not support the continued Japanese whaling, the minke whales being hunted by the Japanese are not endangered, while the Sea Shepherd violence violates the Law of the Sea and risks the lives of sailors on both sides of the conflict. While we oppose whaling, violence against seafarers of any nation is not an acceptable nor an effective means of enacting change. We need a Real Do Gooder to erase these Assholes of the Sea once and for all. Two boats down, one blow hard named Paul Watson to go.