Vivian Maier, Street Photographer

My friend Stacey found a blog with some amazing/inspirational street photography by a woman named Vivian Maier. There are some insanely interesting photographs. Here are a few (all photos below taken from the blog linked above) but I encourage you to visit the blog itself & scroll through the many, many excellent images there.











I could spend hours and hours looking at this woman's photos.

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am in the middle of completing a unique painting assignment. Awhile back I completed this piece as a commission to be given as a gift to a young lady's grandmother:

The grandmother contacted me a short time after wanting to purchase two more paintings of the same imagery for her sisters. She said that she knew each painting would be unique/not necessarily look exactly like the one that she received but that she wanted her sisters to have original paintings as well. I think that's fantastic. It is going to be an interesting experiment, though -completing the same painting 3x...will need some kind of chocolatey fuel...

Here is the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER! (simple, perfect, delicious):
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup Hershey's special dark chocolate chips
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes (or until very lightly golden brown on top)

Church Sketches

Drawing in church is excellent- people tend to sit still for you.

 Above, my nephew Elijah fell instantly asleep on his grandma's shoulder.

 Above, a lady in an awesome 80's cable knit sweater.

Above, my sister Mariah's itty-bitty feet rest on the bench in front of her.

Crazy House_Progress

So I'm not sure if this painting is finished or not. I'm going to set it aside for a week where I can't see it and then pull it out and see how I feel.

I started this last year. Click here if you want to see it's beginnings. Funny story- I shot the reference while driving home from work. It is probably really dangerous but not uncommon that I drive home with my camera out and take pictures while driving. Does anyone else do this?

...Anyways, I'd had my eye on this house for quite a while. It is really very run down and in a bad part of town but it is touching to see all the flowers and the colorful yard. I imagine the person who lives there is an older woman who does not have the mobility to paint the house or clean the gutters. But she loves bright colors and so she plants flowers.