Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago.

I recently finished up another fun project for Relient K - new artwork for their re-released Five Score and Seven Years Ago album. Below is the cover image. It's a vinyl pressing only and it's currently sold out.

A year.

A lot happens in a year. 

Too much to say and never enough time. 

It's been every emotion I've ever experienced and more. 

But here I am again. Hoping to share small pieces of life and art.

I feel like I took these pictures just yesterday and it's already been nearly two months.

Olympic National Park.

I was still breaking in a new pair of hiking boots. They were covered in a thick red dust from a five mile hike we had taken a day earlier just outside of Roslyn. While most of the plant life was different, a lot of that hike reminded me of Sedona. The red dust being a big part of it, but also the smell. That warm pine smell. It's fantastic. But when we got to Olympic National Park the only red dust was on my boots and the air was heavy and mossy. 

The hike through the Hoh Rainforest was as impressive as I expected it to be. Huge old growth trees dripping in mosses. It was nothing like anything I'd ever seen before. The word "magical" comes to mind when I think back on it. 

In the car on our way to Ruby Beach I remember the way we turned around a small bend and it seemed that we had traveled to a completely different place. The sky was overcast and fog was creeping through the the trees. We had to roll up the windows due to the chill. 

Timing our trip to the beach to coincide with low tide was the best decision since it allowed us to check out some really awesome tidal pools and explore the beach a lot more than we would have been able to had the water been up. I loved the colored bands that the barnacles and oysters left across the rocks. 

The sun peeked out just as we were leaving. We easily could have spent another day or two in the park. I'd love to see the entire coast some time and do some hiking in the mountains. Another time. 

More photos HERE.

Roslyn, Washington | Cicely, Alaska.

There's a feeling I get every time I go back to my hometown. It's a familiarity and sense of belonging despite the fact that I've been gone for a long stretch of time. Six months, a year, sometimes more. Things change, but overall it's the same town I know and love. This is the feeling I had when we arrived in Roslyn. 

There was a part of me that was afraid that I'd be disappointed when I finally got to experience "Cicely, Alaska" for myself. After years of growing up with this show, and many recent Cleveland winters spent hibernating under blankets re-watching it all, I thought perhaps I was building it up in my head. Maybe I'd see a few sights from the show, but it wouldn't feel the same. I was wrong. I loved every part of it. And while obviously the community of Cicely don't really exist, I got the feeling that it was very much the wonderful, eclectic small town that it portrayed on TV. 

We spent an evening and part of the following day here. I thoroughly enjoyed eating at Village Pizza and The Roslyn Cafe, wandering the streets and stores, sitting in Chris in the Morning's chair at KBHR, and getting my fill of the history of Roslyn. I can't wait to return someday. 

More pictures HERE.  

Snoqualmie and North Bend OR visiting Twin Peaks.

It's not often that I get to say that I've made a long term dream of mine come true, but recently it happened. About 7 years ago in college, when my roommate and I were immersing ourselves in Twin Peaks, I came across the fact that some significant locations in the series were filmed just down the road from the town of Roslyn, WA. Roslyn is the town where they filmed six seasons of my all time favorite series, Northern Exposure. It was at that moment that my dream vacation was born. Things fell into place this past year, my cousin moved to Seattle and invited us to visit and we found out we were expecting a baby in December - I was really craving one last getaway for the two of us while I was still physically able to do a decent amount of hiking. So we went for it. Our first stop was Snoqualmie Falls. 

The first thing that struck me was how intense the falls are. The intro shot in Twin Peaks doesn't do it much justice. It's easy to understand why they use the falls to generate power. It was a rush seeing it. The surrounding scenery is also really fantastic. There were daises spattering the cliffs near the overlook which was beautiful and as we walked down the hillside to the bottom of the falls we got our first taste of the moss that seems to cover and hang from all the trees in Washington State. One of my favorite parts of traveling is getting to experience new environments and all the different species of plants that come with them.

We had plans to make it to Roslyn for dinner that night before stopping at a B&B for the evening but we took our time and made one more essential stop. Twede's Cafe, or the Double R. We got a "damn fine cup of coffee" and a slice of apple pie since neither of us are huge fans of Agent Cooper's favorite, cherry.

Stored memories.

One of my favorite things is how a song is able to bring back the most vivid memories of a particular time and place. So much so that it's like you're actually in that moment again. I recently did a series of images based on this idea. I combined photographs I've taken over the years with hand lettered lyrics of the songs that bring me back to those photographed moments. These recently hung at a music themed gallery show at American Greetings that I organized with a few friends.

The Special Goodness and central Florida.

Yeasayer and Arizona freeways.

Tokyo Police Club and the California coast.

Damien Rice and Mulranny, Ireland.

Linwood.

Some dear friends of mine have been collaborating on a new project for a while now and I'm pleased to say that today is the release of their new album, Closer to Clear. I was thrilled when they asked me to create the artwork for the album, especially since I got the opportunity to try some new techniques along the way.

You can purchase and listen to the album at http://linwood.bandcamp.com