
Photo by Mary Woods

Photo by me
Thanks to all who came out to the “Chocolate & I” gallery show last Monday in NY!! I had so much fun meeting everyone, tasting truffles, and sipping their chocolate margaritas. Mmm. Music, visuals & chocolate are some of my favorite indulgences.
This was the first show of mine where I was able to incorporate both of my projectors at once, split the VGA signals and mirror the images across the beautiful gallery wall. I usually don’t have the luxury of having so much space and freedom, but this felt absolutely wonderful to break free of the singular image and experiment with some new ideas.
To think, just over a year ago I didn’t even own any of the equipment to be able to perform like I can now. I had always wanted to, but it seemed overwhelming. It’s quite an investment: laptops, mixers, projectors, cables, stands & adapters. Now after a year of experimentation, and slowly accumulating a studios worth of equipment, I can’t imagine my life without performing. I’m inspired in new directions from each and every show.
If anyone reading this photographed the night I would love to see your collection!! Feel free to send me an email, or post them here.
Video soon to come!

To celebrate some good news that I will be posting about in upcoming days, I’ll be giving out my new DANGER PINS at the next few performances. Just come over and say hi!

If any of you are in the CT area on this snowy friday evening, I will be projecting some videos over at the City Lights Gallery in Bridgeport from 6-11pm tonight. Thanks to Liz of Paradox Ink for inviting me!
I picked out 10 of my favorite experimental pieces that I worked on in 2009 and this will be the first time they are landing on gallery walls. I’m sure at some point in the evening I’ll end up free-form VJing a bit too.
City Lights gallery is debuting their first Nu Media show, involving a mixed collection of video art, short films, and animation. Hope to see you!
City Lights Gallery is located at 37 Markle Court Bridgeport, CT 06604 : $5 Entry fee
Jan 7, 2010 |
Gigs,
Music,
vj

Kodomo + Danger Monkey town - 1/2/10
Thanks to everyone who made it out on Saturday night! It was another sold out show at Monkey Town and I had so much fun hanging out with all of you. Special thanks to Cutlery for inviting us to play, and special thanks to my brother who made it out to see us for the first time.
Kodomo & I debuted some new material which got a lot of great feedback. Here is an early video version of what I cut up and re-mixed at the show for the new track. The original animation was not created by me, it was black and white, and used for a Raveonettes video.
This is the latest bit of my experimental vj works. The concept based on my mantra, energy for energy. The impact of two elements coming together and creating passion. Creation, exchange & fire. Highly compressed but wanted to share anyway! The song is called “Surfin” by William Orbit. Footage both found & mixed with my own, plus some final cut manipulation.

RESERVE A SEAT ON THE MONKEYTOWN SITE
As promised, here are a few short clips from the Kodomo + Danger show at Miscelanea in Barcelona, Spain a couple months ago.

My little hut at La Zebra the last few days in Tulum
2009 has really been one of my favorite years to date. I’ve always said that if I were to get into video art, that my main goal would be to find the means to travel while doing what I love to do. My goals being to incorporate my love of art, music, culture & adventure with the world of design, performance and exploration. Keeping those ideas in mind, a lot has shifted this year. I am slowly feeling this awakening of a newly positive outlook for 2010 and what is to come.
I just returned home from a long weekend in Tulum, Mexico. A birthday gift to myself for entering a new decade and welcoming my 30th year. What a magical little slice of the earth that place is. This particular adventure bought an overwhelming sense of peace, serenity and unbridled creativity. It was a slower pace than I’m used to, but wonderfully so, and a much needed breath of fresh air into a part of the world that I had never been.
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A drawing sample from students in class
Friday night I trekked out to Washington, DC to join the Motion Graphics Festival. The workshops all sounded wonderful, but it especially piqued my interest when I read that VJ Shantell Martin was teaching a workshop in live-painting. On the practical side of what I do, my instinct was to take the After Effects class, but the VJ side of me couldn’t let go of the opportunity to hang with other visualists from around the world, so I signed up.
The class introduced the idea of using a wacom tablet mixed with painting software to drawing live and intuitively to music, while recording your session and being able to cut it up and re-use it as animation in performance or later for editing. I found this particularly useful because I never record what I’m doing directly from the screen. There is a program called I Show You which does this perfectly, creating a high res quicktime file.
While much of my personal VJ style has been to mix motion graphics & after effects work, with video files, I’m interested in seeing what direction the concepts I learned in class could take on for me. Definitely a lot of fun, and definitely a new tool to play with and explore.
Thanks to all of you who I met this weekend. I hope our paths cross again soon!

Hello all! I’ve been back for a little over a week and it has taken me this long just to catch up with life, time zones, and the digital realm of documentation. Our first european show was so incredibly fun and soulful. Many thanks to Camilo Tribin of Makinola who organized, promoted and put the whole thing together. Gustavo Osorio and his amazing photographic talents. Margarita Rojas of the Crayon Incident for her creative inspiration and beautiful performance with us at Miscelanea. Emily and Bryan Dunn for letting me run around with them all day and crash their honey moon. And of course Kodomo, whose music continually inspires me to do what I’m doing. Many thanks to all the lovely people that I met along the way.
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