Introducing 'Cranberry Works' | feat. Ocean Minded Water(colour) Art

If you have explored the navbar recently, you might have noticed some changes to the directory from "Cirrus Photography" to "Photography & Projects".

Meet the newest sister project, Cranberry Works.

This is the name of my new online art shop being kickstarted via the online market and print shop, Society6. It features mainly artwork, and may also include some words making cameo appearances from another one of my projects. Products are printed on-demand to avoid waste, and artists of all skill levels from around the world can publish their pieces and put together collections.

I do accept custom orders and commissions for personal use and events and if you are looking for more info please visit the page in the navbar, but one of the main features of the shop will be the Ocean Minded Water(colour) series.

The name 'Ocean Minded' is meant to imply daily mindfulness of how our activities affect life in the water -and by extension, life on land- and being open to making changes in harmony with that.

Here the ones from the series featured so far:

For myself, simply going swimming or looking at animals or images of animals is always a good reminder to take shorter showers, recycle e-waste, and be careful of what I put down the drain, and it is my hope that my personal hobbies can hopefully help others feel good about making adjustments to live more in harmony with nature as well.

Also, I believe that like spending time outside, the process of creating little pieces inspired by nature can help strengthen that bond we have, and I'm not the first to see this. At many environmental conferences in school and festivals a man would often come in to do a sketch, Paint, and Shoot workshop. If you create any nature-related work you'd like to share, please don't feel shy to drop a reference in the comments, it would be lovely to see more projects.

(l~w parallel post under the same date, 20/08/2018)

Lunar-ticks for the solar eclipse and a hack

Microsoft Paint, you will be missed </3

Plot twist: as much as lunar eclipses are loved, this post is actually photos from the recent solar eclipse that happened on August 21, 2017. Sorry, Lunar-tick.

Hopefully you had the chance to enjoy it last Monday, though if you were not able to watch it's not too late to experience thorugh the beautiful, non-eye-burning lens of NASA.

Seeing as we didn't have any solar-eclipse-viewing glasses, on Monday we started by making our own viewboxes for the eclipse. The longer the box, the larger the projection of the. I used a cereal box.

Here is a very not-to-scale diagram:

Image made using Fireworks. Sorry Paint, we still love you.

It took me a moment to find the little bright smudge of the sun's image on the wall of the box and orient it so that it was in line, but soon enough lo and behold there was a little dot with a tiny bite out of it. Optics was never my strong suit, but as I peered in through the peekhole and tried to understand how this worked, it finally occurred to me that if we just poked more holes in the aluminum foil, there would be more projections in the box.

In addition to just adding a fun and potentially creative element, it also made it easier to "find" the eclipse, or aim the projected image of the sun when it was in distinct clusters.

Before, simple version (right) >

Below, decorated versions:

What happened when 3, fairly distant holes were poked in the aluminum foil.

It was much easier to aim the projection with a distinct cluster 

It pays to think outside the box ;) (Pun intended)

Updated 2019-04-15

Wind Festival 2015 (Fun Post)

So I have a thing for the wind. Its capricious beauty affects so much physically within an ecosystem, and its unseen and almost spiritual nature is also captivating for those who stop to listen.

In the summer of last year I had the joy of painting kids' faces and working at a skulls and furs booth, as a volunteer at the Kortright Centre for conservation's 2015 Wind Festival. The Kortright Centre is a beautiful raw gem in Southern Ontario that children and their families connect with nature, and nurture respect and love for the environment and our natural heritage.

The wind festival had lots of nature-themed booths and activities for families, and next year I hope to attend as a visitor (and bring my kite!)

Edited 2021-01-12