Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Of course

Lucien Schmit, Vancouver, WA, 2011
Above all things, I take pride in my adaptability.
Falling from decadence into dirt and back again with ease.
The one thing I have never quite been able to adapt to is being told what to do.
Hence only doing freelance or seasonal work, the long dirtbag hiatuses, and the constant change of course.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Friday, September 14, 2012

Sketchiness

Boulder, CO, 2011
I need to find this guy's name again. I had it, and lost it--I think it's "David", but it could be "Daniel", or something else entirely, and I can't remember his last name for the life of me right now. It could be "Yu", but he didn't show up when I Googled it, so I must be misremembering.

Anyway, he's an extremely talented artist out of Boulder, CO [or somewhere near there]--he did this watercolor crayon drawing during a five or ten minute pose [I forget which] at a really, really awesome drawing group out of Boulder that I've had the good fortune to pose for multiple times. The artists there are extremely talented, there's a sense of ease and good humor about the place, and the tips when I worked there were veeery generous.

In retrospect, I kind of wish he'd given this drawing to me, but so it goes [not like I really have the space to store pictures, anyway].

There's something incredible about the way he captures expression, even in one-or-two minute poses, so I figured I'd share this [even though it's just a shitty, crooked snapshot that I took of the drawing, rather than a good photo or scan of the drawing]--you must be bored by now of looking at naked photos of me, right? 8]

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Do geese see God?

Andrea Pun, Los Angeles, CA, 2010
This was taken by a really sweet art student from LA--she's slightly younger than I am. At the time, she was nineteen and I'd just turned twenty. I'd just finished up my season in Kings Canyon.

Not much to say this week, because I don't feel like being online because there is shit to do. So in the absence of more entertaining or weighty subjects that would take longer to write about, here are a few narcissistic points of interest:

1. I like palindromes--when setting alarms and microwave times, for instance, I generally enter palindromes. Word-wise, too. Never odd or even.
2. I like the look of priest cassocks--elegant, almost like evening dresses for men. Hahaha.
3. I like pulling on Wellington boots and stomping on horse shit in the back of a trailer in order to pack it down--it's like jumping on grassy marshmallows.
4. To explain #3: my first job ever was working as a stable hand, so that I could learn how to ride horses and barrel race.
5. My first language was Mandarin. I lost it when I learned English, at about age six.
6. I generally don't eat fruit [by that I mean "fruity" fruits--I'm not talking about tomatoes and zucchinis]. My main exceptions are coconuts, grapefruits, and pomegranates [though I can't STAND pomegranate juice, nor pomegranate-flavored things--only the fresh fruit].

Monday, September 10, 2012

Lazy man's yoga

Polaroid by Deep Exposure, San Jose, CA, 2012

In California again.
In Thai Massage school.
By the end of this month I'll have enough hours under my belt for my license. Feels good.

Friday, September 7, 2012

What's up, chicken butt?

Studio200, Alameda, CA, 2010
Hahahahaha.

I know what you're all thinking. You're thinking of quoting Fight Club. Get over it--everyone else already has. 8P

This used to be in my portfolio, because I loved it for its happy-whimsy-idiocy.

But then people started getting ideas and asking me to do things like this. People who don't have buddy privileges. 

Don't ask me to do something like this.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Real glamour

Winston Image, Sunnyvale, CA, 2011
I like this photo because, despite its rather glamour-y aesthetic, Winston left in all my scars, hair, tan lines, et al.

It's disheartening to shoot with someone, have them pluck out a good image, and then consequently abuse the clone stamp and liquefy tools until I look like someone else entirely [I make a point NOT to post those on here].

The truth is that most of the models in beauty ads have awkward body hair prickling out somewhere, or else they have belly fat, or else they have asymetrical boobs, or else they have cellulite, or else they have acne, or undereye circles, or chipmunk cheeks, or a short neck. But they're still gorgeous!

So we take these already-stunning girls and gloss them over until they don't even look human.

And then we wonder why "normal" girls have self-esteem issues, and why healthy girls everywhere feel fat and ugly.

Maybe this sounds uncompassionate or hypocritical, coming from someone who manages to make a living off her appearance, but I genuinely think the route to beauty isn't in make-up or plastic surgery. The answer is getting some goddamn exercise, smiling a lot, and learning to love your idiosyncracies.

Confidence, health, and self-respect is sexy, no matter how big your nose is or what your nipples look like or whatever. Especially since, ultimately, we're all going to get soggy and old--which is why we should be cultivating those traits that will LAST our whole lives [i.e., confidence, health, and self-respect], instead of focusing on superficial transient details.

Fuck your underbite--someone thinks it's cute. Forget your small tits--in twenty years all your girlfriends with big tits will be envious of how yours manage to not be these huge cumbersome back-injuring sandbag things. It's all so subjective--the most successful fashion models tend to be girls you would think looked like aliens if they weren't fashion models.

Whatever you look like, there is nothing as unsexy as, "Ah, god, am I getting fat? Do I have crappy hair?" Shut up! Go do something fun and stop thinking the whole world is looking at you, dammit!

And if the whole world IS looking at you, it's probably because you're nice to look at. That or someone drew a cock on your face with a permanent marker while you were asleep.