Introducing Giovanni Jackson Benjamin Goodson-Graham

My cockatiel. He is sweet, cute and fun to watch. He doesn't say much, but we hope to teach him a few of the most important words in the English language (whatever words you are thinking of right now says a lot about who you are).





He showed up at our school last week trying to make his way into classrooms by pecking on windows and looking cute. Finally he realized that the best way to get into the building would be to land on a students shoulder and ride his way in. After finding an old cage and capturing our friend I volunteered to take him home. After all, I've been wanting a pet, but I'm not allowed to have big furry ones. I haven't checked the lease agreement to see if feathered ones are allowed. I will plead ignorance if I find I'm not supposed to have him.



He ate a lot of food his first days here, including a peanut butter cracker and a piece of english muffin with blueberry jam. He loves that I'm a jewelry maker, because all of the little shiny objects I use to make said jewelry are of absolute intrigue to Jackson(we've decided to go by his first middle name). He also enjoys being rubbed on his head and neck and any human shoulder is good enough to sleep or groom upon. Really. Anytime. Bathing, pooping, blogging, exercising ... he's on my shoulder. More pics of my new addition to come...

I have a new camera

Good macro capabilities. But I still can't tell if I took a picture of this thing's butt or it's head.

Great day in my life as an artist!

A picture I took at Maymont Park in Richmond, VA is published at Shmap. AND two pictures that I took during the DITLO project have been selected by the official DITLO judges!! Oh yeah, oh yeah, doing the fantastical day dance!

DITLO-Asheville, 36 hours of fun

A Day In The Life of Asheville. Last weekend a 36 hour event took place that allowed us to stay out late and take photographs of Asheville! Fred, Catherine and I went out Friday night to take some shots, and Fred and I went out again on Saturday. Between the two of us we took over 500 pictures. If you haven't joined flickr, now is the time. There will probably be another DITLO project in the Fall and it is a lot of fun. Check out all of the photos in the DITLO project by clicking on the title of this blog. Mine are here, Catherine's are here, and Fred's are here. Anything with a tag "ditloa2008submit" is part of the project. The winning pictures will go up at the Pact Library, but I'm not sure when. Enjoy looking at the photos and become a flickr member!
Friday we started in the parking garage, went down to wall street, then met up with Catherine and photographed the "Women in Black." Various shots were taken on the streets of downtown Asheville, and after dinner at the Laughing Seed, dancing at the drum circle and a trip further down to the Cox Ave. Pizza Co., Fred and I took a break at the Thirsty Monk. Saturday was just as fun, so look at the photos to seen where we've been.

New Designs

You will always find the newest designs on my blog. These are not on Etsy yet. Let me know if you're interested in buying a pair before I put them on Etsy.

My Spring Break Keeps Getting Better

I went down to Georgia to visit my good friends Lil and Sarah. Fun was had by all. The High Museum is huge and had some great shows up. We saw black and white photos of motorcyclist, and rallies from the 60's and 70's, sat and pondered minimalism, got busted for taking photographs of the artwork, enjoyed learning about Georgia O'keeffe and other fine female artists in the Stieglitz circle of friends, and saw a bunch of boring ancient art that they spent a ton of money on, just to move it from the Louvre (some of it was cool. Napolean and Joshephine had a fine collection of expensive, decorative items, and the exhibit also displayed some interesting Egyptian art).

The exhibits were fantastic, and the architecture in the building was even MORE fantastic (only so because I can legally take pictures of the architecture, but not the art). The elevator featured a peep hole in the ceiling. The permanent collection wound around a 4-story high atrium, where Lil and I crashed for 5 minutes to catch our breath. We did not get to the four levels of the permanent collection, so if anyone wants to make a trip with me, I'm all for going back. You drive. It took me 2 hours to get out of the city on Friday.

So check out additional pictures at "Me on Flickr" and write comments. I love comments :)

Beautiful Gardens

The botanical gardens in Richmond are beautimus! They have a huge place for kids to play, a live band, a Japanese garden, a huge greenhouse, and 2 places to eat. I highly recommend seeing it if you go to Richmond.

They had tons of orchids and cacti. See more pictures on "Me at flickr".