© Olivia Callender, 2011, Mimicking Application

Made a lovely print of this today for an upcoming GROUP SHOW that I’ve been asked to contribute too! It’s my first outside of school so I’m a little excited. Just a little though (teehee). It’s at some bar/gallery event space and is a mix and match up of nobodies and sort of some bodies. I signed up for some online underground art thing and got a call (actually a phone call) from the event coordinator asking if I’d like to show some of my work. 

So now I’m back in Manhattan trying to print enough of the Objective Life to put on the wall. I’m pretty pleased so far even though every time I fail I cringe since it’s 16x20 paper and they cost an arm and a leg to buy. But I’ve gotten back into the swing of things rather quickly and am averaging 4 prints till perfection, which is rather good I think. 

The show unfortunately costs money because they’re not taking a commission on any of the work buuut it’s only 10$ which is less then a movie now-and-days and movies don’t have a bar soooo save the date (28th of June) and buy a ticket!

Olivia Callender © May 2012 

Once again fouled by the photo lab! I’ve been going to the same guys for a while now and never really had a problem until recently. I don’t know if they have a new person running the machine or if their standards have gone down but it’s forcing me to go somewhere else, which sucks since they’re right next to Penn station. I had a roll of film before this that had the same lines down the right side but thought ‘hey maybe it’s me’ but this time not only do I have the lines but the negatives are insanely contrasty and have hardly any shadow detail. I could show you worse ones but why pollute your board with ugly photos.

I allwaaaays expose for my shadows so this time I know it’s not me. Not to mention I developed a black and white roll myself from the same day and the shadow detail is great. Damn it and I liked these guys, they even finally know my name! I feel like I should tell them that they’ll be losing me business (and probably others) if they don’t get their act together. Oh well two rolls of film down the drain fuckity fuck fuck. 

Olivia Callender © 2012 “Two Turtle Doves”

I had a lovely weekend, reconnected with friends got some work done and heard some good news but I won’t jinx myself as of yet. 

Have to fix this feller up but she’s a sweetie 

Olivia Callender © 2012 “Fixer Plant”

Well shucks I got on mah email today and saw a bunch of you folk deemed me cool enough to follow! So Howdy fellers and welcome, drop a line, hang out or just lurk about alls fine and dandy with me. Big thankya-doodle to ArtChipel for listing me on their artist blog page, prolly where all you new comers are coming from. 

I’m in a still life rut at the moment but this guy has a funny or tragic (depending on your love of plants) story behind it. Unfortunately for mr. plant I left a bottle of used fixer out in the living room and it happened to be in the same type of used juice jugs my mother fills with her plant water. I however did label it “TOXIC DO NOT DRINK” but that didn’t really stop my mother from watering half her plants with it and by that of course I mean killing half her plants with my used fixer. They wilted within the day and it was very sad. The pots are still unusable. Goes to show that people should read labels or I should write TOXIC much bigger. 

Olivia Callender © Turtles & Alligators 2012

Everything likes to be difficult. I’m busy but feeling unaccomplished. The feeling sucks. 

Olivia Callender © “Portrait Series” or “The True Accident: Pre-Photographic Nostalgia” 

Still working on a bloody title for this series, it’s coming along, one of these days soon. Picked up an old copy of Anna Karenina after seeing War & Peace in my father’s bathroom. I now am having a hard time putting the old brute down. Damn you Tolstoy you really understood how to create a character! And some how I’ve found an uncomfortable connection to Constantine Dmitrich Levin. Oh how I wish this was not so but there it is…

“Yes, there is something in me that’s loathsome and repellent, thought Levin, leaving the Shcherbatskys’ and setting off for his brother’s on foot. I don’t fit in with other people. Pride, they call it. But I’m not even proud. If it were a matter of pride I should never have put myself in such a position” 

and…

“All the traces of his life seemed to seize hold of him and say ‘No, you won’t escape from us and you won’t be any different, you’ll be just as you’ve always been; full of doubts, perpetually dissatisfied with yourself, with futile attempts at self-improvement followed by lapses, and in constant expectation of the happiness which hasn’t been given you and is out of the question for you’”

Levin and I have a problem with the size and importance of our doubts, I’ve yet to read if he overcomes his. Mine are still being surmounted.

Olivia Callender © “Portrait Series” or “Anti-Instagram”

So I’m older now the birthday has come and past. I don’t like the number of this age but it’s only because I don’t feel accomplished enough, but that’s no way to think. The only thing to do is to keep going. Met with a photographer by the name of Will Steacy yesterday, he’s a fantastically wonderful fellow. Made me feel completely at ease, no kissing up needed he’s just that cool. He’s in the process of making a book of collages based on years of newspaper collecting and another project called These Mean Streets. Very cool stuff. He also made a book that’s out right now that I oh so want called Photographs not taken all in all I very smart talented guy that I’m extremely happy to have fallen under his wing. 

Best birthday gifts: Throwing knife from father & Puebla dress from mother

OliviaCallender © “Portrait Series” or “The Anti Instagram” 

I’ll be 23 some time around 1:00 PM tomorrow. It will be warm and sunny which is extremely rare. Too bad it will be wasted…

won’t go into it other than to say I’m dissapointed as usual, which is to say I’m not surprised at all. 

Thank you baby for trying. 

Olivia Callender © From the shoot “Yogsothoth” 

Oh and Happy Easter, I guess, If you do that sort of thing. 

Olivia Callender © Pretty Teachings from the Series “The Los Caprichos Project”

Did a shoot for a lovely to-be-married couple and got paayyeed. That was nice and totally needed since I’m floating on almost broke. The portfolio is coming along and soon I hope to be going out for some real jobs! Working on my own projects is fine and dandy but they don’t pay and it was nice to be working off a tripod for once. Carrying equipment arround is always a bitch. 

Olivia Callender © “Untitled (father, mother, brother)” the Portrait Series

I’m having a hard time believing/ I’m tired physically and I wonder if I should be worried/ Getting the energy to do is unbelievably hard at times/ The pain is a deal-able constant

Olivia Callender © Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia 

“working hard or hardly working… Working HARD or HARDLY working… WORKING HAAARRRD OR HARDLY WOOORKING!!!”

- Homer Simpson