Art & Photos
I am not a photographer. For real photos, check out my sister's work. I am also not an artist. For real pictures, go look at my friend Jenny's creations.
Still here? Well, I have a few images I've created. Take a look:
Photos
Spring 2004: Sedona, AZ
My roommate Andy and I took a day trip up to Sedona one fine spring morning, where we hiked the 9 km (each way) Wilson Mountain Trail. The 700 meter vertical climb makes for a strenuous day, but the views at the top are well worth it:
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Some of the red rock formations for which Sedona is famous. |
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Taken from an overlook on the trail. If you look closely at the image, you can see a bridge in the distance. The bridge takes Highway 89 across part of Oak Creek Canyon; the trailhead is close by. |
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Andy, sitting on the edge of a cliff with the Oak Creek canyon in the background. |
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Me, standing on the edge of a cliff; snowcapped Humphrey's Peak, the highest point in Arizona, is visible over my shoulder. |
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Looking back toward the town of Sedona. |
Summer 2004: Germany
Later that same year, Andy and I traveled across large swaths of Europe; part of the reason was that I was about to move to Germany for the year and wanted to check it out.
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Me with my German cousins in Iserlohn/Hemer. |
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From the Pension window in the picturesque town of Cochem an der Mosel. The Mosel valley is every bit as nice as the Rhine, but without the hordes of American tourists. |
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Overlooking the vineyard-covered slopes of the Mosel River. |
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Beside a stream on the walking path to Burg Eltz, a well-preserved medieval castle. You can just make out Andy in the background there. |
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Burg Eltz itself. |
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Neuschwanstein, an altogether more famous castle built by King Ludwig II near the town of Füssen in Bavaria. |
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Looking from Neuschwanstein toward Hohenschwangau, King Ludwig's boyhood home nestled in the Bavarian Alps. |
Spring Break 2006: Pacific Coast Highway
For the very last Spring Break of my college career, I drove my trusty Honda Civic (don't laugh -- it gets excellent mileage) from San Francisco to San Diego along California Highway 1: the Pacific Coast Highway. The scenery from Monterey to San Luis is some of the greatest I've ever seen.
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The start of my trip, the city of San Francisco. |
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Me standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. |
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A random stretch of beach south of San Francisco where I stopped to eat lunch. Highway 1 is in the background. |
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One of the greens at Pebble Beach golf course near Monterey. |
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Another view of the ocean from Pebble Beach. |
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Land and water meet south of Point Lobos. |
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I had to wait a long time for this bird to look in the right direction. |
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A waterfall drops right down onto a sheltered beach at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur. |
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The highway runs mere feet from the water, and sometimes requires these improbable bridges to get where it's going. |
Quenya Calligraphy
Quenya is a language invented by the late author J.R.R. Tolkien as part of the mythical world of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. It's surprisingly complete and complex: for more information on the linguistic aspects of the language, check out this excellent site by Helge Fauskanger. I remember being fascinated by the orthography (writing system) from an early age. Combine that with an interest in calligraphy, and I created these four pages of illuminated manuscripts. They have traveled with me to be displayed somewhere every place I've called home.
The story is nothing special, a fairy tale of sorts. The syntax may or may not be correct: I tried my best, but I am no expert. Decipherment I leave as an exercise to the determined reader. The pages themselves are ink, watercolor, and composition leaf on acid-free paper. Click on a thumbnail to see the full-size image.
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