By now you would think that I would be up
But my bed sheets shade the heat of choices I’ve made.
—”11 a.m.” by Incubus

I wish.

Ken dubbed me Natalie Nouveau after seeing the photos from the “Weekend from Awesome.” I was wearing a tshirt with an Alphonse Mucha print on it. I really like the name and decided to create a character from it, which is what you see above.

I drew it Wednesday night on commercial breaks of Project Runway. I think that actually helped me with getting the figure accurate.

Today, I went up to my mom school to work on the mural once more. Turns out someone stole one of my tubes of paint and a paintbrush. Those tubes are around $6 a piece. Not cool. I was still able to work on the mural though, but it was frustrating using a different brush than I was used to.

The last period of the day, I got inspired to draw a picture of Natalie along with Ken’s SLAM EVIL persona, Leroy rockWELL.

I’m really pleased with how this came out. It’s pretty much how I pictured it in my mind. Yay for successful execution. If you haven’t noticed, I tried to mimic Mucha’s style with the art nouveau design elements (“stylized realism” at its best). I thought it would be hard to get the Leroy rockWELL character to fit in with everything. I used photo refs of Kendall to get the face right, and everything else just fell into place. The clouds on the bottom was totally spontaneous. Either I was being really experimental, or I was too lazy to draw their legs and feet. . . You decide.

Today I realize that there is a lot of reflection going on, but I’ve kept myself away fromo the mainstream media for the most part. However, It is interesting to think back on what was going on in my life years ago, how things have changed. . . how things have stayed the same.

I’m older, have had a lot of experiences. . . the jury’s still out on whether or not I’ve come out the wiser, exactly, but I definitely have a slightly more mature view of things.

September 11, 2001, I was in my first semester at university, and now I’m in my last. I was ignorant of a lot of things, like the state of the world, the “bigger picture”, and how intimate relationships are supposed to work. Now I know a lot more about all those things. It doesn’t seem like I’m that much older, but at the same time I feel like those days were a lifetime ago. More like a life stage ago, and there seems to be little difference between the two.

Still in 5 years not much has changed in the world. People—young, innocent, no-so-innocent—are still dying in wars in one place or another. Children are still starving in Africa, and we now have more technological advances to distract us from the reality of the world we live in.

Until the metaphorical flood comes, that is.

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So, Yesterday I went to Pensacola Beach with my dad, 3 sisters, and paternal grandmother. It was raining, but I got some pretty nice photos out of it. I haven’t been to Pensacola in forever, because during the summer it’s really crowded. Still, despite the weather, yesterday, people were out surfing. I think the weather actually made for a better surf. Good times.

Kendall did this after I showed him the pics from the trip.

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I got my camera back from the Canon Repair Factory last week, and I was pretty happy about that. I bought a 1 gig memory card for it, so I could record more memory. Then, yesterday, I couldn’t find my charger, so my battery ended up dying while on the beach. I resorted to using my lil sis and dad’s cameras, and got a nice combo of photos.

Today, I looked for my charger again with no success. So I finally went to Best Buy and bought another one. *sigh*. I’ll probably find my old one now, as things tend to go. But I couldn’t go with a dead camera battery after just getting it fixed. I tell ya, if it’s not one thing. . .

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School’s going ok. I’m really fighting the pattern of behavior in procrastinating in photography, but not having much luck. Tomorrow is class, and I really need to finish shooting, because our first assignment is due Thursday, and cyanotypes are a time-consuming process.

However, tomorrow, I must get my hair done before class, ’cause it’s lookig pretty bad.

I’ve also a backlog of pics I need to post, so I may just end up making pages for all of them.

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Ok, I’ll end it here. There’s been a lot of interesting things happening that I haven’t blogged about, but I’ll try to be more regular with the posts.

Ken’s take at Steam.

Earlier that day, I went with my family to a nice restaurant called Zia’s. Above is my roast beef, sweet potatoes, and dirty rice. It was really good. It was nice dining experience. Our waiter provided us with hot napkins to wipe our hands with. He really worked for his tip.

My little sister, Laura, about to tackle her plate of ribs. She may look small, but she can really put food away with frightening efficiency. Right after I clicked the shudder that section of ribs was gone.

While at the restaurant, I called Ken to schedule a time to meet. I wasn’t sure what time my family would be done, so I originally set the meet at 3 pm. But, we ended up meeting at around 1:30. We were going to meet at this coffee shop near campus (Satori Sound), but it was closed. I suggested another shop nearby (Dr. Java). . also closed. So, we ended up going to Krystal to take advantage of their free WiFi.

Ken was helping me set up my blog using wordpress, but it didn’t work out.

He showed me his sketchbook, and I got to view cool sketches done for him by some peeps from Satellite Soda, during his visit to San Diego Comic Con earlier this summer (read more about that here). I decided to add a personalized sketch of my own, and Ken drew something in my sketchbook, as well.

Tada! Ken graced me with this awesome self portrait. And you’re probably wondering what the deal is with the feather. Or maybe you don’t care, but I’ll tell you anyway. Well, Saturday evening, when I took out the sketch to scan it, I found this feather intwined in the binding of my sketchbook. It must have gotten in there some kind of way while we were in Fairhope. I thought it made a cool memento, so it’s taped to the page for posterity.

Check out Ken’s blog to see the sketch I did for him.

Eventually, Ken broke out his Intuos3 6×8 to show me how it worked. I hava a measly Graphire 4×5, so it was a big difference, and his explanation of how the buttons worked was confusing. Plus, I was snapping pictures half the time.

Ken: Sharon, are you paying attention?
Sharon: Of course. *shutterclick*shutterclick*

After Krystal, we Ken suggests we head over to Smoothie King to partake of their delicious, uhm, smoothies.

On the way there, I saw these boots slung over the sign in the parking lot, and just had to snap a picture. It was just funny because of the area we were in, not quite the ghetto.

We drove downtown where I showed Ken this secluded little place called the English Park at St. John, downtown. It’s really small and quaint, in the historic district. We chilled there for a bit. After While leaving, I got the urge to swing around this pole. Ken didn’t have his camera ready the first time, so he asked me to do it again. (Great, Ken.). So I obliged, risking lead poisioning as a result of the paint chipping off the pole jabbing into my finger. It didn’t, and the shot turned out great, so all is well.

Next, we drove over to Cooper Riverside Park, next to the Convention Center. After parking Ken informed me that he had to “go” really bad, so we went over to the Riverview Hotel across the street to make use of their facilities.

I went in the Ladies’ Room, and there was this hatch open in the ceiling, which was really weird. I’m like, Ok, is there some type of Ocean’s 11 heist going on or something here. . . ?

Kendall and I take in the view. They were doing construction down below putting a new front on the hotel.

We finally make it to Riverside Park (the wahduh). Ken gets a call from his best friend Dorrell, and proceeds to talk. . .

. . .and talk. . .

. . .and talk.

And then I get a call from my mom. . .

Mom: Hi, Sharon, how are things.Me: Yes, mother, I’m fine. Yes, I am in fact alive and breathing, not bound and gagged in the trunk of a black Mazda 6 on a one-way trip to a ditch on the side of some country road.
Mom: Ok, I just wanted to know when to expect you home.
Me: Uh-huh.

The personage depicted in this statue is Monsieur D’Iberville, one of the founders of Mobile. People have interesting ways of showing the love.

The only time I see good graffiti is on passing trains.

Ken continues his crusade to bring SexyBack.

We take a trip to Wal-Mart where Ken encouters this bastardized version of Iron-Man. It’s blasphemous, I tell you. Blasphemous.

In an interesting turn of events, Ken ends up taking me home and meeting my folks. That was pretty surreal. He and my dad talked comics and Spider-Man. Then came the delicate subject of how me and Ken actually met.

Dad: So, Ken, you graduated from South?
Me: Uhm, no.
Dad: Well, did you go to school together?
Me:: Uhm. . .no.
Dad: Well, how did you meet??
Me and Kendall exchange nervous glances.
Ken: Yeah, Sharon. Tell him how we met. [innocent stare]
Me: Well, I met him on the internet, but it sounds really bad when you say it like that.

I wait for the crap to hit the fan. It doesn’t and everything is cool. My dad was actually thought I was introducing to him someone I wanted to date. That was pretty funny. Anyway, it all went well.

It was getting late, and Ken had an hour and a half drive ahead of him back to Hattiesburg, MS. So, we took one last pic together.

Then he was gone.
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So, that was my how I spent my Labor Day weekend. I congratulate you for making it to the end of this entry. I had lots of fun, the best time I’ve had in a while. It’s good just to get away sometimes. I know I spend way too mu
ch time indoors in front of the computer. Not good fodder for the photographer in me.

I’ll be seeing Ken again at in October, I know, cuz I’m entereing his Soul Powered show. I’m in a rush right now, so there’ll be another entry later today.

Check out Ken’s take at Steam.

As the story goes, I “met” Kendall about 5 months ago, via deviantART. We started chatting on AIM, and it turns out we had a lot in common. He’s a graphic designer residing in Jackson, MS, which is relatively close to me (about a 3 hour drive). So, he proposes coming to visit me during Labor Day weekend, and I’m like, “Sure I met you on the internet and you could be a complete psycho, but, I’m up for an adventure, and I haven’t been out of the house in a while. . . So, what the hey.”

Much awesomeness ensued. You can check out Ken’s point of view over at his blog, Steam.

I had my older sister tag along for back-up, and we met Ken at the hotel which he was staying, La Quinta Inn. When I first walked up, I saw him from the lobby window. He was wearing his aviator shades and I figured he saw me. I entered the Inn, and approached him, but he was still looking out the window. “Kendall?”, I said, tentatively. It was then that he acknowledged my presence. He was napping, as it turns out. Real smooth, Ken.

Ken was starving, so we headed over to Panera Bread for some brunch. My sandwich wasn’t good at all, and for almost seven bucks, that wasn’t a good thing. I finally took the bread off it, and it tasted a whole lot better.

Having acquired sustenance for the trip ahead, we proceed to travel to what a location that I had previously referred to simply as “blahblablah”, in order to surprise Ken, and keep him from Googling info about the place.

Half an hour of driving, and we arrive in the beautiful city of Fairhope, AL, situated on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. It has a reputation as an artist’s haven, and it’s a nice place to go just to get away.

As you can see, Ken wasted no time acquainting himself with the local wildlife.

This is my favorite shot of Ken.

Being big kids at heart, my sister and I got on the kiddie seesaw, and Ken stood in the middle.

After leaving Fairhope, we drove back to Mobile and chilled at Barnes & Noble Starbucks Cafe for a bit. Ken brought me a copy of Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1, one of his favorite comics.

We made a brief pit stop at the Ken’s hotel, so he could retrieve his laptop. While waiting in the lobby I snapped this pic of the fake flowers they had on the table.

Then, I took Ken up to my school to show him around. We went to the Student Center, which has some really cool architecture for photo opps. We proceeded to slam evil, as I conquered this architectural indulgence of a structure in front of the newly constructed Student Services Center. From below, it looked to be hollow inside, but I climbed up on the pedestal and found it to be flat. So, I just had to stand on top of it. What purpose did it serve otherwise?

Next, we tackled Ground Zero Comics. This was Ken’s first time in a comic shop since February. It’d probably been that long for me as well, and the stores location had recently moved, so I was curious to see what it looked like.

Ken introduced me to Onitsuka Tigers, the official shoes of cloud-walking. We both rocked them that day.

After the comics store, we headed over to Langan Park, and chilled in front of the Lake. Ken got was a feast for the mosquitos thanks to his Axe effect. Strangely, the little buggers left me alone.

To top off a wonderful evening, I got my first ever traffic ticket for not having proof of insurance in the car. The officer wasn’t at all nice about it. . .the word “jerk” could come to mind, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Next up, The Weekend from Awesome (part 2).

tbc.

*Ken will have his version of the events up tomorrow morning.