The Aesthetics of Composition in Abstract Artwork

Mahalo, for the last 14 years.

2020-08-13T23:51:00.001-10:00

I decided to go to Wordpress. It was a hard decision; I really love the interface and look of blogger. I have had this blog since late 2005. 14 years here on this platform.

I took this blog, and my personal artist website and combined them into one site. 2020 has been a dumpster fire of a year so far and it looks like its just going to keep on burning, so I took advantage of all the free time and changed all the websites, edited my books for 2nd edition printing, worked on some oil paintings, played some PS4, and just took a good look at the way the world is going to change and did my best to try to anticipate how I will need to adapt to it as a working artist.

I have been a working artist since 1996, and writing about it on this blog since 2005. I got alot out of this blog, more then I will talk about. Regardless, I just wanted to say thanks for reading and staying tuned for so long, I would be nothing without an audience.

Come find me on my new blog at my new website. I have alot planned for the new blog, and I hope to see you all there.

AdamConsidine.com

It is made for smart phones, tablets, and laptop or home computers. I really like the new site, and I really like the blog on it. I really wanted to focus on blogging with the new site and have a little bit of a standard website. I let the designers from Nick Ponte Marketing just go for it and give me what they thought was best suited for the tech of today. Nick and his team built a new website for Athena too, so Such Good Dogs is now really what she was always looking for. Really the new websites look amazing, and they are doing what they need to for us.

Mahalo for the last 14 years, come join me on my new blog.

New Website!

2020-06-05T19:51:00.003-10:00

We have launched a new website for Sweet Trade Tattoo today which has our new store up! This has been one of our big goals we set back in 2017. We took a few years making sure we knew exactly what we wanted out of a website and how we wanted it to work for us.

I won’t bore you with the details, but we wanted a to pack lots of features into our website, and we got them all. The new site for Sweet Trade Tattoo looks fantastic on all platforms, and I am looking forward to the next few years where we get to work with this site and truly develop what Athena and I set as our goal.

Go check it out and see what you think, we are really excited for this launch and there is alot more to come soon.

Mahalo.

Kama‘aina First Economy.

2020-06-02T22:14:00.002-10:00

Today we have officially been listed on the Kama’aina First locals supporting locals county of maui business listings. This is a pretty big deal to me, and it really makes me feel like my family and our small business’s are that much more of a part of maui.

Maui is making the transition (one we were thrown into due to covid-19) to a local economy. Maui has always had locals supporting locals, and we have always had tourist industry. The tourist industry over the last 15 years had become 90% of our entire economy, and when covid-19 put an abrupt stop to that we the people have to just as immediately adapt and change how we do business.

Moving forward after covid-19 the Kama’aina First initiative is one of many changes we are making here on Maui to keep the people of Maui working and supporting each other to build a truly independent local economy.

Mahalo to our Mayor for the awesome work!

And everyone, shop locally!

Epic Dive at Mala Wharf.

2020-05-30T13:43:00.002-10:00

Yesterday My buddy Tim the owner of Tiny Bubbles Scuba, took me out on the iconic Mala Wharf dive. It was EPIC!

Banded coral shrimp. These little dudes are so cool.

A moorish idol and a couple of butterfly fish.

I love watching reef sharks they are so beautiful, graceful actually.

Off shore fisherman hook white-tip reef sharks often. I have taken hooks out of turtles, but i have no intention of trying to help this guy. There were four sharks under the docs that we found, and I am sure there were more we just didn’t find.

School of chubs.

Puffer Fish, I see more of them on the north beaches past Kapalua but it was good to spend some time with this gal.

So many green sea turtles.

Frog Fish, love these guys!

And I finally (after 50+ dives since 2012) got PADI certified as an open water recreational diver. Now I can go anywhere and have my own tanks to go dive anywhere in the world!

I am still inching closer to opening the studio so we can start tattooing and painting again! I will keep you all posted.

Mahalo.

Re-Opening After Covid-19.

2020-05-28T16:43:00.001-10:00

Maui County has given us permission to open for business starting in June.

Sweet Trade Tattoo is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for all our clients. To ensure we have a safe and healthy workplace, we have developed a Covid-19 Preparedness Plan in response to the pandemic. Our goal is to mitigate the potential for transmission of Covid-19 in our workplace and community, and that requires full cooperation among our workers and clients. Only through this cooperative effort can we establish and maintain the safety and health of everyone.

We will be doing a soft opening June 15th, with an official re-opening July 1st, 2020.

We will keep you posted, as we are contacting all of our clients that have pending appointments. Please be patient with us. We will get to everyone as quickly as possible.

Mahalo,

We are deeply grateful for you, our clients.

See you soon.

Olowalu Dive.

2020-05-16T15:25:00.000-10:00

Today was the first day the the County of Maui opened up the beaches for us all to go outside and enjoy the day. It was amazing, everyone was at the beach and I ran into people I have not seen for months. My friend Tim, owner of Tiny Bubbles Scuba took me out for a dive. We went to Olowalu and just kinda hung out with some turtles.

It was so awesome to just be outside, in the ocean again enjoying Maui for what I live here for: the ocean is everything here to me.

We only went down to 30ish feet, it was just fantastic to get out there and enjoy the day.

Mahalo Tim.

Needed Hike.

2020-05-08T19:29:00.000-10:00

We have been in our house for 53 days. We have been out a few times, a couple to get supplies and a couple for some exercise. We had to escape for a hike with the dogs, and we are bored out of our minds, but we are ave and neither of us has caught the virus so it’s not all bad.

Stay safe people, this will end eventually.

Covid-19 Update.

2020-04-30T19:20:00.000-10:00

We have been told by the Governor that we are not allowed to open the studio until the end of May. That might change, as the news is changing every day and none of us really know what the fuck is going on other then this virus can be seriously dangerous and we need to stop the spread by sheltering in place. Let us all hope that they do not extend this shelter in place for too long.

Stay home, don’t let the stress get to you, and treat your family like the gold they are.

Athena and Ashoka are pretty happy just chilling together.

Holy fucking dumpster fire 2020.

Covid-19 GoFundMe Campaign.

2020-04-28T19:23:00.000-10:00

When the news started about Covid-19 I never really thought it was going to get this crazy. Everything is a complete disaster, and we have no idea what to expect over the nest year. We have tried everything we ca,

As a last resort we have launched this GoFundMe campaign to at the very least keep us in our lease until this crisis passes.

Check it out, help if you can, share it if you can, hell even a dollar is helpful at this point.

Mahalo

Covid-19.

2020-03-18T19:09:00.000-10:00

Due to the recent world pandemic, Sweet Trade Tattoo will be closed until at least April 30th per the Mayor’s orders. We appreciate your patience and support.

Moving forward, we will be following all safety guidelines put forth by the industry and State to promote the safest possible environment to tattoo and be tattooed in.

We will contact all our clients with future appointments and make arrangements with each of you. We will do our best to make sure we can, at the very least, continue to treat you like ohana.

We will keep you informed of any changes.

Mahalo, stay safe.

Polynesian Tribal.

2020-03-16T18:52:00.000-10:00

I have tattooed for the last few days, mostly bangers, but pretty fun. I did I this today, and it was pretty fun.

We are debating if we should close the shop down or not for the virus. It sounds like it is getting pretty serious. I will keep you all informed as to what we do.

Mahalo, wash your hands.

Anniversary Vacation - Part 2.

2020-03-12T09:51:00.000-10:00

Alright, continuing with our pictures and stuff about our vacation. Remember, this is really our first vacation in so long its a big deal to us. We spent more time doing everything Star Wars we could. Athena and I are absolutely insane Star Wars fans and we always have been. We have watched ALL of the Star Wars movies and shows so many times I can’t even begin to count. We love them for the legend, the story, we love the characters, and we love the heroes. To me it’s really just modern mythology and its the hero’s tale told over and over, I fucking love Star Wars. It was so fun to run around Galaxies Edge and just play. Honestly there was so much to do that our 5 days there were not enough and we would like to go back someday.

Athena dressed up like Ray and went all in character for a day.

Hamming it up in Batuu.

Every time Athena ran into a Star Wars character they talked to her and she froze, like she was star struck and couldn’t speak...froze. It was pretty funny.

We made lightsabers in Savi’s Workshop, pretty cool and they are surprisingly strong. We ran around the park fighting with them all day.

I was surprised by a client of mine that showed up and congratulated us on our anniversary!

Her tattoo healed really nicely too. Pretty cool surprise to run into a client. Funny thing, we kept running into people I had tattooed over the years!

We went to the Launch Bay which was really a mini museum of stuff from the movies. It was pretty cool. Everything Star Wars in Disney was just fun for us.

Athena loves the Falcon!

The Ghost is my favorite ship.

Batuu!

Athena got a hug from Chewbacca.

There is so much more that we did at Disney, And then we went to San Diego for a week. San Diego just sucks, except the food which was good. We only went there to visit a friend and see someplace we had not been. If you are ever thinking about going there just skip it, San Diego really just sucks.
Disney was so much fun, I really didn’t expect to enjoy it hat much and we want to go back someday.
It will be good to get back into the studio tomorrow, do some tattoos and get back into the Island life again.

So there has been some really crazy news about this virus going around in China that is starting to spread all over the US, there were since cases in California while we were at Disney, but everything seemed okay. Now that we are home, people are kinda freaking out about it. Crazy world man.

Mahalo.

Anniversary Vacation - Part 1.

2020-03-11T06:46:00.000-10:00

This is our first vacation since 2012. We had planned on taking vacations every 4 years to celebrate our wedding anniversary, but we skipped 2016 to continue to build the business and just took an extended weekend to ourselves. This trip was well worth it and man did we ever have an amazing time. We just got back, and I wanted to just blog about it for a second.

The day before we flew off island, I gave Athena a little gift made by one of my clients. Athena and I have played a game since we met, its about hiding this little stuffed toy hedgehog she calls Humphrey somewhere. I hide it, she finds it, she hides it, I find it, etc. We put it places where it will be a surprise to find.

She loved the Baby Yoda crochet; mahalo to you mystery client.

A baby Yoda and Humphrey

We got to Disney late at night but the bar was still open. Athena was pretty tired from all the travel.

Disney was absolutely fantastic. It is really funny, I don’t like theme parks, I don’t go to roller coaster parks or water parks or anything like it and I honestly expected to not really have as good of a time as I did. I swear to you, every second was amazing and I had a fucking fantastic time. I really wish we had stayed there for a few more days. We spent 80% of our time in the Star Wars areas, and we did everything.

Stormtroopers everywhere!

A Wing Fighter!

X Wing Fighter!

Several times a day they do a show where they start on stage and then go into the park and search for resistance fighters, while the resistance ducks and hides from the first order. We followed one of the shows through the park and it lasts about an hour. Supper fun!

The Millenium Falcon! The ride was pretty fun but Athena and I both got a bit motion sick from the digital screen. We spent the rest of the day just exploring Batuu.

Batu is huge!

Everywhere you look is filled with stuff, I have way too many pictures to post.

The new ride “Rise of Resistance” was probably the best ride I have ever been on. Most rides have a line where you wait, but for this, the line was part of the show. The entire time we were in line it felt like we were on the ride, and it was in a couple stages where you are in the show and they move you from area to area as the story progresses. The entire ride was about 25 min or so, and it was a amazing. We were able to get passes to the ride twice, so all of these pics are from my second run through, and well I was more just experiencing it then taking pics so...

You start off waiting in line that is a huge resistance tunnel full of crates to scan and interact with on your smart phone. It is crazy awesome.

I love the Resistance computers everywhere!

You then reach the start of the ride where BB 88 and Ray transmitting in a hologram tell you that we need to escape Batuu because the First Order is coming to get us.

From there we left and entered a shuttle to fly us off planet and we were attacked by the First Order.

It really felt and looked like we were in the shuttle taking off and flying into space!

This room was a gigantic ship hanger.

The First Order put us all into groups of 4, and the rest of the ride begins!

The ride was really fun, and it made the entire Star Wars Batuu adventure really fucking awesome.

Okay, more to come on part two, there are going to be some really longs posts.

Mahalo.

Wedding Anniversary

2020-02-29T10:06:00.000-10:00

Today is my wedding anniversary. Athena and I were married on February 29th 2012, leap day. That year it had barely snowed, and in the evening before it did. We woke up to a wedding day with fresh white snow everywhere, and it was beautiful. My one wedding vow to her was that I would continue to improve the quality of her life, always. When I look back to where we were when we met, married, and where we are today I can definitely say that we have done that together.

My marriage to Athena has been the greatest event of my entire life. The kind of love Athena and I have for one another is that one in a century love of the ages. It has been amazing, and we are always together.

I love this woman with all of my heart every day.

Athena has taught me what it truly means to care for another.

Every 4 years we go somewhere on a real vacation. This time, because we have been so busy, and working so hard for what seams like eight years straight through, we decided to take some real time off from the world, and just enjoy ourselves. We have been on vacation for most of this month, and we will not return until midway through the next. I have not blogged much since we decided to take some time to ourselves. I will be back and active here when we return from our adventure.

This is what true love looks like, Mahalo.

Puppy Memorial.

2020-02-15T23:13:00.000-10:00

It’s very difficult, the passing of a family member. I love my dogs, and I have lost dogs. I hope that I was able to help you heal and remember all the awesome in your relationship.

Mahalo.

Gladiolus & Daffodils

2020-02-08T18:19:00.001-10:00

I had a really good time working on this tattoo today. Trevor did two tattoos while I worked on this one. We started this with the idea of building on to it more in the future.

Mahalo.

Polynesian

2020-02-06T11:21:00.000-10:00

Today was pretty busy. Trevor is back here for a month and a half helping me out in the shop tattooing and painting. We were both booked solid today, and this is my favorite of the day.

Mahalo.

Script

2020-02-05T11:30:00.000-10:00

This was fun.

Mahalo.

Fishhook Beach Scenes

2020-01-31T16:23:00.000-10:00

Today I tattooed an entire family with traditional beach tattoos. It was really fun and we worked late into the day. Here are six of them...

Then I got a late night walk-in for another beach scene! Today was really fantastic.

Mahalo.

Tiki

2020-01-29T16:20:00.000-10:00

The client picked this right off my fun wall, and I had a really good time working on this.

Mahalo.

Polynesian & Baby Turtle

2020-01-28T15:58:00.000-10:00

Today was a fucking great day. I tattooed all day non stop for 13 hours. This is the best life, and these two tattoos are my favorites of the day.

Mahalo.

Fishhook

2020-01-27T08:00:00.000-10:00

This was a fun walk-in.

Mahalo.

Maui Beach Hibiscus

2020-01-25T07:57:00.000-10:00

I dig working on American traditional tattoos. This was really fun.

Mahalo.

Script

2020-01-24T15:55:00.000-10:00

This was a fast walk-in.

Mahalo.

Firefighters Carabiner

2020-01-21T22:40:00.000-10:00

Last October we had a brush fire right behind our neighborhood. The fire was directly across the street and with the high winds some of the sparks flew into our neighborhood and started small fires all over. The area was evacuated for a day and we felt like we barely got out in time. I ran home from work, ran into a friend and his girl on the road who raced me back the rest of the way so we could get the dogs out just before they closed off the neighborhood. There was so much smoke that I couldn’t see through the house it was so thick. The fire department really saved the neighborhood, so Athena and I dropped off some stuff to the fire department as a mahalo for saving the neighborhood. The client is a fireman and he wanted this tattoo to be one of the lessons he earned on the job. I tattooed his carabiner with the acronym SSFK slow and steady fast kills. This is the final session on this forearm band. It was a really cool tattoo to work on, and the clients a cool sci fi geeks at heart.

Mahalo to the Maui Fire Department.