Less than one week from now, my girlfriend Amanda and I will be moving out of the apartment in Printer’s Row, Chicago that we’ve called home for over 2 years (Amanda for over 4 years). We’ve grown to really love the historic Printing House Row district and all the South Loop, and have enjoyed living in close proximity to stuff like Grant Park, Harold Washington Library, and Hackney’s. Although we do hope to return to the area in less than a year, I thought it would be cool to create a small video tribute to my neighborhood using some great video footage I shot recently in Grant Park.

I tried to use focal depth as an expressive technique so that the beautiful, early Spring flowers are in focus most of the time, and the Metra train that passes in the background is mostly out of focus. Throughout all of film history, trains were used (often at the beginning of western movies) to symbolize the inevitable progress of change. By choosing to focus on the pretty flowers instead of the passing train in the background, I’m making a statement about the positive attitude I’m trying to maintain through this exciting but somewhat melancholic time.

After we move, I’ll be going to live with my parents in Columbus, Ohio for a couple of months before I leave for my artist residency at the Grünewald Guild. There are a lot of potentially amazing things happening in my near future and I promise to share as much about them as possible here on this blog!

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 with Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 “pancake” lens
Music: Eddie Vedder, “Goodbye” from Ukulele Songs (Copyright © 2011 Monkeywrench Records)
Editing: iMovie ’11 on a Macbook Pro and exported as 720p HD video.

There is a huge, old building on S. Dearborn St. in Chicago that is literally sinking into the ground. The Monadnock Building was built between 1891 and 1893 in the historic neighborhood of Printer’s Row *. It is an incredibly large and heavy load-bearing masonry building (thus the sinking).

The north half of the building was designed by Burnham & Root, one of the most famous architectural firms of all-time; and the south half of the building was designed 2 years later by Holabird & Roche, another of Chicago’s very famous architectural firms (still in business to this day!).

The grand staircases found throughout the building represent the first use of aluminum in building construction. One of the building’s really nice security guards allowed me to wander around and take some photos. I thought it might be a good opportunity to try out my new Panasonic Lumix GF1, so I put together these 5 high-dynamic range (HDR) images.

Click each image to enlarge (may take a second to load). Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite!

* As of the time of this posting, Printer’s Row is the neighborhood Charlie calls home.

I am proud to announce that I’ve decided to pursue a one-month artist residency at the Grünewald Guild, an art retreat center near Leavenworth, Washington in the Wenatchee National Forest. There, I’ll learn more about printmaking and other tools that will help me to develop my new art and printmaking business, Bleachwave, as well as grow as a visually creative individual.

For the month of July 2012, I’ll be living (in a tent!) and working at the Guild community as both an artist-in-residence and volunteer staff member. In return for cooking, cleaning, gardening, and other regular chores, I’ll be taking classes in oil painting, etching, collography, and other types of printmaking.

The Grünewald Guild is also an ecumenical Christian community where spirituality and daily prayer are part of their culture. However, they are welcoming to “people of all journeys and traditions,” and ask only that guests be respectful and open-minded.

I cannot wait to embark on this very exciting new adventure! The idea of going to live in the woods for a month and do art is maybe not what most people would consider a “smart career move,” but I believe it will be a huge step forward for me in more ways than one. Through this experience, I hope to isolate myself from all distractions and rediscover my artistic potential, as well as become a stronger person mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Last but not least, I will (obviously) be blogging the whole thing. I hope to post as many photos and videos as possible, so that you, my faithful readers and friends, may come on this magnificent adventure with me!!

Ren•ais•sance man — Noun: A person with many talents or interests, esp. in the humanities.

While I’m happy to be known as a “Renaissance man”, one of my goals for 2012 is to refocus my career on 2 of my strongest skills: coding and art. For the former, I enrolled in Code Academy—a 12-week program in Chicago that has trained me in Ruby on Rails, Git, JQuery, Responsive Design and much more. Now, it’s time to begin working on the latter, which means I have to make some important decisions.

Say hello to Bleachwave

For my final Code Academy project, I wanted to build an application that would allow me to establish myself as a professional artist. The app idea grew into a much larger strategy and I am now happy to announce that I will be establishing Bleachwave as my own personal art and printmaking business. I will be producing a line of limited edition art prints, original paintings, books and ebooks that I will sell through a custom-built Ruby on Rails shopping cart application.

Certain products will be sold in unique and exciting ways and I hope for this to become a “real-world” endeavor where I make myself available at art festivals and gallery hops. I’m in the process of securing artist studio space for the summer and will have more details on that in the weeks to come.

The name “Bleachwave” comes from an art and creative writing project that I attempted a couple years ago with my friend Kurt; we called ourselves “Bleachwave Productions,” but eventually we didn’t have time for it anymore and the site was retired. I always loved the name though and wanted to give this new business a name that is fun, intriguing, and unique.

The app is almost finished being built and the site will be launched soon. Sign up for the newsletter to receive news and updates about this exciting project!

I have to speak in front of 500+ people

This Wednesday represents the end of Code Academy. The Demo Day presentations will be held at the brand new 1871 Center at Merchandise Mart here in Chicago (also the new home of Code Academy!). An audience of over 500 people has already RSVP’d.

I will be giving a 3 minute presentation about how my life has led me from art, to code, and now on to Bleachwave. You read more about the Demo Day event here: Passion and Persistence: Code Academy Demo Day.

Beyond Code Academy, I intend to continue learning more about Rails, JavaScript, Responsive Design, and maybe other programming languages. Mostly though, I need to focus on building Bleachwave into a real, functioning (and hopefully profitable) business. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I have some very exciting plans about how I intend to grow the business. I’ll be posting more info about that in the coming weeks.

5 years ago today, a very important person in my life died of cancer. Ross Zirkle was a world-renowned artist, associate professor at the University of Kentucky, and close, personal friend of mine. In fact, he was a friend to many students, and his classes at UK were often so popular that you had to get an override just to get in. As an artist, he was a Tamarind Institute Master Printmaker who specialized in waterless lithography, and his work achieved both national and international acclaim.

I met Ross in the same way that many people probably met him—in his A-S 330/530 Intermediate Drawing class. I was in my sophomore year of college in Fall 2004, and all the upper-classmen and grad students I knew had continuously urged me to take his live model drawing class. As I mentioned though, his class sections filled up really fast, so I had to get an override. This turned out to be a decision that would change my life forever.

I remember knocking on Ross’s studio door for the first time; he immediately responded: “Who the hell is it? Come on in!” I nervously opened the door and, there he was, sitting at this desk; surrounded by mountains of prints, papers, drawings, and sundry other tools and oddities. “Whatever you want, it’s not my fault,” he said. I laughed and clarified that I just needed him to sign an override slip so I could get into his A-S 330 class for the upcoming Spring. “Jesus, man! Why on Earth would you want to do that?” he asked. There was no avoiding Ross’s classic sarcasm and wit, and it was impossible to feel uncomfortable or shy in his presence.

In early 2006, I began to apply for the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. Being accepted would mean that I would get my own, private studio on campus and would be allowed to host my own, private exhibit upon graduation (rather than having to share a final exhibit with many other students). Having taken Ross’s class numerous times by that point, he was the obvious choice to be my sponsor for my BFA committee. Over the next several months, I worked very closely with Ross almost every single day, as he helped me prepare my artwork and application forms. He taught me how to properly measure and cut matte board and we spent many hours in his studio discussing the pros and cons of my art and what might hold me back from being accepted in the program. With Ross’s guidance though, I was accepted into the program and it was one of the greatest honors of my life.

You can still go see Ross’s Rate My Professors page, where he has nothing but positive comments and glowing praise from past students. Probably the number one thing Ross was known for was his ability to offer extremely insightful and brutally honest criticism. Whenever you showed Ross what you had been working on recently, his criticism (for me, anyway) was almost always the last thing you wanted to hear, but also the most important. It didn’t matter if something was just part of your usual style or approach; if he felt that it wasn’t working, he would let you know. More than anything else, Ross wanted to urge students to try new tools and artistic styles—especially if he felt it was something that was outside the person’s comfort zone.

In his studio, Ross had a quote written on the wall that was originally said by the man who was his predecessor at UK. “Non basta una vita,” is Italian for, “One lifetime is not enough,” and was one of many pieces of wisdom offered by John Regis Tuska. Prior to Ross’s arrival, Tuska taught (amongst other things) drawing at UK and was also a widely-popular and well-renowned artist and art professor. I’ve always admired people who could live by Tuska’s motto and it seems a fitting epitaph for Zirkle’s legacy.

In July 2006, Ross was diagnosed with cancer and his presence in the UK art community vanished very abruptly. No one heard much from him for a few months, but then I got a call one day in September 2006 and it was Ross. He sounded awful, but I was just thrilled to hear from him. We talked for about an hour about what had happened, what was going to happen, and how I would probably need to have another professor take over as my BFA sponsor. As someone who hates talking on the phone, I must say that it was one phone conversation I will never forget.

I didn’t see or hear from him for a while after that, until he started making random, occasional appearances in the printmaking lab (I had begun taking some silk screen classes and was down there a lot) in late Fall 2006 and Spring 2007. While it was obviously great to see him active and making art again, it was just not the same old Ross anymore. The Ross I remember was always full of energy and enthusiasm for his work and never seemed to have any “off days.” Suddenly, Ross had become a fragile, old man and needed some assistance to do his art. Nevertheless, the last time I ever saw him, he was there at the studio, working on new stuff, just as he always had been.

Ross Zirkle left this world on Monday, March 12, 2007. It was Spring Break that week, but I was still at my studio, working on a painting. There was a sudden knock on my door and it was another student named Brian who had just come from Ross’s house. He informed me that Ross’s battle had come to an end within the last hour and that I should try to let as many people know as possible. The first words that came to my mind were: “Non basta una vita.” While one part of me became immediately regretful for not having taken even more of his classes, I was also extremely grateful for having been one of the last students whose lives he touched.

Ross’s influence on me has never waned and, at many important intervals in my life, I have stopped and asked myself, “What would Ross say if he could see me now?” He was one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met and the only thing he ever made me promise him was that I would never give up on my art. Sarah Jane Gray, an MFA candidate who I shared all of Ross’s classes with, wrote on her blog recently that, “his vision is at work in my hands when I create.” I believe this, as well and there are times when I take a step back from my work and hear a familiar voice in my head saying, “Dammit, Charlie!” and then scrap what I’ve done and start all over.

Thanks for everything, Ross. You would have loved what I’m planning to do next. It will be my greatest artistic feat yet, and I sure wish I could get your advice right about now.

Are you one of those people who has considered buying my book, but then noticed the price tag and thought, “Okay, well… I don’t like Charlie THAT much.” If so, then I have good news for you. The eBook version of Open Range: From Monument Valley to the Mojave Desert is now available for $4.99! You can download the entire book in .epub format and view it using iBooks on your Apple iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

The eBook is an exact, page-for-page copy of the printed version. The only difference is some of the fonts that were used in the book have been changed, due to the restrictions of the iBooks format. Also, due to some panorama photographs that occupy a 2-page spread, you may only view the iBook version in horizontal (landscape) orientation (trust me, it’s better this way).

To get the book, follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2868673 or click the “Buy This Book” Shopping Cart icon in the preview window above (requires Flash).
2. Select “ebook download for Apple iBooks” from the list of available formats and click “Add to Cart.”
3. At this point, you’ll need to log-in or create a Blurb.com user account. I guarantee they will not send you spam.
4. Complete the rest of the checkout process.
5. There are a few different ways you can download the book, depending on what type of device you have. Either way, it’s super easy and painless. Click here for easy instructions on how to download the book for your device.

In the future, I hope to release a Kindle version of the book, as well. I’ve also considered a “second edition” of Open Range that has more written content and elaborates on my experience making it, with comments on some of the more notable images in the book. And then of course I will be releasing many more eBooks in the future and they will continue to grow more ambitious and exciting and I hope that you will love them and enjoy them and tell all of your friends about them.

Thanks for supporting an Artist!

Octoskull is a new character I’ve been experimenting with in my art. He is the amalgamation of a vampiric skull and an octopus, and will definitely be making more appearances in my art. You can also find this drawing on my Society6 and deviantART pages.

India ink with dip pen and brush on paper, 8″ x 11″, 2012. Click to enlarge (takes a second or two to load).

It’s a great feeling when you ask Code Academy instructor Jeff Cohen a question and his response begins with, “That’s a good question.” Having completed 5 weeks of Ruby and Ruby on Rails instruction, I’m now at the point where I feel confident in my ability to ask logical, educated questions in class. If by the end of Week 3 I was barely learning to crawl, then I now feel ready to stand and walk.

Here’s the 3 biggest things going on in my code world right now:

Ruby, JavaScript, and the O’Reilly books

In addition to everything I’m learning at Code Academy, I’ve been wanting to learn JavaScript, too. A few people recommended I look into O’Reilly Media’s JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford, so I bought a copy and started to work through the first couple chapters. Unfortunately, I started to feel a bit confused and was worried that trying to learn JS at the same time as Ruby might not be such a good idea after all.

I expressed these concerns to both my instructor and my CA mentor and they both said that I should probably try to get really good with Ruby before I launch into yet another programming language. So, I ended up buying another O’Reilly book to help me solidify my knowledge of Ruby: The Ruby Programming Language by David Flanagan & Yukihiro Matsumoto (with drawings by why the lucky stiff).

So far, the book has been a great supplement to my Code Academy education and I hope to launch back into JavaScript before too long. My understanding is that Jeff Cohen will also be covering a certain amount of jQuery in-class, so that should help me pick it up a bit faster.

Pair note-taking

In my last Code Academy blog post, I mentioned that I wasn’t crazy about having to take notes with another person (i.e.: 2 people with 2 keyboards connected to 1 computer taking notes on a shared Google doc); my primary reasoning being that note taking can be a sort-of personal thing, where two people may have very different ways of remembering things.

Well, I’m happy to report that my opinion on this matter has changed! During Week 4, I paired up with Jimmy Odom and I can honestly say I came away with more detailed and thorough notes than I would’ve taken by myself. I also feel like taking notes with another person forces me to type things out more clearly and completely, which means they’ll ultimately be easier to understand later on.

My App

For those who don’t know, one of the biggest components of Code Academy is your final project; an original, web-based application that could, in theory, grow into an actual business. Students who enter Code Academy are encouraged to have at least some idea of what kind of app they want to build for their final project. You’re not necessarily tied to that initial idea though, and I’m told that many students will change and restart their idea numerous times throughout the 12-week course.

The idea I came into the class with was to create a more social version of the Internet Movie Database; something where the individuals responsible for marketing a film could actually take control of their film’s database listing and use it as a way to post news and updates about the film’s production and release progress (ergo, the site would have catered only to new films). However, I’ve decided that—between Fandango, Flixster, The Auteurs, and others—there are simply too many of these sites already for mine to be noticed (or, for that matter, needed).

I do, however, have a brand new idea—a much better idea. It’s not going to be the next Facebook or anything, but I can honestly say that I haven’t been able to find anything like it. All I can say for now is that it will focus specifically on a need of the art community that is not currently being addressed by other social art communities like deviantART or Society6.

In June 2011, I traveled to the American Southwest and explored many of the notable deserts and parks around the Navajo Nation & Four Corners area. My photography from this excursion was then collected into my first, self-published book, Open Range: From Monument Valley to the Mojave Desert.

I used several different cameras for this project, but the work that I was most pleased with were my 35mm film photographs. For these particular images, I used Ilford Delta 100 film on a Canon EOS Rebel X with a 50mm EF f/1.8 lens. The film was developed by Central Camera Company in Chicago and then scanned into my computer using a Canon CanoScan 8800F.

Here are 3 of the best shots that I got from the Monument Valley region. You can find all these and more by in my book sold on Blurb.com. Click each image to enlarge (it may take a second to load).

I love this last photo because you can almost see a skull face in that one rock formation.

Quanah Parker was the last chief of the Comanche Indians and the last leader of the Quahadi band who were one of the last groups of Native Americans to surrender (in 1875). Quanah was the son of a Comanche man and a European woman. His life story is told in the book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne.

India ink with dip pen on paper, 8″ x 11″, 2012

I’ve also posted this piece to my deviantART and Society6 pages.