Misc

I grew up as a painter

These last two weeks have been pretty incredible here in MN. Sure we have had rain that has often kept me off the mountain bike trails, but it’s been stunning. Autumn is here. While I haven’t been riding, I am finding time to get out. I’ve been sneaking walks and hikes in often as they don’t take as much time as riding.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about art and more specifically, my art. My personal art and my expression of what I see and what I feel. For almost 10 years I’ve shared some small aspect of it here. I think my love of my bikes and photography have come out as has my love of my family. I do not however, think my love of art has come outI grew up a painter. I started painting with oil in 3rd grade and pursued that passion all the way through high school. Then I quit. I went to college, got lost in school, bicycles and photography and here I am now.

This painting above was painted on the side of a building near 38th and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis. I don’t know the artist. I snapped this pic, along with a few other angles, and continued on. But…I love this street art painting. I get lost in the colors and love the texture an style. It is so beautiful I just had to share it.

 

 

Frostbike Bite

JWB_NS_feb2015

Seriously I am not dead. Just busy. Busy and good. Busy and blessed. It’s been a long two weeks with a family trip to MN’s North Shore and Frostbike (an industry event we put on each year) week. It’s still going too, but will end for me this coming Friday.  Yeah!

Frostbike took a bite out of me this year. I am feeling both the physical and mental exhaustion after this event. I think it was our best ever (I’ve been to 20+) of them. So great to see all my friends and industry partners. But…I am tired. I’ll be back later this week with some more images from MN’s North Shore, which is quite possibly my favorite place on this earth.

So…Until then I hope you all are getting out and enjoying life. I plan to do quite a bit of that this coming weekend.

Catching Up – Where have I been?!

Well here I am back at http://www.imaginegnat.com. It’s been over a year since my last post. I’m betting some folks may have a few questions so let me get a few questions as well as a few answers out of the way.

Where have you been? Oh my, that is a big question. Well….Since the last post here in late 2012, I have started a new webstore and shut it down. I got a new job as did my wife.  I am a proud dad and my kids are growing up fast. I go to A LOT of soccer. I don’t ride enough.  I’ve traveled to near and far away places. I stood up in front of people for the first time to present about photography at the Adventure Monkey photo tour. I’ve taken a lot of pictures. I’ve learned a lot.  Yep, life! That is what I have been up too.  I will sum it up in the following photo.

GNAT_catch_up_4

I’ve been seeing just what this big old world is all about

Why now? Why am I starting again? Well….This one is a bit tougher to answer. I really miss it for one and that is probably the biggest one. If you read through the past year you can see I had quite a few changes in 2013, maybe too many to handle all at the same time. I need the writing, sharing and interaction to help me process. I also need it for inspiration and to meet people. I miss that. I also sometimes need to look back to see just what I’ve done and where I’ve been. It helps me an d at the same time it drives me.  I’ll sum it all up in the following picture.

Riding, taking pictures, writing and sharing makes me happy

Riding, taking pictures, writing and sharing makes me happy

What’s the plan here? I just think it is time to start getting back to the things that are important to me. It’s time. I’ve tried some other stuff. I have messed around with other photo sites like tumblr and social platforms like Flickr. I find them all to be boring and have shortcomings because they lack the sharing aspect of blogging and all but eliminate deeper and more meaningful posts.  I do plan to curate the material here a bit better than in the past. If I don’t have anything to share, write or post, I don’t plan to force myself. It will come and go with a bit of ebb and flow.  I can tell you though it will be about the things I love; People, bikes, photography and travel.

Hope to see you back here and out there soon

Hope to see you back here and out there soon

 

Campagnolo Peanut Butter Wrenches

I have been interested in Tumblr for some time. I’ve played around with it as a visual and creative diary. Much like blogs and other forms of social networking, it sort of has it’s own culture and group of folks that follow it. I find myself using Tumblr more and more to research specific tags. It seems a bit more of a creative culture than the other social forms of sharing & communicating. I have posted a few hundred various images over on Tumblr over several months. I don’t post that often, but I find it interesting that some of my personal favorite photos as well as photos & posts that get comments here don’t get likes, reblogs or comments over on tumblr. Don’t really know what to make of that yet other than different strokes for different folks.

The above image is my most popular image on Tumblr. I took it at the Golden Saddle bike shop in LA. Not sure it has much relevance here on my blog, but it is bike related and I do like the image. Just thought I’d share it here today.

Back in the saddle

I finally got back in the saddle after taking some time. It seems I have an internal ride barometer that keeps me centered and grounded. I needed some time away from the bike to come back to it motivated. My ride wasn’t spectacular in length or difficulty nor did it feel very good physically. In fact, I felt like I was moving about as fast as an old tank.  The cold, damp, wet air didn’t help either. But…I got what I needed. Time to think. Time to process a few things going on in my head. Time to take a few pics. I came home refreshed and motivated for both cycling and photography. I am back in the saddle with a new perspective. It feels good.