Category Archives: Cool Things

Cake Break

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on June 1, 2009. No comments.

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I’ll be away for a little bit working on projects out of the country. To get you over the hump, I went ahead and made you some cake.

Enjoy,

Mike

Ron from Arkansas

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on May 25, 2009. No comments.

Had the great fortune of photographing Mr. Ron Fulton for my Refugee project. If you’re unfamiliar with it, check out past explorations here and here.

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Met him a few months back after finding myself in a conversation about The South and Jimi Hendrix. We hit it off immediately: he telling me about Arkansas, his time serving in the military and his 40-year-old parrot, Sailor; myself talking about Bama and my quirky, conceptual portrait style.

Since then we’ve been chatting every other week or so about getting together to do a little colab in the studio, and a few days back we finally had an opportunity.

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What a treat to hear Ron move with ease from Hendrix to Skynard to ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow.’ I found myself smiling and kind of zoning out, rapt in his guitar wizardry. This man has got endless amounts of talent, and a damn fine bird to boot!

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On this great Memorial Day, I wanted to get this post up to honor Ron and all the service men and women who serve or have served our country to give us the freedom we enjoy today.

More always,

Mike

The Approximation Parrots

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on May 18, 2009. No comments.

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Getting things square in the studio today for a shoot tomorrow.

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In sum, part of the gig involves a bird of flight, so–during pre-light–we busted out our best parrot impersonations.

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I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really digging these images. Hope the parrot brings it as hard as we did this afternoon.

Enjoy,

Mike

Screenprinting Party and My New Brand Identity: The Office of Michael Clinard

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on May 12, 2009. 2 Comments.

Had a little screen printing party at the studio over the weekend.

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Jenna, aka ‘The Boss’ (pictured above), made it happen. She engineered a low-cost, very effective way of making prints from a short list of supplies found at any Value Village, Goodwill or retail store. The list goes a little something like this:

1) Obtain a few frames from said store. These can be picture frames or those wooden frames that pre-stretched canvas comes on. You know, the canvases that you used to paint your high school masterpieces on. . . exactly, the ones that now reside at above-noted Goodwill store.

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2) Find some very sheer curtain tulle that someone has discarded. Probably on the back wall, wedged between the quilts with the stains on them and the Saved by the Bell sweatshirts.

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3) Rolls of Contact Paper. It’s probably the case the ones you find at Value Village are still tacky enough to affix to your tulle, but if concerned, feel free to go out and pick up a new roll.

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Basically, you staple your tulle very taut to your frame as if making a drum. Affix your contact paper with design cut out and you’re good to go. I found a couple nice tutorials on the process here and here that pretty much break things down.

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Above is my contribution. It’s the new brand identity I’ve been bringing into existence with the aid of a fantastic designer in NYC named Tim Lahan. I’m super excited to start the process of spreading the word and getting it out on market.

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That said, keep your eyes peeled for exciting new updates from the Office of Michael Clinard: General Photography.

Always,

Mike

I’m Steve Bard’s House, do something about it!

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on April 30, 2009. No comments.

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At least, that’s what I hear when I walk into Steve’s home (besides the talking parrots that greet you upon entry).

It really is alive in a sense as Steve continues to amass an evermore increasingly interesting collection of oddities, rarities, preserved wildlife, dead/stuffed things, etc.

We’ve been talking for some time now about doing a portrait. Knowing Steve could appreciate my level of humor, I think we managed to pull something off that honors both the caretaker and his creation.

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More always,

Mike

For Foist Poisen

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on April 27, 2009. No comments.

I fought a Sasquatch.

And I’m shooting here tomorrow night.

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Moore Soone,

Mike

Die Lichtung

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on April 10, 2009. No comments.

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The Office of Michael Clinard is up and running!

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I can’t say enough about how good it is to be back in studio. I’ve greatly missed the art of studio practice, having been on about a five year hiatus since my post-bacc days at the University of Iowa. I affectionately refer to this time away as Hibernation.

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I’m shedding that hairy exoskeleton as we speak.

More always,

Mike

The Yard Waste series

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 28, 2009. No comments.

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Got back into the studio tonight after taking the morning and afternoon off to recharge the human AA battery.

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I don’t know how you guys relax, but nothing spells chillaxin’ more than digging through my compost pile for my next series involving yard waste.

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I must confess, I’ve had this idea bouncing around for quite some time.

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More always,

Mike

ART is Magnuson

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 26, 2009. No comments.

Got back in the studio late last night after a day of running around, doing deals and pressing the ‘execute’  button.

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That said, I had the great pleasure of sitting with Seattle-based artist Perri Lynch of Velocity Made Good.

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If you must ask, Perri is ART in Magnuson, meaning that if you and your pup visited the park for the off-leash canine mecca and wandered up through the sports meadow and/or breezed in to attend the Friends of the Library Book Sale at Hangar 30, chances are you’ve run past her art (look for ‘at ease, 2008′).

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Perri, myself and others are part of an organization called SPACE whose primary objective is to keep Magnuson Park as a center for arts and culture. Unbeknown to most, when the military gifted Magnuson Park to the City of Seattle, it was on the condition that the park be a center for arts and culture. And based on the link, you can see how long it’s been a talking point.

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Which brings us to now. Slowly and systematically, developers in association with the city, are slowly taking steps to displace a cache of working artists from Building 11 in order to turn it into a new, lake-front commercial space for folks like Ivar’s and McDonald’s.

If you’ve been to the park, could you imagine a place without Fin Art or Soundgarden?

That said, on April 25th, the Mountaineers are hosting an event to celebrate the park, its tenants and visitors and all it has to offer. Please try and come out, and stay tuned for details.

Where chaos goes to die. . .

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 21, 2009. No comments.

along with over-saturated Cat-5 cable that doesn’t allow me to get jpg file sizes to web-ethical standards without significant jpeg’ing. Furthermore, I must note that I’m not oblivious to this image treading on the right gutter of ye olde’ blog. More often than not, this ‘oversight’ would bug me to no end, but strangely, not in this instance.

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