Posts tagged as “artists” from the blog

Posts tagged as “artists”  from the blog. Well, this is gratuitous as hell isn’t it? Most of these posts are about me: artist, woman, emotional being. Camicamirobot.

There’s a few posts sharing this category, none of them consistent or particularly interesting but available for you to read.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to drop a comment on the blog and let me know how you are feeling!

Billy Bongster x Camicamirobot Shirt Collaboration

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

So, if you haven’t read about this yet now you know: My dad is Billy Bongster. He’s an incredibly talented musician, songwriter, God fearing lover of marijuana. A total burnout, really. He’s Billy Bongster. He plays guitar and he smokes pot.

His music is a mix of blues and alternative rock guitar, and it’s wonderful. When I was young, my siblings and I were always were exposed to his guitar playing and various gigs. I remember HempAid 1999 in Michigan. All of the Bike Weeks at Daytona beach. All of the Hempfests in Tampa.

I’ll never forget this one time we were all out to eat at this Italian place that amounted to a doublewide trailer on U.S 19 in New Port Richey, Florida. The food wasn’t bad nor the service memorable, though the idea in retrospect is pretty entertaining.

I asked the server for marijuana sauce instead of marinara with my mozzarella sticks. I’d been confused about the two because I was a little kid and my dad had a marijuana festival he played at earlier that day.

Everyone laughed, the eggplant parmeseans that I assume most of us ate at the time had finally arrived and in my mind this was a good memory.

  • Billy Bongster, the Dad
  • Billy Bongster the musician

For a long time, my dad didn’t understand why the 3 of us (Daniel, my brother, and Allie our sister) were so into using the internet. He didn’t get social media on any level and made fun of us.

In the last 3 years or so I’ve really seen him BLOOM with it. He’s built himself a following of fans. It’s been quite impressive and I am a very proud daughter, as I’ve seen him come a long way with his life.

His initially silly and bizarre posts have become, old man shitposting territory, and yet I am proud that he’s able to do stuff like this.

Posting to Facebook pages and maintaining a website are necessary elements to success in this digital age we are living in. I’ve decid that I am going to design some tshirts for him to start selling on his website. As a creative myself, this feels like an opportunity to give back.

We are looking at June 1st, 2019!

Mountain Goddess Protector Painting

A goddess protector of the mountains

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

That’s who I decided was going to be hovering over the green mountains. A goddess. This latest painting is 42″x tall and I’m not sure I love it yet. Mountains are fine but I really dropped the ball on this beautiful woman figure and her rainbow melted face.

The current version is on the far right. Not politically, of course.

  • A process: painting word in progress gif
  • Mountain Protector Painting
  • Mountain Goddess Protector Painting

When I feel better about it, I’ll update the gallery as per usual. Until now, I wanted to post about it and get some feedback. I really want to focus more on anatomy. Its becoming obvious this was always a hobby/ outlet for me and not a craft I took seriously enough to practice.

I’ve been going through a lot of emotional changes and redirections and it’s been very stressful for me.

As I move around in my life adjusting to the comfort of my husband’s presence and the stress of my son’s, I have decided on new directions in my career.

Some things that I have truly cherished for the past 4 years are no longer compatible with my life as a mother and the respectful thing to do for us both is for me to find something that makes more sense.

This means a lot of tightening for the next few months while I work on establishing my next plan. I’m praying and touching my heart and trying to care about my own well being and doing more meaningful things with my time.

I want to truly believe an organization is doing something important. I don’t just want another paycheck. It’s become so stressful and I lack the foundation to be able to effectively sort through that sort of post acquisition startup stress. I’ve been absorbed into a large organization against my will and recognize that I don’t thrive in that one-hat sort of situation.

I’m an overseer. I need to solve this by myself, and not on company time. I’ve been reflecting a lot about my career while I paint lately, It’s been very therapeutic.

  • Mountain Goddess Protector Painting

Tie-dye adventures / Boise’s only wet month

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

The skies are gray but in my eyes I see only tie-dye. A kaleidoscope of colors twisting into each other. It’s a what I’ve been occupying my time while while Boise spends a few days getting wet outside.

I heard thunder for the first time in two years. It was a magical gift from Boise after so many months of consecutive debilitating dryness.

The rainy weather has me feeling creative and it’s been bringing with it new flowers and greener grass.

  • The view from our apartment in Boise

I’ve been trying to set up a photoshoot with a Boise local photographer named Chad Estes but it hasn’t lined up with the chaotic schedule of my little one. Hopefully this week that can finally flesh out.

Recently, the baby boy and I went on an adventure up the mountains surrounding Boise. They were muddy as hell because of the weather so far. You know what they say, April showers bring May flowers. Here this rings especially true. We were listening to Hank Williams sing songs about God and despair and looked at how small everything was in proper context. In reality, he stayed in the car and I contemplated towards him in my mind. It was nice anyways.

Shane and I did tie dying and my dress turned out beautiful. I’m considering all kinds of new patterns and scenes of the universe I can easily create with fabric dye and anticipate a budding new hobby. After thinking about some new techniques, I am super excited to get more dye! I just need to try using a black t-shirt + bleach solution and I can hopefully create some celestial designs.

I had a tie-dye baby blanket as a little girl and so I dyed a blanked for my little one as well. It warms me to my core seeing him clutching it in his sleep.

Some Art that I have loved for 10 years+

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

Art helps you thrive. I can remember being a young teenager and falling deeply down a rabbit hole of truly wild art. Think Japanese Guro, a sub unit of manga that features extreme gore. I remember Shintaro Kago, one of my favorite artists to this day. Trevor Brown, of course. I have both of their art hanging up in my apartment. I also have works by the lovely Junko Mizuno, mostly gig flyers for some bands I love like the Melvins and Swans. Hikari Shimoda also graces my walls, I am so in love with the style.

For decades. This is a throwback to those that have inspired me the most through the years. Thank you <3

Shintaro Kago: The Guro Artist

Trevor Brown

Junko Mizuno

Hikari Shimoda

They all have such a unique style that explores innocence and childhood in ways that have resonated with me throughout the years. I hope you take the time to dive further into their bodies of work. If you’ve been struggling to find new art to help you replenish your soul, digging into the internet to find some comfort could be just what you need. It works for me every time, anyways.

I always loved them. There’s a few more, such as:

  • Francesca Woodman
  • Francis Bacon
  • Mari Chan
  • Toshio Saeki
  • Tama
  • Takato Yamamoto

Explore them, and you just might find something new and interesting that brings you a renewed appreciate for life. It’s hard to find for me lately outside of creating my own art, when my mind and body feel stagnant and tired and the world around me is spinning on it’s left nut.

Wish me luck, internet, this week I am trying really hard to thrive. The universe might not want me to, but I am trying anyways and I know my favorite artists are here to help me.

What was once a background is now another painting of faces

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

I always get started with a new painting knowing that I don’t just want another painting of faces.

They always end up dominating my art. And here were are again, with a canvas full of faces. I just wanted to share a quick update as to where I’m at with making art this weekend. I did it! 😀

I’m not entirely done yet, of course and so these haven’t been added these to the art gallery section. When I said I’m going to focus on posting more, I meant it! Even if my blog posts are quite swift and to the point, as in just some work in progress shots.

It’s important to at least hold myself accountable. I hope you can hold me accountable too, and post angry comments if you don’t hear from me in a while.

  • Lots and lots of layers of acrylic paint here to get that texture effect on point
  • Different face shapes, the one on the left is way different now
  • heart / round

I am feeling satisfied with the progress so far, but looking forward to moar pink >:D

I’ve decided to start writing newsletters once and a while. I created a list but never sent anything since 2015. If you’re interested, please sign up!

Mothers on social media, and how the internet has changed family dynamics

Boise, Idaho, motherhood, Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog, technology, writing

This is something I’ve been thinking/reading about lately. Mostly reactions to this article about a freshly minted 14 year old on social media who was shocked about the content posted about her by family without her knowledge.

We have a generation of babies right now that will likely emerge as adults in a world with internet.

Babies with videos and images of themselves being assaulted by cheese, learning how to speak and walk. Babies growing up, throwing tantrums and asking questions all documented- sometimes in its entirety- on the internet.

I feel the compulsion interesting and understandable. It has only become very recently that families were able to do more than simply pull photos out from your wallet or purse. Now that we are able to share online, we will overshare. This leaves each person vulnerable. Imagine what this data is doing for machine learning.

We are watching the first generation of people with internet raising their children.

Right now, teenagers exist in the United States that have been entirely denied a private childhood, and I think that’s a problem.

Blogging around your children robs them of something that was afforded to you: the right to have some of their most intimate and vulnerable moments as humans exposed to the internet without consent.

I don’t think that posting a photo is a bad thing, but the volumes of data provided to huge platforms as Facebook and similar is a very scary thought. I would imagine the learning would become so successful that predictions can be made on virtually anything about a person if for example Facebook had data on them from birth to adulthood.

While it would be best to not post photos at all on the internet, I already posted my son’s newborn photo on this website. I’m excited for him to be a part of the rest of my life, and I don’t regret it. I am making a promise to him and to myself that it would be the last one. It’s hard, because he is extremely beautiful to me but this feels like the right way to go.

When he is able to understand what the internet is and tells me he wants to explore it, then we can catch back up. So far, there’s a lot of evidence to back up claims that too much internet access can cause or exacerbate depression.

I want to keep him informed about the opportunities that the internet can provide, as well as the dangers of it.

I want to teach him how to use the internet effectively.

This will be an interesting conversation as his father is not an “internet” person outside of youtube. I work online in the social media and advertising space. We both have vastly different and useful opinions on the internet to share. We also agree that the more time he spends in nature, the better off if will be.

I don’t make art enough these days to update the gallery, but I’m thinking about it. Life is tiring right now because little one is nearly 4 months old. I’ll draft something next weekend.

I hope you’ve noticed the work uploading more art on to this web page. I have a huge variety of work from photography to illustrations with pen to large scale mixed media/ acrylic paintings.

They span over a decade at least, so I’ve been entertaining the idea of respecting myself as an artist.

Not just as a slug of a woman.

With love,

It’s too easy…

photos, Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

To drink cup after cup of tea. Especially when its cold out, when I’m listening to this song. When it heats up outside, I will take slices of mango and freeze them in the ice cube tray and put them in my cups of tea to cool them down.

Drinking tea has always been something I loved. At age 12, I wrote about the ceremonies in Japan and the different types of tea and meanings of each. I don’t remember if it was accurate information.

Way back then, I used a website for children that was intended to connect them with similar aged kids to become penpals from all around the world. I wrote back and forth to a girl named Laura who lived in New Zealand and always talked about how pretty it was until one day she stopped writing back.

I had some penpals from Japan for a short period of time as well. Despite never learning to speak fluent Japanese, I loved discovering more Japanese art online and writing more than anything else.

I loved the internet, and thought it was incredible.

That I happened to exist at a time where I could just find a person in New Zealand . That this person would want to talk to me on aim or through letters that traveled thousands of miles to get to them.

I hope my son will take on a penpal when he’s that age.

It’s almost Spring times. I call it spring, despite the snow on the mountains. Boise is getting warmer, my legs are walking longer and the sun is bright more often than not.

I was playing with light while the boys were asleep. Putting dishes in the dishwasher, opening the blinds. I’m still doing good. The plan is to do some art this weekend, and some writing, and more google analytics lessons. Pray for the world and feel grateful for life.

Experimenting with light / my face

Sitting and clinging to my artistic identity

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog
My latest artwork, at 4 different stages of growth. Taken over the course of 48 hours.

Time looks so different for everyone. I’ve noticed lately that it looks like sitting for me.

Sitting on a couch, and then a recliner, and then in bed. My bambino in my arms everywhere. Sitting on my ass, like a modern day human.

I know how bad sitting is for human beings and I think about it a lot, while I’m sitting down. This is just how life is in 2019. Everyone everywhere: sitting down.

I’ve allowed my mind to go to the wind. When I know there’s so much to do, but I want nothing more than to rest and stare at my baby.

I want to talk to him, hold him and let my eyes glaze over. To become a slave to his growth and well being.

It’s a very strange and intense feeling and I’ve bent to force myself into self care and making art and doing the bare minimum mentally.

I’m just focusing on rest and rejuvenation.

I want this year to be bursting. I ‘m now married, committed to my family as they are permanent fixtures in my life.

A life I never felt had permanent fixtures. It’s a good feeling knowing every day I will have them. It’s a huge responsibility and a huge comfort.

I feel swollen with desire to be a better person now.

Feeling like I’m in the calm before a storm of growth.

Thinking to myself, “This is a great time for a nap”. In one week, when my maternity leave is over I will return to my computer. Feeling reenergized.

Instead of sitting, I will be walking. I will be breathing and maybe driving or hiking or laying in the sun. It up straight, type with good posture, drink my water, clear my throat on mute, read books at night again, and I am going to thrive.

On weekends, I will be painting and spending time with my family.

I’m ready for life. Ready for my new normal life.

Making art but only in between Nourishment & Pleasure

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

I have been trying to make art every weekend. It is not so easy. Staying up late, waking up early and being 100% focused on the safety and comfort of a brand new person is exhausting stuff, not to my surprise.

My body does not make art, it is merely a vessel to provide nourishment and pleasure.

The little bambino is so beautiful. Perfect, handsome and healthy. All of my energy is focused on being there for the baby. I am so tired. Turning 30 in 2019 and I feel it. New art has been added to the gallery. Acrylic paintings are all for sale,  so please contact me with interest!

Paypal accepted.

I read things that make me cry

Posts tagged as "artists" from the blog

After all these years, I still don’t know why I cry so often. So deliberately. I’ll sit around and read all day.

I’ll read things that make me cry because they are so beautiful.

And I will read things that make me so angry that I give myself a headache.

None of these things are contributing to my future, just my right now. They are emotion drivers, and I don’t know why I’m addicted to emotions.

BH080-1080x717.jpg

Like this photograph by Barbara Hammer pulled from an article on Hyperallergic. 

But that’s the power of the internet, isn’t it? So much content to absorb, it’s so easy to get sucked into things that are constantly manipulating the way that you feel. I loved all of Barbara Hammer’s photography and wonder what it would have been like the year I was born- 1989. As a woman. The way women have existed for the last few decades, and the centuries before that. I am grateful to exist right now where I have an open platform to address any concerns I have about the ways I have been unfairly treated. This platform, and your ability to get your words and feelings into at least a few eyes through clever use and placement of keywords and organization of your content.

Here’s to me, publishing a draft first typed 2 months ago. Say hi to your mom for me.