Signs of spring

 The end of February starts bringing signs of spring and hope.

Simon loves cats

 

House Project: Siding, windows, gutters

 We finally bit the bullet and forked over a small fortune (via home equity loan) to replace the siding, windows, and gutters on our house. We bought this place six years ago knowing we'd need to replace and fix many things. This was the most expensive, but it should be the last big project.

After (above)

Before (below)

The cool thing is we can now open all of our windows and they all have screens. Now all we need is some nice spring weather!

Self portrait

 

In her early work, simply titled "self portrait" the artist shows herself reflected in a computer screen, taken by her phone. The idea that her self is being transmuted through two screens symbolizes how screens have come to dominate our lives and affect our sense of self. Furthermore, the artist looks very bored, as if she is so tired of screens, but also tethered to them in order to perform her job requirements and live in a modern society where communication, banking, and planning are all done with computers. The fact that there is no window visible, except the computer Windows logo at the bottom of the screen, is meant to reflect the way that screens separate us from nature. The WUNC sticker under the monitor and the reflection of the pen and paper connote another time period, when writing or radio dominated -- two communication technologies that probably also unsettled society and changed daily life when they first emerged. The paintings on the wall in the background depicting trains and ships also connect to the idea of technological advancements that opened new frontiers and sped up communication. In it's whole, the photo reflects not only the tedium of modern life, but also the idea that technologies have always been altering human life, and that there is really nothing new under the sun.