Farmboys Workshop Bringing Nature to a Wall or Card Near You

I love local art.  Even better when it is in the family.
Sarah's uncles, Steve and Donald, make up Farmboys Workshop.  Steve takes the photos from around their home Tryon Farm (Michigan City, IN) and adapts them using PhotoShop, and Donald handles production and distribution.
The end result is unique art and dazzling greeting cards.  The images are somewhere between photo, realistic painting, and Van Gogh.
A browse through their offerings will add color to your life, and you will also learn a lot about native Indiana plant life.  From flowers to grasses and turtles to butterflies, they will reacquaint you with nature.  For example, check out this Bee on Spotted Knapweed.  Who knew weeds could be so beautiful?!

Check them out on Etsy.  They make great gifts and cards, and the cards actually make great gifts as well.  We have a collection of three pictures over our coatrack in our entryway, and Sarah bought a bunch of cards to reframe elsewhere.  You can also like them on Facebook to see their latest work.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #72 - Neon Nights

I love cities at night.  With a high population density, Korea's downtowns with lots of tall buildings really pack in the neon.
Here's a cool time-lapse photo video of downtown Cheonan by my friend Andy Phelps, who is an outstanding photographer.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #13 - Spring

Spring is my favorite season, and spring in Korea is breathtaking.  From weeds to shrubs to trees, flowers are everywhere.  Spring in Korea looks like God lined up every color of paint in the world and then closed his eyes and just started throwing it all over the place.  Whole hillsides turn flaming pink with azaleas.  Streets are lined with white cherry blossoms.  Every meadow and every sidewalk are dotted with starbursts of color.  

Although these pictures from my friends Taylor Ford and Andy Phelps are beautiful, perhaps the best tribute I can pay to Korean spring is in this poem.

http://leephelpsphoto.com/

100 Things I Love About Korea: #12 - Fall

Korea has the most spectacular fall I've ever seen.  Not is our neighborhood chock full of dazzling yellows and blood red maples, but some trees even put out unique fall berries and buds.

This photo is by my friend Taylor Ford, and it shows the view from the sidewalk where I walk with John David 3-4 mornings a week.  Amazing.  Absolutely amazing.
Korean falls are long (a full three months), and they are awash with color.  The trees are luxuriously staggered so that they don't all shed their leaves at the same time.  Instead, the eyes have a steady feast of gently changing colors.  It keeps the apartment maintenance crews busy sweeping up all the leaves, but oh is it worth it!

100 Things I Love About Korea: #9 - Old Stuff

http://www.leephelpsphoto.com/

Walking around Korea, you never know what you're going to see.  Most often in my area, you'll be in the midst of sky-rise apartments and bustling shopping areas.  But one turn to a side street - especially in Seoul or some of the "old cities" - and you could run into literally anything.  

Korea has a knack for preserving its history while rushing headlong into the future.  Folk villages go all out in this respect.  And while they are definitely valuable, they are also obviously contrived and artificial.  What really captures my attention is the seemingly random ancient door knocker or the quaint Buddhist temple nestled among restaurants and bars or the side alley that looks like it's straight out of the 1800s.  

Oh, Korea, how I will miss both your plethora of well-planned and well-preserved relics but even more your forgotten and fading fragments.

(Once again, a big thanks to Andy Phelps for the use of his beautiful photographs.  Check him out.)

http://www.leephelpsphoto.com/

100 Things I Love About Korea: #8 - Palaces

www.leephelpsphoto.com

Just a few generations ago, Korea still had kings.  Throughout the country, there are a variety of beautiful palaces that are either ancient or authentically restored.  Touring them is like stepping back in time.  You can almost feel the vibrations from trumpets and horse hooves.  Sometimes you can literally hear banners flapping in the wind or gigantic symbols gonging in tribute to the ancestors.
Perhaps because their architecture is so different from Western styles, perhaps because their color schemes are so striking, perhaps because there is some mysterious truth to the feng shui spacing of buildings and open spaces ... I'm not sure why, but Korean palaces give me a deep sense of awe and peace.
To explore this in two dimensions, check out my friend Andy Phelps's phenomenal photography.  Thanks to him for permission to use his pics here.  (And if you're so inclined, you can even buy a few prints for yourself.  Sarah and I are thinking of doing this for Christmas presents this year.  We've given just about everything else Korea-related already.)

www.leephelpsphoto.com

Time Lapse Theology (Isaiah 40:1-11)

    That was called “Cheonan By Night,” and it is a time lapse video by our own Andy Phelps.  One of the things I love about this video is the contrast of stability and change.  If we could expand the length of this video to 24 hours, we would see even more change.  The ebb and flow of people and traffic and light would change. 
    If we could expand the video to a month, we could see more coats and scarves emerging.  We could see the huge Christmas tree being installed.
    If we could expand the time frame to a year, we would see the streets packed for a few frames with the Cheonan Dance Festival.  We would see the changing of the seasons.  We would also see Yaoori change to ShinSeGye
    If we could expand the time frame to ten years, we would see the art plaza remodeled and the addition of the flower spear.  We would see the renovation of the river, construction projects, changing fashions, and businesses moving in and out.
    If we could expand the time frame to one hundred years in the same location, we would see Cheonan arise out of the rice fields and pine forests.  We would see North Korean tanks roll in during the Battle of Cheonan.  Even earlier, we might see occupying Japanese soldiers and cars replacing horse drawn carts.
    If we could expand it to one thousand years, what would we see?  Maybe kings on their way to the OnYang springs.  Maybe invasions by the Mongols or the Manchu. 

Korea Tip 120: Cheonan at Night

Want a sneak peak of Cheonan?  Or maybe just an interesting look at a place you've seen a thousand times? 
Here's a cool time-lapse photo video of downtown Cheonan by my friend Andy Phelps, who is an outstanding photographer.