As I opened the door to the basement of a church office I was greeted by a scene of laughter, music, brightly painted walls and teenagers lounging in comfy chairs. I met Vaughn, the youth director for the church who introduced me to his “crew,” the twenty youngsters who were scattered through the space. Vaughn opened the space several months ago as a safe creative place for teenagers to express themselves and learn. Four nights a week the doors are open, some nights with a message and chatting about everyones individual purpose and goals, and other nights full of improve, music jams, games and snacks. I swung by here and there throughout the week to catch Vaughn with the crew and capture their energy.
Tag Archives: Good Life
Suhey Peppers
Third Generation Potter
I met Simon back in December at a Christmas market event and was intrigued by the steady pulse of his foot and hands as he molded small pitchers while chatting with me. His accent and stories of being a third generation potter stuck in my mind and when I got back to the office and did a quick search I realized he and his pottery lineage is an interesting one. I shared with our editor and today in our Good Life section we have a feature on simon.
I met up with Simon for a snowy afternoon in his home studio, that’s still a work in progress, as he warmed his hands to create pieces of art out of clumps of clay.
Tim Sellers, “timmytats”
Last week I got to spend some time in a shop along Beaver Avenue that I have walked by hundreds of times. I’ve always thought about getting a tattoo, but of always chicken out with the fact that it’s a needle digging into you for an extended amount of time.
Tattoo Marks Studio 2 has been a staple business on Beaver on the block between Allen and Pugh with flash lining the inside walls visible through the large front window. I spent two afternoons with tattoo artist Tim Sellers, known as timmytatts, as he explained the history of the art, and created work for costumers. His style is weaved through all of his work and his canvases walk among us. I have a new respect for tattoos and have realized it’s not as scary as I thought.
Blue Band Director Richard Bundy
“LETS GO STATE” could be heard as I pulled in to photograph at the Blue Band practice field one afternoon last week. Today a story I worked on about Blue Band director Richard Bundy was published. Bundy coordinates one of the best college marching band traditions in the country. As I spent time at several of the band camp rehearsals I saw all the work that goes into a few short days.
Illustrator Jason Lenox
Today a project I worked on last month ran in our Good Life section. The first Sunday of each month we publish Good Life, which features people in the area doing unique and interesting things around the community. This month featured illustrator Jason Lenox.
I met Jason when I was photographing a Setsucon, a comic/anime convention hosted by Penn State students. Knowing he was from the area I spent some time at his booth as he worked on detailing a panel for his upcoming book and chatted with visitors of all ages.
I sat down with him as he enthusiastically showed me the first book, “Ugli Studios Presents #1.” He then flipped through his current project showing me how he sketched out the pages, and will continue the process by detailing each panel after a high quality scan was made.
A couple weeks later I met up with Jason again in his home studio to see the progress and make some more images. We chatted for two hours as I photographed and he carefully detailed just one panel of a four panel page.
I tried as many different angles as I could as his pens moved very precisely through the panel.
Keep your eyes out for the new book and Jason’s work to be featured in a movie in the upcoming months.