Hiring a professional inspector when looking to buy a house is a good idea but sometimes they miss some details too. So it is an advantage if you know how to inspect a house for problems or potential problems that will cost you money to repair. It can also help you negotiate a lower price if defects are found.

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within the interior of the ancients walls of tallinn lies a unesco world heritage site. completed by the richest of materials, textures and a balance of emotions, this historial city is adapted from the eighteenth and nineteenth century into our modern day. it is possible to read stories from the marks made in time by the different influences and cultural happenings.

So its Halloween! And thats spooky!
So here is a spooky post
Yesterday someone put a couple of photos on the blog at work of Bradford Odeon which is about the be bulldozed, the images of the decaying cinema really inspired me. After a bit more snooping I’ve found all sorts of amazing photos of abandoned buildings, turns out ‘Urban Exploration’ is a bit of a cool thing to do! I might have to go on an adventure!

Severalls Mental Hospital, Colchester.

West Park Asylum, Surrey.

Ashworth Secure Hospital, Mersyside.

These next photos are by the lovely Mr Christopher Harker, I do hope he doesn’t mind me including them. Theyre just too amazing to leave off this post though!

Wonderful!!

There are loads of forums and things where photos such as this, and tips about Urban Exploration can be found, just do a Google!

Heres the one I found most of the best pics off though.

Have a lovely Halloween everyone!

"Place in Time", Mixed Media.

John Marak
Surface and Shadow

10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Hilliard Gallery
404 E. 18th St.
Kansas City, MO
816.561.2956

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday
Runs through: Oct. 31

Gallery site: http://www.hilliardgallery.com

Try something the next time you’re standing on a city street corner, waiting on a bus to show up or for the light to change so you can get across.

Look down at the sidewalk. No … really look at the sidewalk, with its dirt and cracks. If there’s a rusty metal plate in the mix, so much the better. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll be able to turn around and see a wall that’s been painted over several times, with the layers peeling and wearing away.

Ugly? Nondescript, at best? As a whole, perhaps. But get a little closer. Narrow your field of vision. Take some time, if time allows, to notice the variations and contrasts in color and texture.

And if something suddenly strikes you as beautiful … well, welcome to John Marak’s world of Surface and Shadow.

That’s the title of Marak’s latest show of mixed-media works, on display this month at Hilliard Gallery in the East Crossroads. The artist, a Kansas City native, draws the inspiration for his “Urban Abstractions” from the things most people overlook or look down on — in one way or another.

I love the look and feel of objects, walls, and surfaces that show the marks of time, he writes. Pretty simple, yet I could spend a lifetime seeking out those places and creating those feelings.

The first thing Marak does, though, is strip away any sense of place. Some of his pieces have titles that reflect their origin — Sugar Creek, perhaps, or West Bottoms, or 3rd & Delaware — but no one, looking at a work without seeing its name, would say “Hey, that’s …”

But because they are devoid of visual context, Marak’s recreations can be appreciated strictly for the things that caught his attention in the first place.

Sure, it might be interesting to know the place and time where he first was struck by the imagery in Place in Time, today’s featured piece. But that knowledge isn’t essential to an appreciation of the piece and what makes it work: the tension between the dominant colors (with occasional incursions in both directions), the small punctuations of rust and other damage, and the sense of time both adding texture and wearing it away.

For purely visual purposes, it’s not even necessary to know that the works in Surface and Shadow all have their roots in real places. That knowledge, however, enables — perhaps even prods — viewers to look at the world through Marak’s eyes and see the beauty in the mundane.

Perhaps that is, as Marak puts it, “pretty simple”. The best lessons often are.

I was walking along and something caught my eye.it is the corner of a pub in Southsea and where it is it catches the full blast of all the south westerlies, so you can imagine that paint need repainting once in a while,Notice the red in the bottom photo.The cropped version is at the top and the more important photo though the red on black and white with black make for a interesting composition.

f2.8   1/640  ISO 100

So, I was out of town again for the second day in a row. Such opportunities allow me to take photos I wouldn’t otherwise take, like this one of a white window, green bench, and red wall.

Seeing today was September 25, meaning Christmas is only 3 months away, I thought it appropriate to take a photo featuring the typical holiday colours.

I like this photo because of the colours (green, red, white) and the lines (horizontal, vertical, intersecting). Each aspect of the photo (bench, wall, window) adds something to the photo.  While a photo of a bench could make for a great photo, add a wall with opposite lines and a different colour and a window with even more lines and another colour and chances are you’ll get an interesting photo.

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Washed away by spirit, baptized by taggers and other destructors of property already deconstructed by time and space. Wet forms, washed up form, the wave of the future past tense, always tense, imbibed by tenseness.
Surf’s up, grab the bored and ride the wave of urban expression, concrete and spray can holy of holies, halliluehah of form, the wave of form made in the shade of night and shot in the day…all in the shadow of aerosol and the presence of pigment.

Wave, wave hello… then goodbye!

Seen on the Springfield First Friday Art Walk.

South Campbell Avenue / East walnut Street, Downtown Springfield.

04 September 2009 | Springfield, Missouri | Copyright © 2009 Gary Allman

A fence that stretched along the side of a building and without observable purpose, protected by a small metal guard rail.

A few abandoned bricks on the step of an old, equally abandoned step-side pickup truck bed.

these are more pics from the richelieu warehouse, not the du collège warehouse in which you will be drinking wine on thursday evening from six to ten. the lady is celine gorham, an artist/crafster we’re trying to kidnap. the gentleman is some guy she knows. photos by svea vikander.

shard of glass in hands of flesh

peeling paint in soft light

broken window opening

her (tag)

I am always looking for colour, pattern and texture when I am out beach walking. So I found the rusty corrugated iron roofing on one of the boat houses at Chapmans Pool irresistible. It had everything. I love the combination of colours from the peeling torquoise blue and black successive paint layers plus the orange of the iron corrosion. The ridges and grooves of the corrugated iron sheets provide interesting shape. The fragile detaching paint flakes and almost lacey patterns of the most rusted patches create texture. There is the overall patchwork pattern of new and old sheets of roofing – repairs and replacements for wear and tear and storm damage over the years. The close-up detailed patterning and design could be an abstract art work.

Here are a few views of these ferruginous patterns. It is interesting to note that underneath these colourful old panels, there appears to be some perfectly sound and new roofing – so it’s possible that the old iron sheets have been retained because they blend in better with the surroundings – or to add a bit of local colour.

 Photographs in this blog are copyright property of Jessica Winder with all rights reserved

When traffic on the BQE slows to 1 or 2 mph, you notice things you wouldn’t ordinarily. The bottom layer of this wall appears to be an ad with lettering. Some colors were painted on top, and finally a white rectangle was put on top to cover all that was underneath. Then it started to crumble. The wall brings to mind the mid-century de-collagists known as the affichistes (the most famous of whom was Mimmo Rotella), who made art by layering and ripping posters.

A great place for photography is the abandoned San Diego Police Headquarters. Built in 1939 and used until the mid 80’s. This is now under construction for a new retail space. There are still a few rows of cell blocks and plenty of toilets to view. The place is quite large and I imagine it goes underground. We found a few good places to photo shoot, oh how I wish to do a fashion piece here before it’s remodeled.
Enjoy it while there is still a bit of history left. San Diego is experienced at wiping away all traces of yesteryear for the sterile use of today.

*** All images have been taken by Melody Hall and are copyright.

Southern Exposure by helen frankenthaler

Flirt by helen frankenthaler

Flotilla by Helen Frankenthaler

One of the very first jobs I had out of college was acually the shortest and most rewarding I have had to date. I worked for Brand-X studios where they were contracted by Artist  to create high quality Silkscreen Prints of there work.  I always thought of it as be a legal art forger made it seem a little more exciting every day.  One of the clients that the studio did work for was Helen Frankenthaler.  At the time I was not familar with her work but working around it every day for a month  sure helped.  These three prints are ones that were completed while I was there, The last one I remeber the most because I would come in and every time I looked at it all I could see was an absact snow man.

Helen Frankenthaler is an american abstract expressionist that has been in the art worlds eye since the middle of the 20th century.  she is best known  for the technique of Soak staining, where she paints on untreated canvas  with deluted oil paints to give the effect of a water color painting  on cavas.  her work has also been described under the term color field painting which is seen as large  fields of flat soild color.  in terms of Frankenthaler I would disagree, because I don’t see hers as just flat spots of color all her large fields of color have a texture of something happening in them that has a more subtle effect.

I think it has very common but very difficult to do good traditional abstract photography.  And one of the most common tried ways to do this in photography is photographing pealing paint  or a message board of tattered posters or flier.  I choose this image of one of my attempts because I feel like it reminds me of Frankenthaler’s work in its subtle color changes in large color fields. it also strikes similarities to me in the saining  of the paint in some parts.

Weathered Building, originally uploaded by Clbailey1.

The neighbor’s garage looks creepy at night, especially with that green-tinged light…probably should have got closer for this picture…

Bat House, originally uploaded by Clbailey1.

Have been bad about not posting photos for the last few days…we have had this bat house on the back of our garage for twelve years now and I don’t think we’ve ever had an occupant.

Time to brainstorm photo ideas for the weekend. Anyone out there have some good ideas to share? Let me know!

Hints of “Guernica”, maybe? See the green bull falling face down?

old bar on the side of the street in Detroit Copyright Bryan Moore

I took this picture  on one of my trips  to Detroit to see family and friends.  I had been downtown looking at artist lofts my father had seen but once I got there with him we realized they were closed.  We continued  around the city just looking  at the city when I asked him to pull over at this bar.  I am a huge fan of run down thins and I like old painted brick buildings, the way the paint peels off showing you both past and present. Although  this did peak my interest after we stopped it was the old light bulb sign that made me want to stop.

[photo on flickr]

[photo on flickr]

Seen on the Springfield First Friday Art Walk.

South Campbell Avenue, Downtown Springfield.

04 September 2009 | Springfield, Missouri | Copyright © 2009 Gary Allman