Decked out

This is one of the first skate decks I painted that I ended up giving to Matt Wes. It took forever to paint because I hand painted each skull and put like 10 or 11 coats of varnish on it.

This is my Flint skate deck. Really if you've never been to Flint you wouldn't know, but the CB tower is a landmark and no matter what Flint will always be home.

These are a couple of decks that my friend Brooke and I did for the band Left Alone on Hellcat Records. We have anther design too, but I don't have any pictures of it. All the decks sold out in like a month and we've both been too busy to make more. Hand painting takes way too long, so we need to money up so we can start screening them.

Old Louisville

One of my favorite creepy places to hang out is the abandoned Columbarium cemetery.

It's been years since I've been there, but it's supposedly haunted.

The back story is that some guy in the 80's that owned started digging up old graves and would like bury 4-5 people in the same grave to make more money. There are also two graves that are said to  belong to witches. I could only find one of those gravestones. At the bottom of the stone it reads "I'll Live Again".

This particular stone was behind the building that they did cremations in.

 

When I was last there some of the really old graves were sunken in and you could see into the cement vaults where people where still buried.

This is from inside the caretakers shed. Some kids spray painted "Life Takers" on the wall and its got a really old car and a bunch of really old tombstones in it.

Old times

It's strange how everything in Flint just crumbles and rots. It's like no one cares enough to keep things nice. Sure everyone is poor...but what happened to pride of ownership ?

Case in point, the building where I work is a historic old theater building. At one time it was the spot to go to flint. You could go bowling, eat at a restaurant, dance, or watch a play/movie/band.

During the 80's and 90's there was even a thriving punk and metal scene in the building with bands such as Danzig, Slayer, Fugazi, Black Flag, and a ton of others.

It's like no one cares about keeping anything around. The building is now falling apart, especially the theater and basement areas. The owners say that they are trying to restore it, but really they only care

about the office space in the building. There has been no work on any of the actual historical areas in the building in the six months I have worked there.

This is the basement. This area used to be a restaurant. Now there is standing water and chunks of the ceiling are falling

 

This is from one of the old dressing rooms on the third floor of the theater part. I don't think anyone has been in there in years.

 This is the old piano that is in the basement. 

*All photos are property of Strick shot in 2009 - Unedited, Prints available for purchase

Portraits.

I'm not really into taking portraits of people, but I just got an email about setting up an interview at a portrait studio in Glenview, IL. I'm not sure if it's something I'll actually be into, but it's a step in the right direction.

Here are some portraits of my niece I did. I can't see this job being too much different. At least I'll be able to use some studio lights.

 

Late Night Mischief

Sunday nights are going to be "meeting" nights at the White Horse for half off pizza and just general nonsense.

This was our first one and we all ended up going to where I work and doing a photo shoot for my friends' band around 11pm.

The girl taking the pictures didn't really know what she was doing, but my friend Brant and I are "professionals" even if we don't have photo jobs at the moment so we ended up doing the lighting and direction of the shoot, but then we got frustrated and gave up and just acted stupid the rest of night.

Here is a photo of Morriseville Bridge.

After we took a few pictures, we thought it would be fun to do a mock photo of it.

Here is Brant, Suzy? (the girl taking the pictures), and me

Embroidery 101

I'm learning how to hand embroider.

I think I didn't do too badly for a first attempt.

This is a tea towel that I'm going to give to my friend. 

Stuff I'm working on

I'm in sewing mode as of late.
Here are some little bags I've been working on.

My life in Ruins

Things are rough all over.

I'm facing unemployment in a matter of weeks for the first time in my life.
It's hard to stay positive when you've got no plan or prospects.

I'm trying to plan my escape, but it's difficult when you don't have a lot of help or when those who are willing to help live so far away