I apologize in advance for the slew of photographs! Since I've been traveling and what not its been hard to consistently upload stuff, and now I want to do it all in order of the date I shot them so blargh. All of it is old stuff it makes my head spin.

Lately all I've been doing is altering books and collaging and drawing and mixing the two. Can't wait to put em up but I gotta get the photographs up first! Anywho, I feel as if I've been running around with an amazing inspiring soundtrack and my eyes have been filled with incredible works by you guys. Keep it up!!!

Hey guys! Looks like I made it home alive. Got back from a trip with my dad to South America eleven days ago. Adjusting back to life in a Canadian winter but so far its actually been good. The trip was, how do I say this, the best and worst experience jumbled into one? It was an experience to say the least and I learned a lot about myself and my dad which I'm very happy about. Since I've been back I dug up the portfolio website files I had designed and re-did the whole thing. Its even more simplistic and compact and I streamlined the code. After that I looked through every single picture I've taken in the last four years and organized and deleted like a mad man. My eyes have grown cross-eyed and I think I may need reading glasses, but at least I finished it right? I also bought a domain name, www.adambrandt.ca, though nothing will be up for another couple of days. I don't want to have a 'under construction' sign because those always just make me angry. Its all or nothing kids. Anywho, my plans for the next month or so is get all of that finished and working, wait for school to start in February, create create create, read, go cross country skiing lots and maybe even snowboarding, and try to put more time into this site (and not feel guilty if I don't get around to it).

That being said, how are YOU doing? Have I missed anything this time around (I seem to leave, come back and ask what happened, and then leave, but this time I have to stick around for school and things so you'll be seeing a lot of me. Aren't you lucky, HAH )? Plans for the winter months?

Today whilst browsing the collage galleries I decided to revive an old project of mine, Case Sensitive. A collage feature! Please heart it: Case Sensitive 6

While browsing I found a deviant, ~Mopti, who has a massive gallery with a massive amount of crazy good and unusual (in the best possible way) nudes. Check em out below!

If moving all my stuff and traveling have taught me anything its this, I want to lead a more minimal life. I had so many clothes and books that I didn't actually need (four full garbage bags actually) but was holding onto because I was attached to them somehow. Once I realized that I only wear a small amount of those clothes, and will never read the majority of the books I felt I should give them to the thrift store and let other people who actually need them buy them. It was like a weight off my shoulders when I let all of that go. Now when I look in my closet I don't wonder about what to wear because I like everything. I feel silly saying this because it almost sounds like common sense, but I need to constantly remind myself.

Recently I've been editing photo's like mad in order to have them ready for when I finish coding a portfolio website. I forgot how tedious web design is! All I want is a simple light layout to display my art but my goodness has it taken forever to relearn coding and create something I actually like. But with creating a website of my own I've made lots of time to look at other artists portfolios for inspiration which has been great! I'd love to see your suggestions!


Noteworthy Portfolios
i shot ny
Hugo Freijanes
Andres Requena
Winkler Noah
Marquis Montes
The Cyber Kitchen (bunch of artists' perspectives on kitchens)


Noteworthy News Articles & Journals
Interview with Mark Jon Erickson
The Best of the Rest

Hey guys! Long time no see but it's nice to be back. Just got back from a five week europe adventure and in order to go on the trip, I quit my job and moved back home (the farm). Originally I wasn't to excited about this as all of my friends still live in winnipeg (45 minutes away), but it turns out I couldn't be happier with my decision. I converted my childhood room into a work room and have been waking up early every day and have been painting, writing, collaging, and drawing all day long! I always said I wanted to move to a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and just create day in and day out away from all the hustle and bustle of 'normal' life. And hey, that's kind of exactly what I'm doing! I'm for sure going to be here creating until November because my dad and I are planning another trip (I told you I got bitten by the travel bug, jeeeeez) so I thought it would be silly to search for another job and place that I'd have to leave so soon. How have you all been? Tell me what I've missed!

Noteworthy News Articles & Journals
Rock Out with Your Tools Out
Baker's Dozen International Collage Exchange
Collage Techniques & Terminology

Hey guy's! It's been waaaay too long. Yikes.  I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not, I've been busy living life, I went to montreal, I've been taking pictures and painting and collaging. But it's good to be back! I'll be posting a bunch of new things so don't be too frightened when you see a huge stack. Hope you're all well!

Y'know when people say time flies? Well, it actually has begun to fly for me and I'm not looking back. I mean I can't, I'm just running with it. Contemplating taking a summer course or two to ease myself into the higher educated life. The problem is I just don't know where to start! That's about it. Short and sweet.

Be sure to check out #deviantFinds! We got featured on a staff run tumblr and had a shitload of people following us. About 2,000 people are looking at your art promoted on our tumblr which I must say is pretty friggin awesome!

He had the posture of someone that owned the world but in a humble manner.
own the stairs.  Down down down.  Past the walls with bright graffiti, and onto the street usually packed with cars during the day but empty at night.  Its always easier at night.
I don't have to see your face, see your lips move forming sentences, your hips sway, or your knees shake, to know what you're all about.
So far removed, against the grain.
Still smiling because you've got that hold on me and then he's there.

Hey all you guys! Its been way too long but I'm here now.  First and foremost I want you to update me on your lives.

Tell me:
something exciting that's happened to you recently
something scary
what you last consumed (interpret as you wish)
something you're looking forward to
a memory

Now that that's over with, things have been really good these past few days. That's not to say that I've hit some all time lows in the past month, but I've also hit some all time highs so I'm not complaining. I'm learning that sometimes you have to look at challenges and trials in life just as learning experiences. I have a birthday coming up and I honestly don't know what happened to the past year. So much has changed and I think they've all mostly been good for me. Instead of trying to sum up everything that I've felt or have gone through since my last journal, I'll make another fancy bullet list from excerpts from my journal:

My hand was glued to yours in a friendly grip.
All the things I did and could have done will go be put away in a box and then in a closet somewhere in my brain.  And I'd open it later when things would make more sense.
So here's to changing shit, getting shit together, and making new shit, and becoming the dumb shit fuck that I've always shitted myself trying to be.  I'll be.
Its all said through eye contact.
All three of us on the couch had our eyes closed.
You looked me in the eyes and fed me all the false hope in the world.
I'll walk to the water today.
The people beside me were only feeling what I imagined they were feeling and I only noticed the smiles and the acceptance and the hard work and the naked honesty.
The rest of us followed suit and we flew with the current taking us home home home.  Come back to me.
Headaches, therapy, sticky speckled hands, aching ears, blurry cross-eyed eyes, and tired hearts.  Brains are sick, swaying legs, sunny sky, scissors, beats, sympathy.

I've mentioned deviantFinds before, but we've kicked it up a notch by launching a group on dA! Read all about it here: [link]

Features from deviantFinds:

A lot has changed since my last entry, the majority of my life actually.  And I'm happy, content, with so little now.  I've been up and I've been down, but I know that the downs will turn up eventually and they have for the near future.  I think I've found what makes me happy, and I've been using that knowledge for the better good.  I've moved for the first time in my life (the only other time was when I was a fetus) and got a new job I can walk to in 2 minutes.  Moving to the city from a farm in the middle of no where is drastic to say the least.  My senses are almost overwhelmed with all the inspiration I'm being fed. You've been updated.

Life's been real good lately. Busy, but fulfilling and content! For a while there it seemed as if everything was going wrong but I suppose life wouldn't be so good if there weren't bad times to compare the good times to. I always seem to experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, never anything in between. I went through high school with barely any relationship drama but then right when I got out of it, BAM, a bazillion drama llama's fell upon my relationships with my friends. I had to step back and have lots of alone time to figure things out for the time being and needless to say I'm still piecing things back together. Job wise, I haven't been getting many shifts so I thought it would be good to explore some other options to fill my time with and I decided on volunteering at the local Arts Council with the children day camps that they host (5-12 year olds). I've been working there on and off on all the days I don't work at the grocery store, and this next week I'm working the full 5 days. There's nothing I don't love about the job. Maybe it's my inner kid coming out and thinking back onto the time when I first went to camp, or just my love for kids and/or helping out with an organization of awesome people, I don't know. Anyhow, I don't think I've been more exhausted (but a great exhausted) in my life before.

One thing I couldn't live without is dancing. I went dancing with a friend last saturday and had the most amazing time! I think this coming year when I move out of the country and into the city (my brother and I found a great place, super cheap too!) I'll try to take a dance class or two. Yesterday I headed out to my friends house and his backyard is this amazingly calm lake. We swam, hot-tubbed, and talked all night long. Earlier tonight I went on a bike ride among the grass and canola fields and breathed in the humid air and listened to the chirping crickets. Thank goodness its finally nice outside!

Here's what the past weeks entailed:
graduation
5 days in Montreal and 4 days in Quebec City
black feet
saw Jamie Cullum (Montreal Jazz Fest), Neko Case, Iron $ Wine, Okkerville River, Serena Ryder (I talked to her), Xavier Rudd, Great Lake Swimmers, Josh Ritter, Loudon Wainright 3, Patrick Watson (also talked to him), Elvis Costello, Pacifika, Bellowhead, Oka, Gentlemen Reg, Amerlia Curran, Dust Poets,  Mirah, (my highlights from Winnipeg Folk Fest), No Doubt, Bedouin Soundclash, and Paramore (at a concert last night)
things got harder but I tried looking at the easy things

And now I can relax. Thinking about leaving this small town, because things keep popping up that make me believe I could be so much more in a bigger town. Maybe I just hate commitment and just want to start over, maybe. I'm going to be editing lots of photos with the rain hitting the window behind me and drinking warm things. Hope you're all okay, I know I'm trying to be.

There's nothing better, nothing, then being surrounded by thousands of other people you've never met (but subsequently meeting a few new people and becoming fast friends) who believe the same thing as you do, and are all in a positive mood. That's what pride felt like, and that's what folk fest will feel like.

Tomorrow at 5:00 I'll be on a plane to Montreal with my parents (it's their grad gift to me). We'll be staying in Montreal for a while driving around and experiencing the city. Maybe take in a few jazz shows as the famous jazz festival is on the same time we'll be there. Then we'll be driving to Quebec City and just chill out there for a few days. Then when we get home on the 9th I'll be going straight to the Winnipeg Folk Festival which has an amazing lineup this year! Bell Ochestre, Neko Case, Elvis Costello, Alex Cuba, Gentlemen Reg, Great Lake Swimmers, Iron and Wine, Mirah, Okkervil River, Pacifika, Josh Ritter, Xavier Rudd, Serena Ryder, Loudon Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, AND Patrick Watson!? It'll be too good to be true.

I also went to the arts council building in town (where they have all sorts of dance, photography, painting classes etc.) and asked if they needed any volunteers. Turns out they do, so after the trip and the folk festival I might be helping out with some day camps they run for kids in the area. Should be fun I think.

Anyways, you guys have a good time without me. I might pop in, might now. But I will be taking a tonne of pictures and having a great time!

I fell off the face of the earth. I know. Just like that all the things that were important yesterday aren't so important today. Last weekend my sister got married at our house (I made a speech that went well, had just enough wine to make me not nervous) and today and yesterday I completed my provincial math exam. That means only 2 more courses to finish up and I never have to set foot in a high school classroom again.

Summer Brings:
pride
folk fest
trip to montreal/quebec city with parents
moving (?)
camping
working & volunteering (?)

Everything is changing; new music in my ears, new words to read, new air to breathe.