Cody Goodin - The artistic and spiritual journey of Cody Goodin

One of the things I really dislike is shopping for groceries.  Actually most types of shopping I detest.  Mostly because as someone with visual challenges, seeing so much stuff in a constant stream can be rather exhausting to me.  I get very tired and sleepy.  That then progresses to crankiness.  Yesterday was one of those days where I had to go to the drug store for refills on medications.  Then on to the grocery store to finish up the shopping I did earlier in the week.  Once I had checked out I realized that I would have a 35 minute wait for the next bus.  Not my idea of a fun time for sure.  Then it hit me. My inner voice said, I have my little camera in my pocket.  My bag of groceries isn't that heavy.  Why not walk home.  It became a sort of walk about impromptu. So I slung my bag of stuff over my shoulder and off I went.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and for black and white photos great for capturing lots of shadow...

Hello my friends out there.  I hope your year is ending up just where you wish it to be.  For me, I am saying good bye to it like an old friend.  Knowing I will not see it again. I will welcome it's sister with open arms to see what adventures we will have together.  One thing has struck me of late.  All of the various people and groups trying to get you to follow their perfect plan for happiness.  Follow X diet, eat like a Buddhist, grow you hair longer and on and on. So, I have been asking myself why do we as humans feel the need to follow someone else's lead?  Do we seek approval, inclusion into some elite group? Maybe we just want to belong because we are truly social beings. On this cusp of a new year I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish in the new year. How I could  improve the quality of my life. In this thought process I realized how many times I have tried this or that from others to miraculously improve my life or s...

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, joyful Yule, whatever form you celebrate the holidays I hope it is beautiful.  To those of you having a more difficult time at this point in the year my heart is with you and know that you are loved not only by me but, by the Universe.  I for one am truly grateful for your friendship and love you have shown me through out this year and years past.  If you are new to Codyland, welcome and hope you come back often.  My hope is that you have found a tiny bit of inspiration and joy here.  Many find this holiday season bitter sweet.  We are faced with the lose of ones we have loved, or any number of other issues.  But, please know that you are never truly alone.  It took me many years to realize this.  I share my heart and soul felt gratitude for you being a part of my life. This has been a very quickly lived year for me.  Many changes and opportunities to grow and learn.  My hope is that 2014 will c...

So, I am on a mission to try and bring as much play into my life as I can.  The best scenario would be everyday but, I will try and do it as often as I can. What has prompted me on to this mode of thought today was an article I read on the Digital Photography School web site.  One of the things that make great artists is their sense of play and adventure.  Being fearless and just giving something a try.  Not being afraid to fail and fail until you happen on to something cool and inspiring. That is part of what keeps my photo of the day going on Facebook. How does one become better at something?  By doing it over and over is one way or by playing and discovering is another.  Sure practice makes perfect for some things.  But, you have to be willing to pick up that camera, paint brush, needle or violin to start to become better.  Play encourages that process better than any other I know. Thus brings me to my point of this post.  In the images be...

Merry winter Solstice to all of you out there in cyberland.  I hope your holidays are going well.  I have been busy keeping up with my photography for my photo of the day posts on Facebook.  My class has ended and it was clear to me I need to keep going and continue my creative journey.  My current explorations are with black and white images.  I wanted to focus on seeing the world in tones, texture and shapes without the distraction of color.  Not that I mind color, I love it, but also like the challenges of black and white. In the two scenes I am sharing here I have chosen the busy city streets of Cincinnati.  These were taken from the street corner where my workplace is located.  I am using a simple Nikon point and shoot camera.  The great thing about these cameras is that they are simple and easy to carry around. Well, that's it for today.  I am gearing up for some art making on the holiday days off I will have and getti...

Today I am feeling a bit of gratitude.  Why?  Because I think it is good for the soul to be thankful and grateful for the things we have and take for granted in our lives.  My example of this thought is of my humble home.  It is here that I create some of my artful expressions, have delicious meals with my soon to be husband.  We have made our greatest part of our lives together here in this humble little place.  Yes, it has many flaws and I am not always attentive to keeping up appearances. But, nevertheless it is our home. I took the above picture the day after our first snow of the season back in October.  Earlier than most years and a harbinger of things to come. But, as I gazed up at my little abode, I realized just how lucky I am to have it in my life.  So many people are without or have to live in much less savory conditions than I.  This time of year always brings out those feelings of thankfulness.  In addition to those fee...

Today it is a cold rainy day here in Codyland.  A bit like my mood.  No I am not depressed.  But, rather contemplative.  I have been revisiting some old places in my mind of late.  Trying to navigate around who I am as an artist.  Recently I have noticed something rather profound about myself as an artist.  I must have a form of ADD.  It is near to impossible for me to stick with one form of expression or medium.  I am bouncing around from sculpture, painting to photography.  I love working in all these media.  But, while attending a few art shows this past week, I began to wonder if this way of being wasn't a hindrance? Is there a place in the art world for someone like me?  It seems most artists concentrate on one medium or process.  Sure, I can just be happy with who I am and how I make art.  But, if I want to be a part of the "Art Community" than should I conform? I am at my most happiest when I am creating and ...

Hello and welcome once again to my place of creative thought.  Codyland is under some renovations abstractly speaking.  I am hoping to be a bit more active in sharing my creative process.  Today's episode centers around the using of light as a means to create lines.  However it is using light that is implied through the use of software manipulation.  How can an image be abstracted just enough so that it still maintains some recognized image.  In the above image I have abstracted an image of myself down to lines of light.  It is my minimal me. I really like the result of this simple process of fractilizing and image. In the image above I applied the same process as in the previous image of creating a drawing with light.  This is an image of one of my art models posing in a reflective mode.  I really like the power and simplicity of these black and white images.  I think they would lend themselves well in a photo collage or some o...

I have decided to begin my visual journal a month early.  I think this will be a good daily practice to keep me writing and making art.  The above picture is one that I took in Columbus at the state fair a few years back.  It is fun to look at the tiny Lego buildings and imagine the people that live there.  This is photo of the day #75 on my Facebook page. The photograph was one in my assignment series for this past week on scale. Fascinating idea to play upon, the idea of scale and how we see it in our lives. Scale can be a more philosophical question too.  It conjures up thoughts of my place in the world, the Universe.  Talk about a since of scale, makes me feel really tiny. But, for me it puts life into perspective too.  We seem to get so wrapped up in the small stuff and let it control our lives to the point of creating stress.  When, I look at pictures like the one above.  I soon realize that there is no need to get so overworked. ...

Now that November is coming to a soft and gentle close, I thought I would give my thoughts on something.  In the past few years November has been made the month of men"s health awareness marketed as Movember.  I find it rather curious how we as a society latch onto something like growing facial hair to prove we are supportive of making men aware of something as important as prostate cancer. I know we have October for breast cancer awareness and so on. Nothing wrong in the idea of making those potentially at risk to be aware and observant of potential issues.  My reason for even writing about this is due to a few inquiries I have had over the course of the month.  The most frequent question of course is, Are you growing your beard for Movember? Most of the time I responded with, not exactly.  I have had this beard for quite some time.  They just smile and say, oh that's nice.  It was the last person who asked me that I had decided on a reply that I ...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my USA friends and family who visit my humble blog.  I am so very thankful for your friendship and time that you choose to visit and share with me what I create.  This blog has been such a great learning tool and way to chronicle my journey through this creative life.  The advise and encouraging comments you all leave from time to time make my day.  Some have even sharing great bits of wisdom that I take with me into my everyday life.  So, again thank you from the bottom of my heart. You may not have noticed that my most recent two post are gone.  Well, I ended up picking up an adware virus thingie and had to do a total system refresh.  But, before I discovered the true culprit, I thought my blog had been hacked and deleted two posts before realizing that it was something entirely different. No biggie but, annoying.  So, I will recap a bit and continue from here. These first three images were taken for an assign...

Hello to all my friends and followers out there in cyberland.  I wanted to take this chance to share with you some of my discoveries I have been making while taking my latest photography class.  It is a class offered at the Cincinnati Art Academy, taught by Lisa Britton.  Lisa is a gentle and caring instructor who has the ability to coax creative images out of her students by her gentle prodding and use of questions.  I wasn't sure I was going to like this class at first because I am used to the lets do things in class approach.  However, this class encourages us to go to our own space and time to discover.  I have learned so much about my own camera and creative process just in the few short weeks I have been in class. So,the point to this post is to share with you the most recent assignment.  Time and images that depict the passage of or manipulation of time.  I decided to try my hand at light painting which requires long exposures, meaning th...

Happy Halloween everyone.  Here is my broom dancer making her way back from the past to give a little scary appearance here on the old blog.  She was one of my earlier grand ladies. I hope you all have a spectacular Halloween and may it be safe as well.  The weather here in Cincinnati is supposed to be a bit stormy and rainy.  Kind of appropriate for this day I supposed.  See you all in November.

So, I have been going through some of my old pictures of my grand ladies and decided to resurrect them and give them new life.  I am able to do this thanks to some new software I have  been using recently.  I am loving the life this process gives my old girls.  I am also, really looking forward to bringing a new series of these ladies to life soon. Hopefully, you don't mind revisiting my past creative efforts with me.  My new ladies will all have legs and a little more detailed in the costume department too if I can manage it.  I have eight figures started with a completion date in early December for our next Essex Studios art walk.   In addition to these I have several other projects I hope to debut during that show.  So, I am going to be a busy little bee for the next six weeks. Thanks again as always for taking the time to stop by and say hi and see what I am up too.  I do love your comments so don't be shy.  I am planning a...

Wow!  Another post in the same week.  I must have a fever.  No, actually I wanted to post a few more of my photographic manipulations of some images I took during a past doll making frenzy.  I am having such fun playing with all this new software I recently purchased.  Oh, and I decided to treat myself to a little pocket camera so as not to load up my phone with too much memory eating pictures. It wasa bout seven or so years ago that I created a whole series of dolls I lovingly called "Grand Ladies". They were a basic stump style doll which means they have a cloth body shaped somewhat like a doll in a dress.  There were no visible feet as they are usually implied on this style of doll.  They had heads made from Model Magic or Sculpey.  Their hands were generic vinyl hands purchased through a local craft store. The heads and hands were painted and detailed.  The cool thing about this type of doll is that ultimately it was bout the co...

Well, it has been a bit long since my last post.  But, I have been playing around with some new photo editing software.  I have purchased two different software alternatives to Photoshop.  Not wishing to keep upgrading to infinity and paying such great cost, I opted for some highly recommended pro programs.  OnONe Perfect Photo Suite collection and NIK Photo collection.  Both of thes software packages offer some great versatility. SO, I am going to post a few of my fun little redoux's for your viewing pleasure.  My subjects are some heads awaiting bodies and partially completed doll projects from the past. This series of images was created by processing them in the High Dynamic Range module from the NIK collection.  This first picture is entitled Judging from behind. This picture I have titled "In Search of Peace". This one is called "Oh?" Here we have" Eunice trying to say something meaningful." "Gossip." I hope ...

Hello out there kiddos.  I am sorry for such a long absence from my ole blog here.  It has been a rather exhausting few months here in Codyland.  I have been dealing with homestead issues and also the migration to a different mode of creativity.  I was recently diagnosed with Osteoarthritis and that made it official.  I have been experiencing severe pain and soreness in my left hand which puts a big damper on sculpting.  So, now that I have some meds to help I can do limited amounts of sculpting.  However, I have been busy trying to make a transition to a different medium or mediums. So the abouve picture is an experiment with High Dynamic Range photography.  I just have scratched the surface of this particular form of photography.  But, I like the potential of it.  It exaggerates the colors and tonal range of an image.  This is typically achieved through taking several exposures of the same scene at varying exposure levels. ...

So, to end this weekend and begin the next I wish to share some pictures that I have been working on for an upcoming photo book.  The book will be called Toy Box Confidential.  It will be stories of the sorted lives of toys and the lives they live behind our backs. In this first picture the Cat In the Hat is discussing toy box politics with the man in the moon.  The cat doesn't like some of the toys all that much.  Especially those arrogant soldiers. In this quaint picture a tiny transformer is trying to woo the artist model of toy box.  She is having any of it.  For she has her eyes set on someone else. The artist model female has finally been approached by the man she has been admiring for some time.  Artist model male is utilizing some liquid courage to gain some much needed confidence.  Too bad he doesn't really need it.  Only if he really knew how artist model female really felt. I hope you enjoy the beginni...

I thought it was time I start showing some art on here.  So, for your Friday afternoon entertainment is one of my recent photo stories called Friendly Chat.  You can make up your own story if you want.  But, I am having fun playing around with different characters and settings. I hope you all have started to check out my Alchemy of ME blog.  It will be a fun blog course in getting in touch with your creative self.  As for this old dude, I have been putting in a lot more hours at the art supply store of late.  Good thing is it gives me more to add to the depleted art supplies.  So, not as much time to make art.  But, I have been trying to do a variety of art related things.  I also see I have lost a few followers. Oh, well I guess you can't please everyone. Will be posting more art stuff again soon.  Thank you as always for keeping up with my goings on.  Have a great weekend one and all.

Hello out there my friends and followers.  I wanted to take a minute to post that I have launched my new blog Alchemy of ME.  It will be a continuing series of lessons from my online class of three years ago called Artspell.  I am offering this to you all at no charge.  It is my way of giving back to all those that inspire me, help me and keep me going.  So, I hope you all will join me along this journey.  You can access it here at Alchemy of ME . See you all there.  Have a great day one and all.

Hello my wonderful friends out there in blog land.  I hope the summer is treating you well.  Are you exploring some new territory?  Perhaps revisiting familiar places both literally or metaphorically   I am finding that I have been slowly evolving underneath the surface of my consciousness.  My ego mind has had such a great time trying to figure out what to make of my creative career of late.  So many ideas, so many new possibilities.to explore were like delicious foods I had to examine and taste.  But, the down side to all of that is sometimes a bit of confusion   What has all this to do with me you might ask?  Well, I am finding myself in need of a reinvention of sorts.  Due to some minor physical health issues my sculpting days are numbered.  So, I have been exploring other avenues of creativity.  Hence my experiments into photography. Now, most of us who went to art school were told or encour...

Hello my favorite blog people and visitors.  Yes, I am posting twice this week.  Shocking I know.  But, I wanted to share my first test photo from the new series I am currently working on.  After my previous post on having a hard time focusing, I decided it was time to put the petal to the metal and just start something, anything.  So, I am committing myself to one of my project ideas.  In this series of images I am hoping to tell the story of what our dolls and toys do when we are not around.  What kinds of things do they engage in or how do they really get along.  It is a fun way to explore our own ideas of community, societal issues and what it is that makes us who we are as people.  Toys and dolls have that uncanny almost creepy way of telling more about us humans than they do about themselves. This new series one of several, is entitled "Toy Box Confidential".  It is the seedier side of the toy world.  The not so glamorous wo...