Ochen K. » Photos

Gingerbread House ’09

ochenk — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:29:23 +0000

As much as I enjoyed it last time, it’s taken me a few years to find another December night available to try again. But 2009 appears to be the year.

This is the simple, understated (I hope), design I came up with this year. It was just tricky enough with the compound-pitch roof to make it interesting to work out.

It’ll live inside for the week. Then on New Year’s day, we’ll take it out to the chickens and let them go Godzilla all over it.

Merry Christmas!

La Ciel et la Terre

ochenk — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:53:26 +0000

I worked for a while in France some years ago. I was in the north, in Rheims, and when I had a few days off, I went to visit friends in Montélimar, in the south. The change in landscape between northern and southern France is remarkable. I took a bunch of photos on the train ride down. On the way back up, I turned some of those photos into a little chap book that I printed and sent to friends as an extended postcard.

Here are spreads from that book:

I Wish I Had A River

ochenk — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:29:58 +0000

Growing up in Los Angeles, I heard about the “great rivers of the world” with my only frame of reference being my understanding of the Pacific Ocean. No one talked about the “great Pacific,” so I always imagined the great rivers, while obviously not challenging the size of the Pacific, certainly challenging the grandeur.

I was lucky enough to visit the Nile River when I was 15. It was big, of course, and long as all get out, but ultimately it was a little underwhelming. After all, it was just a river.

Years later, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is the first major city through which the Mississippi River flows. As we’re only a few hundred miles from the headwaters, the Mississippi is small, but its presence is so powerful.

I would have loved to have had some connection to the Mississippi River or the Nile growing up. I Wish I Had a River is my attempt to give that to others.