Lisa Mertins’ Life Illustrated » 2009 » February

Yellow Mailboxes

There’s loads of yellow in my part of Southern California. The recent stormy weather was a nice juxtapose to these mailboxes, looking north toward Mt. Baldy, the smallest of three mountains I see every day (6,224 feet). The three peaks of Baldy, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto are so inspiring — as majestic as the [...]

The Chemistry of Printmaking

While looking for a safer copper etching formula than ferric chloride that we used at school, I came across this Instructables article. I wish this made me more of a computer geek since the etching alternative was devised for circuit boards (Damn! Thwarted again in my quest to prove I’m not a bubble-headed blonde). Instead, [...]

Dumb Blackberry Camera

A few friends of mine that I greatly admire are able to take some pretty decent pictures with their camera phones. And one in particular is stubbornly proud of his Blackberry’s camera taking ability. I’ve only tried a couple of times and here’s my lame result. PLUS I had to throw some fierce filtering on [...]

I Will Never Eat Octopus

I didn’t know how intelligent they are until recently. This Slate article talks about scientific evidence of just how incredible they are. I used to eat “tako” at sushi bars all the time until a couple of years ago when I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with my daughters and saw a beautiful, giant [...]

As The Crow Flies…

The very first monoprint from my new press! I’m hoping this looks like a flower in the garden, not a weed…