Common Place Book

Though we did 15 entries, I selected the three most meaningful and extrapolated them into other mediums.

Also known as a Zilbadone, a CPB is a useful travel journal that has been used for hundreds of years by travelers and scholars alike.

Common Place Book Entry #11: Sound Scape

Recorded audio from Chapman University's campus. I selected images to go along with the audio to provide a visual element

Common Place Book Entry #14: An Invisible City

In the town of Sylas, one can hardly see while the sun is out—the hunched-over houses are made of stone and mortar, shadowing the town with a deep, dusty green. The houses are flicked with hot pasty ash. And the doors are made of nets. Heavy fishing net woven together to create meshed doors for the air to easily pass. On such hot days, few animals are out, except strange birds made of bone. Their feathers are so light and arid no beam of suns could penetrate. An armadillo of sorts, creating a little circular shack for itself. The plants are made of needles, some thick wedges and others a thousand hair-thin spines. Many people who live here are cloaked all the time, for the harsh sun can scarcely touch their loose reptilian skin. Their socket eyes completely black except for glowing, electric green eyes. They breathe through slits of glass on their beak-like faces. There isn’t much to do but sit in caves in a place like this, and have a smoke or a drink. They have the strongest bushweed anywhere. Thick, fat paper wrapped around shreds wheat-like brush. It’ll send you into space. How they have anything to drink is an easy question to wonder, but underneath the hot, crack-cobbled earth is a gorgeous underworld of lush green trees and sparkling waterfalls. The bubbling water is the perfect warm and cool, every movement in it finds both at bliss. There, mermaids gabble and gawk at all the other creatures in the pools. At night, the core turns midnight purple, with twinkling stars that cover the world in shadowy glow.

Image credit: NightCafe Ai Art

Common Place Book #13

(This is also featured under my videos section)

I sat on my yoga mat after stretching. I folded over myself again and again until I was delightfully dazed. From sitting down, I began to notice the corner. At first, I noticed my chessboard. A gift from my girlfriend, the white and green pieces opposed each other at the ready. Staring each other down, born for combat, and sitting on the table, she also got me. It’s a strange thing, light as a feather, so presumably prop furniture. But its strange, curled legs look like a character from Beauty and the Beast got lost in transit. Then, I traveled along the floor, passing by my full trash cans and climbing up my desk chair, where a jacket lay slung over the top: hanging like a limp flag. Then I found my way to marveling at my art wall. There, my pictures and paintings of great value to me hang proudly on green walls. Two of the Beatles, one of a Victorian woman, another of a car crash, and several vintage ads. I found myself at home in the strange assortment of art. I followed the art to my dark, velvet green wingback armchair, where I wrote as many Google Docs and class assignments as I could count. Curled like a cat, I like to sit and listen to the birds sing or the rainfall, depending on the day.