Micah Walter

Well, it’s official, I am moving into an apartment in the CopyCat building in a couple of weeks. The CopyCat building is actually a big warehouse that was converted into apartments for artists. The apartments range from shared living spaces to private apartments. The building is pretty rough and the apartment I am taking will need some initial work when we first move in, but I decided that it would be the perfect base of operations for the next two years.

I really wanted to live in a place that was inspiring to me, and in a space where I would have room to think and room to do my work. The apartment is about 1100 sq. ft. of open floor space. It actually has a small bedroom and bathroom built in the back, but the rest is all open. In the photo above (which I screen-shotted from an article published in The Urbanite Magazine) you can see the exact same apartment unit I will be moving into.

I really like how the previous tenant had decorated and arranged the place and I hope to do something similar but in my own way.

I have heard all sorts of bad things about living in this building, and I have come up with all sorts of reasons to not live there, but in the end I decided to go for it. My father went up to check it out for me, and we have discussed the possibilities at length. It’s sort of hard to say where the final decision came from. I initially envision living in a small row house in Canton near the harbor, but right now I am really feeling the warehouse life.

Regardless, I am really excited. I have already been sketching out floor plans and shopping for Pianos on Craigslist.

Next week we fly out of here. Just about everything is in order and I almost can’t believe we are going to pull this off. A friend of ours who is also moving a dog back to the states has conspired with us to save a whole bunch of costs by flying ahead to receive all three of our dogs at customs. This will negate the need for a pet daycare person to come pick them up and take care of them as well as the need for a customs broker to deal with them at the airport.

The dogs fly the 15th direct to Miami on Amerijet, and we follow behind them on the 16th on American, via San Juan. One night in Miami at a hotel and then a long drive in a rental car full of luggage, and dogs up to Luray where Kendra’s parents live. It is sure to be quite the journey! Of course I will be sure to blog from the road…

Ladies and gents, I have just launched a new website called Entropy Art. This site is actually based on the idea of a social networking website like Facebook or Myspace, and will be an online community centered on a long term art project I am working on.

I initially was going to either blog about this project here, or even launch a new separate blog, but the idea of creating a community based site was just too appealing. By using this website everyone can contribute in some way to the project.

Eventually I will post tools which will allow users to contribute their own photos and process them using the same software I will be developing for this project.

For now please sign up for the website. It only takes a few seconds. You can create your own page, link to friends, leave comments, upload photos and video and all sorts of cool things.

For now the site is located at entropyart.ning.com, but eventually it will be located at entropyart.org.

Stay tuned and SIGN UP NOW!!!

View my page on Entropy Art

In my search for the perfect apartment, I came across the CopyCat building, pictured below. I think Kendra and I may have stayed there once. Thanks to Patty Boh, for the photo via flickr.com.

The CopyCat building was built in the 1890’s by the guy who invented the bottle cap. No joke! Anyway, it is now set up as artists studios ranging from 500-5000 sq ft. I really wish I could afford the 4th floor 5000 sq ft place. That would be something!

These days I feel like one of those guys who talks in the third person all the time. Micah has this, or Micah is a great so and so….

The other day I sent in my letter of intent along with my deposit. So it’s official, I am going. Now comes the fun. This past weekend I spent some time with my favorite financial advisor and we went over my last years taxes. By the end of the day we had them just about finished! I was able to file for my FAFSA and this morning I sent in my MICA Application for Financial Aid.

the scholarship I received is pretty good, but I will still need to take out a loan for the balance of my tuition and some other expenses. Hopefully it will all work out.

So begins the search for a suitable place to live in Baltimore (The Greatest City in America). There was a really funny piece about Baltimore and The Wire on the blog “Stuff White People Like.” Check it out here. It’s so true! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that very line: “It’’s the best show on television!”

So, I started looking for places to live near MICA and realized there is no real reason that I have to be within walking distance of the school. It would be nice, but I think some of the other neighborhoods might be more my style. So I am checking out the neighborhoods near Paterson Park and the harbor areas. Looking online from another country is pretty frustrating. So, I think I am going to wait to REALLY look until I get back to the states next month.

Wow, I can’t believe we leave here in less than 20 days! I have lived here on this island for nearly two years now! I hope my dogs don’t miss the beach to much.

And, speaking of the dogs, check out this short video I made of them to show my sister how much faster they can run than her two pups!

10 minutes of shooting video with Kendra’s point and shoot.

10 minutes of editing in iMovie

1 Stolen song from my iTunes library (c’mon Apple, you make it too easy!)

20 Minutes to upload to my .Mac Web Gallery

Enjoy -

PS - Yes, that is my current house and property. Man I am going to miss this place!

I just received my acceptance letter to the Maryland Institute College of Art. I am going for my Masters of Fine Art in Photography and Digital Imaging. I start this fall, full time, for the next two years.

I received a grant, and now I need to apply for financial aid and other possible grants and scholarships. I’m pretty excited. I’M GONNA BE A GRADUAL STUDENT!!! Yay me!

Well, I finally sent in my application for the MFA program at MICA. The degree is a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Imaging and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

I should find out if I get in sometime around April 1st. For the application I had to submit a portfolio of 20 images, an essay, a resume and the application. I also had to get three letters of recommendation and the transcripts from my undergrad program sent over. Oh, and there was a $50 application fee.

So now I just have to wait, and wait. The program is two years of full time school. Though the classes are basically broken down like this:

You take a seminar each semester that meets once a week, and you are working on your thesis each semester and then you also have to take 12 credits (4 classes) of graduate liberal arts.

I went to visit the school a while back and it all looks very good to me. So, I am really excited. Now I just have to figure out how to pay for it. The tuition is about $30,000 per year. So, there is financial aid, which I will apply for, and grants and scholarships on top of that. Classes begin in the Fall.

Okay, I’ll admit it, I haven’t been posting here too much lately. Well, it’s not entirely my fault. First of all, my site was hacked. I have just about recovered from that, though I am still having some issues with my RSS feeds. If you are reading this, please update your RSS bookmark.

But really, I have been so swamped with work, it has been really insane. Recently I released the plugin I have been working on for Pictage. It lets you upload images from Aperture directly to Pictage. This new version adds a bunch of cool new features and I am already working on a point release to fix a small bug that some users had experienced.

Developing that plugin was lots of fun, and I am really enjoying all the software development work. It has been a blast.

I have also been working on my application to grad school. Yes, that’s right, I am actually applying. Not sure if I will get in, but wish me luck. I plan to do a whole new section on that experience when time permits. Right now the application is in the hands of my father who is doing me the favor of printing and mailing it in by the deadline.

I got some really nice people to write me letters of recommendation, so hopefully that will add some weight to my application. My essay was also pretty interesting, and sort of off-the-cuff.

Well, Aperture 2.0 came out yesterday and I have been slammed with work related to it. But I am taking it instring and things seem to be working themselves out. The new version is really amazing and I am still learning all about it.

Be sure to visit AUPN (www.apertureprofessional.com) to learn all about Aperture 2.0.

Yes it is true, my website was hacked. Apparently there was a security hole in my installation of WordPress and some hacker was able to take over my website. I don’t really get it. Why not go for a bigger fish?

Anyway, after a short correspondence with my web hosting provider I was able to get most of it back online. And yes, I installed the newest version of WordPress which hopefully solves the security hole issue.

Here is a nice picture of what my site looked like for a few days! Sorry for the profanity.

Also, as you may have noticed I moved my site to the root URL. So if you have bookmarked things like the blog, please update them so they make more sense. I will try and forward the old RSS feeds as well.

And yes, I have been gone for a bit. I have been incredibly busy, working to roll out the latest version of ApertureToPictage. It is nearly read for release and I am proud to say that the improvements are pretty cool. I really learned allot and I owe plenty of thanks to all who helped me in my endeavors, especially Kendra, who helped me to realize that I would in fact do my work while she was having the time of her life on vacation with me in the States.

We did have a good time though in the end. I finally finished up the last pieces of code just as we were about to head back to Dominica, so we celebrated, Kendra and Micah style.

Being back in the States reminded me of a few things. Winter sucks, driving sucks, shopping sucks, and Starbucks may actually be a religion to some. Of course I missed the States before we left, and was really looking forward to Taco Bell and McD’s, but after a month it was back to the same old same old and I couldn’t wait to get back here.

Our apartment is simply amazing, and I have titled the window in our bedroom “The Painting.”

Now I am busy at work once again getting started on my next project for the same client. Things are already beginning to ramp up and we haven’t even released the last one yet!

And, on another note, I am also busy getting my application ready for Mica. So far I have secured two of three letters of recommendation, and I have begun to put together a portfolio of images. It is pretty hard trying to pick out 20 images that represent my artistic vision. I look at my journalism work and I don’t see “art.” I guess I have to get over that! We shall see how it develops. The deadline is February 15th, so I need to get crackin!

Well, thats about it for now. Sorry if there are any broken links in the site, I am still working on finding and fixing them all.

Ciao-fer-now…

The grad photo department at Mica has a pretty interesting blog as well. Enjoy…

Link: Mica/gradphoto

As I mentioned earlier, I had planned to go visit Mica (Maryland Institute College of Art). Obviously it should have been called Maryland Institute College of Art and Humanities. The meeting was good though. I got a tour of the campus and facilities and then I had a chance to sit in on a critique session.

It was pretty interesting to be back on a college campus, and even stranger to be on one that was specifically an art school. The critique session was good though. They were reviewing two student’s work, which I took from the discussion would be the work they would be putting in their exhibition which is essentially the culminating project you do at the end of your second year.

It was an interesting discussion. I had a bit to say, but I kept my mouth shut this time. Afterwards we went to a bar and had some mexican food. Yum!

The school looks really good. I like the computer and printing facilities, though they seemed be a little lacking in the photo equipment department. I didn’t really see any studio space, lighting, or medium format digital equipment. But oh well, I don’t use that stuff much anyway.

So, the deadline for my application is in February, so I have my work cut out for me. I need to come up with a 20 image portfolio and a few letters of recommendation by then. I have a few other schools in mind, but this one is at the top of my list. It seems like a good fit for me.

Another option may be the MFA program at the International Center of Photography in New York City. The email address possibilities aren’t nearly as appealing, but their program looks similar in structure and is connected to Bard college (though all the coursework is done in New York City).

So, I may apply there as well, but I think I like Mica the best so far. I’m adding a category here called mica.edu. So you will be able to easily track my progress. When I do prepare my application I will be sure to blog about what went into my portfolio and how I decided to present it.

On another note, I made it back to Dominica in one piece. My new laptop case survived as well (I mean the thing is really indestructible) and it wasn’t too much of hassle on the plane or at the airport security. As I was building it I was thinking about how much it was starting to look like a bomb. So, I was glad that it didn’t cause a stir at the airport. If you wan’t to read more about that little project, check out my post at AUPN.