For Reals? Neh, it's all virtual now baby...

virtual staging by Tracy Yarkoni
photograph by Kirk DeLaurenti

Used to be that if you wanted your house to sell, hiring someone to "stage" your home was your best chance to make that happen fast. Instead of your mish-mash collection of home furnishings, a pro would come in and decorate/re-organize the place from top to bottom. The fees can range around the thousands of dollars, especially if renting furniture is required. But a well staged home can raise it's selling price an average of 3%, making staging a pretty safe bet.

Enter Rhapsody Marketing of Seattle, and their innovative See Through Staging division...

Nowadays, with Photoshop, a drawing tablet, an extensive library of furniture images and a photographer - staging can be done completely virtually. This is just what I've been doing for the last few months with Rhapsody. It isn't easy, but it's incredibly rewarding when it all comes together in the end. Here's a simplified walk through of what I do to get a room done...

Stage 1: Initial Assets

I receive raw images of the property taken by a professional photographer, a "Design Inspiration" image from the client, along with a brief description of the look they want to achieve.

Stage 2: Shopping

I'm no fan of shopping, I love buying, but shopping can be so annoying. Lucky for me, I have a resource library of over 14,000 pieces of furniture and accessories, from many different vendors, that I can choose from right on my computer. It was a little overwhelming at first, but after much hunting for just the right pieces, I've become pretty familiar with the various vendors and know where to go for certain styles. The fun part is coming across pieces you love and can't wait to use, like these beauties from Roche Bobois:

Stage 3: Rough Staging

I usually end up with many options for the major pieces, like sofas and beds. The next hurdle is finding them in a perspective that will fit with the room. I may have found the perfect sofa, but if it's only photographed dead-on, that's the only angle I can use it. Some perspective adjustments can be tweaked, but only by about twenty degrees or so. For example, I love the sofa set in the image below, but there's no way I'm going to be able to fit it in the far side of the room at this angle...

So I gather together all my initial picks, then see what will work where in the room, and then which accessories will best fit with my main pieces. I also decide which wall will have an accent color, which then helps me decide what color my window treatments need to be. I end up with a pretty messy picture at this stage, since everything has only been roughly 'cut out' from original images:

Stage 4: The Magic...

Now comes the dirty work... 'cut out' each piece cleanly; adjust perspectives; if removing bits (like that painting leaning on the sidebar, or price tags, or like the bookshelf above whose bottom shelf was hidden by a sofa arm), then re-draw parts of furniture where the unwanted item was; add bits, like the bar counter had to be cut and copied over top the bar stools (see below) so they look like they're underneath it; put new colors on things, like the curtains, possibly the pillow, the sofa, etc.; make glass objects 'see through'; adjust lighting and shading on each object, since almost all of them came from different lighting situations; color correct each piece, and possibly the room itself (some objects will be warmer or cooler than others, again due to the original lighting); add convincing shadows; add reflections on any shiny surfaces, like the bar counter and table top and windows, if necessary.

Often times there's another bout of shopping to do for other accessories, like in this case, I had to find a new painting that would bring the room together; also, the sidebar and bookshelves were sadly empty and I had to find pieces for them.

Fingers crossed, and with some more tweaking, it all comes together, hopefully ahead of schedule - and I get to gaze at the fabulous new room I wish belonged to one of my friends so they'd invite me over for a glass of wine to oooh and awe over their gorgeous digs...

living/dining pieces from Bo Concepts; vase and clock from Roche Bobois

Here's the some more of the apartment:

photographs by Kirk DeLaurenti

See more of my virtual staging work here...


Cheers!
me

ohhhhh, Gehry

...in honor of my sister's up-coming visit to Seattle (can't wait!),

here's one of the landmarks we plan to see...

photograph by Tracy Yarkoni

The Experience Music Project building,
by Frank O Gehry
photograph by Tracy Yarkoni

{side note: me and O Gehry go way back...

see the couches his work inspired me to make...}

'Gods', Holier Than Who?

Just finished my Chapter 3 illustration for the book I'm writing, tentatively titled:

"Gods, An Epidemic: An Epic Comedy Drama With Apocalyptic Tendencies"

Each chapter is based on a major arcana card of the Tarot- of which they total 22 cards out of the 78-card deck. As a whole, they follow the basic hero's journey from "The Fool" to "The World".

Here is my version of "The High Priestess" 

The High Priestess, from wikipedia:

"Knowingness – Love – Relationships

Wisdom – Sound judgment – Serenity

Common sense – Intuition

Mystical vision – introspection – otherworldliness

… intuitive knowledge. The water that flows from her gown is the 

collective unconscious…She is not merely the mistress of hidden 

wisdom, she has read the words and knows their deeper meaning. 

Generally, unlike The Magician, she does not explore the world in 

order to master it, but in order to understand it. That understanding 

often leads to the temptation of mastery...

She is also associated thematically with The Moon. She can 

lead to deep wisdom, but can also lead to madness…

When she appears in a spread, she typically counsels the Querent 

to seek new paths and hidden paths to wisdom. She can also be a 

warning to interrogate the lessons of the unconscious. It does not 

always lead us to wisdom.

She also warns the Querent to question how he or she has divided 

up the world; to test the judgments made in the past against the 

world as we have come to know it.”

Want more?!

Chapter 2, 'Le Magicienne' illustration here...

Chapter 1, 'The Fool' illustration here...

Start reading 'Gods' here...

cheers,

tracy

Ghostly feet, a Secret Angel Man and other oddities from Ireland...

finally, pics from trip to Ireland last year... enjoy!

view from the plane, streaked with rain

first sight of green

lovely pub details...

threshold of the Hi-B pub
they say you're nobody till you're kicked out the Hi-B.
which we were ;)

blarney castle.
yep, i'm a sucker for castles.

check the ghostly feet on the right -
i do not recall anyone being there  {{creepy}}

secret angel man watching from his perch in an alley 

gentleman begging for change under statue of james joyce

just bizarre. i call it
"Mother Mary Full of Change"

i felt great comfort in finding lifesavers
placed randomly throughout the city streets.
{is this for after the pub-crawl?!
or a figurative gesture, as in - here you go mate,
life may try to drown you, but help is always at hand?!}

in the taxi

cheers,

me

Back By Popular Demand...

More of my book, Gods, An Epidemic {working title} and a new illustration for the same:

details of drawing:

Chapter 1

The Magician

Eve woke up with that indecipherable feeling of being simultaneously hungry and nauseous. “I’ll never drink again.” She swore as she half-walked, half-hobbled to the bathroom. After having a most glorious bladder relieving session, she made her way to the kitchen, hunched over and slow, like a decrepit and abnormally tall turtle. Passing her passed-out friend on the living-room sofa, she made no attempt to shuffle quietly; misery doesn’t so much love company as beg for it in a rather demanding tone.

She noisily poured herself some ice water, which she drank down in one go, then talked herself out of curling up in the corner on the floor in favor of attempting to make some breakfast; in the hopes that she was more in the nourishment-lacking state of gastro-intestinal things than the puke-your-guts-up one. To which end, she turned on the stovetop burner, plunked a pan on it, wrestled with the bacon packaging before popping it in the now too-hot pan, but then realized (horror of horrors!) the coffee wasn’t brewing, so got distracted and annoyed by the unclean pot from yesterday, which she washed out and began to count the number of scoops of coffee when she realized she hadn’t put in the rest of the bacon and the ones already cooking were beginning to burn because she’d turned the burner on High, and by the time she’d dealt with the Battle of the Bacon, she’d forgotten how many scoops she’d already put in the coffee filter and had to dump it out and start over, only she missed the trash can and half of the grounds ended up on the floor at which point she turned off the stove and opted for the curling-up-in-the-corner-on-the-floor option, in the hopes that the breakfast fairy would come and save her.

{continued...}

{if you'd like a refresher, start with: The Preamble; 

then: Chapter 0, The Fool}

cheers,

me

fire, water, walking trees and other things...

{me in the cascades}

cheers, 

me

Shark Infested Waters

A friend turned me on to a magnifico way to share tunes & playlists -- Grooveshark{!} -- it's free, and doesn't infringe anybody's copyrights, for those of us who care, like me, cause I'm an artist & stealing sucks.

Come hear what's in my ear with my playlist "...lately..." 
{you don't need an account to listen}

If you do sign up, come post your username here in the comments so I can 'follow' you and hear what rocks your world ;)

cheers,

me

Visual Culture

Bacterialized “Petri Glasses”  -or-  A literal Culture of the Visual

an interpretation by tracy yarkoni

First let me begin with a confession: the rust on my ‘art speak’ is enough to make a tetanus-shot-happy-shootin nurse squeal with joy. Second, I hadn’t realized this lamentable fact until reading Mitchell’s article.

But I digress, before I've even begun. My apologies. I will give Mr. Mitchell the benefit of the doubt that he was not intentionally trying to alienate and torture me personally; but that he really wanted to share with the world his critique of this fascinating concept called “Visual Culture” -- a subject which he taught for almost ten years, at the time his article was written. Also, he promises to describe his method of “showing seeing”, but only at the conclusion. I am intrigued by the idea, and like many-a-news program that I never meant to watch, I determine to stay tuned through all sorts of horrors, be they bloody, boring, or bloody boring, to get to the good part.  ...continue...

after the deluge...

{last december}

...Gods, An Epidemic... (a work in progress)

Chapter 0: "The Fool"
illustration by Tracy Yarkoni
the fool symbolizes potentiality;
the pregnant pause, when anything is possible

working title:
Gods, An Epidemic

tagline:
An Epic Comedy Drama with Apocalyptic Tendencies

A novel in progress by yours truly {{me}}

detail 1:
the club/heart/spade/diamond fusion denotes the fool's potential, the wild card;
the lily represents spirituality and the fool's appreciation of beauty,
its white color speaks of innocence and purity of thought and action

the plan:
Wrap this up and send it off to publishers before I head back to University in the Fall (fingers crossed on both counts), posting chapters and illustrations here for your amusement.

detail 2:
the fool is seemingly unconcerned or unaware about walking off the cliff's edge,
a supreme act of idiocy/trust/faith, the first step of any adventure;
the dog can represent animal desires or the call of the 'real world' biting at her heels

sidenote:
Each of the 22 chapters corresponds to the major arcana cards of the Tarot - basically, it follows the hero's journey from 'The Fool' to 'The World'; so I'm kind of starting out of order here, with the Chapter 0 illustration of the fool (what? zero is a number too. don't hate on 'zero') but giving you the Preamble to read instead. Nevermind, a little chaos is good for the soul...

detail 3:
 all the possessions the fool might need for the journey are few,
symbolizing the significance of the spiritual over the material

{All comments/critiques gladly welcome!}

Gods, An Epidemic

In Hebrew there is a one-letter difference between

the words “wonderful” and “f ****d.”

…

Liminality is walking the line between two states of existence;
In other words, it is the holding of that aforementioned letter for ransom. 

…

Preamble

Gods can be forgetful too. You try living forever, and see if you’re memory doesn’t overload and short circuit once in a while; and not the kind of memory lapses that result in missing a dental appointment either. No. Think bigger. Wider. More… infinite. Brain farts of colossal proportions.

Like, forgetting that you exist.

…

Gods make sense of things. The natural state of our universe is complete chaos. Things naturally don’t make any sense at all, until a god gets a handle on it. The earth really did used to be flat until a god figured out that it didn’t make sense.

Gods and Goddesses are, as a general rule, immortal. But they can hardly be expected to maintain the same form of existence in perpetuity. It is incomprehensibly boring to be infinite and all-knowing all of the time – one must do something to while away the hours, and what better way to entertain oneself than to experience life as a mortal? Little else gives life more value than death itself; or at least, the certain knowledge of impending doom that shadows all living creatures of non-immortal persuasion. The promise of death kills boredom and meaninglessness like nothing else can; except perhaps for falling in love or having really good sex. The gods had a firm handle on the love and sex thing, so it was only natural that Death was their last bastion of intrigue.        


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