...a glance from the bottom of a wine glass.

...liquid amplifier.

So my upcoming project is an experimental film...for the layman that means that it will be a bit nonsensical.  Just remember, this movement in film was to break away from commercial Hollywood and create films that made the viewer interact in some way.  Usually in the sorting out of seemingly random moments that have appeared in no particular order, in turn... causing the viewer to try to make sense of the organized confusion.

For this project, my mind is swimming with idea's but none quite fit the parameters of what I've been thinking; until today.  I was filling a glass with wine, as I tend to do after a hard day, when it hit me.  Growing up in a home of alcoholism and abuse, I often find myself turning to the false sense of numb that alcohol provides, and fight desperately not to allow myself to fall into the hole, though at times, I do.  The problem is that for me, the journey to the bottom of that glass weaves me through some pretty hurtful and harsh terrain.  I hope to use this project to project through random objects from my past, an emotional journey amplified by alcohol.  

I believe the due date for this project is a week from tomorrow or Monday...so keep watching and be sure to share your thoughts...outsider opinion is always valued:)  

If you follow my blog you'll have current updates of my posts as they come.  Please try to remember, as an artist, anything goes...so please keep an open mind.  

...from the kitchen sink

Using the audacity program, I used several sounds that were recorded separately to create a random moment in time.  You can hear the constant chirping of birds: these are the sounds of the morning birds from my own backyard.  The scrambling is my dog...I like the idea of combining the sounds of him randomly through out the piece because I think it reflects the reality of his constant presence in our lives.  Two other sounds...one, the sound of doing dishes; the other the crinkle of a poptart wrapper.  I combined these sounds to give the idea of place...cleaning the dishes, perhaps cooking up some bacon....A person standing at the kitchen sink, the window above the sink is open so that the sounds of the birds can accompany a breeze that drifts through.  The dog runs back and forth through the room while its master tends to her daily tasks.

These separate sounds, combined together, create another random moment that though hadn't occurred, could have...

Learning to work with sound...

Paintings & drawings & what not...

A painting created from a collage.  Acrylic on illustration board

...a 30 minute sketch

Study in color & drapery

15 minute sketch

30 minute color study

20 minute sketch

60 minute drawing

The sounds of 'silence'.

The following is a written recording of the sounds heard during a ten minute period of silence.  I'm sitting at my desk in the family room, just off of my kitchen.  I opted that because there would be no actual sound to project this frame of time, nor should there be any visual aide outside of your imagination.  It's 6:09 a.m., I'm about to begin.

Tap...tap...tap.....the trickle of water running to my left...a familiar calming flow of water running into the fish tank..it varies in strength...pushing in and out...trickling...plinking....sniff...sniff...zip....the dog in the other room. Hmmmm.....prrrrrr.....the whirrrrr of the refrigerator to my right...the creak and pull of my hand on the edge of the desk..tap...tap...tap...thump....a door on a car...somewhere off in the distance...outside the shifting drone of a car passing through its gears...further off to my right a faint trickle much slower....softer...the other fish tank....tap....tap...tap....another car droning off down the road....people heading off to work....the school just across the road with it's big buses heading out for the morning pick ups.  The sounds of the motors.....all groaning to life express their girth by the depth of their growl...a strange tick....or popping...like tape letting go behind me....my own breath passing through my congested nose whistles softly like a sleeping child...another car...this one in a hurry races by on the main road.

That's it...10 minutes of sounds recorded from silence.  I had thought that this would be a long and yes, boring process.  But as I sat here listening...searching out the sounds and where they were coming from; that time passed by as if only seconds, leaving me feeling as if I've only scratched the surface of the sounds I heard in silence.

My latest stop motion animation

The above HTML will take you to my latest stop motion animation called, "Herman Gets Hungry". While the creative process was open, claymation has always been a curiosity of mine which is why I chose to take this chance to experiment with it. I opted to work in scene's to make the organization process a bit less complicated as to create a stop motion animation requires an abundance of images. During the process of creating the animation I discovered exactly how complicated & time consuming such a project can be, which is why I chose only to have the snake made of clay. Retaining the appearance of one clay figure turned out to be quite challenging so backgrounds were drawn by me, and random material objects were used for props. (Including my 3 little natives.) Herman's (HER man) hunger is dealt with in perhaps less of a happy manner, but I went for fun with this project as I am just learning my own capabilities as well as those of the equipment & software I'm using. Enjoy!

George Rush: Darker with the Day exhibit review

On April 9th I was able to attend the George Rush gallery opening in our campus gallery.  The show consisted of 5 acrylic paintings of a simple scene of a view from inside a window.  The paintings were then displayed on walls to which a simplistic line drawing of the actual view from the gallery windows was duplicated to surround each painting.  The painting are all done in a gray scale and seem to show the passing of time by a simple scene change but mostly by the play of shadow off the tree branches that are painted within & around each piece.

Upon entering the gallery you see a large painted window that gives the impression of looking in...with it's mirror image reversed on the opposite side looking out.  Though while viewing these paintings I had found myself more curious about the untold side to each one, after further review I discovered that the artists intent wasn't what appeared on either side of the window...but rather to show the surface of the window: though I don't think he was able to accurately convey that message.

As I walked through the gallery I took in each piece individually and then tried to view the entire show as a whole.  Outside of the two larger (approx 60X60) paintings...the other 3 were downsized yet still set against the common ground of the simple line drawings that had been projected and painted to incorporate the use of the entire gallery.

While I understand that the show was about the change of time...by using a simple scene that almost projected the feeling of passing time or killing time...as well as the artists use of the grayscale to give the illusion of either stepping beyond the paintings edge or drawing deeper  into it by using the play of shadows off the tree branches...I did not find myself seeing the same vision.

While I think George is more of a technical thinker with his work...I'm more curious about the process, or the why behind the project.  I did take a second look...choosing a brighter time of day to see if I could catch the lingering effect that was to be created by the shadows...though I still found myself asking why?

On a positive note...though I did not enjoy the show, I can appreciate the thought & idea behind the concept.  The total utilization of the gallery space did help tie the pieces together, but in all honesty, like the captured moments in George's paintings...I felt like I was just killing time.

Thought I might as well include one of my other animations to give you all a taste of something different:)

An early Muybridge animation:)

This was my first try with the Muybridge animation...a bit different from the one below but we were practicing a bit different style with each one.  Hope you all enjoy:)

Muybridge fun

 This is a second attempt at playing with this Muybridge image....the first time I worked completely digitally....this one, we worked on hardcopies that were then scanned and animated.

A new animation

Working on a new stop motion animation....here's the storyboard to offer you a peek:)