Sliced and Diced

So the other day I went into the woodshop to ask about cutting cross sections of pencils. I was thinking I would wind up with a saw recommendation since the pencil would be really difficult to cut with any of the large machines. I wound up situated in the corner with a tiny radial arm saw. It's this little, plastic, orange and gray saw that cuts my pencils perfectly!!! I was so excited! The pieces look rather beautiful when they're all lined up or organized in some fashion. I'm really pleased with the results. I'm actually going to go out and attempt to buy a saw on my own this weekend so that I can cut as many pencils as I want whenever I want. The saw was only $20, so I figure that's within my budget :)











The other images are of shavings I have collected from the pencil. I'm interested in re-constructing the pencil in not only the cross-sections, but also in shaving form. I'm playing with different ways of orienting the components of a single pencil.

Here's a few more images...crappy quality, but images none the less.

5 years later...

Woah long time no see...or post rather. Craziness has occurred and I'm no longer working with claymation for my senior project. I'm still dabbling on the side when I can find a spare minute, but mostly now I'm just concentrating on pencils. What they are, what they're not, how they relate to humans, how they relate to me, etc. I'll shut up now since it's all still a jumble in my head as it is...but here's some pictures of the things I've been doing with pencils...

Pencils. Version 2.0

Here are some of latest models for my pencil characters. I changed the color and style and am really pleased with the results. The new versions are more realistic and of a far better quality than the previous.

Angry Pencils

Life in Clay

I've finally decided what to do for IP...claymation. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with my work, but when I was exploring my ideas, I kept winding up somewhere that I knew I didn't want to be. I tried to force it, but as one could guess, that was a bad idea. So I took the advice of a professor and started playing with my subject matter --in its simpest form, a toothbrush-- in different mediums. And when I started an animation, I was happy. I enjoyed the process and loved the results. So logically, I decided to do a claymation. And this is where I am today; objects that are frequently replaced and discarded by humans with little or no regard are placed in situations where they meet and interact. What happens? I want to explore and find that answer...or at least what I imagine the answer to be.

IP Starts, Frustration to Follow.

I've hit a wall and am frustrated and confused...surprise surprise. I keep getting ideas for my ip project and I get really excited, but then after I seriously think about what that idea entails...I become frustrated and confused and feel as though I have no where to go.

I've currently settled on the theme of collections and ritual/habitual acts. My latest idea was to document the past, present, and future of my life through collections. Bear with me as I think out loud how this project would function.

To start, I began with the idea of collections, mainly the ones that I have formed over the years. I began to think about what these collections mean and why I have unconsciously created them. They all seem to be comprised of paper items that represent events from my life. Both the objects themselves as well as the events and things they represent are ephemeral. So why do I save them? I believe that I have a fear of losing my past. So why not try to hold onto it??? This would be step one. Collect my past.

I then considered the topic further, asking myself why I'm worrying about the past. And in the process of thinking of this, I realized that not only am I worried about losing the past --and thus collecting and saving things-- but I also collect objects and tools for the future: extra toothbrushes, shampoo, roles of tape, etc. I then asked why I do this as well. Answer: I have a fear of being without something that I need. Solution: Create many of things I'm afraid of losing --make 50 sculptures or castings of a toobthrush or 600 paperclips. This would be step two.
"Collect" for the future.

Well at this point I realized that I'm worrying about losing the past and not being prepared for the future, but what about the present? I'm losing the present in my process of obsessive collecting. Solution: Hold onto the present. I would do this by saving one object or creation to represent each waking hour of every day for a strech of time. This would be my final step.
Collect the present.

Sooooo this is where I'm at. I'm not sold on my idea, but I'm at the point where I have to start with something, so why not this??? I just have to hope that I wind up loving this or allowing it to lead me to something I do love...

Cross your fingers for me.

Post of Postcards

I don't have a whole lot to say or share, but I haven't posted in forever...so I'm due. Here are some pictures of the A&D postcards that went out to incoming students. They were uglier than sin so I decided to spice them up.









...and unfortunately, that's all I've got for now.

I've been thinking a lot this summer about what I want to do next year for my big project, and subsequently with my life post-graduation. I've been making lists and crossing things off, adding things, erasing, thinking, drawing, making things, and still have a huge list of things that I want to work with. I've been working with my natural surroundings, using berries and leaves and flowers to create things, but I've also been working with photography and stop animation. I'm all the over the place, and for the first time in my life, that seems to be a hindrance. I've always considered it to be a good thing to have so many different interests, but now I'm just not sure where to go.



How do you know where to go??? I'm petrified I'll start something in the fall and then after a few months get horrifically bored and disgusted with what I've done and hate the rest of the year. A whole year is an extremely long time to work on one project when you don't even know what you want to do in life...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

A water main broke down the street from me yesterday and I was left without water. I found myself rather upset by this --most because I had to use the bathroom-- and then today I stopped to think about it, and realized how silly it was to be upset by not having water. Of course we all need water to survive, to drink, to clean, to use the bathroom, etc. but I spent a week in a town that had a very limited water supply --and actually no water at all for a while-- and was completley fine. True, I had to wake up and hunt down a bush to use as a bathroom one morning, but still...it wasn't all that horrible. Once you get past that fact and realize that water for drinking can be bought down the street, a day without water really isn't all that awful.

Now I guess my main realization from this was that I have shifted back into my old life here. It's hard to believe that I left for Chile almost a year ago...it sometimes feels like it was all just a dream --until I go back and look through my pictures. Even then it's still a bit hazy and dream-like. Then I can't help but wonder if this is just because I have a horrible memory, in which case I will be doomed to have all of my memories saved in a hazy state, or if everyone remembers such awesome events in the same way. I always said I would never forget my time in Chile, but I find myself letting things slip until I stop and dig down to find the memories. A frightning and disconcerting thought if you ask me...

Te Extrano...

The sun, the sand, the breeze...The Beach. Oh how I loved it...Oh how I miss it...

Vacation at last!!!

Classes are over. I have a job. I probably have an internship. and I'm going to florida in the morning. YAY!!! La vida esta perfecta!!! I seriously cannot wait to just sit in a chair in the sun with a good book and an ice cold drink...and those are my only plans for the entire week. And I'm dead serious about that. I plan to do nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. I'll be sure and let you know how it feels to sit in the sun and think of nothing. or something. or everything. not that it matters, because I won't do anything about anything I'll be thinking about. For once I'll just be sitting on my butt in a chair, in the sun. Hopefully I'll come back well rested, both physically and mentally, and with a reasonable tan :)

Ignorance is not Bliss

School really isn't over. And I knew that. But it didn't quite sink into my thick little brain until now. So here I am...1 day from being finished...irritated beyond irritation. All I have to do is finish some stupid symbol translations and I just can't do it. All I want to do is sit down with a book and do nothing. Just relax. And when I say relax, I don't just mean sit in front of the television and pretend to relax when I know that I have other things to do at the moment...which I've done once or twice. But let's face it...that's just pretending ot relax. So yes...here I am, procrastinating. Damn me and my stubborn ignorance.

Classes are finally over. Yes...over. And the sun is finally shining!!! YAY!!! I'm currently outside, in the sun, squinting at my laptop and I couldn't be happier.

I said that classes are over, but let's be honest...they're not really. I still have to finish work for my graphic design class and then there's the performance tonight for the performance art class --which I'm currently attempting to rememorize my monologue in conjunction with writing this post. I finished painting completely though...thank goodness!!!



I wound up painting what I believe was about 55 individual paintings of a cigarette. It was exhausting. I thought the piece would at the very least rid me of my mysterious cigarette obsession, but I must report the opposite. I still have no idea why I'm so obsessed with cigarettes --even though I do not smoke-- and I now wish to continue painting them even more so. But thankfully, I now have a way in which to paint them...I've openned a whole new set of doors for myself and I'm actually rather excited to set up a little table in my garage and start filling it with paintings --since the painting studios are inaccessable in the summer...BOOOOO.

Aside from completely paining, I've also finished spanish. For my "final," I chose to make a sort of extended length comic strip about the life of Augusto Pinochet. I found it frustrating to learn about so many countries with dictatorships and extensive histories, but we never got any sort of a literal timeline for the events about which we learned...
so I decided to make my own...in my own way. So this is what I ended up with. A two page, comic, time line of the life of Pinochet... go figure.

And now it's time to go and rememorize this monologue... and possible attempt to write a new one...we'll see how ambitous I'm feeling in the next few hours...

Getting A Grasp

So it's been a while. I know. I'm sorry. I won't bore anyone with the excuses I would normally throw out there, but instead I'll just say that life has been happening and leave it at that. To give you some visual references...I've been looking at the work of Barcelo and am in love with his work. How could you not be? The way he layers on paint is amazing. I've never been one for layering paint. And not because I have never liked that technique, but because I've never been good at it. And in all honesty, It's kind of hard to get that effect with acrylics. Not at all impossible, but not an easy task. Now that I've been working in oils, I've started to throw some layers on my canvas. And maybe a bit too rigorously. I've recently had to take a step back and return to my old ways. I was overwhelmed. Actually...I was floundering. My transition back to life here was a bit hard in the every day life, but I found that my transition back into my art habits was difficult as well. I forgot who I was. I was a different artist in Chile, and upon returning, wasn't sure how to mix that artist with who I had been before. But I'm happy to report that I think I'm finally getting a grasp on the situation.

That having been said...I've experimented with makeup and performance art in a way I hadn't before. My performance art class has openned up an entirely different world of art. I've explored an alter ego, as well as delved into my own personal issues in the form of monologues and reflective writings. I just registered for my fall semester classes, including my IP and am rather excited at the prospect of having an entire year to work on something. I'm sure I'm going to be hating it after a few months, but at the moment, I'm reveling in the idea.

Al mismo tiempo, mis recuerdos de Chile siguen. We had the All Student Exhibition here and I entered a piece using some of the photographs I took on my many travels last semester. I don't have any finalized photos, but here's a taste. Basicamente, I connected a series of landscapes using their horizon lines. I was simply playing with photo transfers when I happened to notice that the horizon lines of all of the photos blended together in a very cohesive manner. I've struggled with how to represent the variety of landscapes and lifestyles that I encountered last semester, and although this piece does not encorporate urban landscapes, I feel that it effectively conveys the way the different environments mesh and blend together in such an extraordinary way.

As far as the rest of my life...things have fallen back into a normal swing...I'm home again. Todavia extrano a Chile y todo que estaba alla...pero mi vida esta siguiendo. Life in Ann Arbor has continued as it was before...haha