Bit o' ancient history.

Some older stuff that I still feel is somewhat worthy of posting. Thought I'd get it all out in one. Everything here is at least a year or older.

Just a coupla paintings and studies.

"Venus" - small ceramic piece exploring contradictions in the concepts of femininity/beauty.

"Looming" - commentary on the state of the political/economic climate (this was made in 2007) and the inevitable and imminent seeping disaster that was being ignored/covered up. Kind of wish I'd done a better job of ending the tulle than leaving the edge intact.

This went one of two somewhat related ways. My original intent was a blatantly explicit expression of sexuality to confront society's tendency to cover it up. But I have also played with the idea of "Svidrigalov's Nightmare" (from Crime and Punishment), and while I'll probably sometime do a more comprehensive work or body of work on that, it also kind of works with that, because the subject looks very young and the image is very dark and assertive. But I think it leans towards the original idea, because my intent was not to depict this as "wrong" or twisted but rather embrace the sexuality it presents.

"Innuend-OH!" This came out of an argument over the definition of pornography. The other person insisted that pornography is any depiction of a penis entering a vagina (or any other form of penetration), while I argued that what makes something porn is the intent of sexual arousal and stimulation. To prove my point, I made an abstract sculpture of the head of a penis penetrating what is supposed to be the vaginal opening. Because the explicit nature was purposed for art and argument, not arousal, it is not a pornographic piece. Thus, I win. =]

If I find any more older works I still like, I'll post them. But I'm pretty sure this is the bulk of 'em.

A few works from spring semester....

....which is finally OVER with, thank God.

(Not that I didn't like my classes, but I had some issues resulting from several illnesses. Not fun, and I'm going to have to retake a couple classes for excessive absence. Ugh.)

First: my Drawing final. We had a few things that we needed to include in it (text, color red, animal, etc), and it had to be larger than 22"x30", but conceptually it was open. Mine is "Nocturnal Descent." I intended it to hang with the bottom cascading onto the floor, and directionally everything moves downwards - as it does so, order and reality dissipate. It is supposed to chronicle the loss of sense in one's mind through a night, be it through sleep deprivation, drinking, or simply the general unraveling of the world as night progresses into the wee hours of the morning, until daybreak, or an waking from an unintentional sleep, or the sobering point, at which point we reenter the synthetic order and routine we impose on our waking lives. This cycle is also something that I tend to go through on a larger timescale, as I am addicted to insanity, chaos, and self-destructive tendencies (in the mental sense, not physical.) The text is composed of bits of conversation from all-nighters, drunk convos, etc, but woven together, increasingly so to the point of little discernation towards the bottom. Also, it is hard to see in the pics, but the pillar morphs into a robust female figure, subtly to mimic sleep deprivation-induced hallucination. Size is about 7'x4.5' I think. Sorry for the image size/quality.

Second: the second-to-last project I did for Body in Time. The prompt was to use a very personal memory to design a "product" that could be mass-produced. I created a wooden 3-dimensional puzzle in which several figural pieces form one large figure (yeah, like Power Rangers!) Basically a metaphor for trying to find a single identity from several simultaneous - and often contradicting - versions of oneself. Paint job isn't as good as I'd like. I did design the box as well.

Third: one of the first projects I did for Narration. A Photoshop image, single-frame narrative, using the composition of a specific Renaissance painting. I worked from Artemisia Gentleschi's "Susanna and the Elders" - which depict the Biblical Susanna being sexually harassed by two old men. Gentleschi's painting was somewhat of a feminist paradox - though it empowered the woman by depicting Susanna as the resisting victim (many depictions often subtly placed some blame on Susanna by giving her a manner of enticing the attention), it also perpetuates the idea that a woman's strength and worth is directly related to her "purity." My version also deals with contradictions in femininity, but as they occur internally via the feminine identity. Also, just a fun image to make.

I think that'll be all for now. I may post some older works from a few years back very soon, as well as a stop-motion work I am working on from my Body in Time final (due to some asshole city officials, I was not able to shoot the animation in time for the final, so I submitted an alternative project version. But I will be shooting it for my own purposes next week or so.)

Just a few lil' things.

Thought I'd post a couple things I've done in the realm of drawing lately... nothing major, just fooling around, but I rather liked the result. First, a series for an exercise in my drawing class - the first one was based off a vignette of an older drawing, then each successive version based off the previous. The materials choices were part of the exercise, save for the ink. In order, excluding the vignette the first is based off:

Second is a minor work that came from screwing around after I found a syringe and decided to draw with it. I'll call it "Bullet."

I can't figure out this blasted blogging contraption, so the layout of text/image here is bound to be screwy.

Also, I am working on a short stop-motion film (like 3-5 minutes, maybe), and one of the sequences involves a succession of posters depicting shoes walking. So I put the poster images into GIF format for shits n' giggles.... fun to watch, yay flashing colors! (if it works, if not, screw technology.)

Jävla teknik .... Jag svär robotar kommer att förstöra jorden.

I am only posting this so I can get a Facebook link that makes sense.

Seriously, goddamned computers. They're getting more and more obstinate and skilled in thwarting humans - the day is soon approaching when they will enslave the earth. DOOM!

(Come to think of it, perhaps this link is going to make much less sense.... meh.)

First attempt at a graphic novel - a lesson in irony, but an outlet for insanity.

A while back we were assigned a graphic novel project in my 2D Narration class. The coolest part of it was that a representative from Forbidden Planet, the comic shop, was to come to the crits and choose one (later decided to be two) novels to be published/featured by Forbidden Planet. I was extremely excited, not only because it was a great opportunity in general, but because since I was eight I've wanted to be a cartoonist (more newspaper strips than book form, but regardless.) I grew up reading the comics ever since I learned how to read; my favorite artists (of art in general) include Bill Watterson, Wiley, Frank Cho, and others who really took comic strips to a different level.

Of course, this automatically set me in perfectionist mode. I agonized over this bloody thing, and went through about 3 story ideas. Besides this, as luck would have it, I've been sick the majority of the semester (which has driven me quite literally crazy for more than a few reasons, as some people know.) Not only did this make this even more mentally difficult, but it put me behind in the actual work.

Come the weekend before the due date, and (though still not very far along) I throw out my idea and begin a new one, slightly autobiographical but not completely. I managed to salvage some of my previous drawings for use with the new idea, and it did allow me to shorten the finished length at least. So that+having 3 other projects due in the same day/day following+already being behind in everything from playing catchup+new painkilling meds that make me drowsy= insanely large amounts of caffeine to keep me up for 3 days straight, and STILL I couldn't get it in in time because printers are stupid, and what I had was kinda shit anyhow. Then, after my body gave out, finally, and after my weeklong mental breakdown, I decided that what is late might as well be damn good, so I tweaked the story, made the images better, and came out with something I was, in the end, fairly satisfied with. The reason for this diatribe is to explain the immense love-hatred I feel towards said final product..... which can be found here:

http://a.nnotate.com/docs/2009-04-25/ZVGLCXX7/Fevers_Full.pdf

(Be patient, it's a large file and takes time to load.)

I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to illustrating/cartooning, in that I'm not really one for digital work. So I hand-drew and watercolored every image and scanned them all in, altering just to try to match the original and integrate into the page sometimes, rather than computer-draw or color. I did make my own handwriting font for the text (SO cool!), mainly for the legibility's sake. As far as the story, like I said before, it is semi-autobiographical (though my image/surroundings were mainly for easy access to reference when drawing).... I decided to channel some of the shit that's been making me more-that-normally erratic and delusional into a cryptic and embellished confessional of sorts. Because these very crazies kept blocking me from finishing other storylines.
It's much better viewed in it's print form, as I intended..... I printed it on toned parchment, so it has a certain feel, and the way the pages lay together and the actual act of reading a book are more connected to the effect than reading off a screenfile. But anyhow, give me feedback n'such.... thanks mucho-ly.

Let's try this out.

So this is a stop-motion animation I made a few months ago. It was an assignment for my 3D class this semester, Body in Time. The assignment was to depict the progression of time from now to then. Or then to now. Or something like that? Anyhoo, I'd already posted this on Youtube and Facebook, but it seems like an easy test-post, and it also lays the base for my final project in both 2D/narration and 3D (I'm doublin' it up,) a stop-motion narrative in which an object changes, depicting said change.... but in a much cooler way than that sounds.

I'm hoping my next one will be of a better photographic quality. I'm also going to be a wee bit ambitious and do it outside in changing scenery (depending on the idea, which I'm currently formulating.) We'll see how it goes.

Införandet?

Even though I harbor a slight hatred of Blogspot, I've created this for the purpose of posting selected works of mine in one place for feedback and whatnot. Selection criteria will vary - maybe works in progress, maybe first attempts in new media, maybe things I am particularly happy with, or maybe total shit for my own self-abasement. We'll see, I'm quite an erratic person.


Because I am quite computer-disabled (handicapable!), it may take me a while before I get the hang of posting, especially different sorts of files. Bear with me - or better yet, show me how to do it right!