New Camera=Stuff for Sale

My parents got me a new camera for Christmas. This is a big deal, since I've been using my 35mm since 7th grade.

They got me a very very nice digital camera, with manual control and good macro focus.

So with that, I put 2 pairs of earrings up on Etsy for sale since I can take decent pictures of them. So my Etsy page is

www.etsy.com/shop/spyke927

The Abandoned Factory Memento Mori

Well I had some technical problems soldering my incense burner before, but with some time to clear my head and relax, I did manage to complete it. It also does work as planned (for once), so here's some pictures and a little video.

See you space cowboy.....

Final Critique

I was plesently suprised by the final critique. I really like good crits, but have noticed a lack in participation and objectivity through the past several. But this semester's final was much improved, so thank you all.

I felt that I worked very hard, and was well-prepared. I was disappointed in the fact that I could not solder the top of my incense burner completely, but I am not well aware of my limits, and know what I need to learn next.

To give everyone an idea of how much work I've put in this semester, the week previous to the final critique I had spent about 100/144 hours in the studio. This semester, I averaged about 9 hours a day in the studio, and the last week was about 15 hours a day in the studio. So I feel accomplished and excited to get back to working in the studio. I'M ADDICTED!



Anyway, I think I'll end my last post of this semester with a few words to others:
Enjoy learning and strive to learn more. Intellectual curiosity is a gift of sentience, so use it and push forward to find your way. If you want to be an artist of any kind, you must love it.



Congrats to Rachel, and good luck in the future. Have fun in grad school!





See you space cowboy.......

3D Meets 2D

This is a really cool link.
It's the vido of a painter that hides in his photographs. Check it out. It's a great application of 3D interest in 2D art.


LINK!


See you space cowboy......

I Just May Be on to Something!

So I was excited with this production work to A.) Finish it on time and B.) Have customers really like it. It was all Steampunk-based in design, which came from an Anthrometalic (I made that word up) study funded by a small creativity grant from Buffalo State. I learned a lot about the Steampunk aesthetics and ideals, and have incorporated the ideas from this fairly esoteric American gothic subculture into my own artistic productions. I did not know how well they would sell at the Student Sale, but all of my ear rings are gone, and the pendants are going fast as well.

And then it was brought to my attention that the Steampunk aesthetic approach is now becoming mainstream. My wife sent me a picture of the Victoria's Secret runway show on December 1st, and, well, I'll just show it to you. I don't think anyone will complain about looking at some models.



SHE IS STEAMPUNK!
She has the tuxedo-esque bustier with the forearm gloves!
AND LOOK AT THOSE WINGS! Brass gears with silver feathers! On top of that, this production has run me short on watch parts, so I looked online for some more. Last time I bought them, I had to hunt down an old man that bought and sold estates, and happened to buy one from a watch maker. He sold me a little baggie of gears, and we met int he Wegmans parking lot. It was skeavy and fun. NOW THERE ARE STEAMPUNK PART SUPPLIERS!

IT MAKES ME WANT TO PERMANENTLY TYPE IN CAPS!!!!1!!!

Anyway, I'm actually kind of proud for the fact that I hopped on the bandwagon before it was cool, so that I could hopefully ride this wave during its height of popularity for a while.




See you space cowboy......

Been Busy

I have a feeling no one is reading this, so I'll write for sanity's sake. Lol.

So anyway, I've been very busy working on production pieces, as well as planning out my Chasing and Repousse assignment.


Production:
For the production assignment, I'm making about 13 pieces. 10 of which are Steampunk pendants, with custom clasps. 3 of the pieces are Steampunk ear rings. Here's a picture of those ear rings:








Chasing and Repousse:
For the chasing and repousse assignment, I was originally going to make a monicle. However, some recent literature that I have read changed my mind a bit. I am going to make a Memento Mori Candleholder. Memento Mori is a concept that dates back through all of human history, but picked up in importance in classical cultures, especially Rome (thus, the Latin wording). Memento Mori means "remember that you must die." It was a concept utilized by Romans to keep generals and other high-ranking officials modest. When a general accomplished something great, parades were done in their honor. However, the general would be followed by one or two servants that would say things like "Memento Mori," meaning "remember that you must die," as well as "Respice post te! Hominem te memento!" meaning "Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man!" Another common saying was "Sic transit gloria mundi" meaning "Thus passes the glory of the world." These sayings were uttered to keep the general modest and grounded to the fact that though he was celebrated in life today, tomorrow he will likely die in battle.

The concept of the Memento Mori was later adopted in Medieval Europe by the humble Christians. Tokens, often in the shapes of skulls, hourglasses, or bats, were carried to always remind the people of the impending end. The Grim Reaper is the most famous Memento Mori, in fact. The Christian adoption of Memento Mori lead to the celebration of Ash Wednesday, in which ashes are placed on the heads of worshippers. The common utterance is "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" meaning "from ashes, return ashes, from dust, return dust." We are born of the earth, and will return to it.




What I plan to do for my piece is a Memento Mori spanning centuries of humanity's fear of death. The piece will be a contemporary candleholder which serves the purpose of stacking candles (image below). This is a ritual done to show the passage of time, and the nearing of death. It will depict a somewhat Medieval style, showing the more Medieval interpretation of spiritual and religious devotion to death. The images around the candleholder will depict Ragnorok, which is the enevitable death of the Norse gods where Odin, Heimdall, Loki, Thor, and Freyr are all killed.


I figure, we're spanning about a thousand years there. The piece is being made now, using styles and concepts from 500 years ago, depicting a myth older that 1000 years ago.



Below are some pictures.


This is a stacked candle that I did when I was a teenager. It is a little over 2 feet tall, and contains over 100 candles. It took a little over a year to make.




This is a sketch of the base of the Memento Mori. It will have a domed top for the candle to rest. The front of the box will have an hour glass, and the two sides will have 2 battles of Ragnorok on each. Fenrir vs Odin, Freyr vs Surtr, Thor vs Jorgmundr, and Loki vs Heimdall.


It will be VERY basic, based on time. The back of the box will be blank for easy wall placement. It will be about 4 inches wide and 4 inches tall. Possibly smaller.




Sources:


Belanger, Michelle. Walking the Twilight Path: A Gothic Book of the

Dead. Llewellyn Publications, 2008. Print.

Cotterell, Arthur. Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. JG Press,

2008. Print.

Keenan, Sheila. Gods, Goddesses, and Monsters: An Encyclopedia

of World Mythology. Scholastic, 2000. Print.

Wikipedia


See you space cowboy......

I Am Published

So I recieved an email today from a group that I studied a while back.

A couple of years ago, I had to do a study on an American Subculture for an Anthro assignment. Through some research, I became interested in the Vampiric subculture of America. It is actually what lead me into my artistic studies of the Steampunk subculture.

The Vampiric subculture is pretty obvious, so I won't explain it with entirely too much detail.

Here's me covering my ass:

During this study, I interviewed about 50 Vampires. Wether you believe them or not, they do, so for the purpose of cultural relativity, please don't even bother getting into discussions on wether or not they are real. Wether you believe that a man over 2000 years ago was half human and half god, or wether you believe that there are people that drink blood to survive, it's the same argument on faith and belief. I won't state my views purely for the fact that an Anthropologist merely observes and reports according to the standard scientific methods. My opinions, as a result, are absolutely beside the point.

Anyway, through my interviews, I drew many sketches to try and understand the views and spirituality of the two categories of vampires (sanguine, psivamp).

Well, I was approached by a leader of the Vampiric community, as well as a well-known author, to use my sketches from the study (as well as a tattoo design that I did for a friend) in a book that they are publishing. I was very happy to have the opportunity to do this, and recived royalty rights as well (after a nice 6 page contract).

So I will be published in a book called Dark Chrysalis. The book is a collection of vampire art, lyrics, poetry, and stories.


Hey, published is published!



It also gives me some street cred in this VERY SECRETIVE culture. According to one of my professors, I may be the first scientist to even remotely have the opportunity to infiltrate this culture in its over 50 year history.


I'll have an ISBN within a couple of days, and will be recieving a few copies of the book once it's off the production line. But I'll post these pictures here for everyone to see. Keep in mind, they were sketches done based on spiritual and theoretical conctepts held dear to the two seperate vampire communities.

This is the concept of Psivampirism. The collecting of life energy (much like that of Chi or Ki)


The hungering of a vampire is often compared to a strangling serpent.

Just a little tattoo design that I did for a friend a few years ago. She got it done, and also signed a release form for the use for this book.

So there you go.

See you space cowboy......

Mask: Complete

Well, after much much MUCH work on my mask, it is complete.

I only did the front mask as it seemed to promote the original concept without the necissity of the top mask. I may still make it, though, since I did like the design, and the molding is already complete.



So here's some pictures of the mask, and the process in which it was produced.

The original first design was scrapped for the second design. It was then molded with the copper eye in place.

It was cast in resin with the eye in place, then was (sadly) painted. I then removed the paint because it looked so bad to show the resin below. I then fabricated the forehead from copper, and filled it in with resin. I then fabricated the copper along the cheek and to the side of the chin.

I then fabricated the handle for the mask from copper, with a domed brass end to reflect the brass screws and bolts used for stability, structure, and accent. I used a peel-type embossing method to emboss the spiral on the handle, and also etched it with a motif held common throughout all of the copper on the mask.

Explanation of the Piece:

This piece is my attempt of blending my two primary disciplines: Anthropology and Metalsmithing. The mask is supposed to be similar to those used by shaman to tell stories and to perform rituals of healing. The mask itself is called "The Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Healer" because of its significance. It represents the mask that would be adorned by what is considered to be a healer in contemporary western cultures: the doctor. The robotic forms and designs shows the modern dependence on technology and science for healing. It's often perceived in western culture that if science and technology can't cure it, it's incurable. However, science and technology did not exist at these levels for hundreds of thousands of years, and humans managed to survive to be the most world-altering species on the planet. In other words, the science we depend so heavily on is not the only manner of healing available, but we rely 100% upon it. We also push it on others. The handle itself makes a statement on the so-called "healers" of modern days. The handle is long, and requires an absolute upright posture to wear the mask. In this pose, a person would seem to be puting themselves in a prideful, god-like posture. This represents the god complex displayed by many doctors. The massive grin has wide lips, which is a motif standard to all shaman masks, but the massive grin represents the fake smiles and joy that doctors act out to patients as they treat each patient as a mere number (the average doctor/patient interaction is less than 5 minutes).

Here's the original sculp of the second mask.

So there you go. I'm happy with the piece. It seemed to pull in my steampunk aesthetics accidently, as well. Can't argue with that!












See you space cowboy.......

New Pictures

Well, it was the last weekend of Frightworld. Last night was my last night of scaring for another 10 months. Very sad. But I guess now my life can return to school-focused. I'm still a designer there, so I'll still be working. Just not so late.



Anyway, I have some pictures to share. Some that I didn't know were out there, one that's really cool.



Here's a picture of me working on detailing the columns outside of Return of the Mummy's curse. I designed the column layout, then started carving and painting cracks into them, as well as antiquing them.


Here's another one of me working on the columns. I'm up on a lift because the columns are 10ft tall.


I didn't really know that those pictures were out there. Now I do. Damn stalkers.




This is the cool one. On the last night, our amazing makeup artists went to town. They really liked my bald head. So another actor named Rob Cmor sculpted and molded this wound, then our lead artist Arick Szymecki painted it, then our prop artist Andrew Lavin applied it to my scalp and applied the makeup around it. Pretty damn convincing.



Now I can take credit for three artistic tasks at Frightworld: I'm a designer, an artist, and a canvas.




See you space cowboy.......

Eye of Balor: Chasing and Repousse

Well for the chasing and repousse assignment, I've really been quite lost conceptually. So this morning I whipped out a bunch of my myth references and started reading. It worked out well because I found a story to use. Now, to some of you this idea may seem familiar. It's actually and idea I almost attempted a little over a year ago. It was right before Halloween last year, and I started to design a monocle. The monocole was going to be a monster's cycloptic eye. I actually got the idea from this myth, but totally forgot until I rediscovered it in one of my books.

The story is the Celtic myth of Balor. Balor is a god of death and king for the Fomorians, a race of monstorous giants that once controlled Ireland and were rooted to the sea. His father was Buarainech, a poison-maker. He kept Balor chained up at a young age, and the poisonous fumes made his one eye toxic. Everything he looked at died instantly. A prophecy came to him later that said his grandson would be destined to kill him, so he locked his only daughter up in a crystal tower on the island of Troy. With the help of the druid Birog, Cian (a God of the Tuatha de Danann who was trying to take over Ireland) inpregnated Balor's daughter. She had 3 sons, but Balor ordered that they all drown in the whirlpools near Troy. One son was dropped, and was saved by the druids. His name was Lugh. Lugh was raised as a proud warrior of the Tuatha de Danann, and was highly respected by his fellow gods. It's even said that the good god, Dagda, stepped down from his command of the De Danann military to allow Lugh to claim his destiny in the second battle at Mag Tuireadh. In this battle, Balor killed the De Danann leader but became tired. Since it took 7 servants to lift his eyelid, he closed his eye to rest. Right before the eye was completely closed, Lugh shot a rock from a magic slingshot at Balor's eye. His eye shot through the back of his head, and gazed upon his entire military behind him...Killing them all.

The Tuatha de Danann took over Ireland, allowing the Fomorians to live with them since their leader was killed. Eventually, the Milesians went to war with the Tuatha de Danann, and took over Ireland to become the ancestors of the modern inhabitants of Ireland. The Tuatha de Danann, along with the Fomorians, moved underground and became the fairy folk of Ireland.

So there we go. Really delved into the Cultural Anthropology on this one. So basically my plan is to do a monocle with 6 panels on it. I want the order and method of the display of the story to somewhat resemble that of Renaissance portals, with the large center one being similar to the tympanum. I made a digital sketch real quick of my idea, but I need to work out more details.

Stylistically, I'm going to take major influence from early (BCE) Celtic Metalsmithing styles. In other words, very round and somewhat idealistic. My primary reference for Celtic styling, especially in reference to chasing and repousse, is the Gundestrup cauldron. Here's a good picture of it.

Here's a close-up of the panel showing Cerennus, the god of the beasts.

So yeah, there we go. It's a decent start.

See you space cowboy....

Half-Dead

I'm alerting everyone out there:

I will most likely not be in class tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday.
I was working Friday night and at about 12AM, I felt insanely sick. At about 12:30AM, I blacked out.
Paramedics checked me out. I had a fever of 103. They sent me home, and the next day I went to the doctor. I have advanced H1N1. While they don't check for H1N1, they did a flu test which positively placed me in category A. No other strain from this category is rampant right now aside from H1N1, so they can safely assume that it is my plague. I am showing all red-flag signs of deadly H1N1, so I'm on red alert. ER on speed dial.
When I showed symptoms about a month ago of H1N1, it probably was. The doctor said that when I got better, it probably went dormant and my lack of food and sleep made it pop back out.

I feel much better today thanks to the large amounts of Tamiflu. But the doctor told me that no matter what I need to rest for several days.
According to the CDC, someone with H1N1 may return to full function only after 24 hours without a fever. And it has to be unassisted, so no Advil or Tylenol.

So lucky me....


See you space cowboy.....

Project 2: Some Questions

Ok, I started to think about ideas for the second project as I'm detailing the first.

One of my major questions is:
Does the story have to be another person's narrative? Or could I have written it?

The reason I ask is that when I was between the ages of 16 and 19, I wrote a story for fun. The basic explanation of the story is as follows:

Every night when the world of man falls asleep and the eyes of the world's
beasts are closed, the mushrooms of the earth come alive. They eat, love, fight,
pray, and do all that man can do. Just smaller. The mushrooms exist in tribes
battling eachother for territory, but they must also defend themselves from the
attrocities of man. The chemicals and poisons that come alive to attack all that
lives. A great mushroom came about and united all of the tribes in a massive
battle for the defense of the mushroom colonies. In the final battle, the king
died in his final push for victory. The mushrooms won, but had lost their king.
Until another great mushroom came along. He was born blind, but built himself
eyes. This Mycomechanic, as he came known to be, rebuilt the king out of the
metals of the earth, much like his eyes. The mycomechanic named the
newly-constructed king Psilocyborg, and they both ruled the colony forever
more.

This was just a basic overview of it. It actually got real detailed once upon a time. This story was the one that I described in the beginning of the semester on how it influenced that mask. So anyway, I want to make the Mycomechanics eyes, so my other question is:

Does the object have to TELL the narrative? Or can it just be PART of the narrative?


See you space cowboy....

Mask Progress

So I've gotten a hell of a lot done on the mask. Now that I've done it once, it will go much smoother in the future. Or so that seems to be the pattern. So here's some process pictures for y'all.

The original concept sculpture for the mask. I was in NO WAY happy with it, so I started anew.

The new mask sculpted

The mask with the eye to cast in place

The mask cast in transparent blue resin with eye cast in place

There's loads more details to add including a paint job and a bunch of new metal work. There's also a lot of clean up for the resin itself. But really, that's not too bad. The hard part is over and now it's just little things.

The secondary mask (top mask) from the original design isn't even started yet. However, I'm considering not casting it in resin but instead casting it in latex. I need to play with that idea a little more, but I'm not overly concerned about it. Yes, I know it's due Wednesday, but I now understand the process because I've done it on my own. So I predict that I have the time.

The primary (front) mask is the largest concern to me. It's much more important than the secondary.

See you space cowboy...

BLOG LIST

Just to alert every0ne that is still searching for classmates:

There's a blog list on the right side menu of this blog! It says "Followers Blogs" above it. They are links directly to every blog. There's 17 of them, which is pretty close to everyone.

Here is the list repeated:


Amanda Albertsson
Melissa Aldrich
Sally Avery
Jihea Eum
Brian Gouche
John Harris (Me)
Lizabeth Kelley
Sooja Lee
Alison Long
Jennifer Mook
Tara Nahabitian
Vincent Pontillo
Dorothy Rapp
Glen Stew
Rachel Timmins
Aric Verrastro
Pei-Chen Wu

More Masks

So I decided to rebuild the plastic base of my mask. The first one wasn't crazy enough for me. I've been doing loads of research to gain a better understanding of "successful" masks, so here's some images from an awesome mask maker.

The artist's name is Monica Roxburgh for Portland. Her website is goblinart.com

So there you go. Some pretty pictures.

I'll have ALL weekend to pound out some research seeing as I officially have influenza of the oinking variety.

See you space cowboy.......

New Room in Frightworld

So I helped design (and build) a new room in one of the haunted houses in Frightworld. This room is in Phobiaz and is called The Boiler Room.

The room is obviously covered in pipes. The center walkway was built to allow for fog to flow through them and out of valves all over the place.

This is insider information, so don't share it.

See you space cowboy....

Blog List

I know a lot of people are having a hard time finding each other on here, so I have a list available. So does Tara on Angel, but who really uses Angel anyway? So here's a list for you. It's also on the right column of this blog.

Please ignore the giant gap. For some reason, the blog isn't liking my coding. Oh well. You can scroll.

Albertsson, Amanda	http://pictorsuperfuit.blogspot.com/
Aldrich, Melissa	http://des331atbuffalostate.blogspot.com/
Lee, Sooja	http://lees93.blogspot.com/
Long, Alison	http://longam79.blogspot.com/
Nahabitian, Tara	http://jewelryhive.blogspot.com/
Pontillo, Vincent	http://cuagmetals.blogspot.com/
Rapp, Dorothy	http://drapplog.blogspot.com/
Stew, Glen	http://glenstew.blogspot.com/
Timmins, Rachel	http://racheltimmins.blogspot.com/
Verrastro, Aric	http://aricverrastro.blogspot.com/
Wu, Pei-Chen	http://cherrysjewelry.blogspot.com/
	To add a person without going directly to their blog, you can add them from your Dashboard by choosing the Add button then copying and pasting the address.

There you go. Hope that helps.

See you space cowboy....

Jewelry in Motion Piece

We've all talked about our runway pieces, but I feel like my idea is not well-explained. I'm fine with that seeing as I love the "Wow" factor in suprising people, but I plan on wowing all of you with the runway show itself, so here I will go much further in depth into my concept.

Here's a small drawing of the basic idea.

This drawing shows the head without the mask, then two with it. The mask will actually be a double mask. There will be a human-like mast on the front of the face with one eye being a monacle. The importance of this monacle is that it serves a point to the greater meaning of the piece.

The mask itself is supposed to represent the shamanistic mask. It's a mand-made mask worn by shaman in order to perform a ritual or tell a story. This practice exists across the globe, and odds are, all of our roots started with a similar ceremony. The cyborg eye (monacle) is serving the point, to me, of representing the shaman's vision. Shaman are said to see the world in an entirely different way. Usually in bright colors, shapes, and supersensativity to details around them. This is why they are generally called excentric. Honestly, I believe that all artists are shaman because the world comes through sensative eyes. For example: Glen. I was outside with Glen one day, and he made an interesting sculpture or two out of pinecones and feathers. Most people wouldn't see that, but he did. That's the shaman's view. So the monacle is the eye in which the shaman views the world. There was also be integrated piercing work done in copper near the forhead. The way I plan on integrating and transitioning the metal to the soft, silicon mask is by casting in place. I will cast the metal pieces to appear to be coming through the skin.

The most interesting part of this mask, to me, is the fact that it's actually two masks. One mask sits on the top of the models head, the other on the front. They will be connected together and held on by hidden elastic straps. The model will come out on the runway on two legs, showing his human face. He will then end up on all fours and look at the audience with the top of his head. He will actually be looking at the ground, but the mask will make it appear as if he's looking at the crowd out of a new mask.

The purpose of this is to tell the common shamanistic story of the shaman's transformation from human into beast, which is a common belief by shaman all over the world.

Now here's some reference pictures I've used.

These are traditional shaman masks:

As far as color, modernization, and shape, I used a different reference.

I've been a HUGE fan of Cirque du Soleil for YEARS, and I finally get the chance to do something I can use that influence in. Actually, Mystere is what originally instilled interest in masks for me. So here's some mask pictures from Cirque.

There you go. Comments are more than welcome.

See you space cowboy.........