Random Word Generated Fridays: Clearing

This Week's Word: Clearing

What an oddly appropriate word for today. I have been meaning to tackle the ever-growing-mess that I call a domicile for about a month now. I never fully unpacked after moving in, so the mess is lined with boxes, packages and suitcases filled with things I was convinced I could not live without two months ago. This provides a sort of lining, the second layer in is made of mostly important papers that I mean to file because they might be important.Or, you know, fliers and coupons that expired three years ago. In the gooey center is bedding and art supplies, because instead of cleaning or unpacking or doing anything I prefer to sit in the middle of everything I own (which is all on the floor) and make art while huddled under a blanket. Why? Because I'm awesome like that.

I have decided that one of my problems is I just have way too much stuff. This is because I am in a transition period between child and adulthood. I know you're thinking this is supposed to happen in our teenage years, but I don't think we ever quite get there in college, it is not until we enter the work force full time that we begin to realize that we are never actually are going to pick up the guitar at this point in our lives or learn German or knit our own wardrobes out of yarn we spun ourselves (that's just me? okay then.) I still have all the things for those crafts though (well, I don't have a guitar). I've realized that as an adult, I need to really stream line my hobbies because now it's a trade off game, if I want to make art I can't sew my own wardrobe, if I want to maintain a blog then I can't learn another language, if I want to play video games I'm probably not going to be making my own furniture. My first thing I need to do is say a mournful good-bye to all the might-have-beens I have dreamed up and started on over the years and get rid of them. I need to prioritize my time and space for the things I really want to dedicate myself to and pursue.

Another one of my problems is I don't make use of storage space. I tend not to put things in cupboards or boxes because if I can't see it, I will forget about it. This is how I end up with six sticks of deodorant and three tubes of toothpaste. I am apparently a very visual person and I have to be able to see and touch everything. My few forays into the use of cabinets and boxes has never ended well. Either the cupboard ends up open all the time with stuff spilling out of it or I end up with canned tuna of questionable origin and age. This is also why I love shelves, they make my messes legitimate because they are vertical instead of horizontal and I can still see it.

Unpacking has been taking so long because I now have this thing called "space." In my last apartment, the places things went was largely determined by where they fit, most things larger than a shoe box only fit in one place, so that is where they belonged. Now I have enough room and enough rooms that I can put anything anywhere I want to and apparently that much freedom is too much for me to handle. My parents got me a drawing desk for my graduation present, which had been sitting in the trunk of my car and now on my porch for about two months now because I couldn't decide where to put it.

But these things are the troubles of the past! For New Years I am clearing out my "dining" room and converting it into a studio. It will be marvelous, if only because I'm hoping by the time the sun dawns on 2011 I'll be able be able to walk through that room and not bounce about like a frantic deer trying to land on all the clear patches of floor space. I'll try to post an "after" picture Saturday or Sunday (depending on how long this project takes me). I'd post a "before" one, but honestly, I think my parents have lost enough faith in me for one holiday. There are cleaner rooms in the rubble of a demolished building.

Random Word Generated Friday: Arm

Random Word: Arm

Where does a General keep his armies? Up his sleevies!

I think my upbringing has conditioned me to automatically think of the worst pun possible for any given situation. It's like a genetic disease of the cognitive process because my father and brother do it too, despite my mother's desperate attempts to teach us otherwise.

What do you call an orangutan police officer? The long arms of the law!

See what I mean? It's almost involuntary.

Why did the man make a jacket out of baby-doll limbs? He wanted a coat of arms!

Oh my gosh. That was terrible. I am so sorry. I am calling this post short on account of puns. Please go about your business.

Arm-a-gettin'-outta here.

Ah! I can't stop it! Save yourselves! Click away! Click away!

New Artist Crush Monday: Tom Siddell

Art by Tom Siddell

Tom Siddell is a artist who writes and draws a webcomic titled "Gunnerkrigg Court" following the adventures of a young girl through her years at a fantastic boarding school. His unique drawing style and treatment of female characters keeps me coming back thrice a week.

Other than that, there isn't much I have to say about him because he has managed to keep it about the art. A trait I admire and wish I could emulate, but I have too much to say I guess.

Link!
http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php

*Edit 1/4/11*
I recently was directed to Mr. Siddell's DA site: http://tea-san.deviantart.com/

Random Word Generated Friday: Bubble

Random Word: Bubble


Bubbles: Proof nature is as lazy as I am.

Bubbles will always find the smallest surface area between points and ledges. Science says this is because they are interesting and excellent  tools for discovering things like mean curvatures of zero or minimal surface. I know that it is because bubbles are lazy, possibly to the point of being anti-lazy (a state in which your efforts at being lazy are actually greater than just doing a task).

This laziness is why bubbles are spheres, because as anyone who managed to pass their middle school geometry class knows, a sphere is the smallest possible surface area for a given volume. Bubbles can't be bothered to do more than the bare minimum, which is why you will never see a dodecahedron or square, because, like doing the dishes, that would take effort.

Bubbles will only stick around if it's easy too. Soap causes bubbles to stabilize because it lowers the surface tension of water. This is explained by the Maragoni effect, in which liquid flows away from areas with low surface tension. Soap selectively re-enforces the weaker bits allowing the bubble to exist. Much like t.v. dinners re-enforce my cooking skills allowing me to exist.

When a bunch of bubbles get together, they like to sort themselves out so that only 3 bubble walls will meet along a line, so that the angles are 120 degrees, as this the most efficient method, which is why a little landscape of bubbles in the tub after a bath will look like a rainbow-y beehive. This is like me folding my socks so more fit in the drawer, so I have to do laundry less often.

In conclusion: Things that are efficient are usually just being lazy.

#30

Post # 30 in a row! YEEEEAH. This is officially the thing I have stuck with longest when the only motivating factor is my self-discipline.

What I've learned:
This is also probably the last journal-style post I'll be making for awhile. I'm going to go out and do something interesting first and come back to tell you about it. Maybe with pictures. Likely at least once a month.

I will be continuing with the New Artist Crush Mondays and Random Word Generated Friday posts. One gives me a chance to blather on about art, which I like doing, and the other is a very good writing exercise I'd like to keep up since I'm doing a lot of writing for work.

Added to that, if I can get the equipment together, I might throw in a personal art day with a post relating to whatever art project I'm working on. Probably Wednesdays. I'm hoping this will give me a reason to make time for continuing my art and building my artist career.

I'm also considering a video game related post and "Tales from the Nursery" since 4 year olds do something interesting every week, but I think we will wait to see how the personal art days work out first.

Art, creative writing, fashion, video games and children with the occasional baking obsession. I don't know if I lack focus or just need to create a new niche for myself. I don't know of a moniker that covers all of those interests. Guess I'll just have to stick with nerd.

This is all your fault.

This is your Fault.

I have been e-mailing with a fellow nerd and the discussion eventually wrapped around to programming on SyFy and its surplus of "Paranormal-Activity Finders" programming and how much reality television is ruining everything we like and that "SyFy" is a stupid name.

I think the largest dis-credit to the insert-paranormal-belief-is-real-here shows is that they are airing on a channel called "Science Fiction" But I can't blame the channel for their programming really because they have discovered a way to make maximum amount of money with minimum amount of effort.

You're the reason this is is off-air

Gone are the days of Saturday Japanime and MST3K, cheesy b-movies from decades ago and Twilight Zone marathons. I think it's a sign of the times and the changing role of television though, it used to be that watching the Sci-Fi channel used to be the only way you could do those things, but now you can watch all the over-the-top anime you want thanks to fan-subs and rent entire seasons of every t.v. show ever made. People don't need a dedicated channel to do these things for them anymore and often prefer not to.

Since most of their business model was built on non-original content, when that content became available through other means it's left them scrambling to find a new way to make money and reality television is the easiest and cost-effective way to fill the gap. It's easy to critique, but my choices as a consumer is what helped make the SyFy (may the marketing department that came up with that name dye yn a fyre) channel what it is today.

What surprises me is that people don't realize that. Television as it is now, is dying off slowly but surely. People are loving being able to watch what they want when they want, without commercials. Most of my friends "don't watch t.v." but can discuss the latest gag on Family Guy because they have the internet. The way we consume our media is in transition. Television programs as we know them seem to be at a great risk to phase out of existence, like radio programming before it. In my opinion, what is on t.v. now are the last gasps of a dying medium, which are never pretty.

Internet killed the T.V. Star

I am my own worst Influence

Something I have noticed over the years as I go through periods of isolation and being surrounded by people is that I am my own worst influence. When I spend too much time alone is when I start swearing and plotting global domination.

I also apparently start thinking I have super powers, and thanks to what is probably a large dose of mind-over-matter, start developing them.

For instance, today in the gallery I set myself to the task of finishing the winter re-arrangement. One artist has been a particular problem in work placement because they gave me two 4' x 4' paintings, which isn't normally a big deal, but they have a 6" frame (making them 5' x 5', only 5" shorter than me) and really really heavy since the paintings are on board instead of canvas. Really heavy and awkward to move since they require their own special wiring system to support all the weight.

Vertin Gallery has a system of free floating walls to maximize the use of the space for paintings, which are 4' wide (already I'm sure you're noticing the problem) and they are our sturdiest walls because the walls of the building are over 100 years old and made of plaster with studs that are where ever they feel like being at the moment and never anywhere convenient (and only gets weirder as you go up since the 3rd and 4th floors were added 20 years later). They don't fit on the sturdy walls though, they can only go on the plaster walls with some crazy screwiness. Of the plaster wall space, there is still very little room since the 1st floor has been remolded/re purposed a few times.

Now, I could call our handy man to come over and help me move this monstrosity of a painting all over the gallery until we find a place that works, but no. Because I have been living alone I am to stupid/convinced of my own super human strength to do this and lug this giant painting that is just ever-so-slightly wider than my arm span until I find a spot for it.

Then I decided it needed what is probably the 2nd largest and heaviest painting to go next to it, which due to the fact it had previously been positioned on the stairwell I ended up carrying by the lower corner and over my head. I imagine I looked not unlike an ant carrying a leaf larger than it and was glad no one came in the gallery until 4:30 because I would have looked really silly.

Like this, but instead of a car, art and instead of Superman, a 5'5" girl in a skirt and heels.

The lesson I took away from this is that tomorrow I will be calling the handy man to help actually hang the paintings.

The lesson you should take away from this if you're an artist is that people are much more likely to buy your work if they can fit it in their car and/or shipping it won't cost more than the painting itself.

New Artist Crush Monday: George Desort

The DVD cover to the film by George Desort

George Desort is a film maker in Illinois who's most widespread work is "Fortunate Wilderness: The Wolf and Moose Study of Isle Royale" which airs on PBS now and again. Currently he has a video instillation at Vertin Gallery called "Faces" for the "Weathering The Storm" group show going on this December.

Usually my artist crushes are related to the mediums I work in, this one however, shares subject matter. In this case, art about where I live. I thought it might also be nice to pick an artist for this week that some of you *cough*dad*cough* might relate too a little more.

Links!
http://www.youtube.com/user/gmdesort
http://vimeo.com/user1556409
http://www.fortunatewilderness.com/index.html

Baths: Magic

Is there anything a bath can't fix or at least make better?

I came home from church today, tired, stressed, worn out and covered in half-masticated cooky and salami (woo! childcare. Better to be a serviette than a diaper I  guess) One hot bath later and I'm ready to re-attack my to-do list like I'd slept for a week.

I seriously almost broke down and cried because my video game avatar wasn't pretty enough, because obviously that matters so much in a single-player game. It was a low point. 

It's been a long week of working hard and having almost nothing to show for it. A much depleted bank account for paying the bills and student loan, only slightly more carpet space while re-arranging  the duplex and getting rid of things, slightly less hair and an immaculate digital inventory list from corralling, cajoling and otherwise herding artists. But nothing I can take a picture of and be like "look here! See what I did. I am a productive member of society." Which is really the hardest part of last week.

But a hot bath and a 20 minute power-nap goes a long way to making it worthwhile.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to this week, and a blissfully-holiday free January.

Hears to you're accomplishments, large or small, significant and only noticeable by you. May you do everything you wanted to and be invigorated after. Or greeted by steamy bubbles.

(And to any character design artists out there: While I appreciate your dedication to realism and realistic representations of the female form in media, I do not want to be reminded of the extra 15 pounds I've been trying to loose since I became aware of what the "accepted" look for a girl's body should be somewhere in my fragile teen years. I know on an intellectual level that the examples established by magazines and Hollywood are outliers on a scale of female body shapes, but you try telling your uterus anything certain weeks of the year. Really. I'm trying to escape reality, give the avatar the super power of eating all the chocolate-chip cooky dough she wants without having to run for a league afterward. Best super power ever.)

Random Word Generated Fridays

Special Saturday Edition!

Random Word: Bottle

This represents an epiphany for me.

I do a disproportionate amount of thinking about bottles compared to the average person. My obsession with them is this: People don't buy bottles. Yes, we get bottles when we make a purchase, but the reason for our purchase is usually the contents of the bottle. Not the bottle itself.

The bottle portion of a purchase is probably the least desirable bit, but so much effort goes into it. Say you invent the most delicious spaghetti sauce ever and go into business selling it. You are now in the market for bottles. You'd probably start with a designer who would give you a look for you bottle and label to help make your spaghetti sauce appealing  to the consumer.

Then you would take your design to an engineer who would work out a way to make the bottle, and incorporate any design changes to make the bottle feasible.

You would then find a purchaser to buy all of the ingredients for your bottle (glass, dyes, metal for lids, etc)

Next is the factory workers, foreman and overseers who produce the bottle.

And then the shippers, truck drivers and processors who make sure your bottle(s) would get to the plant where you make your spaghetti sauce.

After all that effort, someone then buys your bottle and throws it away (or recycles it). That's not even counting janitorial staff, chemists and secretaries who may or may not be involved in the bottle making process.

All this effort and money being put into something that is ultimately unappreciated and gotten rid of. An entire section of our economy devoted to making trash. I find it almost unfathomable.

So I end up thinking about bottles a lot.

Breaking Update

I am postponing Random Word Generated Friday until Saturday.

The reason being, I just paid off my first student loan and if I didn't tell someone I'd burst.

Woo! Financial freedom is getting closer every paycheck.

I promise an awesome random word generated post tomorrow.

I was once a Potterhead

So, once upon a time during a period of my life that I was in waaaaaaaay too much Harry Potter. As part of this deep path into the dork forest I was, of course, part of a community. We had rules about sorting into houses, what character we were most like, what our Patronus was and what animal we would turn into if we were animagi.

To get into a community you have to write an essay about who you are, what house you think you belong it, what house you don't belong in...etc...etc...etc. I wrote a 17 page epic (perhaps because I have never had to write a college entrance essay, despite attending 4 universities) and sat on pins and needles waiting for the results, which were determined by people already in the community voting for you and saying what house you should be in. I am, of course, a Hufflepuff. It was a very close race, even the Ravenclaws still wanted me after I said I didn't want to be one, and the Slytherins were mad because the were supposed to get all the Sarahs.

Once admitted, I went about submitting my essays for what character I was most like, Patronus, but the reason I am telling you this is because of what my animagus form is.

T-shirt design by bok for Threadless. I wear a size small, you know, in case you want to get your favorite blogger a Holiday Gift.

Somehow, amongst what were probably the most die-hard Potterheads on the internet I managed to write such a smashing essay about why my animagus form was a wampa that they agreed with me. The comments on that essay were the most hilarious anything I have ever written for the internet have ever received with various other Potterheads arguing among themselves as to if it was possible for the animagus form to be a fictional creature, alien and from Star Wars. I wish I had the forethought to have saved them, but alas, I did not.

Really, when you look at these posters, don't you think Harry Potter invites the cross-fan sharing?

The lesson here is there is enough room in a crazy  fan's heart for Harry Potter and Star Wars. And that when you think outside the box, when you get in a fight with a Ravenclaw and you go into your animagus forms, wampas pretty much crush everything. Also, to double check what you're saying because what I REALLY meant for that essay to be about was ton tons.

RIP Screwdriver

My trusted friend

Tonight my screwdriver bit the big one when I took apart the camera lens I'd been fiddling with for a year.

You should see the other guy

Despite the catastrophic failure of my screwdriver, I did manage to get most of the parts out of the lens I wanted. I'm still fiddling around with some glass bits, but my meticulous destructive urges have been satisfied for the night.

Macro photos on the internet that aren't flowers or bugs?! Blasphemy!

The kicker is I have a couple of cabinets I need to but the hinges and doors back on. Oh well. Nothing a trip to the hardware store won't fix.