Happy New Year!

So long 2008. Here's to an optimistic 2009...

Felt Teddy Bear Skulls by UO Alum Stephanie Metz

I came across Stephanie Metz's website earlier this month and found myself captivated by her work in felt. It's beautiful and hilarious and creepy all at the same time. I can't say enough good things about it. stephaniemetz.com

Merry Christmas! Also, Here is a Malfunctioning Dog.

More Headless Bears

I watched "In Bruge" last night and it was pretty darn good. So good in fact that I decided to watch all the special features too (which I rarely do any more). Anyway, there was one particular deleted scene that I found especially interesting:

Colin Farrell is walking around Bruge, alone and drunk, when he sees a teddy bear sitting on a bench. He sits down next to the bear, smiles at it, and hands the bear his beer. When he does the bear's head falls off and plops into the canal behind them. Then Farrell just sits there looking confused and sad.

It was hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. Or maybe it was just really late at night and I thinking too deeply about it.

Working Artist Statement

So I've been working on my artist statement, but I don't really know how specific to get because I don't really know where my work is going....or what all I'm going to show on Friday.

But any way, here is what I have so far...

Fragmentation of the Familiar

My recent work centers around a fascination with deconstructing familiar objects, analyzing their components, and then reassembling them in ways that seem more attractive to me. Our culture is filled with objects, ideas and processes that are accepted as normal with little to no scrutiny from the masses. My question is why? Why is it acceptable to eat a food that is made entirely of sugar, artificial flavors, and coloring? Why is it acceptable to humanize an apex predator in the form of a plush toy and give it to our children? With my current projects I’m asking these questions by recomposing artifacts of popular culture and contrasting them to their original counterparts. My hope is that these investigations into the “normal” will spark new and interesting avenues of discussion that would have otherwise been left veiled by the cumbersome shackles of the status quo.

Fragmentation:
2. the disintegration, collapse, or breakdown of norms of thought, behavior, or social relationship. (dictionary.com)

I'm reminded of a warm summer day during my childhood when.....
OH MY GOD TRAVIS MADE A WEIRD POSTER!!

Candy Bar Autopsies

Let me just start by saying that these still need a lot of work (color correction, more unified sizes, shadows, etc), but you can see what I'm going for. I wish I would have had better lights to work with, but you take what you can get.

Now, what are they about? An investigation into the empty, instant-gratification obsessed consumption habits of the American populous? A nostalgic analysis of childhood; back when a candy bar could make your day. A third possibility?

Thoughts?

Sometimes People Disgust me.

So I'm in 7-Eleven tonight getting some milk to go with my Thanksgiving Cheerios and this beast of a woman walks in double fisting a Big Gulp cup. She has both of her giant mitts wrapped around this bucket of gluttony, tipped to her face, trying to coax out the ice that's stuck to the bottom. Completely oblivious to her surroundings she walks through the door, past the proprietor of the establishment, and straight back to the soft drink fountain for a refill. All the while I'm standing at the end of an aisle, milk in hand, in slacked-jawed amazement. This woman finally lowers the cup, notices me studying her feeding habits, and gives me this "what the f*** you looking at m***** f*****!!" look. Of course not wanting to antagonize the brute, I break eye contact and make a B-line to the counter. Back in my car I see the her walking up to the counter to make her purchase....which includes four DOUBLE GULPS! FOUR!!

I can only assume they are holiday treats for her ferial children.

Steve Schapiro Lecture

Photo journalist Steve Schapiro held a lecture on the 3rd floor today and I went down at the last minute to check it out. And I'm really glad that I did it; it was amazing. This man knew and shot some of the most influential people of the 20th century: Muhammad Ali, Robert Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Martin Luther King Jr., Samuel Beckett, Ray Charles, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Barbra Streisand, James Baldwin, and Truman Capote. He also did the still photo work on some legendary movies: Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, Chinatown, and the Godfather trilogy.

That's a pretty damn impressive resume. I really wanted to ask him some questions but I just didn't know what to say to the guy. I was really intimidated to be honest.

Fascinating lecture though. I'm amazed that there were only about 20 people in attendance.

I'm Published...ish!!

The Register Guard in Eugene was putting together this book on local photographers, so I decided to submit a few images. Out of about 9,000 images submitted they picked a few hundred to put in the the book. Not only did I make it into the book, but I was also one of 24 people to receive an award! They gave out 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each of the eight chapters and I won 2nd in the "schools" chapter. Yay for 2nd place!

And I realize that this pic looks kinda stupid with the right side cut off, but the right side isn't important, the left side is. Of the photos I submitted it's not the one I thought they would have used, but it's still rad to see something I made in a hard bound book.

Achille Castiglioni's Arco Floor Lamp in Ironman!

I just watched Iron Man again last night and I noticed that Tony Stark has Achille Castiglioni's Arco Floor Lamp in his living room. You know, the big arcing lamp with a bulbous stainless steel shade and marble brick base. Pretty badass lamp really. Apparently billionaire playboy Tony Stark has good taste in furniture.

For Those who Love Giraffes as Much as I Do.

Check it. Effing badass giraffes.

...I should probably post more art related content. But I suppose one could argue that this is art; flashy, vulgar, hilarious art.

Stuff....and Things

I've been working on this over the past few days. What is it, I don't know. I mean its teddy bears with their heads and one leg cut off, all sewn together; but what is it REALLY. I don't know. I like it though. Now I just need to figure out a way to defend it.


AND, as a cool byproducts I have these sweet decapitated teddy bear heads.



Its interesting that people cringed when they saw me cutting the bears' heads off. To be honest it felt like an immoral act while I was doing it, but it needed to be done.

Virtual Adultery = Sad, Yet Hilarious

This is a REAL article that I just read on CNN. My opinion of CNN is slowly getting worse and worse.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged "affair" in the online world.

Second Life users can interact and form relationships with other players' avatars.

Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

"I went mad -- I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done," Taylor told the Western Morning News. "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over."

Second Life allows users to create alter egos known as "avatars" and interact with other players, forming relationships, holding down jobs and trading products and services for a virtual currency convertible into real life dollars. iReport.com: Share your stories from Second Life

Taylor said she had caught Pollard's avatar having sex with a virtual prostitute: "I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned."

Don't Miss

• Woman arrested for killing virtual reality husband
• Avatars in rehab: Getting therapy in virtual worlds

The couple's real-life wedding in 2005 was eclipsed by a fairy tale ceremony held within Second Life.

But Taylor told the Western Morning News she had subsequently hired an online private detective to track his activities: "He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life." iReport.com: Anger in a virtual world

Pollard admitted having an online relationship with a "girl in America" but denied wrongdoing. "We weren't even having cyber sex or anything like that, we were just chatting and hanging out together," he told the Western Morning News.

Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft.

For Those of Us Who Simply Hate the Archaic Practice of Walking...

walking assist device by honda




if you thought the segway was the future of odd looking transportation, honda recently unveiled its second
walking assist device. the strange looking gadget is designed to support the user’s body weight, reducing
the weight load on their legs. the machine consists of a seat, frame and shoes. the user simply moves as
normal and the machine reduces the load on their knees and ankles. the unit weighs 6.5kg and has two
battery powered motors which will last for 2 hours of use. honda has already begun testing the device at
one of its factory’s.

http://www.honda.com







via likecool

I Found a New Place Where I Can Have My Pup! WOOT WOOT!

Hopefully we will be moving in this weekend. I'm effing stoked.

McFaddens

So it turns out that that place across the street from school, McFaddens, has ridiculously cheap happy hour food (4-7 pm). Mac and Nate and I went there tonight and were pleasantly surprised. I got a hamburger and fries and a plate of real mac & cheese for a grand total of $4. Not bad at all. I imagine I will be eating there much more often now.

Vinyl Project Updated...a Little

(click on image to see larger)

I'm not sure if I like this anymore. Does any one have suggestions? Does it need more detail? Less detail? I still don't like the mouth, nose and ear but I'm not sure what to do to make them more acceptable.

Pushdot is Choice

My internship is pretty cool. I've mostly been editing product shots (stuff for Nike, DaKine, Logitech, etc), which is fun for a while but by the time you get to work making a clipping path for your 10th fuzzy beany it gets old. But today I got to hike around the neighborhood dropping off postcards for their next show (Pushdot is a gallery as well as a digital print studio), so that was fun. Then the bossman took me on a little field trip to one of product photography studios that they work with, and this place was cool as hell -- lighting equipment everywhere, flashes going off, stylers working on products so they look pretty, people running around all over the place. They even have a full kitchen so they can cook food there, that way its still steaming and fresh when they take photos of it. It was what I imagine a Hollywood set would be like, except instead of actors its cans of soda and backpacks and cheese.

...I wonder if it would be inappropriate if I asked my boss to hook me up with an internship there for next term?

But in the mean time its definitely cool to know that stuff I've worked on is going to be in catalogs and on packaging (keep an eye out for the new Eric Clapton Guitar Hero guitar for the Wii with a little of my handiwork on the box!)

I Don't Like Karim Rashid's Kite Chair

...Mostly because I can't find much information about it. I haven't even figured out why "kite" is in its title. But I do know that it has a hole in the bottom of the seat, to drain water, so you can use it as a patio chair...or in case you wet yourself and don't want to stand up. Either way, drain hole = good.

Also, here is an idea that I'm working on the studio vinyl. I can't draw very well but you get the gist. This would take a lot of work (mostly because even with Illustrator's help I still can't draw very well) but I like it better than my last idea.

The Funniest Mindless Drivel I've Seen so Far Today

Crazy Japanese people + chimpanzee in overalls + Segway scooter = whimsical entertainment

Required Blog Entery for Contemporary Design #6. Today's Topic: An End to These Absurdly Long Titles!!

I think this "painfully long blog title" joke has played itself out. In fact I'm starting to think that no one besides me thought it was funny anyway. Or maybe its just that no one reads this thing, except for Zara. Hi Zara!

Anywho, I'm starting to think that I use the word "anywho" too much. That and "whathaveyou." And apparently, at least according to Blogger's spell check, they aren't even real words.

In other news, here is some fun stuff I found just laying around the internet; barely even being used...

SO I STOLE IT! Fair and square.

Planter will find the sun for its plants

This chair-like robot consists of a planter with robotic legs and some circuitry to detect sunlight levels in the room. When the robot finds the brightest spot it scurries on its legs over in that direction in order to give the plant the most exposure. This reminds us a bit of the "Photosynthesis Robot" by FutureFarmers, although this one would probably be a more manic version of the project.

Plant Bot via NeatoRama

Ghostpatrol: pencils as canvas

Pencils: they’re not just for drawings with anymore. Australian street artist Ghostpatrol has created several pieces using pencils themselves as the canvas for his work.

Missing My Girl...

I really miss my dog. Its killing me. I miss her hyperactive ball chasing. I miss the way she freaks out when I make squealing noises. I miss the way she keeps my feet warm at night.

I haven't been able to see her in almost 2 months because of my trip to Europe and now I'm busy with my internship and school. My parents have been taking care of her for me but they live more than 3 hours away, so even visiting is impractical at the moment. I'm really hoping that I will be able to get into a new place, one that allows dogs, within the next couple weeks. But in the mean time I'm a lot lonelier than usual.

In other news, I just spent about an hour messing with the settings of this blog and all I managed to accomplish was adding a picture to the header. Magnificent use of your time Travis.

Required Blog Entery for Contemporary Design #5. Today's Topic: New Ideas

My second blog of the day! This is a first.

I've had some ideas for projects the past few days that I thought I would share. PLEASE shoot me some feedback if you have time (all 1 or 2 of you who actually read this). That would be much appreciated. Let me know if you think any of these ideas are worth pursuing.

1) A 3-D Sculpture: With Nate talking about making 3-D images the other day I had the idea of making a 3-D image IN three dimensions! So for example, 2 human forms, one red, one green, overlapping each other. Maybe made out of wire? Or wood? Like real life....but better...because its in 3-D. Maybe this one is silly, but amusing nonetheless.

2) Desk Drawer Zen Garden: Once again this one is more just for laughs, but it could also be marketed as a real item. I've seen deskTOP zen gardens, but this would be designed as a kit to take up a drawer in your desk. So when you are feeling stressed out you open the drawer, rake the sand, arrange the rocks, et cetera, in order to relax yourself. But then when the boss comes around you can just close the drawer, thus maintaining a certain level of professionalism and keeping your desktop open for various other important projects. There could even be a fake bonsai tree that pops up and down as the drawer opens and closes.

3) Flag Creature: This would involve taking the elements of the U.S. flag (stars, bars, blue rectangle) and constructing an anthropomorphic 3-D sculpture out of them. I was thinking wood would probably be the best medium for this, but metal might work too. What I'm curious about here is how people will react to such a creature. Will they see it as a flag? Will they only see it as a creature? Will they be offended somehow? The creature will share characteristics with our flag, but at no point will it ever be a flag, thus protecting me from that pesky U.S. flag code. This piece also fits into my theme of fragmentation (see previous blog entry).

4) Obselete Technology Art Show: Nothing is more sad, and worthless that a peice of technology that has been rendered obselete. Companies spend years, and millions of dollars developing the newest and fastest gizmo. Then people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on said gizmo, love it like their 1st born, then toss it in the trash when a newer gizmo is released. You all know what I'm talking about: the Apple IIe, the Motorola "Brick" cell phone, Betamax players, and so on. So what if I (or we) were to take these items and give them new life. We could use an old monitor as a canvas and paint it. We could take an old 1-megapixel camera and have it bronzed and mounted. We could even strap a bunch of old cellphones together and use their combined screens as a makeshift reading lamp. Just a thought.

5) Ugly Body Parts Installation: And for those of you who didn't read my last post....
This idea came to me last night while I was trying to fall asleep: What if I were to take close-up photographs of the parts of my body that I'm insecure about, print them really large scale, and assemble them into a pseudo human shape. So a series of prints with my hair line and teeth at the top, my belly in the middle, my knees more towards the bottom, etc. This would make me really uncomfortable. And I can imagine it would make other people a little uncomfortable as well. But the idea is that it would force people (including myself) to look at these body parts in a different way. It would force me to get over the fact that I have knobby knees. Because who really cares? We all have knees, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has knobby knees, but that is something that we all avoid talking about, thinking about, or even looking at.

Required Blog Entery for Contemporary Design #4. Today's Topic: Fragmentation

I'm really hung up on is this idea of "fragmentation." Basically I really like to take things apart, both literally and figuratively, see how they work, and how they were put together. Then, at least in some cases, put them back together in a different fashion to see how people react.

If that doesn't make sense here is a definition of fragmentation that I like:

2.	the disintegration, collapse, or breakdown of norms of thought, behavior, or social relationship. (dictionary.com)

I think that the work that I do this year should be centered around this theme.

For example (this idea came to me last night while I was trying to fall asleep) what if I were to take close-up photographs of the parts of my body that I'm insecure about, print them really large scale, and assemble them into a pseudo human shape. So a series of prints with my hair line and teeth at the top, my belly in the middle, my knees more towards the bottom, etc. This would make me really uncomfortable. And I can imagine it would make other people a little uncomfortable as well. But the idea is that it would force people (including myself) to look at these body parts in a different way. It would force me to get over the fact that I have knobby knees. Because who really cares? We all have knees, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has knobby knees, but that is something that we all avoid talking about, thinking about, or even looking at.

So anywho, that's one example. Maybe not the best one. But I think I'm sticking with this concept of fragmentation, in one form or another. And I'm sure I'm not the first one to be interested in this subject but I will definitely put my own spin on it.

Required Blog Entery for Contemporary Design #3. Today's Topic: Andrea Zittel

Andrea Zittel. That was a pretty inspiring lecture. At least I thought it was. Its good to see someone who acts on ideas when they come, now matter how unusual they might seem. I wish I was better at that.

I especially liked her "Vacation from Time" experiment where she secluded herself in a basement studio for a week, without any contact with the outside world, or a way to know what time it was. I've always wondered what something like that would be like. How would I occupy my time? How long would it take before I started to lose my sense of reality? Could I handle being away from my precious computer for that long?

I really liked the floating island/house boat thing too. Basically its a boat that has vegetation growing on top. Brilliant.




Also, check this out. Ramen noodle art. Unrelated but super sweet.

Required Blog Entery for Contemporary Design #2. Today's Topic: What the hell am I going to do this year??

I have 9 months to work on a personal project.

Nine months.

That makes me nervous.

I don't really have a good idea of what I'm going to do. I do know this though; it needs to be epic. I want my project to be interactive somehow. I want people to feel compelled to respond to it, and I want it to challenge how they perceive things. I want it to be more than just an art project; I want it to be a social experiment.

Up til this point most of my work has involved making pretty pictures, printing them, and hanging them on a wall; then people come and look at them and say "hmmm, interesting," or "oh, that's nice." There is definitely a time and place for work like that, but if I'm given nine months to work on a project then I guess I had better come up with something a hell of a lot more interesting than just pretty pictures on a wall.

I can definitely see this project having tentacles going all over the place; maybe a printed component, maybe a video component, maybe a web-based component, maybe even an "event" component. Now I just need a really good idea to work around. An inspired seed of brilliance that everything else can sprout from.

Required Blog Entery for Contemporary Design #1. Today's Topic: Giraffes

I love giraffes. I don't know what it is about them. Maybe its their coloration that interests me...or or the idea of food traveling down their fantastically long necks. I wonder how long it takes for food to get from point A to point B in a giraffe? And when I say "point A" I mean the completion of mastication, and when I say "point B" I mean the entry of nutrients into the stomach. I think it would be interesting to x-ray a giraffe as it eats. Its probably been done before though. I should look into that.

Giraffes are just beautifully awkward animals. Their construction is so alien, but somehow so perfect. If I were an animal I think I would be a giraffe. Maybe I would be more qualified to make that statement if I were taller. But personality-wise I think I'm more like a duck: very unassuming, under the radar, and good in water. Actually that last bit is a lie - I'm not a strong swimmer at all.


But back to giraffes; how cool are they? The males are like 3000 pounds and stand 19 feet tall!! (www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/giraffe). Being 19 feet tall is pretty much the next best thing to being able to fly. It would be like being able to fly at a really low altitude, but you don't have to worry about crashing. On the downside though you have to worry about being eaten alive by hyennas and big cats and what have you.

In conclusion, giraffes kick ass.

In other news: spent a month traveling Europe, moved to Portland, started my BFA year in Portland.

Black & White & Read all Over

Recently I applied to show some of my artwork, along with four friends, in the Laverne Krause Gallery at the University of Oregon. We came up with a group theme, which was "black, white and read all over," and went from there. It ended up being a really fun experience and pretty much consumed about a week of my life just setting up and taking down the show (painting massive walls black and red, and then painting back over them, takes quite a bit of effort it turns out).

Anywho, a few people had asked to see pictures so I thought I would post a few.

Some of my narrative style photos.
Thyra's laser cut letter sculpture.

Mac's screen printed/painted Spidermans.

My ugly face/text installation.
Setting up on Friday night.

Mac's stop motion animation (this was at the door as you came in). I couldn't figure out how to turn the picture right side up.

Liz's silent film(s).

Lindsay's coffee cups (the lids on or off represented binary code, ones and zeros) It said "awake" in binary.

More of Mac's screen prints.

The seating area for the short films.

A closer look at Mac's Spiderman painting.

Our "black, white and red" spread for the opening. We had white toast with blackberry and rasberry jam, white corn chips with blackbean dip, oreos with milk, and red cupcakes.