2D: interference patterns

These are three parts of one assignment that I turned in yesterday... we were working with interference patterns: where you take two (similar or different) patterns and lay one on top of the other, the interaction of the patterns with each other creates the illusions depth and movement in 2D space.

I created all three of these images in Adobe Photoshop... although I could have painted this assignment if I had wanted to. I created three because in the time it took the painters in the class to create one image, I had time to create three different images. All three images are roughly the same dimensions, although it doesn't look like it here.

The first two images were created by laying two fields of pixels on top of each other and then rotating the top layer until I got interference patterns that I liked. The line pattern was made by laying one wave pattern on top of the other and then rotating the top layer... then I created a diffusion in the color underneath to push the middle out.

All three of these were more work than I make it sound like... but I did have fun creating these. The only reason I could create three images in the time that it took the painters one is that the computer created all the accuracy and color gradients for me... others had to create image like these with tape and color mixing by hand.

2D: grid-based design

This is an assignment that I turned in before the collages but I didn't have enough time to take pictures of it before I turned it in, so, it appears here instead of in chronology. Sorry.

For this assignment each student chose an object, drew that object, and then worked up a grid-based design based on the drawings. This piece was really complicated, had many parts before the final drawing, and I'm not sure that even my teacher knew exactly what he was asking for because he did not do a very good job of explaining it. Suffice it to say that I think this was the most difficult assignment of the semester thus far. However, this is what I came up with... and I never want to do anything like this again. I hated this assignment and was glad to be done with it even though I like the final result.

Observation

You don't have to be a poet to say true and moving things.

Brave Heart

Well, I submitted poetry to Chimera this evening... I'll find out in a week or two if I made it in.

The last time I was brave enough to submit poetry (to HIKA!) was freshman year of Kenyon.

On the flip side, I'd like to believe that I've grown as a writer since then... but wish me luck anyway.

Cappy Counard

Today, I met my advisor for the first time. We've exchanged emails and talked over the phone, but this was the first time that I've met her face to face. And you know, she looked exactly the way I pictured her... is that funny or what. Oh, except, I pictured her as a brunette, and she was actually a blond, but other than that, she was as I imagined her: slightly taller than me, petite, shoulder length hair, glasses.

BUT, I was most fascinated by the fact that her art work is so totally different from the jewelry that she wears. I was stunned by this because that fact seemed so foreign to me. I envision myself making jewelry that is utterly me, as I am (small and gentle:) and that I want to wear just as much as my customers... but with Cappy, most of her art work is as above: bold, geometric, imposing but soft at the same time. I'm not sure that I like what she makes, only because her aesthetic is so very different from mine. Yet I respect everything she makes and I can't wait to learn from her. BUT, back to the point, the jewelry that she wears is small and precious looking, like today, she was wearing a silver chain with a tiny charm. And her art is so other worldly compared to the jewelry she wears.

So, even though I could picture what she looked like, I could never have pictured her art by looking at her.

If you would like to see more examples of her work, she has her own website: www.cappycounard.com

2D:Color Exercises in Collage

These are pics of exercises that I turned in today... from top to bottom, the problems that these images are the "solutions" to:
1. warm/cool contrast
2. must contain at least 3 hues of the same value, those hues must touch
3. make one color look like two different colors
4. complimentary colors, and mixtures of those compliments
5. a collage of mostly low intensity greys with the design including 5% of the page intense hue
6. analogous (meaning next to each other on the color wheel) colors and mixtures of those hues
7. this was supposed to fit the "one color to look like two" but my professor told me that it didn't quite fit the requirements because the peach color of the spiral has a gradient. He's very picky, sometimes annoyingly so. Oh well, I guess that's why Edinboro pays him.

Forget what I said earlier. Fall just skipped us completely.

Fall/Winter/Fall Comes to Edinboro

Okay, so about three weeks ago, it was still summer, shorts weather. And it was still "summer" as the leaves started to change. Yesterday, it was in the 60s here... Today: it is 41* (feels like 34 according to weather.com) and we're getting snow flurries. Welcome to life near Lake Erie.

My 3D professor paid me a huge compliment today. Not only did I receive my second 'A' of the class for my gesture piece (pictured here), but he said that he really wanted to see me in one of his sculpture classes next semester because he thinks I'm really good at this. Warm and fuzzy may be an accurate description of how I felt. Pompous may be another word, but we'll see. I just have to keep reminding myself not to get too cocky, that's when stinky art starts to happen.

You're just going to have to take my word for it that my piece is a little bit more impressive in person. The spaces that the blocks create are of course in three-dimensions, and pictures just flatten everything out. Plus, scale is difficult to see in these pictures as well.

But anyway, I am so pleased that I'm doing so well in this class... at the beginning of the semester, my teacher said that he rarely gives out A's, and here I am with two already. AND, not only the grades, but a man who I would describe as brutally honest and in your face about whether or not a piece is working, thinks that I'm good at this. Now you see why I have to protect myself from being pompous. I'm just really excited about the whole situation.

And that's the story with that... Chimera is jurying the art work for the magazine this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing some amazing pieces. And other than that, no news, but much love, JB.

First Friday in Mt. Lebanon

So, I went home last weekend and was in a craft fair... it was only a slight success for me. I was on a part of the street where I was the only vendor, and it was a little bit chilly, so I think that kept some people away. The reason there were no other vendors is because First Friday (so named because it is a fair that occurs on the first Friday of every month, June-October) happens because businesses on Washington Rd sponsor craftspeople and clubs to have tables on the sidewalk outside their storefronts. I think that, again, the weather was a contributing factor, but also since it was the last fair in the series, a lot of the vendors might have been deterred. Oh well.

I had a good time, and got a lot of compliments. I simply wish I had gotten some more business along with those compliments. But hey, as you can see, my table looked beautiful.

I also included some pictures of a few pieces that I created this summer. The first is a simple multi-stranded necklace made of peridot and green pearls with a fancy frog box clasp. Very fun and kickin' (still for sale:). And the second piece is a handmade pendant on black silk cord. I got the idea for this piece out of one of my jewelry magazine... actually, I got the idea for the technique out of the magazine, but the design is entirely original. The exterior tree shape is made of Precious Medal Clay (fired, now 99% silver) and the interior "sky" is made of polymer clay... of the pieces that I've made, it's one that I like the best so far.

AND, when I went home, the fam and I went to Trax Farm for the fall essentials... good times, I have so many good things to eat in my room right now that it's not even funny: apple cider, homemade apple pie (courtesy of Mutti, this has to be the best pie she's ever made:), homemade fudge from Trax, Kalochie cookies from Trax (a seasonal favorite), AND (this is really the best part) homemade kettle corn (made in an actual copper kettle right in front of your face (perfect)). I know you're jealous, try to contain yourself.

I also came back with a small pumpkin for myself. Also nice. I had a great time at Trax with the fam... we went to the Apple Cafe and had lunch. I had hot apple cider and a corn dog, Matt had a corn dog and his customary apple cider slush, and Mutti had a funnel cake. I tried to get a picture of Matt actually eating his corn dog, but he got mad at me, so that didn't happen.

And that's all there is to say about the weekend, I had a wonderful time.

Another Word for your Vocabulary

This post is for Annie, mostly because I know she would love to have a post dedicated to her but also because I think this is an important word for her to know.

Kismet: noun. kiz-mit, -met
Fate, fortune, destiny, serendipity. A happy mistake or happenstance.

Where I found this word: it's in my general vocabulary, I can't remember where I learned it.

Usage: Kismet brought us together.

Not as elegant as Christopher Moore, but it does the job.

A Thanks to the Golf Gods

So, I went golfing this morning... I walked the course for the first time in my life, and I think that I may have been converted. Getting up at 7:30AM to go golfing wasn't really my favorite, but the added exercise of walking the course was actually quite pleasant.

AND, it was a gorgeous morning. I wish that I had taken my digital camera so that I could have included a picture with this post. But alas, it was cloudy when I left my room at 8:00AM, and I did not have the foresight that the situation required. How was I to know that the clouds were going to clear and yield one of the most beautiful fall days that I've ever seen?

I suppose you'll just have to rely on my abilities to describe: imagine rolling hills and trees, trees that have just begun to change their leaves, gently rolling out of the horizon like waves of yellow and red. And image the last remnants of clouds, grey against the blue, drifting close to the trees like flattened sails who have lost their ships. Imagine green grass, wet from all the rain and bright from the slanted morning light. And sun, imagine lots of sun.

I'd get up at 7:30 again if it meant this.

My Life as a 3D Artist

My life up until now has been taken up with paper and rubber cement. I have been doing nothing for my 3D class except make paper blocks and tape them together.

For my first two assignments, these blocks have been my media. The first assignment was based strictly on pattern, meaning I could combine the pieces in away way that I wanted as long as the piece had a pattern. My second assignment with these blocks was a gestural piece, meaning that I had to abandon the notion of pattern and create a piece that was built to rest on the table top in a certain way and that it had to form a complete gesture in space.

Now, the block that I've shown is a pyramid, but I had other blocks to play with: my pattern piece was made of pyramids and tetrahedrons (pyramids with triangular bases instead of square bases). And for my gesture piece, I used pyramids, tetrahedrons, modified cubes, and wedges. Good times, long process.

This week, we're starting something new. I just turned in my gesture piece today, and so we're moving on to another assignment: this one dealing with plane instead of volume. We're going to cut foam core into rectangles and square and combine them gesturally. They must be made to sit on the table in a specific way and they must be hot-glued plane to edge.

More on that as it develops :)

A New Word for Your Vocabulary

Poleaxed: (verb) pohl-aks

1.	a medieval shafted weapon with blade combining ax, hammer, and apical spike, used for fighting on foot.

2.	an ax, usually with a hammer opposite the cutting edge, used in stunning and slaughtering animals.

3.	an ax with both a blade and a hook, formerly used in naval warfare to assist sailors in boarding vessels.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to strike down or kill with or as if with a poleax.

Where I found this word: in Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore

Usage: "So it happened that on an autum-soft sunny day, not two weeks after his thirty-fifth birthday, some twenty years after he had run away from home, Samuel Hunter stepped out of his office onto the sidewalk and was poleaxed by desire." pg 16.

Nice.