This is a photo-drawing combination piece I recently made similar to the ones I was making at Artomatic. Instead of rushing it, however, this one took several days and was my first real attempt at making a “finished” piece using this technique.

The portrait is of Amanda Fucking Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) and the photo I used was one I took of her in Los Angeles at a secret show she had for 30-50 twitter followers the day before Coachella this year.  She twitters links to “art of the day”about her or the Dolls every day and I was hoping she’s tweet this one out – which she did! (stoked!).

The photo was projected on paper hanging on the wall. I used a variety of pastels, paints, markers, and some charcoal in the drawing.  I like how her hair glints from the gold metal paint, and I used some white paint to cover up more serious “oopses”.  I’m not entirely happy with it – it feels a bit forced to me – but it’s a good start. I’ll definitely be doing more.

It’s been a long week for me (ive actually had to wake up before noon to go to a risk management class…5 hrs is the most sleep ive gotten since last week) and I dont think I’ve been at AOM once.  But! I’ve completed a couple of important steps and now have a concrete plan: I’m going to create a piece that combines my programming, video, theatrical, photographic, and drawing proclivities into a single piece. Alllll of it at once. There will probably even be curtains again for the third year in a row (although this year they serve a specific, utilitarian purpose…see below). Hopefully the overall effect of so much at once will be (as sagworks said elsewhere) mesmerizing (or did she say hypnotic? something like that).

Summary:

I’m going to be creating a homemade projection screen out of black out cloth and something called “Screen Goo”. Screen Goo is supposed to be much better than regular paint for projecting things onto and, considering there is a lot of ambient light during the day, I need the best available.  The screen will be roughly 50 sq feet and will -probably- be framed by molding purchased from Home Depot. On either side and above the screen/frame will be black drapery. This is to darken the area around the screen and focus the eye. I could paint, but I really dont want to (I may have to paint beneath it, though).

Onto the screen will be three framed charcoal drawings (possibly with glass).  Those drawings will have been done from photos I’ve taken (right now I think it’ll be three girls from the Landon House Civil War shoot)….and will be slightly different moods than the original photos….but still proportionally accurate in key areas.

The original photos will be projected onto the framed drawings to make it look like they’re glowing, and to provide a conflicting perception of what mood the girls in the pictures are actually in.  Behind the framed drawings, a moving vividly colors abstract projection will provide the background.  The content of the abstraction will be generated by (via Quartz Composer) a webcam pointed at the audience looking at the piece.  The movement, size, speed, and color of the abstraction will be generated in real time based on whatever music is playing on my laptop at the time (youll be able to hear it).

The reason for the Civil war era-looking dress, b&w vs color, and calm expressions in the pictures Im choosing is that they’re intended to contrast so sharply with the ludicrously noisy background that they’ll somehow form a complement.

The neat thing will be that the framed pictures will look like theyre actually in front of the projection, when they’re not really. They effect is striking when done right.

(For those of you keeping score, this is a combination of plans B and C with some extra decisions on how to handle the area not being projected on)

Where am I in this?

1. I finished the moving (some would say seizure-inducing) abstract webcam/audio visualizer background last night. Some of you have seen this projected, but I wasn’t happy with the effect or it’s ability to keep time with the music.  I’ve since dramatically improved the look, feel, and performance of this and I’m happier with it than Ive been in weeks. The two biggest changes were to swap a rotating cube with 2 2D squares which move around the screen, big bigger and smaller, and rotate on the Z axis. This resulted in significant performance and aesthetic improvements
2. I ordered the Screen Goo. I just got a UPS notification that it was on its way 5 minutes ago. When that arrives, I’ll go to Walmart and pick up a huge blackout drape.  I’ll probably paint the drape with the goo (on the rubbery side) in the street near Artomatic after I move this weekend.
3. I’ve also settled on three black and white photos that I’m going use as the framed  focal points / anchors.  I chose the B&W to contrast with the crazy colors in the projection.  Once I move this weekend, I’ll make the drawings of them in the new apartment. Ill use projections of the photos as the stencils for them since they need to be pretty much 100% proportionally accurate.  Each will take about 3 hours to do.
4. I probably still have the same black drapes I used last year (and I actually still have 1 from 2007), but Ill need to check that next week. I also need to go buy the frames and the molding.  If I have to paint under the projection screen, ill probably use someones leftover paint since it’s not a huge area.
5. I still have to set up and test the “recover nicely from the power being cycled every night”
6. Put the projector on its mount, lock it in place, and get measurements.  If I do the drawings after this, Ill do them AT Artomatic…might be interesting.

So….pineapple.

All in all, Im pretty happy with where I am, but there’s still a lot to do.

Eep. I’m still deliriously tired from the Hong Kong trip. People keep asking if it’s jet lag, but it’s more the 23 hours of travel on only 2 hours of sleep

Anyway, I wanted to mention the fact that we -did- make it to Macau (a scary bastard triad-inhabited chinese+portuguese hybrid version of Atlantic City), but due to a combination of bank issues and a supernaturally aggressive travel guide, our stay involved running onto the first random bus we came to out of the ferry pier, getting stopped for inadvertently trying to get $2,000 worth of camera gear into a Chow Yun Fat-endorsed casino, eating unknown meat special of the day, and turning around and going home 2.5 hours later. Note for potential future visitors: Make sure you have money ahead of time (we had -no- cash) and make sure you know how to get around ahead of time. It’s really not an ok place otherwise (which should’ve been obvious in hindsight, but hey – it was at the end of a long trip for us!)

Also, for those of you waiting for images and video from the Cure concert in Hong Kong, here are some (both of these are also available via Chain of Flowers):

This is a high-def video of Fascination Street: http://jackwhitsitt.com/curehongkong07fascstreet.wmv

Paivi’s pictures can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiggycat/sets/72157601160237959/

Also, the image at the bottom of this post (Scion of Jackie Chan from the Air) was done on the return flight from HK. Here’s the artdc.org text I used to describe it:

This was done somewhere over Siberia the other night.

Some of my personal favorite stuff comes out of my time in the air and the cramped space that goes with it (I cant even read a book if the person in front of me leans their seat back) puts fun restraints on me that make me think a bit about how to get stuff on paper.

For this I used charcoal and toilet paper and managed -not- to make a mess.

It took about 20 minutes, some portion of which I was on my knees in the aisle. I like the crosshatch work done instead of a solid tone in the bloodied areas of his face. I had been immersed in Chinese writing for a week and that generic set of line relationships (parallel, perpendicular, diagonal, high contrast) was messing with my head by the time I drew this and the crosshatching shows it. I regret the source photo (an HK movie ad) didn’t show more of his face – I wasn’t brave enough to try and make it up this time!

Sometimes we all need a break from what we’ve been doing. Me more so than some. In fact, the staccato-like nature of my attention span dictates that those breaks are an integral of my daily life. That said, I usually come back around and so here we are again.

 Second Life has finally taken its appropriate place in the back seat of my day to day world and I’m back making more traditional art. While my intellect really appreciated the digital endeavors (and they are still ongoing), I just don’t get the same deep in-my-soul satisfaction from that stuff as I do from working with my hands on a tangible piece. As I’ve said before here, I like bits of material laying around afterwards. I enjoy looking over the scorched earth of my workspace when the piece is done. I enjoy the art equivalent of the satisfaction you get from manual labour. 

 That all said, here are the two new charcoals. One is an interpretation of an artdc.org member, jron, who posted a number of facial-gestured focused self portraits in the thread. The second if of my wife. Neither is intended to be a literal interpretation of the individuals being drawn. I just wanted to use them has jumping off points for how I felt at the moment. Over time, I’ve gotten much better technically at reproducing proportion, form and using color, but I lost a bit of the soul in my early (teen) works. In these, and probably for the known future, Im consciously working at combining my old sketch-technique focused drawing style and the focused, specific approach to images that I learned/aquired as time went on. I think these are both good examples of the combination Im talking about.

The picture of my wife (and a few other, older pieces) will be on display at the Wall Mountables show in Adams Morgan (Washington, DC):

DCAC Wall Mountables Show
July 20 – Sept 7th, 2007
The opening reception is July 20th from 7-9pm

District of Columbia Arts Center
2438 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
www.dcartscenter.org

Where have I been?!!? Such old news here on this site! Well, I’ve been getting ready for Artomatic – the semi-somewhat-annual DC universalist, almost immersive art festival. Artomatic opens April 13 and runs through May 20 at 2121 Crystal Drive in Arlington, VA just off of the Crystal City Metro Redline stop. The event is taking over two floors of an office building undergoing rennovations and will feature over 400 artists.

 What’s my involvement?

I have a space on the 6th floor, Section A, Room 44 (Room 6a44). I will be featuring three different groups of art on my wall: Individual framed traditional work (my portraits), a collection of photo prints of every drawing Ive done in the past 15 years arranged in chronological order (like a visual diary or self portrait!), and I will also have a section of digital photo frames, prints, and a canvas print of my data visualization and Second Life work.

HOWEVER! The coolest thing is that I will also, through Dorkbot DC’s courtesy, be projecting my Second Life 3D world SintixErr Gallery for DC Artists into the digital arts room! Not only that, but since they have WiFI, I’ve been working with Claudia Vess (in charge of the digital room) to broadcast various live (music, poetry reading, etc.) events into the Second Life gallery as an extension of Artomatic into the virtual world! That’s pretty cool

This is all very last minute. After having heard of Artomatic in the background for ages (I wasn’t around for the last one), it really didn’t make my radar for a long time. Everyone else, though, was really excited and the enthusiasm spread eventually! I ultimately registered and got a space, thanks to Angela Kleis who volunteered to grab me an area on my assigned day while I was out of town seeing the Cure. (Yes, Paivi and I went to see them play – I was the first one past the gate at Ultra and was front and center the whole time – saw Porl play for the first time! – at the Ultra dance music festival in Miami..I might write a post about that later). 

So far, Ive been at the building every night this week, and a few last week, volunteering or setting up my space. It’s a deep red with off-white molding (you know, opulant victorian). It’s a very powerful color and is the only one that’s NOT in any of my framed work. Im in the process of framing the wall itself with black curtains, covering the ugly blue carpet with gold material, getting pillows, etc, etc, etc. It should be gorgeous – or at least tacky (Im often a bit over the top). My only gripe is that Ive absolutely destroyed my last good pair of pants (long story) – Im a really messy painter.

All of the set-up, though, has also given me the opportunity to spend some time with and get to know better a number of people I like and don’t normally get to see often (or just met) – Angela, Mr ArtDC himself (Jesse), Sean, Michael, Rebecca (although she still hasnt met me for coffee yet, pshaw!). 

 Angela also interviewed me a few weeks back about my Second Life work and you can find the link HERE.

During all this, we’ve also introduced two new artists to the SintixErr Gallery in Second Life and worked out the arrangement with Small World galleries (affiliated with a real life NYC gallery). I sent over the works of a number of the artists at the SintixErr and the Small World people are doing an outstanding job with them – 5 of the artists I sent over have sold work there  – and they’re not even open yet! Amazing, Im thrilled!

 Luckily for me, Artomatic had provided a good break from Second Life, but Ill be back in-world extensively later this week prepping the area for the next month’s artomatic stuff!

In the next several months, it looks like we (speaking with an artoutlet.org hat on) are going to be having at least two more shows that we’ll be looking for artists to participate in. One will be a self-portrait focused event and the other will revolve around more “active” art: anything that moves, shines, has electrons flowing through it, involves live performance, thinks, connects to the internet, or is in any way interactive.

The self-portrait show I expect to be juried and I’m not sure about the other event – details are at their early stages. I do believe, though, that we’re going to have a different taste and style from other shows. So, if you’re in the area of greater Washington, DC (or want to show your artistry here) and happen across this post, feel free to contact me  or info@artoutlet.org (until the artoutlet page has something official up) – even if you haven’t considered showing before. I’m very much interested in finding interesting, moving, fascinating art – regardless of what the art world in general is doing or has done. If it works, it works.

(Bear in mind this is still tenative and I’ll put out a more formal call here when things are firmed up – but I’d still like to hear from you in the mean time. These are community events, first and foremost, so your questions and comments are absolutely considered and welcomed.)

ARTISTIC VISION

People are interesting. For every life, there is a fascinating story to be heard.

Some stories are larger than life, grandsiose, beautiful, heart wrenching, or just outright fascinating epic works. These lives are the ones that get the most attention – they’re easy to show, easy to present, are somewhat obviously interesting, and are glorious in their own right.

 The other lives, though, are smaller, might not have any striking affect on the world around them, or just don’t plainly fit into what we think of as a well defined story. That does not make them, though, any less interesting or varied or less worth hearing about…they simply need to be given the right space.

 And in the end, no matter what our story is, whether we’re beaten or torn, pristing or dirty, large or small, well sketched or just scrawled, we (all of them) ultimately share the same fate and are part of the largest, simplest story of all: To be lit, to burn our time, and then to finally fade out.

The goal of my Vignettes in Flux installation on January 27th in Arlington is to show you these stories together: To bring into paralell, through 24 portrait sketches and small works, done over 15 years,  a variety of disconnected  lives and stories and the single fate that we all share. You will be able to look in through dusty windows and see short glimpses of the lives of these lonely pieces of art. By selecting the appropriate tracks on 2 provided CD players, you will be able to hear the artist tell the story behind the faces you see. How they came to be, Who they are, and why they exist. Some stories will be about the art, some the subjects, and sometimes you will hear both – there often isn’t any different in the artist’s mind.

Although they will begin the evening lit, these vignettes will all eventually fade into the darkness as the night progresses, their stories over.

INSTALLATION TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

I’m going to be using one of the garage doors at the Danville Body Shop to present these 24 pieces of art as vignettes. While most would not stand on their own, I think they are more together than they would be apart.
There will be one picture per garage door window. These pictures will be hung inside the building facing out to the parking lot so you have to look in to see them. Each one will be individually lit (using glow sticks) so you will be able to see 24 glowing windows from the outside. Each glowstick will be opened randomly throughout the day before the show so that, as the event progresses, the lights in each window will slowly start to fade one by one…dimming until they’re effectively out altogether. At the end, they should all be dark or close to it.
The pictures themselves will all be hung a small distance from the window (1 foot back?) with black wire so they appear to be floating in the air behind the windows in the light. I believe they will all be matted. The area behind the pictures will be backdropped with something black and not very reflective to give some illusion of empty space behind the art.

Id also like to provide 2 cheap ($10/$15) portable cd players mounted in front of the display. Both will have the same CD in them. A viewer will be able to select a track # based on the windows of the portrait they want to hear about…and will be presented with quick stories about the art like the ones you all heard the other night.

I like the idea of giving these sort of pieces a viewing…there normally isn’t a place for them, but I think together in this context it will come across very well….

The following link has two images of a full-scale cardboard/plexiglass mockup I did of 2 windows:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sintixerr/sets/72157594482149189/

Finally! Wed’s drawing session was the best of the three, despite the fact that I showed up late, made a lot of noise, and generally stumbled to an available seat. I only stayed for an hour or so, but I’m a lot happier with the results than the other nights. This had to do with two things.

First of all, the model was fairly interesting to draw, both because of her natural form (interesting from line, angle, tone variance, etc. perspectives that a thin generic 20-something figure just isn’t) and because of her chosen pose (rotated shoulder, hunched back, slightly twisted torso).

Second, I had decided to use charcoal ahead of time and had prepped an 18×24 sheet of Canson classic cream, heavy weight, medium tooth drawing paper before the session with a layer of brushed charcoal powder (sfumato style, as discussed previously in blog for other projects). I work fast in charcoal no matter what the methodology I’m using, but starting out with a layer of manipulatable tone seems to have certain advantages. For one, it starts you in the middle of the tone range. This is great because when you need to make it lighter or darker, you only have half the distance to go. That helps prevent the left-over-line effects when you have to create darker shades and keeps your tone consistent. The other benefit is that you can alternate between working in line or working in shape/tone as needed. If it’s an area (like the torso) which just doesn’t have line, you just lighten or darken the right general areas and blend later for consistency. If it’s the edges between the body and the background and you want to highlight that transition, you can move to line (or not).

The two negatives here are the face and the background. I could have added in a different background later, but this is really a study piece and I don’t consider it as being particularly interesting beyone that. The face, though, disappoints me. I’ve found that, while I can do “faces”, minaturizing those details is harder for me (although, this model’s face -was- challenging in its own right). I think I have specific drawing habits and algorithms for “faces” that I unconsciously try to employ in every circumstance that just don’t work on this scale (especially with sticks of charcoal). I’ll have to work on that.

And…I still have charcoal on me after more than 24 hours, heh.