Time Solidified

Black Drop

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:41 -0500

An other image from the Butterfly house in St. Louis. See all 7.

fuzzy Turquoise

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:39 -0500

An other image from the Butterfly house in St. Louis. See all 7.

Big Blue

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:38 -0500

An other image from the Butterfly house in St. Louis. This guy is huge! About as bit as my hand. See all 7.

Long Tongue

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:36 -0500

An other image from the Butterfly house in St. Louis. What a long tongue this guy has, good for big flowers I guess. See all 7.

White and Black Butterfly

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:35 -0500

An other image from the Butterfly house in St. Louis. See all 7.

black and blue butterfly

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:35 -0500

An other image from the Butterfly house in St. Louis. See all 7.

Butterfly House

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:34 -0500

We went out to the Butterfly House in St. Louis while visiting with my parents after the 4th of July. It was HOT and sticky there, but I've never seen so many butterflies in one place! There must have been thousands in there. I've got 7 images posted here, but sure and see them all.

Grand Finale

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:04 -0500

This picture holds nothing to how cool the grand finale was, but it's still a nice picture. I especially like how it looks like there is a nebulous in the middle. Image 1/9.

Wrapping up

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:02 -0500

See image 9 for comments. Image 2/9.

Waterfall 2

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:59 -0500

See image 4 and 9 for more comments. Image 3/9.

Waterfall

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:58 -0500

These fireworks were awesome, it looked like they created waterfalls of golden light in the sky. Some of the best fireworks that night, except for the finale. See image 9 for more comments. Image 4/9.

Fire

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:55 -0500

See image 9 for comments. Image 5/9.

Blury Skittles

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:52 -0500

My wife doesn't like this picture as well, but I really do. Just because things aren't in focus doesn't necessary mean the image didn't turn out. Image 6/9.

Palm Trees

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:50 -0500

I liked this one because they look like 2 palm trees growing into the sky. See image 9 for more comments. Image 7/9.

Golden Bursts

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:48 -0500

See image 9 for comments. Image 9/9.

Getting started

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:45 -0500

We went to Kirkwood Park in St. Louis Missouri for the 4th of July this year. It was a really great time, much nicer than being in Downtown St. Louis at the flooded park. I was afraid my camera wasn't going to cooperate with taking pictures because the battery was low but it decided to let me take 167 files in 339 MB. I chose 9 of those that I really liked. There's some others that I'll use for other projects, but these are more obviously fireworks. Image 9/9.

Attack!

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:54 -0500

This is an Orchard at the Garfield Park conservatory in Chicago, IL. Apparently it's one of the newest species of plants in the world, having evolved into this form only thousands of years ago. I think they look vicious. this one was hanging down at about forehead level just ready to eat somebody.

light and shadow

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:54 -0500

Light is such a cool thing, and shadow is pretty awesome too. Are you surprised to hear a photographer say that? Well, you shouldn't be. This is at the Garfield park conservatory in Chicago. This is really an awesome place to visit, it's so huge! There's room after room of blooming flowers even in the middle of winter and during the warmer months there's out door displays too. This was a side hall going to some meeting rooms or something, and I just liked the way the light played across the floor. Come back tomorrow for a picture of a flower at the conservatory!

Christmas Tree

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:54 -0500

Ever since my Dad got our first digital camera I've liked 'sneaking' out at night to take pictures of our Christmas tree. It's never been that I would have gotten in trouble, though it was kind of embarrassing getting locked out of the house once when I was taking pictures of the snow fall... But that's an other story. Why did it need to be a digital camera you ask? Just because of the ability to review the image almost instantly. I found out by accident at first how cool things look in the dark - the colored lights reflecting on the ceiling, or the patterns an unsteady hand makes in the camera. This Christmas tree is in my parents house this Christmas past, and the circles are deliberately made by moving the camera that way. I know it's out of season now, but I thought I'd share it anyways.

Perspiration

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:54 -0500

Can you guess what that is? No, I'm not going to tell you either. I've never seen patterns appear like this there before which makes it all the more surprising. I'm just sitting minding my own business and then I notice this awesome patterning. I grab my little camera and manage to get a really nice shot too. This is all of what I'm about, you've got to spend time looking around the world you live in, you don't need to travel different places to take good pictures. You have to stop and take in the world around you. When I was doing TA work at Elmhurst College for my photography professor students would also plan trips to the city or to parks and forest preserves to take pictures of assignments. I would tell them all the time that they could complete the course with an A and never travel further than 4 blocks around the college. Traveling to new places makes it easier to see the things around you because they're all new. All you have to do it change your perspective and you'll find worlds of new things just out from your door step. Try it some time.

Capstone show

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:54 -0500

This is a image of my work at the art gallery where I had my show in May 2007. I'm posting this image because of a 'fan' request. It's image 1one of three I'm posting of the show. This is one of the two galleries at Elmhurst College, the Accelerator Art Space. You can't really get a feel for how cool this space is from pictures, you've got to see it in person. The college has regular shows throughout the semester there, so check it out some time. Check out the previous two images I've posted to see more detail shots of one of the prints and sculptures.

Capstone Print - Carleen

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:43 -0500

This is the print from my capstone show, this is image two of three. This is a gum bichromate print and measures in at about 32"x40" The gum bichromate process is hugely intensive and each of the five prints I made for this show required somewhere around 16 hours. Between coating the piece of paper, letting it dry, exposing the paper, washing, drying, and repeating two more times and a final soak in formaldehyde for longevity there was a lot of labor poured into each piece. Anyways, enjoy the piece and check out the accompanying sculpture in the third post.

Capstone Sculpture - Carleen

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:33 -0500

I'm posting an older piece of mine here on a 'fan' request, this is image 3 of 3 showing my capstone show. This is the sculpture that accompanied the portrait I've posted. This sculpture is about 10" inches high and is made from terra-cotta clay. The clay is a strong body and holds up nice for making hollow type sculptures like this. The figure is constructed from slab rolled clay. I take flat pieces of clay, and cut rectangles of specific sizes out of the clay, then roll them to make tube forms and assemble a figure. I played with several different forms, some more whimsical and some less defined, but I settled on this style for each of the five pieces of the original series.

Minimalism redux

Fri, 30 May 2008 22:37 -0500

This is an other object I found on my walk that applies to minimalism, but I like the other one better. See the previous entry for my actual photo Friday submission (and more explanation)

Minimalism

Fri, 30 May 2008 22:28 -0500

I went looking for something to fit the theme "Minimalism" from this Photo Friday. This is from a sign post in a church parking lot nearby where I live. People always think that you have to travel place to find new and interesting shots, but I prefer to stay close to home and challenge my self to reinterpret the work around me. It's so easy to go some place new and be fascinated with all the great things to photograph. But when you stop and challenge your self to find new ways to look at the same things you've been walking past for days that's when you can find some really interesting things. Not only new perspectives, but you may notice things you've never seen before.

Cigar Box, Contemplating Sentencing

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:23 -0500

I got this cigar box from my new job, and there was a large label on the front that didn't like. Me: "I'll scrape it off with Goo Gone!". Well, I got some of the label off, and some of the nice black finish too. I decided that I needed to cover up this blight with something cool. Warning, incoming art. The piece on the front is a photograph of a wood-cut that I made in printmaking at Elmhurst College. It's a multi-panel piece, meaning I used 4 different pieces of wood, each with different colors on them to create this print. The process isn't that easy - you've got to plan out the print before you start and figure out what parts of the image are going on which panel, and what parts of each panel you have clear away for the pieces on the other panels. Even explaining it is confusing. Anyways, the finished piece is a color wood-cut about 20x24 inches and is titled Contemplating Sentencing. I had photographed it with a Canon 20D while at college, so I already had a high quality digital file. I used some contact cement to attach the photograph and then some used some spray fix to coat it. What you see here is the result of that. It's a nifty personalized cigar box. I like.

purple rockyness

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:03 -0500

A purple rock, obtained from the Lizardo Museum of Lapidary Art. They have an awesome museum, with a well priced gift shop. Check it out sometime if you're in the area - it's free on Fridays.

Night Lights, Rev .3

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:01 -0500

This one was taken with a Canon Powershot SD600 - a small automatic camera. By half-clicking the shutter on a deep black sky it will set the exposure to max possible, and focus on infinity, then reposition the camera on what you want to photograph and snap away. I like this one cause you can see some of the trees and light posts which is something I didn't get with the similar shots with the pro camera - the Canon 20D.

Night Lights, Rev .2

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:01 -0500

An other night shot, also taken with a canon 20D. This was taken looking across the street at some lights from an apartment complex - that's the textured looking white/creme at the top. The lights streaking across the bottom are from a car.

Night Lights

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:58 -0500

This was taken in 2006, but I just recently came across it. A night shot taken in my neighborhood on a long exposure. I was working with a canon 20D, set the exposure for B with a high F stop to get this. Cool, yeah?

Rain

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:23 -0500

We just had a nice downpour out side, and I got a fairly cool picture of it. When you fire a flash into the rain a few of the drops will reflect the light back to the camera, making it look almost like snow. Not bad, hmm?

Frozen Wetness

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:31 -0500

This is the inside of a Sobe bottle that was filled with water - the top layer had frozen and formed very interestingly. No photo-editing except Auto-color, Auto-contrast, and Auto-levels.

Active water

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

This is my first entry for Photo Friday, a weekly photo challenge. The idea is that you're given a word, for instance active, and then you post a picture that embodies that word. See their site here. A lot of people post images that they've taken previous, and I think that's cheating. I'm going to try and post at least one image for every word to help keep my photography active.

Glory Hole

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

The Art Club of Elmhurst College was able to take a group of 10 students to the personal studio of Glass artist Robert Fritz. (in march) We each got to make a small piece to take home with us. Images and video were all taken with a Canon Power shot SD600. Here's a few highlights and there's links at the bottom to download all the images and videos. I have reduced the size of the images to make them easier to share, but if for some reason you'd like the full original image, just leave a comment with your E-mail address (don't worry it's private) and I'd be happy to send that to you.

Click Here to download all of the images. Click Here to download movie 1Click Here to download movie 2Click Here to download movie 3

Literary Response to Race, Class, and Gender

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

So, I've got this Gen-Ed class this semester - Eng 230, Readings in Race, Class, and Gender. We've been reading all sorts of things about the afore mentioned subject matter including two novels. First we read Sula by Toni Morrison, and then The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Both were fairly good books, not sure I ever would have bothered reading them on my own - but then isn't that sort of the point of college? That and basket weaving anyways. We also watched the movie Crash which is a favorite of mine. I was involved with the DEPTH program put on by Chicago Theological Seminary a few years ago, and when the movie first came out to theaters I went and saw it with a youth group. It really was very amazing being able to discuss this movie with a grounp of 20 or 26 young people ages 14-18 years old. Who would have ever thought these little punks could be so aware?

But I digress. This is supposed to be a post about this class' final project. Since this class is all about reading about race, class, and gender (and a little discussion) our final is to address some (albeit small) injustice in our world. And guess what, I'm an art major, so I made an art piece to address this. So first check out my image, and then keep reading for a little background on the issue. (click the image to get a larger view in a new window)

My purpose here is to foster change by awareness, not education. I think you have to be aware that there's some sort of a problem or issue before you'll bother paying any attention to education or "knowledge". It's my hope that a least a few people will see this image and be inspired to work in their own world to do something about it, regardless if that's writing a letter to our president, providing education about the issues to others, or something more drastic.

So yeah, there's an issue here. There's been ongoing debates and worse about our border policies with our neighbors for years and years. Now we've got this Crazy president in office who wants to put up a huge frekin' fence all along our southern border to keep them "dirty Mexicans" out. I don't know about you, but I don't remember history class having any examples of big walls being a good thing. Didn't this guy, our president, graduate from High School?

The thing with walls is that it's two sided. It keeps them out, but it keeps us out too. Perhaps in this day of high speed internet ,and the access to information it provides, we think we don't need physical connections to keep things alive. But that's all wrong, we're a community of Human Beings and we need open borders to keep the flow of life happening. Please, think about it and comment away.

--Matttail

~*~

If you're interested, here is the essay that I wrote to go along with this paper for my class. I'm about to head out the door to go to class and turn it on. I'm not sure it's worth much - but here it is all the same.

For my project I decided to work on a large injustice in our world. It deals mainly with race, but also with class and I think it's closer to home than most people realize. I chose the injustice of our relationship with this country's southern neighbor – Mexico. For many years there have been discussions and worse about our border policies. We try and lock down our borders, make it harder for “Illegal Immigrants” to enter our country while at the same time our economy depends on the work they do in our country. We would rather people get Green Cards to enter our country legally, yet the application process costs more than many Mexicans make in a year who work in our factories just south of the border. Now our president wants to put up a huge fence going along the entire border. That won't just block people from going between our countries, it will stifle both countries livelihood. But how does this effect all of us, even though we're hundreds of miles away from the border here in Chicago? I suggest you try a history book, something about president seems to have forgotten about, and see if you can find any examples of walls being a good thing. Walls effect us in many ways: they stifle communication, they certainly don't make happy neighbors, and they don't solve the problems they were erected to resolve. Our border policies certainly need rewriting, but we're going in the wrong direction.

Offering research into this subject is difficult because this issue is very present day. Our president has set in motion a plan to erect a long fence spanning the entire border between the U.S. and Mexico. Things are happening daily towards blocking this and accomplishing this. Some days there seems that there may be some hope of finally cornering our president, but so far he is above the law. How can we begin to save our world when the younger generations in America are so apathetic? Our rights are being taken away, we're being cut off from the rest of the world. When will America rise up and fight back, when will we start to make change in our world, when will be just rise – get up and make a stand?

America was horribly shaken after September 11th and confused. My peers had never imagined that something like this could happen at home. I have never lived in New York, yet I personally knew someone who died in the crash. That event was, I think, a turning point for America. While we were all at home or work mourning, our president began making plans on what came to be called “The war on terrorism”. I believe, though I can not provide any direct evidence, that this wall is a direct response to hit. America was attacked from the outside and for all our military and home land defense we didn't know about it ahead of time. Now, as is human response, we want to curl up in a safe place and lick our wounds. But what may be a appropriate response of a child curling up in a ball to protect from pain is not a appropriate response for this country.

Believe it or not America is the supper power in this world and as a nation we feel it our responsibility to act as police of the world. When we're working in Iran to bring an end to hostilities and open up their border with Palestine, how can we turn around and talk about building a wall in our own country. It's not okay for them to do, but it is for us? Where has this double standard been fostered? I fear I'm simply presenting more questions that providing answers here, but that's the ultimate goal. If the citizens of America will not begin questioning the world around them no one will stand up to make a difference. And what will happen to America the land of the beautiful if we don't do something soon?

This is my plea to anyone who sees this piece of art: take notice of the world around you and don't be afraid to use your voice. One of the greatest liberties we have in this country is free speech, but it seems like people are exercising that right less and less. What happens to us if this nation continues this downward spiral of apathy and we forget how to speak? What will happen then?

I'm not sure what impact my voice will have, but I am at least trying to speak. I have posted this one small piece of art for public consumption and I hope it makes some small difference. What else can I do, after all I'm only one young man.

I decided to confront this issue through awareness because I believe that people must first realize that there is an issue before they will absorb education on subject. I also believe that one of the best ways to put an issue in front of people is through art. Perhaps I'm predisposed to that concept being an art major, but that's life. Why would someone take the time to attend a lecture, read a pamphlet, or research an issue on their own if they didn't think there were any merits for such a task. We discussed and agreed in class that to address or change insecurity, status quo, fear, a false sense of superiority, selfishness or greed, ignorance, stubbornness, laziness, apathy, pride or community loyalty, and beliefs or traditions we must combat them with knowledge. But before you can impart knowledge, your audience has to be interested.

More specifically than confronting this issue with awareness, I am addressing this issue through a piece of art I created. The art is simple and to the point, which isn't always my style but works very well here. I created and posted my digital art work on my website at http://art.googlies.net. My audience there isn't as large as I would have liked, but there is an audience none-the-less. I had hoped to show this piece in the Frick Center, but that opportunity fell through and there wasn't space left over for me to put up my piece.

My art piece, as you can see on my website, is a based off of a satellite image of the U.S. and Mexico. This simple satellite image gives us the first frame of reference. Most Americans can easily recognize our own country and Mexico from a map. The map has been given a brown tint, hinting that perhaps things are not all healthy and green. Over laid onto Mexico is a chain link fence with barbed wire. This part of the image shows the concept of blocking off Mexico from our country. Our president wants to make this a reality and keep the Mexican population out of this country at any cost. I chose to over lay the fence across all of Mexico because this fence is not just a small little line keeping illegal immigrants out of America, but a much larger issue blocking out ideas, information, and many other things vital to our way of living. Next to bring home the idea that this is truly a bad idea I placed drops of blood along the top of the fence. This fence can physically hurt people yes, but also it's cutting out this country's life blood. We're not just hurting Mexico, not just the U.S., but our entire way of being. The image makes a cohesive whole that illustrates the horrible nature of a fence dividing our land.

Perhaps one draw back to making a piece of art to address a social injustice is that the artist often does not get feedback from viewers. Sometimes there isn't a forum for communication, but more often viewers don't fee comfortable talking about the art. Americans have many inhibitions about how to respond to art, they feel they need to have some sort of illusive “language of art” to properly talk about it. But to me good art is anything that evokes an response from the viewer, be that emotion or other action. If a piece of art doesn't make you feel something, anything, it has totally failed. It doesn't matter if you agree with my stand point or not, as long as there is some reaction. I personally strive for strong reactions to the art I make. I'm not one to speak up unless I have something important to say, and if it's important enough for me to speak up I want my viewer to gain that same sense of importance I feel.

By posting this image on my blog I have received a few responses to the piece, but I believe that more people have seen the piece than have commented on it. I would love to have your comments on the piece on my blog as well. However, the response I receive has little to do with what I hope to accomplish. It doesn't matter so much what you have to say to me, as what sort of affect it has in your life. Perhaps someone will glance at the work and move on, but it stays with them. Later when there is a chance for education in their own lives I hope that my art work will have readied or opened them to that knowledge. Like minded people who have commented on the piece are probably less likely to be affected by my work. Someone who is in support of a fence might not consider this art piece, but if they did the impact would be much greater. For someone who already agrees with me it's like water under the bridge – it's already there and adding a few drops more doesn't make much of a difference. Perhaps some day my drops will lead to the damn breaking – but that's a long way off.

The Elmhurst College "atom Smasher"

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

This is a directy copy of the information sheet that is given out at the Art Accecelator space telling visitors what this space used to be all about. There used to be two machines but one (I believe the smaller one) was removed to make more space to move about. I said last time that I'd post this info, and be sure to check out the little poster I found too.

" The particle accelerator inside the Elmhurst College Accelerator Art space is a Kevatron machine. It was used to break apart the nucleus of an atom in attempts to produce energy in the laboratory. For sixty years, Kevatron accelerators have been used as a physics research tool by countless researchers and scientists. It was created by Dr. Samuel King Allison.

In 1940, during the Second World War, the U.S. government provided Dr. Allison with a grant to study the possibility of using beryllium for an early nuclear reactors. Allison took part in this historic research by running groundbreaking scientific experiments (which had to include a solution to pour over the reactor in case the chain reaction could not be stopped). for his work during the war, Allison was awarded the Medal of Merit, signed by President Harry S. Truman.

Two years after Allison's death in 1965, the decision was made to dispose of the Kevatron accelerator (then located at the University of Chicago). That year, George Koch, a physics major from Elmhurst College, met John Erwood, a technician hired to develop methods of producing better efficiency on the Kevatron. Koch asked Erwood whether he might be interested in helping to build an accelerator at Elmhurst... surprisingly, Erwood offered to give Allison's Kevatron to the College. The accelerator was disassembled at the University of Chicago, then transported to Elmhurst where it's re-assembly began in may 1969.

in 1973, the physical reconstruction of the machine was finished. John Erwood made the decision to turn on the machine, this starting a new age for Elmhurst College, and adding another 25 years to the Kevatron's useful life. The machine had problems at first, but by 1975 the lab was working well. From 1975 to 1994, the accelerator was used for various experiments by both Elmhurst College students and local scientists.

The final era of the Kevatron ended in 1994. the scientists valued both the opportunity to work on the machine and also to work with the people involved. it is hoped that the accelerator will be preserved for the memories and friendships that have formed around these things. Every year, the people who have worked on the machine throughout the years meet for Kevatron's birthday party, where it is said that the ghost of Sam Allison still walks the lab. "

--Matttail

Josh

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

Well, it's been a bit since I've made a post here, but with classes starting up and all I've been kind of busy. I have had some good times working in the sculpture studio - one of which I created Josh.

Before I get ahead of my self though I should follow up on some of the unfinished things from my previous posts. I decided not to go for the welding class this semester - I'll pick that up next time around. I'm still definitely going to take it, but I've got enough to deal with between wanting to do well in my photo class, and having John Pitman Webber as my professor intermediate printmaking.

I ended up with 4 classes this semester: Portrait Photography at College of Dupage, Survey History of Early Western Art, Intermediate Printmaking, and World Literature in English. The semester is shaping up to be fun, between photo class, my lab-aid job with photography at Elmhurst College, Printmaking, and the gen-ed class I'll be plenty busy. Speaking of Jobs I've been working a lot with the Art Department helping to hang and take down Art shows from visiting artists. For Instance Ian Weaver was showing for Black History Month. I showed up to help him un-load his van into the printmaking studio for a few days till he could come back and hang the art. I, and a few others, helped to hang his art then afterwards put up posters for it around campus. Next I helped John Webber unload his art for his Sabbatical Art show into the Art Accelerator space - an old 'atom smasher' converted into art space. I'll post a little description of this cool space next time. Tomorrow I'm going to help Ian take down his work and store it in a closet till next week when he can come back with a van to get it. Tuesday I'm going to help Sandy Perlow hang her work. At least I'm getting paid nicely. I'll also be 'art sitting' on Saturday from noon till 4pm for about a month - making sure no one steels John's art.

I took an Art history class before with Richard Pulsen, who is one of the worst history professor's I've ever met. He's a nice enough guy in person, but as a history profess he's dull and teaches a pointless class that is all memorization with your entire grade resting on the cumulative final. I failed the course and with that said I recommend you stay clear of him at all costs. As I mentioned above I'm taking an other art history course this semester, but this one is actually fun! Phyllis J. Kozlowski is the professor, and she is a truly great professor! Phyllis is actually interested in teaching and wants her students to share in her joy of the subject. She has tests throughout the semester, and no cumulative final. It's great and I'm actually enjoying the class. I fully intend on taking my remain two Art History classes with her. Rock on Phyllis!

So yeah, Josh, Smokey, Samantha, and the gang. What fun! I really like Josh, he's my favorite so far. I've been working on re-conceptualizing these figures. I really like the base idea, but I feel they still need some work, there's a few issues that need resolving. The most recent figures I did were supposed to be apart of a fountain, which is what inspired the pot-heads and long tongues. I don't think it really needs that, it was an off-shoot idea that basically failed. Basically what I'm working on here is just making several small figures to see what works, what I like. From that I will hopefully be able to come up with some good ideas to take into my capstone design. What do you think? Do you like josh, and /or do you have any suggestions?

--Matttail

Other, stranger ideas

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

I said last time that I had a different idea for the Capstone project, well here it goes. This one involves more a focus on metals and welding. Which reminds me of something...

Something I had intended on learning in my Intermediate sculpture class was welding. I asked my professor, Mary Lou Stewart about the possibility and she encouraged me. This is cool, welding is something I've wanted to learn for a while now and the opportunity to pick it up as part of this class sounded great. My professor tells me that one of the guys in the maintenance, Wade is a 'union wielder' and he likes helping out with teaching once in a while. That's cool with me, the more expirence someone has in a field the better.

Well, he didn't return the voice mail that she left...not sure if he just was too busy this semester or working nights. So the professor was supposed to teach me instead, but she was busy at first and then felt like it was too far into the semester to really get into it. Kind of disappointing, but I think she was right. So in the end I didn't get to learn welding after all.

I had been anticipating graduating in one year from this point, as I made mention to in my previous post. That ended up not working out because of one class I need to take that isn't being offered again till Spring 07. That only pushed off my anticipated graduation date by 6 months, and probably works out better for entering graduate school, but it's still a little disappointing However, this does make the remainder of my time a college a little more relaxing. I only have to take three
classes each semester. Which brings me back to welding.

Because of this idea I had for my capstone project, and because I just want to learn, I asked my professor if we could set up those welding lessons sometime. She thought that could easily be worked out, and said I could do it this semester or next. I figure if I set up an independent study with the professor, it will put more structure around the idea and help insure that it happens. I just can't decide if I should take the course this semester (spring 06) or next. I already picked up a class at the local Community College - College of Dupage in photography, so I'm not sure I should add anything else on for this semester - but I want to learn welding.

I figured it would be a good idea to take a photography course with a different professor in a different darkroom. That's one of the draw backs of this college, there is only one Photography professor. That's why I want to take this course at the college of Dupage, it will be my first college level experience with an other photography class and an other darkroom setup. Since I've already signed up and payed for that course - Portrait Photography, I've got to decided if I also want to pick up welding this semester. The photo class will start 2 weeks before my regular classes start,
so I'll have a bit of a change to see what kind of a work load it represents. We'll see.

Any who, as I was saying before I have this other idea for my capstone course - Rather than physically incorporating the photography into the sculpture I would take a picture of a 'model' and then form the sculpture in their likeness. The portrait would hang on the wall behind the sculpture. I would still stick with the style of my figure in clay, they would just reflect the person in the portrait. Does that make sense? I've had a bit of trouble clearly explaining this to both my wife and Sculpture professor.

So, I take this portrait of someone like my mother, standing in a minister's Robe. I'd probably use a 4x5 view-camera, and take a nice color and black&white photograph. Now that I have this photograph, I'd make a print of it - at this point just an 8x10 for reference. In the end I'm envisioning something 16x20 or bigger. Now, working from my photograph I'll make one of my figure modeled after her. So this sculpture is going to obviously be apart of the same series I've been working in, and at the same time be recognizable as the person in the picture. Does that make more sense?

Till next time

--Matttail

The beginning of the end, or the other way round?

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:54 -0500

After much thinking and talking, a bit of drawing, and a good measure of 'you might as well get started' - I started working on my Capstone Project. In order for me to graduate from Elmhurst College as an Art major, one of the requirements is the Capstone Art courses. ART 490 and ART 491 are supposed to be taken in your Senior year, speared out over two semesters, or taken together. The description for ART 490 goes as follows,

"ART 490 Capstone Course
This course seeks to provide students with a
model of the creative process, an under -
standing of how the major program is interrelated
and is integrated in practice in their
personal artwork, and to identify a personal
style. Specific course requirements will vary
depending on the studio area but, in general,
emphasis is on an individualized studio
project, developed in consultation with the
instructor, a paper, and an artist's statement."

Which basically says that you take a semester to produce a small body of work, showing both your creativity and technical abilities in the field. Each Art major picks the studio area they are concentrating in for the capstone course - so obviously for me that will be Photography. I say
obviously, but actually I'm planing on working between Sculpture and Photography. Anyways, ART 491 is the Capstone Exhibition - so we get a chance to show off our work to the school and our parents.

As I was saying before, I actually started the first physical parts of the capstone today. I won't be actually taking the Capstone course until next semester, but I had thought I'd be taking it this semester and had already started thinking on it - so I have decided to start working on it anyways.

I keep getting interrupted, but as I was saying before, I physically started working on it today. I went down to the sculpture studio, got out some buff clay and rolled out a few squares. I then wrapped them up in plastic on a board and washed my hands. About 20 minutes worth of work. What is the point of this you ask? Well, I'll tell you. It all started in the spring term of 2004. I was taking Introduction to Sculpture with Gary Lang. One of the projects he gave us was to construct, from clay, Human-ish figures using a 'pancake' method. I'm not sure if he had a better name for it or not, but that's how I think of it. You take some clay, roll it out flat, and then use that to create a 3-d form. You get a lot of tubes and the like. I started playing with this, and ended up producing a series of sculptures in this form. This past term, Fall 05 I took Intermediate sculpture and furthered the forms.

The 5 large pieces on the sides (two on the left and three on the right) were the first I made. The smaller ones on the two shelves are the more rescent pieces. The Little girl holding hte boat has actually been sold.

The idea with this second series was that they would be apart of a fountain. The base didn't work out quite perfectly, it cracked in a few places, and ended up being too small. Also the woman need to be about an inch higher to properly pour into the man. But they would have been in a circular base, sitting in a bit of water. The water is pumped into the woman, and from her flows out the rest of the family. The little girl is then sitting in the water holding her toy boat.

So the idea I'm working on for my capstone project works with these figures and adding a photographic part. As to whether the images will be on the figures chests' or on the stands and basin I'm not sure. But that's where the clay comes in. It's the base media for the photography
in this concept, so I need to work on getting the technical details sorted out for getting images onto clay in such a way that they are water tight and archival.

I've an other concept for the capstone if I decide this isn't going to work out. But that's an other post, for an other day.

--Matttail