Episode editing

Okay so two things have changed. (1. Incorporation of another camera [brought new problems] (2. Clips ordered by time of day

Makeup in Layers

So I experimented with the layers of makeup between the acetate and I'm honestly not really happy with the results. I just feel like it's stepped away from feeling like my work?

Unintended

Concept: Having a good memory, always remembering those details that a lot of people don't. Noticing little things like a water stain thats left after a cup.

Photos continued

Some of the shots are reshoots but most are new and I choose to

do one wide shot of the stairwell.  

Personal Writings

Some of my written works from the last two weeks. 

Still in progress of revising.

The first day.

When I was small

I loved to frolic

and tease,

smile;

too glee.

“Weirdo,

Freak,

Alien”,

screams.

I was 5, 

I knew nothing

of why these words

stuck to me

like tape mending 

ripped paper

as the hands of tiny children

kept tearing away at it.

07  |  2007

Why?

The corners of the room

come closing in

as the darkness

ate the space.

Your whispers 

creep into me,

crawling slowly with each breath

feeling as if they are the tiny legs

of centipedes trickling into my ears.

“you can’t tell anyone

that I did this to you.”

Everything felt encased

in this darkness forever

while his hands forced me

on my back, screaming 

in my face, tearing

greedily at my neck.

Those words echoed in my mind;

sunk deeper into me, more

than the bee sting I felt 

earlier that day

from plucking red roses

that grew in my backyard.

My mind felt lost in this unending eternity,

fading  into the darkness.

what did he to do my mind?

what does this mean?

why are you so mean?

Because I wasn’t strong enough.

Even screaming

feels silent.

There are many days

days where the mind sinks

deep inside an endless hollow place.

The stroke of sadness sweeps

across  my body.

My fingers start to lose feeling

and the numbness begins

to take over

working up to my forehead,

then shooting directly through my stomach

pushing me down so I can’t

get up.

The life is also taken

from my legs,

and shortly after

my feet.

All I can do is scream

but, I can’t hear it.

All I want to do is feel

like nothing is real

and everything can go

back to being surreal.

14; Dumb. 

Being 14 is just weird

especially in the spring

when we switched from gym

to health class.

Everything is just awkward at 14.

When I was 14

my friend Lele had 

a boyfriend named Andrew.

Andrew would wait for us

outside our school

with his flip phone

and a stupid smirk on his face.

“Hi cutie” was his greet for her.

“Hey sexy” was his greet for mine.

I fucking hated him.

I knew he secrelty liked me more than her

He always did.

“Meet me at Village Park at 3.”

His eye contact was more...

disgusting today.

I said,

“Ok.”

Trust. 

Never trust a man

who first starts his conversation with

“you’re so beautiful”

because,

He will leave you

for someone else

who he calls beautiful.

After finishing one episode it's easier to step back, view, and make adjustments.

Ideas

This week I have been looking at Land artists that may inspire me in my project. I looked at Andy Goldsworthy natural sculptures as well as Sophia Ainsile's Consumerism. I also studied more in the paper process. I've learned/thought about

• Paper is made from soft trees in most cases (conifer trees such as pine and spruce.) They grow quicker than hard trees and have better fibers for stronger paper.

• Paper can lead to deforestation. Trees can be planted and replaced and should be. Cutting and shipping trees to mills requires 18 wheelers which are not known for phenomenal milage.

• Going paperless means the use of electronics which are becoming energy efficient but still require in most cases fossil fuels to use. Not the perfect solution.

• How quick people recycle or toss paper away. Tiny tear, boom, in the bin. Something that could be erased? Nah, in the bin.

• For every ton of recycled paper, 683 gallons of oil is saved along with 17 trees.

As of now, I am thinking about recycling paper and the tree and how to display this information. Recycled paper could be woven into the textures of the bark. Pine trees and such tend to have very thin lined bark. I could also place paper on pine cones which is a cycle. Pine cones being the seeds for these trees which then grow and create more trees for oxygen and paper. Planted pine cones would mean that the paper was decomposing in the ground too and would be cycled back into the earth.

As for the artists I have been looking at, I find the sculptural and ascetics of Goldworthy's work beautiful and minimal. I was very interested in Ainsile's work and how she had a sculptural item, the detergent bottles and then created prints with photographs to show the work in a 2D method.

Experimenting

Based on some of the discussions in class about putting cryptids (unnoticed) into situations I've sketched up a couple of really rough ideas of what that might look like. I used a couple of photos of some MBTA cars and Atomic Cafe that I found online to act as substitutes of actual photos since I was too busy to get any good photographs myself in the past two days. I think I would like to expand this idea further, and have been toying with the idea of placing the cryptids into photographs of places I frequent or find comfort in, to connect back to the idea of personal alienation, and how these are the places I go to when I'm feeling that way in order to feel better. I've also been looking at photographs where one element of it is animated, and then made into a gif. I think that might be where I'd next like to go, with taking photographs and then placing the cryptids or aliens into them as the one animated element. It might be an interesting way to both highlight the creatures while also placing them into a physical setting, while also challenging me to consider adding the dynamic of motion as well. I think this also would tie in well with the nature of videos that have supposedly captured cryptids on camera, as they frequently are very short, looped fragments of film, lending itself well to using a touch of animation in these pieces as well. I think this would also be a good place to potentially incorporate humor, being able to push them into more ridiculous things with animation than with still images, such as the gif included below that I have been messing around with this past week in my down time of a pole-dancing Nightcrawler.

Bigfoot on the MBTA rough idea sketch

Ningen at Atomic rough idea sketch

Example of an in-progress Nightcrawler gif

Photos of Scars

I ended up retaking taking the photos with my tripod, and editing them to be b&w. The decision to take away color feels right, and seems to help focus on the scars in the walls more. This batch so far is of the third floor and is partially taken from the second floor of the hardie.

Photos below are my Contact sheet and some photos from it that can be viewed larger for class.

Contact Sheet

Looking at Material Construction

Commercial Paper 

• Logs are cut and brought to a paper mills for processing.
• Logs are debarked and cleaned with water
• Logs are broken down into pulp.
• The pulp is added to water and natural glue called lignin.
• To create stronger papers (not newsprint and newspaper) the pulp goes through a process to remove lignin from the pulp.
• The pulp may be bleached for whiter paper.
• Machines will spray and dry the pulp paper mixture.
• Paper mixture will be run through heated rollers to expel extra water and press into paper.
• Chemicals may be applied to create desired textures or effects such as water resistance or extra strength.
• Paper is then cut into shapes and dimensions.

Glass 

• Created with Silica Sand, Limestone (Calcium Carbonate) and Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate).
• Materials are mixed together and placed into a tank and heated at 3000°F. This will take three days.
• A rake is used to mix materials together to avoid air pockets and spreads the mix out.
• The mix will become molten.
• Once molten, the glass mixture is heated for ten hours to release air bubbles and gases in the glass.
• Glass is rolled out onto molten tin. Tin is denser than glass and allows glass to be completely flat and remain on top (oil and water scenario).
• Tin machine changes temperature to help cool down glass so it's solidified at end.
• The glass is cooled down naturally on rollers stretching a quarter mile. The glass is very sturdy and difficult to break in this stage. Glass starts at around 1000°F in this stage.
• Glass is then cut.

Steel
• Dynamite is used to break up rock for iron ore.
• Iron ore is then separated from the rock using magnets.
• The ore is heated in a furnace with "coke". Coke is impurities in coal.
• Iron Ore and the coke flow down the furnace and are hit with hot air called wind. The wind is about 1600°F and moves about 110,000 cubic feet per minute.
• When the hot air ignites the "coke" which heats the furnace to around 4000°F. This process blasts away oxygen from the molten mixture and carbon does bond with metal.
• Silica and sulfur rise to the top of the molten mixture. The separation allows for pure molten iron/steel.
• Molten metal has about 4% carbon which makes it brittle, is then reduced to 2% carbon or less. Then the metal is poured into a mold and cooled.
• Depending on the use of the metal, more heating, cooling and shaping may be done.

Another Drawing

I didn't have time yet to explore more of my ideas of going further into this, but I applied more of the kind of drawing I wanted. (Not focusing on the typical focal points of makeup application; lips, eyes)
I need to take more photographs and print them on non-shiny paper so it doesn't conflict with the makeup textures and effects. I'm thinking about photographing portraits with the makeup collections placed somewhere in the photo.
On a side-note these are starting to look a little Matisse-esque to me.

starting from the beginning

This semester I want to explore life growing up as a queer male, and creating visuals for this through means of animation and film. Generally throughout my experience being the way I am has led me to many predicaments that I won't ever forget, and that have shaped me into who I am today. These images below are sketches for one portion to this project I will be working on...I plan on making more sketches for short films and animations, but for now this is where I start.

Conjoined Forms II