About three days ago, some guys came to my house to fix the gutters. There was a huge moss bed growing on our roof that I had been wanting to use for a sort of indoors moss-greenhouse I wanted to build. But before I could do anything, the guys had taken all the moss off, and thrown it to the ground!
So I collected all the moss, and quickly built a setup in my studio on the third floor: a canvas bed with a plastic bag to create a moist environment for the moss.
Here, come to my studio, I'll show you...
So this is the moss bed tent, made of a canvas and a plastic bag with alligator clips tied to hooks attached to the ceiling. And here is the inside...
I present to you, Moss Bed Valley!
It is a very comfy place to lay down to think, or rest under a tree..
Or to go for a walk, when I need a break from my work.
So next time you stop by my studio, make sure to visit Moss Bed Valley, and maybe while you are visiting the Coreopsis tree will be in bloom, showing off its wonderful purple flowers.
Haven't posted in a while, haven't really created many physical artworks lately: been busy expecting a baby (any day now!) and setting up my new studio (it's going to be nice, I can't wait to start using it!)
So I figured in the meantime I would share a few moments I managed to capture, featuring one of my most favorite subjects of all time: Nature!
Nature is the Source. Period.
But beside the Macrometaphor of that statement (which would be more like "Nature Is"), is the simpler fact that nature is the source of my inspiration. Nature at large, yes, with humans and everything included, sure, but also nature upclose. Mini nature, unseen nature, underside nature, backyard nature, just-stepped-on-you-so-what nature.
It is not the surface beauty of nature alone that attracts me, but everything about it: its diversity, its birth-growth-and-death, its mechanisms and workings, its scale and scope, and mostly, its simultaneous grantedness and mystery at once.
Yeees. It is here. Look at it. Wowify yourself. Remember yourself in it. Or else... Get creeped out by it and perish! Hahahahah
Ok. I recommend you view the slideshow in full screen. It is short.
"Recovering from a state of self-forgetfullness, I have found myself counting the stamens of a flower" Tufu
This is a project I plan to continue indefinitely; just an easy and time-space-energy-effective process to make some miniature clay objects that I like to make and rarely do because of time-space-energy limitations. The process is simple. During camping, I made very small clay whistles and figures that I could fit into an altoids box...
I used a rock as a surface, and my usual tools for whistle making, which include a chopstick, an exacto knife, a palete knife, a needle and a forming tool. You will notice the clay is white prior to firing.
I used sawdust to cushion the whistles as I put them in the altoids box, but also because sawdust will combust within the chamber creating a reduction atmosphere: as the burning hot atmosphere within the box is deprived of oxygen to burn, it will burn the chemical oxygen within the clay, turning it black.
It's like packing a mini kiln, which is something that, of course, attracts me very much. At night, I pack the box full of sawdust completely, and fire it. The most important thing is to increase the temperature slowly in the beginning. Strangely for clay, I fire these almost imediately after they're made, though sometimes they don't survive the temperature shock. I also make sure to reach plenty of temperature once the initial risk of busting is over, otherwise the clay will not bake to a vitrious state. Sometimes I cover the coals where the pieces are buried with metal sheets in order to dramatically increase the temperature. (I have used crushed soda cans; in scarse conditions they work great!) All this is an alteration of a resurrected Native American technique that I learned very indirectly (via library) from Tewa potter Maria Martinez. I still have many years to practice before my pieces could look remotely as black and soft as hers.
Normally I would not make a fire just to cook some miniature pieces, so I throw the boxes into any other fire I come accross, camping, cooking or at a friend's gathering, etc. In this case though, I am also firing a large vessel, a "mama olla", which I might share in a future post. Unearthing the fired clay is so fun! We make a family event of it every time.
And last, is the reward of opening each small box, each containing miniature music-making treasures: pinch-size bits of meticulous work and devotion. some have survived the process, some have not.
I want to share some images of this drawing I just finished called "Tuner of Butterflies", much in the lines of "The Insect Maker."
Part ot the inspiration was found in Brothers Quay's "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes."
I have always admired the brother's incredible craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail, and yet I have wished their matters were a bit less dark. I figured, on the other side of life's turmoil-generator, there exists an equally laborious creator of peace. and so: as an earthquake happens in the lab of an automaton-making alchemist, a butterfly is hatched in Tokyo...
This work is a depiction of a Selk' nam Xo' on, or shaman, acting as the physical vessel for the spirit of a Waiyuwenh, a Selk' nam deity. Esta obra es una representacion de un Xo'on o shaman Selk' nam, actuando como el cuerpo fisico de un Waiyuwenh, o espiritu.
The Selk' nam, also known as the Ona, lived in the Patagonian region of southern Chile and Argentina. After living relatively peacefully for thousands of years, the entire Selk' nam population was brutally enslaved, massacred, and eventually extinguished completely as an ethnic group by 1972. This work is intended as a physical mark, made in the memory of this rich and mostly unknown culture. Los Selk' nam, tambien llamados Ona, vivieron en la region Patagonica del sur de Chile y Argentina. Tras vivir relativamente en paz por miles de anos, la poblacion entera de Selk' nam fue brutalmente esclavizada, masacrada y finalmente extinguida completamente como grupo etnico alrededor de 1972. Esta obra tiene como objetivo crear una marca fisica, en honor y memoria de esta rica y mayormente desconocida cultura.
Their existence will forever be remembered. Su existencia sera por siempre recordada.
But before it turned into the vessel it is now, it begun as a simple idea. A vessel inside a vessel. A terrarium inside an aquarium.
The idea soon turned into sketches...
And the sketches became clearer and clearer in my head (as did the potential for the vessel itself to become real, and as did my obssesion with this possibility...)
Then, I was ready. The idea was clear as glass to me, and the thought of making it a reality became a persistent fixation in my head: "I haaave to maaake iiit!!" But having no experience in blowing glass, I had to turn to the life-saving helping-hand of the true experts...
I took the idea with me, to the Pittsburgh Glass Center. I shared my idea with a fine gentleman named Everett Hirche -a local artist and technician at the Center- and asked him if making the vesssel was possible, and if it was of interest to him. He was definitely up for the challenge and excited to help me out, and soon him and a team at the Glass Center were discussing and preparing for the making of the Island Vessel.
On Friday, March 5th of 2010, during Unblurred on Penn Av, a small team comprised of Everett Hirche, Jason Forck, Steve Stens and Chris Hofman, brought The Island Vessel into this physical world! To see how things went down the night of the making of the Island Vessel, check this video out (music by my band Shambolish!):
THAAAANK YOOOOUUUU AWESOME DUUUDES!!
Once the vessel was a full-blown, double-chambered glass piece, I begun building the little worlds inside of it. First I made the terrarium. To do this, I use special tools, some of which I have to make myself. The terrarium contains plants and mosses which I have come to feel comfortable working with, such as 2 species of star moss, violets and a couple of other specimens whose names I don't know. Also in there is a tiny spider and a centipede. Then, I constructed the aquarium, which contains Java moss, Banana plant, gilled snails and a couple of other snails, barnacles and plants whose names I don't know. There are Ghost shrimp too, and six Zebra Danios. I showed this piece (unfortunately only for one day) during the GAGI (Geek Arts / Green Innovators Festival) on April 2nd, 2010, along with other of my artworks.
The Island Vessel I (which I also call "my new TV"!) worked just as planned. The magnification produced by the thick concave glass and the water is simply striking. The overal effect is hard to describe or show in the images. It has a beautiful roundedness and definition. As a passionate nature lover, there is nothing more gratifying than observing this active and thriving little ecosystem as if seen through a magnifying lense. I can literally sit to watch this world in a jar for hours! Also, my ideas as far as the moisture being transferred from one chamber to the other seem to be working great. In the images I do not have the lid on because the terrarium is still too moist to enclose, but Everett did make a special lid that has a sort of drip snout, which conducts drops of condensed water from the aquarium into the terrarium. Overall, this vessel fascinates me, not because I put it together, but because it is a contained pocket of life; a balanced, living and ever-changing little microworld.
For a slightly closer sense of the qualities of this contained universe, check out this clip of shrimp citizens of Island Vessel:
And I am happy to say that I am not the only one to take great pleasure from the result of all this work. Otherwise, without the chance to create a bit of a sense of wonder in others, my work would be pointless.
Photo Courtesy of Mihnea Vasilescu
Thank you for your interest, which is one of the things that keep my work alive.
So, here is the final version of my stereoscopic drawing entitled "Outer Technology Reveals Inner Technologies". It works! Of course here you only get to see the stereo pair as it looks in 2 dimensions, but through the lenses the 3D effect is quite effective. To experience this piece in the right way, you can stop by The Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, for a show running until May 7th, themed: "Antiquated and Future (or Imaginary) Technology". Learn more about the IF Center and this show here.
As you may notice, the two sets are not exactly the same, and so some interesting interference is created, especially in the colors of the vessel and in the background symbols. I took some liberties as far as creating very differing patterns on the background, so that when seen in stereo, the peripheral elements are not always in 3D. The result is somewhat similar to a certain optical illusion or effect, where the central object is in focus, but the periphery appears to be in motion, until you look at it directly. I am pretty pleased with this effect: it reminds me of a quantum chamber where the particles are multiple and fluctuating, but as one peeks in, only one particle is seen in the center.
Anyhow, here are some images of how the piece was set at the IF. Just for the fun I made one into a wiggle set.
(I love how the canister of chemical next to my piece says FOTOFLAT!)
Finally, here is the statement as it was presented in the show. In there, I finally get to address the actual significance and concept behind the drawing itself, in addition to the descriptions of the optical mechanism (to see more of the initial process, ideation and sketchbook pages go to my previous post "stereo art").
“Outer Technology Reveals Inner Technologies” Stereoscopic drawing: pen, berry ink, tea, water media on paper. March 28, 2010
Among a few of its kind, this stereoscopic drawing done by hand highlights an optical technology that is both ancient and new, both internal and external, which is stereoscopic vision. This drawing is also a depiction of a concept which is both ancient and new as well (representing the inner technology) which is the alchemical notion of the Axis/Anima Mundi.
The reason for using a stereoscopic technology (other than the fact that 3d imaging is awesome) is that its mechanics reference the process that our own brain engages in when interpreting visual images. When looking at the (external) world, our two eyes create two separate flat images of reality; slightly different perspectives of the same object. It is our (internal) brain that compiles these two images into one three-dimensional sense. While this phenomenon is as old as our physiology and perception, we normally take for granted the amazing collaboration between external and internal technologies to create –real or otherwise- sensory experiences. It is only more recently that strong interest in this specific optical technology has re-emerged. Today we enjoy movies in 3D that appear to get closer and closer to the likeness of reality. Pretty soon we might come to confirm that what is real is always and only bound to our perception.
The depiction itself is of a personal combination meta-symbol which is very significant to me. It is the Axis Mundi, or “world spine”, which in this case I have fused to the Anima Mundi, or “soul of the world.” These are ideas that fascinate me, and that I have studied a bit. The world axis is a “tube” of sorts which connects realms to one another. Traditionally, the Axis Mundi connects the middle world to the heavens and to the underworld. It is a symbol that can take a large number of forms, and its use is rather universal. The Anima Mundi is the “soul of the world”, also known as God or Spirit, and it is the living force that animates matter, or the life source. Here I interpret the two as one, materialized as a vessel. The vessel is revealed as a type of vision; cloudy, undefined - yet clearly present- and fluctuating between being a solid object and a dream.
Like other of my works, this piece is an object that is broad in scope and multilayered. It is a material offering that references an inner realm or state, which can only be referred to metaphorically, and can only be received on an individual basis. The title of this piece is a direct reference to my most consistent (and at this point repetitive) definition of art, which is: Art is the conscious or spontaneous technology of manipulating physical matter, creating objects that reference non-physical ideas and emotions, that are in turn more closely connected to our transcendental self. An external technology such as art can reveal internal technologies such as knowledge, devotion and passion.
I was going to write more about the Axis/Anima Mundi concept here, but that would require a whole lot more writting that I don't feel like delivering right now. Instead you may be interested in checking out the Wikipedia definition of Axis Mundi. There is enough exciting stuff there to get a whole cosmic revolution started! I also need to catch up with my next post, about the first Island Vessel vivarium. Both this piece and the vivarium were shown during the GAGI (Geek Arts and Green Innovators festival), starting yesterday April 2, 2010. Don't miss experiencing "Outer Technology Reveals Inner Technologies" while its up! Thanks for hanging out...
It was inevitable that I would get into 3d imaging and stereoscopy. I have long been interested in vision, perception and optical and visual technologies of all kinds.
For a while, I have been asking the question of how to create a rendition of something that is true to its original form. For example, I may draw in order to capture a dream that I have had, but the quality of the rendition is usually very poor compared to the likeness of the dream itself. So the technical challenge arises: How to create objects that remain more true to the full physical attributes of their original source? How to create an artwork of a flower that has the smell, vibrancy, depth, softness and life of the flower that inspired its creation? This is a lovely challenge that I can't say I have even begun grasping, but even if it is impossible, it drives me!
Also, say I create something like this, how could I share it with you at a distance?
So the idea is that, I think stereoscopic images can sometimes do a pretty decent job at conveying some of the attributes of physical things. I decided to take stereoscopic pictures of some of my works, and then I made small cardboard stereoscopes so that one could view them. I was really happy with these, I made 15 of them and thought they were gonna sell out! I still have all 15... BUT.... since I can't really show you those because you have to look through some lenses, I converted them to what is called Piku-Piku, or Wiggle sets. Check them out:
This is "Hippocolupterus Sapiens"
And this one is the "POK Goddess"
"The Insect Maker"
And the "Cosmic Trickster Mask"
So these are cool, but they are not what I meant by stereo art. These are just stereoscopic pictures of some of my works. The real challenge I am working with right now is to create a stereoscopic image that is not a photo pair but a pair of drawings that are hand made. Did you know that Dali actually made a real pair of stereoscopic paintings?!
...that insane genius...
So now I am working on a wet media drawing that is stereoscopic. It's been crazy difficult but it is finally taking shape. I will keep the experiment to myself until it is completed, but I will share a couple of process pages from my sketchbook, to give an idea.
The pair has now been transfered to a piece of watercolor paper and I will render it using tea and Ibiscus flower, and possibly oil pastel and watercolor. I have to color each of the two slightly different drawings in the exact same way... Wish me luck! And when I'm done, I'll also tell you what the actual image is about. Thanks for stopping by!
Here is something I'd like to share. It is a 8 minute talk that I gave at the TEDx Leadership Pittsburgh Conference, held on November 14th and 15th of 2009, on the topic of "children and the future". It sure was difficult to say as much as I wanted to in 8 minutes, but this is what came of this attempt, in the most honest, humble and conscious way that I could summon. Hope you enjoy.
