The first slide show is online on my website as of right now. http://www.texelgirl.com/LastSin/lastSin.html There are a few typos to correct but those will have to wait for a bit. I have discovered that Apple's Keynote is vastly superior to Microsoft's PowerPoint. I ended up using that to make the presentations work for the web and ended up redoing them all in the process as their templates are much nicer (and work better) and Microsoft's (all hail Steve Jobs).
I have to temporarily stop work on the website for a while since the the graphic design students have their opening tomorrow. I have to make sure the presentations are ready and synced with my husband's iPad. I also need to do a synopsis of every person on the the "Salvation" frame and at least a listing of the events on the "Sin" frame.
This blog tracks the concept, development, construction, installation and unveiling of the art exhibit entitled "The Last Sin" by artist Heather Miller.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Installation Success!
Installation is now complete - well mostly. I'm still toying with the idea of created artist statements for the digital prints and USB-NA. I can put them up through tomorrow if I do it. Otherwise install is done. It went perfectly smoothly other than a minor incident with the trunk of the tree. I lost my grip trying to get it out the the library and into the hall. It slid down my arm so I have a really nice set of scratches but they're just surface scratches so it looks far worse than it is. :)
I'm working on turning my PowerPoint portfolios into slide shows but I ran into a snag. Microsoft (which has now totally earned their nickname Microsucks in my book) removed the feature that converts PowerPoint slide shows into html files in the newest version (at least on the Mac version). So I can make it into a .mov if I want to mess with animation timings for hours. Or, I can opening each one in Keynote and have it covert the presentations for me. *sigh* Why can't Microsoft stop screwing things up? In any event the slide shows will be a nice synopsis of each part of the project and will explain a lot more detail about the meaning of each piece. Look for that in a day or two.
I would like to beg for a real photographer to take pics for me. I'm flat broke so I can't pay but I also can't use my camera worth a damn. Yes I read the manual, like six times but when you don't really understand what the F-stop does exactly, knowing where it is doesn't really help you. The little tiny blurb it provides is about as clear as mud and I have had zero time to spend on photography this semester. You'll see in a minute that I used a pretty expensive camera to take really crappy pictures (its a gift). You don't get to see the digital prints because I couldn't figure out how to photograph them without a giant flash showing on the print - well it dawned on me when I got home how to turn the flash off but it was too late then wasn't it. All in all my pictures, the "good" ones are passable at best but mostly terrible. You're only seeing the passable ones for the most part.
BEGIN PICTURES........
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| The school only provided our name so I provided the title of my exhibit. There was some discussion about not allowing this because it wouldn't be fair to students not willing to spend the money (mine cost less than $10). Cry me a river. As you can see, mine went up. If you can't save $10 in 4 years you need help. |
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| The entire exhibition |
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| Left Corner |
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| My sign-in book, it says "Never Stop Thinking." The pen itself says "Last Sin" on one side and "TexelGirl" on the other side with ones and zeros in the background. No detail too small. |
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| This is the pedestal for the sign-in book. I had two extra PC cases that had no covers on them at all. Together they were almost a perfect height for a pedestal-table. Inside was the fallen angel statue that was "gifted" to me at the very beginning of the project and the extra apple I bought. The fallen angel served as a model for my "square project" assignment at the beginning of the semester. |
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| Satellite Dish Grouping A |
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| Satellite Dish Grouping B |
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| The Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil with all 5 apples fully installed. Yes, if you look closely that is a crow standing on top of the tree. Why? Because. Just Because. An no, you won't get any more explanation than that. As you can see I am a lousy photographer. I took several photographs and this was the best of the bunch. The chain in the picture will be removed Monday morning, I Photoshopped both of them out of the larger picture :) |
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Install Tomorrow!
Installation Pending: I reserved a truck last week for pickup on Saturday at 12pm. I got an email this morning notifying me that my reservation had been bumped to 1:30pm. The place closes at 2pm and I was worried that I might not get a truck at all. They didn't have any available earlier either. So my husband took off work on Friday - which kind of works out better anyways.
Portfolio: I've been working on PowerPoint presentations for my portfolio. My professor wants a digital portfolio rather than a print portfolio and suggested PowerPoint in the guidelines. This works out for all of you as I can convert PowerPoint (PP) slides to a web viewable slide show. The guidelines for the entire portfolio call for a minimum of 8 "process" photos. I've decided to do a PP presentation for each piece (or grouping) so I can tell the story of each part of the exhibit from start to finish. I'll upload them here as soon as they're finished.
Now I just have to pray that all 17 pieces make it from my house to GMU intact. Its a short trip but that doesn't really mean much does it?
Portfolio: I've been working on PowerPoint presentations for my portfolio. My professor wants a digital portfolio rather than a print portfolio and suggested PowerPoint in the guidelines. This works out for all of you as I can convert PowerPoint (PP) slides to a web viewable slide show. The guidelines for the entire portfolio call for a minimum of 8 "process" photos. I've decided to do a PP presentation for each piece (or grouping) so I can tell the story of each part of the exhibit from start to finish. I'll upload them here as soon as they're finished.
Now I just have to pray that all 17 pieces make it from my house to GMU intact. Its a short trip but that doesn't really mean much does it?
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Finishing Touches!
USB-NA: Just about complete! All I have to do is attach the feet to the base and officially attach the sign to the front and its finished! That's the room number where my exhibit will be in the Art & Design Building by the way. I uploaded this image to the Facebook event pages for my exhibit & for the school's event.
It isn't often that I'm actually impressed by my own work but I'm kind of impressed by this one - and the tree of course. Together they make quite a pair. I know that's an odd statement to make but usually I finish a piece and its disappointing. I derive pleasure in the making, once I've done the work have a finished piece, I'm done. I'm "over it" as they say. I'm not one of those artists who gets emotionally attached to their work. These pieces, however, I feel a bit weird about. I want them to sell, but I want them to stay together - like its some kind of moral imperative that they not be separated.
And that, boys and girls, is yet another reason why I never wanted to create this kind of art. Not only is it
Alright, I'll stop babbling. In other news, I was prepping the pedestal for USB-NA for refinishing when I accidentally knocked it over - and broke the last tier. I realize that almost none of you know what piece I'm talking about. I wasn't attached to it by any means. I'm attempting to fix it as I don't think I have time to rebuild it (or the funds), not to mention it was a pain to build the first time. It does mean that it gets a coat of texture to cover the nice crack though. I'll have to see how that works. If it looks like crap I'll have to build another pedestal. It's kind of indicative of the luck I've been having lately. All in all though, a pedestal mishap is kind of minor.
Marketing: My postcards are in and look great. I highly recommend GotPrint.com for all your printing needs. They are EXTREMELY INEXPENSIVE but EXTREMELY HIGH QUALITY. I've used them in the past to print business cards ($39.95 for 5000 dual sided full color glossy) and wasn't disappointed. The postcards were just as impressive. I also used them to print the school's postcards. I ordered the two sets of postcards at different times with different options. Mine were standard print and shipping options. The school's, because of various group problems, had to be rush printing & 2-day shipping. I ordered 1,000 cards for the school w/the afore mentioned add-ons for just under $80. I really can't rave about them enough!
Personal note: Need a stylist for free? DON'T GO TO MACY'S! They offer the service at select stores but I suppose it falls into the "you get what you pay for" category. Thinking that I wanted to look nice for the opening, especially considering that I lost over 20lbs this semester I thought I'd give it a go. I had the WORST experience ever!! I was treated like complete garbage, talked down to and made to feel absolutely horrible about myself. I won't recount the details but unless you have a couple of grand to blow and are a complete slave to fashion trends, steer clear of the Macy's "Personal Shopper." Otherwise be warned that if you try to say "I don't want a jacket because it will insanely hot in the building and won't wear it" they turn into giant bitches who will inform you that you wear it because its part of the outfit regardless of the temperature (same goes for accessories, layers, & anything else they give you).
It isn't often that I'm actually impressed by my own work but I'm kind of impressed by this one - and the tree of course. Together they make quite a pair. I know that's an odd statement to make but usually I finish a piece and its disappointing. I derive pleasure in the making, once I've done the work have a finished piece, I'm done. I'm "over it" as they say. I'm not one of those artists who gets emotionally attached to their work. These pieces, however, I feel a bit weird about. I want them to sell, but I want them to stay together - like its some kind of moral imperative that they not be separated.
And that, boys and girls, is yet another reason why I never wanted to create this kind of art. Not only is it
- insanely expensive to produce,
- a serious, serious time suck (although perhaps less so if I wasn't in college),
- takes up insane amounts of space in my house BUT
- it also creates all kinds of weird emotional / internal issues which detracts from my primary goal of selling art to normal people.
Alright, I'll stop babbling. In other news, I was prepping the pedestal for USB-NA for refinishing when I accidentally knocked it over - and broke the last tier. I realize that almost none of you know what piece I'm talking about. I wasn't attached to it by any means. I'm attempting to fix it as I don't think I have time to rebuild it (or the funds), not to mention it was a pain to build the first time. It does mean that it gets a coat of texture to cover the nice crack though. I'll have to see how that works. If it looks like crap I'll have to build another pedestal. It's kind of indicative of the luck I've been having lately. All in all though, a pedestal mishap is kind of minor.
Marketing: My postcards are in and look great. I highly recommend GotPrint.com for all your printing needs. They are EXTREMELY INEXPENSIVE but EXTREMELY HIGH QUALITY. I've used them in the past to print business cards ($39.95 for 5000 dual sided full color glossy) and wasn't disappointed. The postcards were just as impressive. I also used them to print the school's postcards. I ordered the two sets of postcards at different times with different options. Mine were standard print and shipping options. The school's, because of various group problems, had to be rush printing & 2-day shipping. I ordered 1,000 cards for the school w/the afore mentioned add-ons for just under $80. I really can't rave about them enough!
Personal note: Need a stylist for free? DON'T GO TO MACY'S! They offer the service at select stores but I suppose it falls into the "you get what you pay for" category. Thinking that I wanted to look nice for the opening, especially considering that I lost over 20lbs this semester I thought I'd give it a go. I had the WORST experience ever!! I was treated like complete garbage, talked down to and made to feel absolutely horrible about myself. I won't recount the details but unless you have a couple of grand to blow and are a complete slave to fashion trends, steer clear of the Macy's "Personal Shopper." Otherwise be warned that if you try to say "I don't want a jacket because it will insanely hot in the building and won't wear it" they turn into giant bitches who will inform you that you wear it because its part of the outfit regardless of the temperature (same goes for accessories, layers, & anything else they give you).
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
oh so close!
Today I got my digital prints today! They are absolutely gorgeous!! Thank you Sarah & Jeff! I dropped them off at the framers immediately. I got the spiel about them being insanely busy. However, then she said that given their size I'll probably get a call in a day or two just because they won't want them laying around taking up space. :) I better get that call.
Tomorrow I learn out to put up and take down vinyl lettering. That should be a handy skill.
I discovered that the school is seriously short on pedestals so I need to create another pedestal for my sign-in book. Thankfully I have several extra computer cases so I'm going to try and create a pedestal out of those. Tomorrow I'm going to try and come home between classes and sand and prime the pedestal for USB-NA. I already did the touch ups on the base last night.
Its nice to be ahead of the game with 11 days until install!
I'm kind of annoyed at Macy's. They have this "personal shopper" service, which is free. Basically you get a stylist to help you buy clothes or gifts. Since I lost a little over 20 pounds this semester, and this exhibit is kind of a big deal for me, I decided it would be fun to try the service out. I'm not thin enough to fit into my old clothes yet but I've lost enough that I need something new to wear. Sadly no one seems to return my calls and the online appointment system got as far as "your local rep will call you" but no call. Which sucks as my body isn't quite the same as it was when I was 135lbs and I never quite mastered the art of dressing my fat self. I also need to get my hair cut before the opening as I haven't had that done in eons. I keep hoping Groupon or Living Social will cough up a good deal at a local salon but no dice yet. Salons in this area are so insanely overpriced compared to Ohio that I basically stopped getting my hair cut save once a year.
Tomorrow I learn out to put up and take down vinyl lettering. That should be a handy skill.
I discovered that the school is seriously short on pedestals so I need to create another pedestal for my sign-in book. Thankfully I have several extra computer cases so I'm going to try and create a pedestal out of those. Tomorrow I'm going to try and come home between classes and sand and prime the pedestal for USB-NA. I already did the touch ups on the base last night.
Its nice to be ahead of the game with 11 days until install!
I'm kind of annoyed at Macy's. They have this "personal shopper" service, which is free. Basically you get a stylist to help you buy clothes or gifts. Since I lost a little over 20 pounds this semester, and this exhibit is kind of a big deal for me, I decided it would be fun to try the service out. I'm not thin enough to fit into my old clothes yet but I've lost enough that I need something new to wear. Sadly no one seems to return my calls and the online appointment system got as far as "your local rep will call you" but no call. Which sucks as my body isn't quite the same as it was when I was 135lbs and I never quite mastered the art of dressing my fat self. I also need to get my hair cut before the opening as I haven't had that done in eons. I keep hoping Groupon or Living Social will cough up a good deal at a local salon but no dice yet. Salons in this area are so insanely overpriced compared to Ohio that I basically stopped getting my hair cut save once a year.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
USB-NA (or Thank God for the Interwebz!)
I had to refinish the top of the base for USB-NA. I haven't put the resin coat on yet as I'll do that last this time. I've spent most of yesterday and today polishing the copper, or at least attempting to. The epoxy resin that holds the pieces of copper together and the USB cables in places is, of course, sticky. While putting everything in place I inevitably got residue on the copper itself. I assumed I would be able to polish it off with enough patience, perseverance and a few dozen Dremel bits. Additionally the first coat of acrylic paint on the epoxy was a bit messy (I suck at delicate painting). After trying to polish the copper with the polish that came with the Dremel (and failing), vinegar and salt (and failing), vinegar / salt / lemon juice (and failing) I finally consulted the interwebz for advice on how to remove the acrylic paint. The suggestion? Rubbing alcohol. Ironically it worked beautifully on the epoxy residue too. Yeah! It is still a really, really slow process but slow is better than nothing at all. I have reattach more copper at the base and then trim them back to a more manageable size. I've decided not to try and embed the base copper in the resin. That didn't seem to be working so well and also wasn't working visually with the copper at the top. Oh, I bet you want a picture because let's face it, words are boring....
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Nov. 27, 2010.....
I haven't gotten all that much done in the last few days on my project, but that's not a bad thing because I'm nearly done!!
Marketing: I spent several hours on Thanksgiving spamming the daylights out of every event calendar site in the region to market the event. I wanted to ensure that come Friday morning when people showed up to work to review the calendar entries, ours were ready to be reviewed. The postcards were ordered on Thursday for the same reason. If this event pulls in an audience that is more than the student's mommies, daddies & BFFs it will be a miracle though. :) I wish we could have started marketing two months ago like we should have but the school is still trying to figure out how to deal with the whole "senior festival" thing so I suppose I have to chalk that up to 'growing pains.' Today I submitted the event to a few TV stations. I checked the Pink Line Project website and saw that The Last Sin was finally approved and is showing up so it evidently takes about a week for a submission to be approved. I submitted Liminal on Thursday so hopefully it will be up on Monday. Fingers crossed on getting it that little pink seal of approval (a girl can hope right?).
USB-NA: I'm onto the polishing & resin stages but don't have any new pics. Here's a pic of what it looked like just before I started that.
I had a small issue with one coat of resin which didn't cure properly. Unfortunately I didn't realize the issue with the resin before I started the polishing so I ended up with stuff stuck in the resin. Long story short I ended up grind down some of the resin and start from scratch. Errrr.... But not too serious of an issue as I have plenty of time. I have a new layer of chalk dry which I'm going to paint in a minute. Once that's dry I'm going to pour the resin (this time I'm sticking to one brand on resin). I also have to finish the pedestal for this yet as well.
Apples: All five of the apples are officially finished! If time permits I'll finish re-encoding the hidden videos inside the copper apple.
Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil: Done!
Heaven Doth Protest & Hell Responds (digital prints): Awaiting return form the printers and then off to get framed!
Slide shows for the tree: Basically done! I say basically because mankind has a LOT of sin under its belt so I can always expand the sin slide show. As time permits, and as I have time and grill more educated people, I expand the salvation and "end time statistics" slide shows as well.
Satellite Dishes: The dishes are painted. The poles are painted. The computer cases are cleaned, now I just have to figure out how to to mount them. My husband has devised a plan but its damn cold out today so we may wait until Monday as its supposed to be a bit warmer.
Thank You Gifts: Everything has been ordered! I received some of items, the rest should be here Monday.
Reception Details: I bought my sign-in book last night. I had to run out on Black Friday to pick up my glass, buy resin & polishing bits for my Dremel so I figured I'd stop at Borders and check out their selection of blank books. I found the perfect one to use a sign-in book! I also think I'll have time to bake little apple cake-poppers treats too! I love it when a plan comes together!!
Marketing: I spent several hours on Thanksgiving spamming the daylights out of every event calendar site in the region to market the event. I wanted to ensure that come Friday morning when people showed up to work to review the calendar entries, ours were ready to be reviewed. The postcards were ordered on Thursday for the same reason. If this event pulls in an audience that is more than the student's mommies, daddies & BFFs it will be a miracle though. :) I wish we could have started marketing two months ago like we should have but the school is still trying to figure out how to deal with the whole "senior festival" thing so I suppose I have to chalk that up to 'growing pains.' Today I submitted the event to a few TV stations. I checked the Pink Line Project website and saw that The Last Sin was finally approved and is showing up so it evidently takes about a week for a submission to be approved. I submitted Liminal on Thursday so hopefully it will be up on Monday. Fingers crossed on getting it that little pink seal of approval (a girl can hope right?).
USB-NA: I'm onto the polishing & resin stages but don't have any new pics. Here's a pic of what it looked like just before I started that.
Apples: All five of the apples are officially finished! If time permits I'll finish re-encoding the hidden videos inside the copper apple.
Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil: Done!
Heaven Doth Protest & Hell Responds (digital prints): Awaiting return form the printers and then off to get framed!
Slide shows for the tree: Basically done! I say basically because mankind has a LOT of sin under its belt so I can always expand the sin slide show. As time permits, and as I have time and grill more educated people, I expand the salvation and "end time statistics" slide shows as well.
Satellite Dishes: The dishes are painted. The poles are painted. The computer cases are cleaned, now I just have to figure out how to to mount them. My husband has devised a plan but its damn cold out today so we may wait until Monday as its supposed to be a bit warmer.
Thank You Gifts: Everything has been ordered! I received some of items, the rest should be here Monday.
Reception Details: I bought my sign-in book last night. I had to run out on Black Friday to pick up my glass, buy resin & polishing bits for my Dremel so I figured I'd stop at Borders and check out their selection of blank books. I found the perfect one to use a sign-in book! I also think I'll have time to bake little apple cake-poppers treats too! I love it when a plan comes together!!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Nov. 24, 2010 - The End is Near
Marketing Still Sucks: I've been caught up in doing "teamwork" - you know the kind where most of the team does absolutely nothing, some of the team complains, and a very tiny minority does all the actual work. Yeah, that teamwork - which is why I am thoroughly unemployable in the modern world. I refuse to work on "teams" because I patently refuse to give slackers credit for work they didn't do. I had to cancel Thanksgiving to work on marketing crap because my "team" decided to do mostly nothing, except for like 3 people but I didn't get a postcard or flier from anyone so basically nothing when you're three weeks away from opening day of an event. So largely I spent the last few days arguing about marketing, designing marketing materials, and in general banging my head against a wall. Tomorrow I get to do the work of an entire team of people myself because if it goes undone until after break it falls into the "why bother" category. Sorry for the rant, I'm very, very, pissed off right now. I did order my postcards since I assumed that my "team" was going to slack right through my 5pm deadline the other day - and the did what a shock.
Tree of Life Transforms: In art related news, I did manage to finish the tree today! I have a few bits of touch-ups here and there of course but the branches are completed. Sadly my pictures all turned out terrible. I just can't get far enough away so it looks really weird in photographs:
In the pic the branches look extra skinny and weird. They are a bit skinny which I may add to them but they aren't quite that odd looking in person. I was standing in the hallway to take the shot which somehow made the tree look shorter than it is - its much taller than I am (5'5"). I mounted the digital frames in their positions and turned them on for the picture although you can't see the image in the photo - especially after I played with the contrast of the image so you could see some of the detail on the tree. Lighting, as I mentioned in a previous post, is a huge issue too.
USB-NA: It is unfortunately supposed to rain tomorrow so I can't refinish my pedestal. I guess that's all well and good considering I have to spend the day uploading the show to event calenders. I'm hoping to have good weather Friday then I can sand and paint the top of the pedestal, re-prime the entire piece and then repaint it. I have to polish the copper on USB-NA itself, paint the epoxy copper, then coat the base in resin. Then that will be done. It will take a few days as painting the epoxy is delicate work.
Apples: I have to add the copper finishes to the last two apples but otherwise they are now completed. I have to do some work on the copper apple too but that work isn't important to the show itself so it can wait until whenever.
Good night all. I hope your turkey is om-nomable. Mine will be pre-made nuke & serve. Thank you fellow GMU art senior students of the marketing committee.
Tree of Life Transforms: In art related news, I did manage to finish the tree today! I have a few bits of touch-ups here and there of course but the branches are completed. Sadly my pictures all turned out terrible. I just can't get far enough away so it looks really weird in photographs:
USB-NA: It is unfortunately supposed to rain tomorrow so I can't refinish my pedestal. I guess that's all well and good considering I have to spend the day uploading the show to event calenders. I'm hoping to have good weather Friday then I can sand and paint the top of the pedestal, re-prime the entire piece and then repaint it. I have to polish the copper on USB-NA itself, paint the epoxy copper, then coat the base in resin. Then that will be done. It will take a few days as painting the epoxy is delicate work.
Apples: I have to add the copper finishes to the last two apples but otherwise they are now completed. I have to do some work on the copper apple too but that work isn't important to the show itself so it can wait until whenever.
Good night all. I hope your turkey is om-nomable. Mine will be pre-made nuke & serve. Thank you fellow GMU art senior students of the marketing committee.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
USB-NA & The Tree......SUCCESS!!
USB-NA: I *love* it when a piece of art actually just comes together without drama. I managed to get it out of the shelf without having to cut it out (bonus!). It has thusfar been smooth sailing all day....
I actually set it up on a table with a backdrop so you could see it better. The copper wires at the bottom are pulled back because the base isn't finished yet. It helps to keep them out of the way for now. Basically construction is slow but steady. I can do two segments at a time then I have to wait for the epoxy to cure (about 25 minutes), then another 2 segments. I will paint the epoxy copper to match the actual copper when I'm finished. I can sand it down which I may attempt to do but I don't like to tempt fate too much. This picture was taken about 2pm. I'm nearly finished with it now, just a few more segments to go.
Tomorrow I'll finish placing the last segments, paint and hopefully the base will finally be dry. The latex paint and caulk still felt a bit tacky today. I have a bit of touch up paint to do to the base. After than I begin unwinding the individual strands of the copper wire and carefully laying them around the base. I'll set them with resin which will cover the entire base giving it an ultra high gloss. The stranded copper will also come out of the top of the helix in the same way it does the bottom. Then I have to build a pedestal for it. I built a strange one for a project I've been meaning to scrap after I photograph it. Apparently now is the time to scrap the top piece and repaint the base pedestal. I knew I kept it for a reason ;)
Tree of Life: It's official, the bottom two-thirds of the tree are finished!!!! As of 11pm I applied the last column of flex tube to the trunk. Finally! Now I just need to work on the branches and it will be all finished. I need to spray paint the insides of the PVC that form the structure of the branches - which I forgot to do until it was well past dark. Tomorrow is another day though so hopefully I'll be able to get that done before I leave for classes. If not, Tuesday is yet another day.
Things yet to do:
I actually set it up on a table with a backdrop so you could see it better. The copper wires at the bottom are pulled back because the base isn't finished yet. It helps to keep them out of the way for now. Basically construction is slow but steady. I can do two segments at a time then I have to wait for the epoxy to cure (about 25 minutes), then another 2 segments. I will paint the epoxy copper to match the actual copper when I'm finished. I can sand it down which I may attempt to do but I don't like to tempt fate too much. This picture was taken about 2pm. I'm nearly finished with it now, just a few more segments to go.
Tomorrow I'll finish placing the last segments, paint and hopefully the base will finally be dry. The latex paint and caulk still felt a bit tacky today. I have a bit of touch up paint to do to the base. After than I begin unwinding the individual strands of the copper wire and carefully laying them around the base. I'll set them with resin which will cover the entire base giving it an ultra high gloss. The stranded copper will also come out of the top of the helix in the same way it does the bottom. Then I have to build a pedestal for it. I built a strange one for a project I've been meaning to scrap after I photograph it. Apparently now is the time to scrap the top piece and repaint the base pedestal. I knew I kept it for a reason ;)
Tree of Life: It's official, the bottom two-thirds of the tree are finished!!!! As of 11pm I applied the last column of flex tube to the trunk. Finally! Now I just need to work on the branches and it will be all finished. I need to spray paint the insides of the PVC that form the structure of the branches - which I forgot to do until it was well past dark. Tomorrow is another day though so hopefully I'll be able to get that done before I leave for classes. If not, Tuesday is yet another day.
Things yet to do:
- Finish USB-NA
- Build (or re-finish) pedestal for USB-NA
- Finish top of tree
- Order postcards
- Finishing touches on 3rd red apple
- Complete 4th red apple
- Mounting the satellite dishes, on poles, into the computer cases and filling the cases with extra cabling
- Portfolio assembly
- Finishing touches on the presentations for the digital frames
- Kick some ass, take some names
- Marketing committee work
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Nov. 20, 2010
USB-NA: The praying commences....
Before anyone emails me to point out that its stuck in that rack, I know that. I decided early on that I would cut through it to remove it. It was the only solution I could come up with for holding the pieces in place while the epoxy dries. Tomorrow phase two begins as I'll begin setting the USB cables into the copper.
Satellite Dishes: I cleaned stripped and cleaned the bases for the satellite dishes today. My mailman got a kick out of my collection of cases. I hosed them out and lined them up in the sun to dry.
Tree of Life 2.0: The structure for the top of the tree was finished today. I painted the outer edges before I begin the cabling.
Apples: Here are four of the five....
Marketing: The mapping (or way-finding) committee is going to utilize the LCD tv's that are located throughout the building to assist people in locating exhibits. This is my graphic.
Before anyone emails me to point out that its stuck in that rack, I know that. I decided early on that I would cut through it to remove it. It was the only solution I could come up with for holding the pieces in place while the epoxy dries. Tomorrow phase two begins as I'll begin setting the USB cables into the copper.
Satellite Dishes: I cleaned stripped and cleaned the bases for the satellite dishes today. My mailman got a kick out of my collection of cases. I hosed them out and lined them up in the sun to dry.
Tree of Life 2.0: The structure for the top of the tree was finished today. I painted the outer edges before I begin the cabling.
Apples: Here are four of the five....
Marketing: The mapping (or way-finding) committee is going to utilize the LCD tv's that are located throughout the building to assist people in locating exhibits. This is my graphic.
Friday, November 19, 2010
November 19....in progress
Pictures!! I finally remembered to grab the camera while the sun was still out. First up, are you curious how I'm managing to assemble 17 pieces of art and manage to take 3 other classes plus manage a house? Not well, boys and girls, not well at all.....as evidenced by this photo of my living room / dining room:
There is a dining room table there and end tables and a fireplace. You just can hardly find them among the saw horses, miter saw stand, satellite dishes and miscellaneous art supplies. My actual studio is in the basement in the same state of chaos. The tree is in the spare bedroom so at this point you could say my whole house is my studio.
USB-NA: is finally underway. The base is sanded and I drilled the holes to mount the wire supports into. Now I have to coat the base in "texturizing medium" (ie caulk), then paint it. I owe a LOT to Ben in the sculpture department on this one. Without him helping me bend that metal - and welding the little straight pieces back on - this would have been a lot harder. Thank you Ben!!
After that I will begin setting the posts. Then the praying begins as the parts of construction where epic failure may ensure begin.
Satellite Dishes: Here they are all painted. Their poles are painted as well. Now I just need to get some sort of mechanism in place to mount them into the computer cases.
Tree of Life 2.0: I'm going to try and finish up the tree tonight and tomorrow, at least the base and trunk.
The pictures aren't really doing it justice at this point. I can't get far enough away from it or light the room well enough for you to see it. I know the picture makes it look like a wall of cable. Its not quite as odd as it looks. Between the wooden base and the start of the bookcases I only have less than two feet of space. When I cable it the boxes of cable are actually in the hallway since they are too big to fit in the room with me. I can't wait until this thing is done!
Digital Hell or "Hell Responds": Is done! I finished it this afternoon. Done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done. That makes both digital prints finished!! Yeah!! Happy, happy, joy, joy.
Marketing: still hate it. On the plus side, I ordered thank you gifts today. I net stumbled on some cute little giveaways. Apple containers which I'm stuffing chock full of some nifty of theme oriented gifts and treats that I found courtesy of the awesome geeks at ThinkGeek.com. I didn't get to order through them since they no longer carried the single serving office pack of Think Gum but their incredibly helpful staff of customer service monkeys suggested I go direct to the manufacturer. I did and I was able to order them! Apples filled with Think Gum among other things. hehe. Yeah, I think the stress is getting to me.
I submitted my show to The Pink Line Project website last night. I wonder if it will get accepted. I have no idea how the approval process works there so I guess I'll find out.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Nov. 18, 2010
Tree of Life: Well I made a bit of progress tonight, just not as much as I wanted before I got booted out of the room again. I did finally cable all the way past the second frame though! I'm almost done with the base. If I had about 30 minutes more I would have had it finished. I did polish off one complete box of 1" flex tube cabling tonight. Thankfully I ordered some more late last week and it arrived two days ago so I'm all set. I still have half a box of the 1/2" flex tube and I hope it lasts through the rest of the trunk and the branches. I have some miscellaneous 7' pieces of 1/2" and 5/8" flex tube that I can use on the branches as well so I'm not worried about having to order more yet. I didn't take pics because I got booted before I could get the camera. Besides, that room is so small its almost impossible to get a good angle. I tried to convince my husband to let me take it out into the dining room to work on it but it got shot down. The living room & dining room already look like an artists studio / wood shop so its not like the tree would make it worse or anything. Then again, I suppose the tree is safer from my furry little 4-legged vomit factories in the library than outside of the library. It would just be nice to see what the roots actually look like. In the pictures they are just tangled at the base of the tree but they actually extend like roots about 6' from the base at 5 different points.
Signage: I ordered the vinyl lettering for my display today. The school provides me with just my name but not the name of the exhibit. Evidently they used to supply both but after one exhibit where the student had some insanely long title they stopped providing it. Shortsighted *%@$%&#. A well written policy that would take five minutes to write could have prevented that from happening but no, now we all have to suffer. I decided to play it even safer and order my title and my name that way I have it totally covered ($20). I also ordered theses nifty engraved plaques for each of my pieces. Technically they're called "control panel plates." Think 1950's computer terminal signs. I realize they sound expensive but I ordered one for the tree, USB-NA, and both digital prints for less than $30 with shipping. Why print paper labels when I can have techie looking signs? I can't wait to get them.
Marketing: sucks. Just putting that out there. Actually marketing doesn't really suck all that bad it only sucks when your school neglects to form the committees in class or tell you what your budget is. We have three weeks left. I was put in charge of a the marketing committee (like I have the time!) but we weren't told if we have any money. This is when marketing sucks - well actually its almost pointless. The one really enthusiastic (and presumably less busy) member put up the FB page and coordinated with a graphic design person to get a basic logo.
USB-NA: I intended to make measurable progress on this today and attempt to make it look like I was being productive in sculpture class. I can't make this for credit in sculpture but I also can't make my sculpture project in class sooooo, I need something to do there. I've been so busy that I have kind of not been eating more than one substantial meal a day (for instance yesterday I ate a bowl of soup, a bag of chips & 2 hot dogs sans buns -the latter being after thought at bedtime). Combined with not sleeping enough this evidently takes its toll on your ability to think clearly. I got to school, sanded the base and filled in the holes with wood filler. I then went get my drill bit out and realized I grabbed the wrong one. "No matter, I'll move on to the next thing," I thought. I get out all my USB cables & copper pieces and realized that I left all my tools at home. *sigh* That ended that.
In financial news I apparently got a vote of confidence from the Universe. This month at my Zazzle store I've sold more than I have EVER sold at Zazzle. By a lot. A whole lot. Like quadruple my largest month of sales and we're only 19 days into November. I've actually had a few surprise influxes of money during this project. I've sold art unexpectedly a couple of times during this project even though I rarely exhibited this year compared to last. I also had other unusual occurrences which have made this project even more interesting to work on. I may sneak one of those occurrences into the project as it seems destined to be apart of it even though I wasn't able to actually design it into the piece directly.
Tomorrow is Digital Hell day. One way or another I'm going to try and finish it!
Signage: I ordered the vinyl lettering for my display today. The school provides me with just my name but not the name of the exhibit. Evidently they used to supply both but after one exhibit where the student had some insanely long title they stopped providing it. Shortsighted *%@$%&#. A well written policy that would take five minutes to write could have prevented that from happening but no, now we all have to suffer. I decided to play it even safer and order my title and my name that way I have it totally covered ($20). I also ordered theses nifty engraved plaques for each of my pieces. Technically they're called "control panel plates." Think 1950's computer terminal signs. I realize they sound expensive but I ordered one for the tree, USB-NA, and both digital prints for less than $30 with shipping. Why print paper labels when I can have techie looking signs? I can't wait to get them.
Marketing: sucks. Just putting that out there. Actually marketing doesn't really suck all that bad it only sucks when your school neglects to form the committees in class or tell you what your budget is. We have three weeks left. I was put in charge of a the marketing committee (like I have the time!) but we weren't told if we have any money. This is when marketing sucks - well actually its almost pointless. The one really enthusiastic (and presumably less busy) member put up the FB page and coordinated with a graphic design person to get a basic logo.
USB-NA: I intended to make measurable progress on this today and attempt to make it look like I was being productive in sculpture class. I can't make this for credit in sculpture but I also can't make my sculpture project in class sooooo, I need something to do there. I've been so busy that I have kind of not been eating more than one substantial meal a day (for instance yesterday I ate a bowl of soup, a bag of chips & 2 hot dogs sans buns -the latter being after thought at bedtime). Combined with not sleeping enough this evidently takes its toll on your ability to think clearly. I got to school, sanded the base and filled in the holes with wood filler. I then went get my drill bit out and realized I grabbed the wrong one. "No matter, I'll move on to the next thing," I thought. I get out all my USB cables & copper pieces and realized that I left all my tools at home. *sigh* That ended that.
In financial news I apparently got a vote of confidence from the Universe. This month at my Zazzle store I've sold more than I have EVER sold at Zazzle. By a lot. A whole lot. Like quadruple my largest month of sales and we're only 19 days into November. I've actually had a few surprise influxes of money during this project. I've sold art unexpectedly a couple of times during this project even though I rarely exhibited this year compared to last. I also had other unusual occurrences which have made this project even more interesting to work on. I may sneak one of those occurrences into the project as it seems destined to be apart of it even though I wasn't able to actually design it into the piece directly.
Tomorrow is Digital Hell day. One way or another I'm going to try and finish it!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Great Tree & Stuff
The last few days have been busy with the demands of my other classes. They don't make many demands thankfully which has allowed me to undertake this project. If I actually had a full plate of "real" classes (the ones with actual midterms and term papers), I'd be in serious trouble.
I did a small bit of work where I could squeeze it in. I did manage to get another apple to about 90% completion. I just need to add the copper accents and put some adhesive on it to make sure the cables to pop off of it. I also have been playing with both the Heaven and Hell prints. The Heaven print has been re-finalized and I'm attempting to send to off to get it printed. I'm having some minor technically difficulties made worse by fact that I haven't bee at my computer all day. I should have that sorted tomorrow. I hope to have Hell finished Friday, even if I'm not overly happy with it. It gets the point across and that will have to be enough.
I did get some work done one USB-NA on Tuesday. I used the bandsaw at school to cut down the base to the appropriate size. I also drilled holes into more of the copper pieces. I think I may have enough now but I have yet to re-stack the pieces on the metal rods to test it. That evening I went to Home Depot (again) to buy another drill bit to drill into the base piece for copper pieces. Idiot here didn't actually measure the copper pieces. Evidently the project has begun taking its toll on my already fragile mind. The pipe are 1/2" pipes so I bought 1/2" drill bit and, in thinking it might be a bit larger, a 5/8" drill bit. On my return trip, I had to buy the 3/4" bit because the pipe is actually just shy of 3/4" as I discovered when it occurred to me to actually measure it (after drilling holes in a scrap board - thankfully I was smart enough for that at least). Tomorrow I'm going to sand down the board (I had forgotten my hand sander which I prefer to the one at school) and fill in the few odd holes the board has on the sides. I have the remaining supplies for it already so now its just a matter of assembling it an hoping I can get it to assemble successfully.
The Tree of Life is nearing the stage where it gets its final name (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) - that is to say it getting closer to done! It has two names since the Bible is actually a bit fuzzy on the nature of tree. Some scholars say there were two trees, the tree of life that granted immortality and the tree of knowledge and others say that there was really only one tree with at dual nature. I've decided that during construction my tree is the Tree of Life and once it is fully assembled, the frames are inserted and the apples are hung it gets its final name as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In any event, tonight I started cabling the center part of the tree and managed to get to the center frame. I would have finished but my husband wanted to go to be early and I can't work on the tree once he goes to bed. If I had been able to work another hour I would have been able to finish the center section though.
Here's my plan for remainder of the week: Tomorrow is the USB-NA work followed by more tree cabling. I will also try and finish spray painting the poles for the satellite dishes and the poles for the branches. Friday I will try and finish the hell print and try to throw together a design for postcards. The school requires that we do show postcards even though they are a basically useless form of marketing. This weekend I will attempt to finish the tree. I don't know that it will actually happen but that's my plan. At the very least I hope to finish the bottom two sections of it. I'm almost halfway done as it is so between now and then it should be entirely do-able.
What's Left:
I did a small bit of work where I could squeeze it in. I did manage to get another apple to about 90% completion. I just need to add the copper accents and put some adhesive on it to make sure the cables to pop off of it. I also have been playing with both the Heaven and Hell prints. The Heaven print has been re-finalized and I'm attempting to send to off to get it printed. I'm having some minor technically difficulties made worse by fact that I haven't bee at my computer all day. I should have that sorted tomorrow. I hope to have Hell finished Friday, even if I'm not overly happy with it. It gets the point across and that will have to be enough.
I did get some work done one USB-NA on Tuesday. I used the bandsaw at school to cut down the base to the appropriate size. I also drilled holes into more of the copper pieces. I think I may have enough now but I have yet to re-stack the pieces on the metal rods to test it. That evening I went to Home Depot (again) to buy another drill bit to drill into the base piece for copper pieces. Idiot here didn't actually measure the copper pieces. Evidently the project has begun taking its toll on my already fragile mind. The pipe are 1/2" pipes so I bought 1/2" drill bit and, in thinking it might be a bit larger, a 5/8" drill bit. On my return trip, I had to buy the 3/4" bit because the pipe is actually just shy of 3/4" as I discovered when it occurred to me to actually measure it (after drilling holes in a scrap board - thankfully I was smart enough for that at least). Tomorrow I'm going to sand down the board (I had forgotten my hand sander which I prefer to the one at school) and fill in the few odd holes the board has on the sides. I have the remaining supplies for it already so now its just a matter of assembling it an hoping I can get it to assemble successfully.
The Tree of Life is nearing the stage where it gets its final name (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) - that is to say it getting closer to done! It has two names since the Bible is actually a bit fuzzy on the nature of tree. Some scholars say there were two trees, the tree of life that granted immortality and the tree of knowledge and others say that there was really only one tree with at dual nature. I've decided that during construction my tree is the Tree of Life and once it is fully assembled, the frames are inserted and the apples are hung it gets its final name as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In any event, tonight I started cabling the center part of the tree and managed to get to the center frame. I would have finished but my husband wanted to go to be early and I can't work on the tree once he goes to bed. If I had been able to work another hour I would have been able to finish the center section though.
Here's my plan for remainder of the week: Tomorrow is the USB-NA work followed by more tree cabling. I will also try and finish spray painting the poles for the satellite dishes and the poles for the branches. Friday I will try and finish the hell print and try to throw together a design for postcards. The school requires that we do show postcards even though they are a basically useless form of marketing. This weekend I will attempt to finish the tree. I don't know that it will actually happen but that's my plan. At the very least I hope to finish the bottom two sections of it. I'm almost halfway done as it is so between now and then it should be entirely do-able.
What's Left:
- Matte finish on the satellite dishes
- Mounting the satellite dishes on the poles
- Mounting the satellite dishes, on poles, into the computer cases and filling the cases with extra cabling
- Completing finishing touches on the presentations for the digital frames
- Complete the last red apple
- Put the finishing touches on the third red apple
- Put the finishing touches on the copper apple
- Finish the tree
- USB-NA
- Digital Hell completion
- Postcards for show
- Marketing Committee work
- Portfolio Assembly
- Artist's Statement
- Personal Marketing Work
- Probably 16 other things I'm forgetting.....
Sunday, November 14, 2010
November 14, 2010
No pics tonight folks. By the time I remembered to get the camera out it was way too dark to take pictures.
Today started with a run to Home Depot. I needed to buy the rest of the supplies for the top of the tree and the rest of the poles to mount the satellite dishes on. I also went to Micheal's to get the frames for the prints. It turns out that forgetting the coupon yesterday as was really good thing. Today there was a sale on the frames, 40% off, and one of the other coupons gave you an additional 25% off the sale price. Sadly the frames I wanted were all beat up so I had to get a different set but in the end I purchased frames that were normally $69.99 each for $33 each with tax. Sweet!!
The satellite dishes are fully painted thanks to a bit of help from a friend who knows more about using spray paint with stencils than I do. Now they just need some clear coat and to be mounted on their poles. While at Home Depot I had planned to buy something to mount the poles into. Eventually they will be placed into computer cases but they need to be mounted into something first. My initial plan was to just fill the cases with concrete, but there were a few issues there. Several more plans were thought of and dismissed. At the store they had concrete post blocks that were ideal, albeit heavy as all get out, as the poles fit perfectly into the pre-drilled holes. However my husband thought the weight was an issue so he's going to try and rig something using the lumber we already have. LOL. At least I know that for $25 I can run to HD on my way to school and get mounts in a pinch.
We built the branches for the tree which became an design alteration. Unfortunately for me the alteration creates a snafu on the cabling side of things. The original design called for three segments of the tree to all have a certain degree of height so my cabling is attaching to the tree assuming that the top part will be at least 12" tall. Now its only about 4" tall, which isn't enough room to attach tubing too and I didn't leave enough overhang on the trunk piece so far. Time to get creative. On the plus side, the change allows me to have longer branches.....and the tree structures is 99% done!! We just need to cut the branches down to size a bit. They will be removable for easy transport and are made of PVC. As such I have to paint them black but with the satellite dishes taking up time today I ran out of sunlight before I could finish painting branches (and pole mounts for the dishes for that matter).
I was supposed to start studying for my last midterm of the semester but I couldn't focus to save my soul. I ended up finishing the chicken wire on the tree and painting it black tonight instead. Let's all hope I remember enough about rock music in the 50's and 60's to get through this mid-term on Tuesday. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to focus a bit better. I'd hate to ruin that "A-" I have right now. :)
Today started with a run to Home Depot. I needed to buy the rest of the supplies for the top of the tree and the rest of the poles to mount the satellite dishes on. I also went to Micheal's to get the frames for the prints. It turns out that forgetting the coupon yesterday as was really good thing. Today there was a sale on the frames, 40% off, and one of the other coupons gave you an additional 25% off the sale price. Sadly the frames I wanted were all beat up so I had to get a different set but in the end I purchased frames that were normally $69.99 each for $33 each with tax. Sweet!!
The satellite dishes are fully painted thanks to a bit of help from a friend who knows more about using spray paint with stencils than I do. Now they just need some clear coat and to be mounted on their poles. While at Home Depot I had planned to buy something to mount the poles into. Eventually they will be placed into computer cases but they need to be mounted into something first. My initial plan was to just fill the cases with concrete, but there were a few issues there. Several more plans were thought of and dismissed. At the store they had concrete post blocks that were ideal, albeit heavy as all get out, as the poles fit perfectly into the pre-drilled holes. However my husband thought the weight was an issue so he's going to try and rig something using the lumber we already have. LOL. At least I know that for $25 I can run to HD on my way to school and get mounts in a pinch.
We built the branches for the tree which became an design alteration. Unfortunately for me the alteration creates a snafu on the cabling side of things. The original design called for three segments of the tree to all have a certain degree of height so my cabling is attaching to the tree assuming that the top part will be at least 12" tall. Now its only about 4" tall, which isn't enough room to attach tubing too and I didn't leave enough overhang on the trunk piece so far. Time to get creative. On the plus side, the change allows me to have longer branches.....and the tree structures is 99% done!! We just need to cut the branches down to size a bit. They will be removable for easy transport and are made of PVC. As such I have to paint them black but with the satellite dishes taking up time today I ran out of sunlight before I could finish painting branches (and pole mounts for the dishes for that matter).
I was supposed to start studying for my last midterm of the semester but I couldn't focus to save my soul. I ended up finishing the chicken wire on the tree and painting it black tonight instead. Let's all hope I remember enough about rock music in the 50's and 60's to get through this mid-term on Tuesday. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to focus a bit better. I'd hate to ruin that "A-" I have right now. :)
November 13, 2010
I went to bed without posting at my husband's behest. I think I'm getting sick so instead of working until 2am I quit about 12:30am and slept in until 9am.
I worked on the hell print most of the morning yesterday. Of course Photoshop has started crashing on me so I've had to re-do the work frequently now. I save often but it crashes on the save which isn't really helpful. I got through the heaven print without one crash. Maybe that's hell's way of saying they're aren't happy with the overall print either. (kidding!)
I went over to The Soundry for the second iteration of the spats class so I could finish my spats from the last workshop. My plan was to run over to Micheal's to grab the frames for the prints but I forgot to print the coupons before I left. Doh!
Some progress was made on the satellite dishes since the weather was gorgeous. Those are really starting to look awesome! Now I just have to buy 4 more poles to mount them one and figure out whether to use concrete or an alternative (and hopefully easier/cheaper) system my husband suggested.
I rounded out the day with work on the tree. I realized that there may not be time (or enough excess material) to add a second layer of flex tubing. This means that the chicken wire peaks through in some places which is bad. Therefore I had to first paint the chicken wire black - very slow process because I can't spray paint inside (especially in a tiny room w/hardwood floors). I did about a third of the tree and then started cabling. I finally finished a third of the three, well a third of the lower 2/3's of the three - whatever that works out to be (I hate fractions). The tubing along the cutouts for the picture frames are hell as they have to filled with electronic "kibble" (Phillip K. Dick reference). Suffice it to say there are a lot of trips up and down the stairs. The room is very tiny and it became clear quickly that I couldn't create the bundles of kibble easily in the same room so I have to create them in my studio, in the basement, and them run upstairs to install them. By 12:30am I was exhausted, in serious pain as all the awkward positions aggravate the hell out of my back problems and hoping like hell that I'm not getting sick. But the tree is starting to look good. Its too bad the pictures don't do it justice. The room is not well lit and I can't get far enough away from it to get a good pic.
On today's calender is building the top of the tree and then studying for my midterm on Tuesday.
I worked on the hell print most of the morning yesterday. Of course Photoshop has started crashing on me so I've had to re-do the work frequently now. I save often but it crashes on the save which isn't really helpful. I got through the heaven print without one crash. Maybe that's hell's way of saying they're aren't happy with the overall print either. (kidding!)
I went over to The Soundry for the second iteration of the spats class so I could finish my spats from the last workshop. My plan was to run over to Micheal's to grab the frames for the prints but I forgot to print the coupons before I left. Doh!
Some progress was made on the satellite dishes since the weather was gorgeous. Those are really starting to look awesome! Now I just have to buy 4 more poles to mount them one and figure out whether to use concrete or an alternative (and hopefully easier/cheaper) system my husband suggested.
I rounded out the day with work on the tree. I realized that there may not be time (or enough excess material) to add a second layer of flex tubing. This means that the chicken wire peaks through in some places which is bad. Therefore I had to first paint the chicken wire black - very slow process because I can't spray paint inside (especially in a tiny room w/hardwood floors). I did about a third of the tree and then started cabling. I finally finished a third of the three, well a third of the lower 2/3's of the three - whatever that works out to be (I hate fractions). The tubing along the cutouts for the picture frames are hell as they have to filled with electronic "kibble" (Phillip K. Dick reference). Suffice it to say there are a lot of trips up and down the stairs. The room is very tiny and it became clear quickly that I couldn't create the bundles of kibble easily in the same room so I have to create them in my studio, in the basement, and them run upstairs to install them. By 12:30am I was exhausted, in serious pain as all the awkward positions aggravate the hell out of my back problems and hoping like hell that I'm not getting sick. But the tree is starting to look good. Its too bad the pictures don't do it justice. The room is not well lit and I can't get far enough away from it to get a good pic.
On today's calender is building the top of the tree and then studying for my midterm on Tuesday.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Digital Hellishness
Today was one of those days that where I felt that I got absolutely nothing accomplished. Technically I did work on hell print from about 8:30am (I woke up late) until about 2pm. Then again from about 8pm until about 1am, but it doesn't look all that done. From 2pm-4pm, I had to run to Home Depot & pick up the base for USB-NA from school (I didn't want it to get lost/damaged over the weekend). When I came back home to find the proof of digital heaven arrived!!
The print looked good, but not great. It needed some adjustments so I spent the remainder of the afternoon and most of the evening making the adjustments. I think its about as ready as its going to get. I just wish my little HP printer wasn't having a snit so I could run a decent proof myself. Sadly after four years of college for digital art, the one thing I can say is that the skills I went in with have become very, very rusty and it definitely shows in the prints. On the plus side the company I've chosen to do the printing is fantastic, incredibly inexpensive and has made the decision of which paper stock to choose painfully hard. I was going to originally print on Giclee ($90 each for 24" x 36") but I'm hemorrhaging money at this point so I decided on their Luster paper for $56 each. Of course they included samples of all their stock and that Giclee is gorgeous! I keep trying to remind myself that my work isn't nice enough to warrant that kind of paper (not to mention that the frames cost about $30 with a 50% off coupon at Michaels), but damn is it nice.
In between renders and reboots between Windows & Mac on my Mac laptop, I also started the third red apple.
The plan is to work on the satellite dishes and the tree this weekend. The top of the tree hasn't been started yet, well except the platform for it. Hopefully the branch construction with go quickly. I have to make a small modification to the truck of the tree as well, which is why I didn't do any cabling today so hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow and Sunday.
The print looked good, but not great. It needed some adjustments so I spent the remainder of the afternoon and most of the evening making the adjustments. I think its about as ready as its going to get. I just wish my little HP printer wasn't having a snit so I could run a decent proof myself. Sadly after four years of college for digital art, the one thing I can say is that the skills I went in with have become very, very rusty and it definitely shows in the prints. On the plus side the company I've chosen to do the printing is fantastic, incredibly inexpensive and has made the decision of which paper stock to choose painfully hard. I was going to originally print on Giclee ($90 each for 24" x 36") but I'm hemorrhaging money at this point so I decided on their Luster paper for $56 each. Of course they included samples of all their stock and that Giclee is gorgeous! I keep trying to remind myself that my work isn't nice enough to warrant that kind of paper (not to mention that the frames cost about $30 with a 50% off coupon at Michaels), but damn is it nice.
In between renders and reboots between Windows & Mac on my Mac laptop, I also started the third red apple.
The plan is to work on the satellite dishes and the tree this weekend. The top of the tree hasn't been started yet, well except the platform for it. Hopefully the branch construction with go quickly. I have to make a small modification to the truck of the tree as well, which is why I didn't do any cabling today so hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow and Sunday.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
All Around Progress
Nov. 11, 2010: Today was all over the map. My morning was spent working on homework for another class. I have a midterm coming up next week that I'm trying not to forget about and two small assignments to finish up by, um, tomorrow evidently (now that I check *sigh*).
Digital Heaven: Tomorrow the postman should deliver the proof print for Digital Heaven, which I think I'm going to call "Heaven Doth Protest." I had the school's print studio run a laser proof today and it looked a little dark and the signs perhaps a bit too bright, but all the prints they ran looked a bit dark. Before I make adjustments I'm going to wait for the one on the actual stock paper.
USB-NA: I arrived at my sculpture class with a mission: To get USB-NA officially on the map or labeled as epic failure and move on. I didn't quite make it there yet though, but for good reason! The wood I bought for the base was a bit warped since it was technically a cast off of a 2" thick 10' long board. I bought it for around a $1.00 from Home Depot's scrap bin thinking that I could make it work somehow. I thought wrong. My professor suggested glue sheets of very nice scrap plywood that was in the studio together. I opted to do that since it allowed me to have a thicker base and a perfect square. This meant that the clamps and glue had to set overnight in the studio so I couldn't start work on the base today. I did, however, epoxy the USB connectors together in anticipation of their eventual use. Tomorrow I'm going to swing by the studio and pick it up.
Tree of Life 2.0: I used up the last of my chicken wire today but I strategically used it so that I could start cabling this evening. That went about as expected - which is to say that I assumed nothing was going to work quite as well as I hoped. One day I will find the perfect adhesive for every situation. That day has yet to arrive. I planned to use zip ties (cable ties) and construction adhesive to get the flex tubing on to the tree. After making a decent mess of things with the construction adhesive (my hands are still sticky), I realized that unless I strip the tree down to the framing and add a backer board underneath the plastic first, most of the tubing never touches the adhesive. Not that it matters much, the zip ties work just fine. The tree is definitely taking on the "giant-node-of-the-mega-data-center-at-center-of-the-universe" look now - or "tree" if you happen to be a very primitive human who has no concept of other. The picture cuts off the roots (the room is very small and I'm standing with my back against the wall in the hallway to take the photo), they extend 6' from the tree. There will be 5 root bundles and 5 branches.
I also painted the inside of the framing where digital frames sit black. There is a wee bit of wiggle room in the compartments and while I will be bracing the frames in place there is always potential for things to shift and I didn't want it to be noticeable if it did. I had to stop for the night as my husband wanted to go to sleep. The light (and noise) would keep him up so I'm downstairs now.
On an amusing note, my cat Gigabyte apparently believes I have built him a 6 foot tall tree house. I have three cats, Misty, Loki and Gigabyte, I think its ironic that Gigabyte adopted this particular structure :)
You can see the mass of roots in this shot as I bent them back into the room for the night.
Digital Hell: I'm going to attempt to make some progress on digital hell for the remainder of the evening. Wish me luck!
Digital Heaven: Tomorrow the postman should deliver the proof print for Digital Heaven, which I think I'm going to call "Heaven Doth Protest." I had the school's print studio run a laser proof today and it looked a little dark and the signs perhaps a bit too bright, but all the prints they ran looked a bit dark. Before I make adjustments I'm going to wait for the one on the actual stock paper.
USB-NA: I arrived at my sculpture class with a mission: To get USB-NA officially on the map or labeled as epic failure and move on. I didn't quite make it there yet though, but for good reason! The wood I bought for the base was a bit warped since it was technically a cast off of a 2" thick 10' long board. I bought it for around a $1.00 from Home Depot's scrap bin thinking that I could make it work somehow. I thought wrong. My professor suggested glue sheets of very nice scrap plywood that was in the studio together. I opted to do that since it allowed me to have a thicker base and a perfect square. This meant that the clamps and glue had to set overnight in the studio so I couldn't start work on the base today. I did, however, epoxy the USB connectors together in anticipation of their eventual use. Tomorrow I'm going to swing by the studio and pick it up.
Tree of Life 2.0: I used up the last of my chicken wire today but I strategically used it so that I could start cabling this evening. That went about as expected - which is to say that I assumed nothing was going to work quite as well as I hoped. One day I will find the perfect adhesive for every situation. That day has yet to arrive. I planned to use zip ties (cable ties) and construction adhesive to get the flex tubing on to the tree. After making a decent mess of things with the construction adhesive (my hands are still sticky), I realized that unless I strip the tree down to the framing and add a backer board underneath the plastic first, most of the tubing never touches the adhesive. Not that it matters much, the zip ties work just fine. The tree is definitely taking on the "giant-node-of-the-mega-data-center-at-center-of-the-universe" look now - or "tree" if you happen to be a very primitive human who has no concept of other. The picture cuts off the roots (the room is very small and I'm standing with my back against the wall in the hallway to take the photo), they extend 6' from the tree. There will be 5 root bundles and 5 branches.
I also painted the inside of the framing where digital frames sit black. There is a wee bit of wiggle room in the compartments and while I will be bracing the frames in place there is always potential for things to shift and I didn't want it to be noticeable if it did. I had to stop for the night as my husband wanted to go to sleep. The light (and noise) would keep him up so I'm downstairs now.
On an amusing note, my cat Gigabyte apparently believes I have built him a 6 foot tall tree house. I have three cats, Misty, Loki and Gigabyte, I think its ironic that Gigabyte adopted this particular structure :)
You can see the mass of roots in this shot as I bent them back into the room for the night.
Digital Hell: I'm going to attempt to make some progress on digital hell for the remainder of the evening. Wish me luck!
USB-NA & Digital Hell
Nov. 10, 2010: ok, I realize that its 3am on Nov. 11 but technically this is an update for what I did on the 10th. I just haven't made it to bed yet. Most of my day was spent uninstalling the Ofrenda show at the Torpedo Factory, packing & shipping the sold piece, & meeting with my adviser at school. Necessary errands but time consuming.
USB-NA: All of my USB extension cable arrived today so I was able to start drilling into the copper sections that will make up the sides of the USB molecule. I didn't want to drill earlier since USB cables can vary quite a bit in size. If I drilled the holes the wrong size it could have been bad. I'm about a third of the way done with drilling holes. Tomorrow with I get to the sculpture studio I'm going to use the drill press to bore the holes into the board that I'm using as the stand for the piece. I don't have anything that can cut a 1/2" hole myself or I would have don't that tonight so I could have painted the board already.
Digital Hell: Overall I'm still having issues selecting a background. I've sunk a ton of money into props and sets for Daz and Poser but nothing seems to have the right look or proportions or feel - there's always something off once I get the models loaded. The set I bought today I'm going to make work as I'm rapidly running out of money. I spent way too much time obsessing over the background issue today rather than just rendering demons. Once I started that I then got caught up in obsessing over stupid little things like missing costume files and getting it stuck in my head that I had to find them right now. All in all I didn't really get as much done today as I wanted or needed to. Here's one of the 4 usable renders I did manage to get done today:
There are about 4 weeks left until install. Panic mode is setting in. Its probably best not to talk to me unless you absolutely have to unless, for your own safety.
USB-NA: All of my USB extension cable arrived today so I was able to start drilling into the copper sections that will make up the sides of the USB molecule. I didn't want to drill earlier since USB cables can vary quite a bit in size. If I drilled the holes the wrong size it could have been bad. I'm about a third of the way done with drilling holes. Tomorrow with I get to the sculpture studio I'm going to use the drill press to bore the holes into the board that I'm using as the stand for the piece. I don't have anything that can cut a 1/2" hole myself or I would have don't that tonight so I could have painted the board already.
Digital Hell: Overall I'm still having issues selecting a background. I've sunk a ton of money into props and sets for Daz and Poser but nothing seems to have the right look or proportions or feel - there's always something off once I get the models loaded. The set I bought today I'm going to make work as I'm rapidly running out of money. I spent way too much time obsessing over the background issue today rather than just rendering demons. Once I started that I then got caught up in obsessing over stupid little things like missing costume files and getting it stuck in my head that I had to find them right now. All in all I didn't really get as much done today as I wanted or needed to. Here's one of the 4 usable renders I did manage to get done today:
There are about 4 weeks left until install. Panic mode is setting in. Its probably best not to talk to me unless you absolutely have to unless, for your own safety.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Tree of Life Continues & Other Updates
Today's major accomplishments: tree of life progress, heaven print completion & two more satellite dishes primed & painted. Oh, yeah, I totally skipped class to get it done.
First up, Tree of Life. First, I finished framing out the areas where the digital frames will be mounted. Then I wrapped the entire trunk in black plastic. Finally I began to wrap the trunk in chicken wire. This the final step before the cabling finally begins. I decided to officially "test out" one of the digital frames in place. This lead to "testing" all three digital frames. Of course I hadn't converted the text for the main frame to .jpg format so I had to that first. They really look good in place. I'm glad I went with the larger frames.
I was standing on a step ladder to take these photos.
The last two satellite dishes were primed and painted today. I'm going to use the remainder of the plastic from the tree to line the computer cases so I can fill the with concrete and set the posts for the dishes in them. So much work, so little time.
I went to bed at 2am and got up at 7am, but I finished the Heaven print. Yeah! I nixed the book burning scene but perhaps that will make it into a later edition. The flames just weren't working very well and time is short. I re-did a few of the angel renders, adjusted my background and viola! Not necessarily my finest work admittedly but it gets the point across. Considering I haven't actually done any digital work in 2 years I'll live with it for now. I sent off a tiny version to the printer for a proof before I send the full size one since I've never used them before.
Now on to hell. I finally have a good idea for that. I've decided to simply do a counter-rally. Something along the lines of John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, just with more snark.
I'm now adjusting my schedule to a regular 2am to sleep, 7am to rise until the project is finished or until I drop.
Tomorrow the USB cables for USB-NA should arrive (according the UPS). Once they do I can finally make some progress on that too. Or fail epically.
First up, Tree of Life. First, I finished framing out the areas where the digital frames will be mounted. Then I wrapped the entire trunk in black plastic. Finally I began to wrap the trunk in chicken wire. This the final step before the cabling finally begins. I decided to officially "test out" one of the digital frames in place. This lead to "testing" all three digital frames. Of course I hadn't converted the text for the main frame to .jpg format so I had to that first. They really look good in place. I'm glad I went with the larger frames.
 |
| The Sin Frame |
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| The Salvation Frame |
I was standing on a step ladder to take these photos.
The last two satellite dishes were primed and painted today. I'm going to use the remainder of the plastic from the tree to line the computer cases so I can fill the with concrete and set the posts for the dishes in them. So much work, so little time.
I went to bed at 2am and got up at 7am, but I finished the Heaven print. Yeah! I nixed the book burning scene but perhaps that will make it into a later edition. The flames just weren't working very well and time is short. I re-did a few of the angel renders, adjusted my background and viola! Not necessarily my finest work admittedly but it gets the point across. Considering I haven't actually done any digital work in 2 years I'll live with it for now. I sent off a tiny version to the printer for a proof before I send the full size one since I've never used them before.
Now on to hell. I finally have a good idea for that. I've decided to simply do a counter-rally. Something along the lines of John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, just with more snark.
I'm now adjusting my schedule to a regular 2am to sleep, 7am to rise until the project is finished or until I drop.
Tomorrow the USB cables for USB-NA should arrive (according the UPS). Once they do I can finally make some progress on that too. Or fail epically.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Tree of Life Yet Again & Digital Heaven
Another day of work has been completed on the tree. Yeah! Today we made significant progress on the trunk of the tree. The only think left is for me to put in the framing for the digital frames. Here's the progress of the day, step by step:
I've decided to cover the tree in black plastic. On top of which will be laid chicken wire. The cabling will be attached to that - in theory, technically I haven't worked out that part quite yet. I'm thinking there will be zip ties and construction adhesive involved. The plastic will serve to keep any gaps in the cabling from being too noticeable.
DIGITAL HEAVEN
I've been working on a dry run of the digital print. I have to show measurable progress by tomorrow at 4pm. hahahahaha. It isn't that bad actually. I put all the renders I had done together into one file last night and early this morning. I have a lot of background renders to do, re-do, and adjustments to make. Not all of the angels have wings yet - or signs. There is supposed to be a book burning (that's what the cherub(s) will be doing). All in all, there's still a lot of work to do. My goal is 100% completion by Friday. I have no classes Monday or Wednesday (save a brief meeting on Monday) so I should be able to pull this off unless I get distracted by the tree. Here's a teeny tiny preview. This will be the last one of the digital print previews before the show.
Note to self: Any time husband says "one box of screws will be enough," buy three, at least.
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| Step One: the vertical supports were put in place. This section now stands a little over 5 feet tall. |
Step Two: the trunk and base are secured to each other. It is now inside my house where it is significantly warmer to work!
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| Step Three: Preparation for cabling. |
I've decided to cover the tree in black plastic. On top of which will be laid chicken wire. The cabling will be attached to that - in theory, technically I haven't worked out that part quite yet. I'm thinking there will be zip ties and construction adhesive involved. The plastic will serve to keep any gaps in the cabling from being too noticeable.
DIGITAL HEAVEN
I've been working on a dry run of the digital print. I have to show measurable progress by tomorrow at 4pm. hahahahaha. It isn't that bad actually. I put all the renders I had done together into one file last night and early this morning. I have a lot of background renders to do, re-do, and adjustments to make. Not all of the angels have wings yet - or signs. There is supposed to be a book burning (that's what the cherub(s) will be doing). All in all, there's still a lot of work to do. My goal is 100% completion by Friday. I have no classes Monday or Wednesday (save a brief meeting on Monday) so I should be able to pull this off unless I get distracted by the tree. Here's a teeny tiny preview. This will be the last one of the digital print previews before the show.
 |
| WORK IN PROGRESS |
Note to self: Any time husband says "one box of screws will be enough," buy three, at least.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Tree of Life, Satellite Dishes & Digital Hell
So much work, so little time :)
Today we made some more progress on the Tree of Life! The base piece is finally finished. Tomorrow we move on to the trunk (as long as health problems don't interfere). Here were the stages:
The Satellite Dishes, at least the first three, were cleaned today. I also was contacted by the person who has the other two. It seems I completely flaked out on those somewhere along the line. (sorry!!!) I'm picking those two up tomorrow morning. In the meantime I primed and painted the two smaller dishes.
They are still wet in this picture. I'm going to buy large dowel rods to mount them on. Then they will be placed in old, empty computer cases filled with concrete. Once it sets, I'll overlay computer cabling and components over the top to cover the concrete.
This satellite dish is significantly larger than the others. It was one of the ones I received through Freecycle.org.
Digital Hell: I should have problem explained my odd comment about "what hell wants." In my attempt to try and figure out what what to do with that print I tried to imagine that Hell and its denizens had hired me - in a graphic designer / client type of sense. Think of it as a role playing exercise. Unfortunately it only made my problem worse as the design idea I came up with was beyond my ability and budget. Figures.
Today we made some more progress on the Tree of Life! The base piece is finally finished. Tomorrow we move on to the trunk (as long as health problems don't interfere). Here were the stages:
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| The work begins on the base (it is in the rear of the shot) |
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| Phase 2 of the base construction is complete! |
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| The completed base. It is strong enough for me to jump on. |
The Satellite Dishes, at least the first three, were cleaned today. I also was contacted by the person who has the other two. It seems I completely flaked out on those somewhere along the line. (sorry!!!) I'm picking those two up tomorrow morning. In the meantime I primed and painted the two smaller dishes.
Digital Hell: I should have problem explained my odd comment about "what hell wants." In my attempt to try and figure out what what to do with that print I tried to imagine that Hell and its denizens had hired me - in a graphic designer / client type of sense. Think of it as a role playing exercise. Unfortunately it only made my problem worse as the design idea I came up with was beyond my ability and budget. Figures.
Friday, November 5, 2010
3 Little "Apples" & Updates All Around
Here are the first 3 apples, almost fully complete:
The copper apple needs a bit of work yet. I finally decided to make due with the lower grade copper cable I can buy at Home Depot. I had been using 18AWG 16 strand copper cable from American Science Surplus that I bought 2 years ago. I finally ran out but so did they. Home Depot has "lamp wire" which has fewer strands which are thicker and thus a bit harder to work with. After many internet searches I finally just gave up on finding bare copper wire to match what I had before. Visually it is very difficult to notice on the copper apple as it didn't get all that much of the old stuff. However the difference in the copper is very noticeable when the two red apples sit so close to each other. A bit of variation isn't a bad thing and they'll be hanging far enough apart that most viewers won't notice it.
The copper "roots" at the bottom of the apples will hang downward when the apples are in place. I realize it looks a bit funny in the picture but I don't have the ability to hang the apples yet so they have to sit.
Render Update: I've made progress on my renders for the heaven print. I've scrapped the troublesome lights and decided to use the default lights. They aren't as pretty but since I learned exactly nothing in school when it comes to, well, anything related to digital art (primarily because the lessons were so elementary that I already knew what little they taught walking through the door), that I just have to live with it. There only 5 weeks left until install so I don't have any more time too loose on trying to figure out how to use the fancy lights. I have no idea what to do for digital hell. Technically that's not true. I know what hell wants me to do for their print but unless they pony up the money and the mad skillz, hell isn't getting what it wants. After I get the mock up of heaven done this weekend I get to delve into the mythology of hell (again - I'm well versed actually http://www.whiterosesgarden.com/) to see if some non-moving 2D imagery stands out.
Tree Update: The horizontal structures are about 90% complete. My husband and I will finish up the entire wooden structure this weekend. Then cabling begins. I have no classes on Monday or Wednesday of this coming week which helps.
Slide Shows Update: The slide shows for the three digital frames are coming along nicely. I've been working on these during my music class. I just need to start accumulating facts about how humanity is destroying itself: overpopulation statistics, global warming statistics, ecological destruction facts, etc. If you have some good ones (which source info) please pass it along!
USB-NA: Oh, boy, this one has been really a pain! I'm still not sure it will make it into the show. One of the sculpture professors has been a god-send on this. I think I may have a good solution thanks to Ben in sculpture and my good friend Dana. Yeah! I'll post pics of that soon.
Satellites: I apparently lost 2 of these somewhere. I swear I had 5 but I realized that i only possess 3. I'm not sure how that happened. I think I may have forgotten to pick two up somewhere along the line but for the life of me I can't remember from who /what/where. ?? For now though, a wonderful artist has stepped forward to spray paint the lettering on them for me once I do some touch up work on the one. Then I have to mount them on poles and place them in concrete filled PC cases. Whee!
5 weeks left, lets see if my sanity lasts. I'm thinking no. In fact, I'm pretty sure I wasn't sane to begin with.
The copper apple needs a bit of work yet. I finally decided to make due with the lower grade copper cable I can buy at Home Depot. I had been using 18AWG 16 strand copper cable from American Science Surplus that I bought 2 years ago. I finally ran out but so did they. Home Depot has "lamp wire" which has fewer strands which are thicker and thus a bit harder to work with. After many internet searches I finally just gave up on finding bare copper wire to match what I had before. Visually it is very difficult to notice on the copper apple as it didn't get all that much of the old stuff. However the difference in the copper is very noticeable when the two red apples sit so close to each other. A bit of variation isn't a bad thing and they'll be hanging far enough apart that most viewers won't notice it.
The copper "roots" at the bottom of the apples will hang downward when the apples are in place. I realize it looks a bit funny in the picture but I don't have the ability to hang the apples yet so they have to sit.
Render Update: I've made progress on my renders for the heaven print. I've scrapped the troublesome lights and decided to use the default lights. They aren't as pretty but since I learned exactly nothing in school when it comes to, well, anything related to digital art (primarily because the lessons were so elementary that I already knew what little they taught walking through the door), that I just have to live with it. There only 5 weeks left until install so I don't have any more time too loose on trying to figure out how to use the fancy lights. I have no idea what to do for digital hell. Technically that's not true. I know what hell wants me to do for their print but unless they pony up the money and the mad skillz, hell isn't getting what it wants. After I get the mock up of heaven done this weekend I get to delve into the mythology of hell (again - I'm well versed actually http://www.whiterosesgarden.com/) to see if some non-moving 2D imagery stands out.
Tree Update: The horizontal structures are about 90% complete. My husband and I will finish up the entire wooden structure this weekend. Then cabling begins. I have no classes on Monday or Wednesday of this coming week which helps.
Slide Shows Update: The slide shows for the three digital frames are coming along nicely. I've been working on these during my music class. I just need to start accumulating facts about how humanity is destroying itself: overpopulation statistics, global warming statistics, ecological destruction facts, etc. If you have some good ones (which source info) please pass it along!
USB-NA: Oh, boy, this one has been really a pain! I'm still not sure it will make it into the show. One of the sculpture professors has been a god-send on this. I think I may have a good solution thanks to Ben in sculpture and my good friend Dana. Yeah! I'll post pics of that soon.
Satellites: I apparently lost 2 of these somewhere. I swear I had 5 but I realized that i only possess 3. I'm not sure how that happened. I think I may have forgotten to pick two up somewhere along the line but for the life of me I can't remember from who /what/where. ?? For now though, a wonderful artist has stepped forward to spray paint the lettering on them for me once I do some touch up work on the one. Then I have to mount them on poles and place them in concrete filled PC cases. Whee!
5 weeks left, lets see if my sanity lasts. I'm thinking no. In fact, I'm pretty sure I wasn't sane to begin with.
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