big octopus

big octopus

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

(even more) FACES

Plastic tag face!
This purse watches you spend your money foolishly, . . and quietly judges you
The R.F Scanners that we use at work have an alien face on them!
One of my neighbors has an old mail carriers bin for trash and outside detritus
and it has a great face on it



Kelly's Dog Mack, left me a slobbery smiley face on the window



The profile of a frame, . . that's also a dinosaur!!



Clip faces!!!



My Leatherman's have personality

Surprised SideClip face!



Super Tool 300 Smiley Face



My Leatherman Crunch is very expressive, . .
and also a bird!



Fillet cutter face
(you have to be a framer to get this one I guess, but it kinda looks like a pelican or fish thing to me)
*A thank you to Rich Godshall of "Off the Wall Framing" for the this nifty tool*



Tupperware Faces!
(my co-worker Laura's Tupperware containers have personality)





A hidden face in my bathroom blinds, he watches you poop and judges you



He eats your dollars and gives sodas in return



A classic



He chews on your papers & documents



Stringbean mouth!



While at the Verizon store I noticed this!



Staple mouth with screw eyes



Whatta grill he's got

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

ARTIST RANT

(I feel a rambling rant coming on, . . as a result of way too much time & coffee)

Sometimes it feels like being an artist is kinda pointless.
I am not calling myself an artist. But by the loose definition that I've seen for the term "Artist" I actually am.
As are most people in one way or another

**Makes me think of a quote from the Incredibles movie.

"Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super, . . .
no one will be"
-Syndrome

Here is Free Dictionary.com's definition

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/artist
art·ist (ärtst)
n.
1. One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts.
2. A person whose work shows exceptional creative ability or skill: You are an artist in the kitchen.
3. One, such as an actor or singer, who works in the performing arts.
4. One who is adept at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit:
a con artist.


First off, I have a loathing for these self proclaimed artists

I'm an "A-R-H-T-I-H-S-T" the "H" are added in there to emphasize just annoying these idiots can be.
These are also the same morons who use terms like:
"matchy-matchy" **HATE THESE PEOPLE**
people who add "ie" & "y" to the end of words as a way to convey color descriptions.
ie: Beigey, Lemonee, Beachy, terra cotta-ee

And sometimes, just sometimes these same people will "mask" off a visual portion of something with their hands. Their index finger & thumb shaped in an "L" and with these "L"s they will make a "Frame" or "Box"! They will then hold this idiotic thumb & finger box in the air in front of an object to block out something visual
Pressumably these people have seen a designer / artist / framer do this and want to appear knowledgeable in what they are talking about, and will repeat the action so as to not look stupid in front of the likes of me?!
But doing so just makes them look like pretentious idiots

Anyway getting back to what I was saying: It just feels like being an artist, self proclaimed or otherwise is just a waste of time. I'm not saying that being artistic is a waste of time. Being artistic / creative is so engrained in who I am, I don't think I'd know how to not be that way even If I wanted to. I try and do atleast one (if not more) creative thing a day not work related to keep my mind happy..
The best way I can think to describe what I mean is by this analogy:

If the worlds oceans were representative of art, sculpture, song, music & creativity then what good would it do me to add my humble glass of "water" to the mix?
How would it get noticed?

This vast creative, artistic ocean is flooded, congested with crap from those self proclaimed ARHTIHST!
I actually have nothing against people who refer to themselves as artist. It's just the pretentious idiots that I've had the misfortune of encountering, and still encounter everyday kinda sour the the term artist for me
*Some of that is legitimate jealousy of those people. Not jealous of their skills, just jealous that they were able to peddle their wears and got noticed* What makes them special, more so than me? Nothing except blind stinking luck. I'm sure hardwork and skill were involved. But I have skill, and I work hard* The only thing left is the luck factor. Luck plays an important part of life. Those of you who don't believe in luck, may just call it by another name. Destiny, Karma, dress is up anyway you'd like: sometimes shit happens to people that don't deserve it. Undeserving people get breaks and ususally run with them. People deserving of breaks (in my experience) seldom get theirs. Que sera I guess

Does the breath escaping your chest make a appreciable difference
to the air in the room?
No it doesn't, . .

but that air,
my air,
is important to me.
And I guess in the end, that's all that matters . . .

If greatness, is unseen or unheard of, Is it still great?
Is an amazing work of art, sealed away in a dark room, still amazing? But no one will know if it locked away. A delicious delicacy that no one ever tastes? It is still delicious?
It's very much the tree in the forest argument,.....
Sure, if a tree falls in the forest it does make a noise,...
but who wants to be a fallen tree on the floor of the forest?


*A funny note to any who read this, I just read this aloud to my beautiful, very talented artistic girl friend Kelly. Kelly was nice enough to humor me and listen to my rantings while she is doing her work. She asked a simple question at the end of listening "Where is this written?" she says while looking at from over her laptop across the room on the futon where she is cozied in with her dog Mack

I answered: "My blog, . . . ya know the one that no one reads"
Soon as I press the "publish post" this'll be another glass of water to make a tiny, unnoticeable splash in the ocean" . . . oh well here's hoping for flood water
Now i want to listen to Perfect Circle :/

**So on interesting side note, my comments on another public media forum did get noticed. Just not in a good way. So apparently my seemingly tiny splashes, got in someones eye, . .and it stung. That was not my intent *sigh*
what's that about the road to hell, . . oh yeah, . . best intentions *sigh*

Monday, February 20, 2012

Cork Screw

* A work in progress *

So I've had a broken corkscrew sitting in my utensil drawer for sometime now.
I decided to make a handle for it. The handle is a cut down chunk of a walking stick I made for Kelly-( I may post a pic. in the future) The stick was a bit too long I cut a small amount off and it was the perfect size for this handle.
I am staining the handle a little bit at a time with wine from different bottles, when it reaches the proper color-( I have no idea what that color is) I will finish it with a thick coating of lacquer. Maybe put some antique upolstry tacks/nail in the ends of the handle





Thursday, February 16, 2012

DISCLAIMER

This is a disclaimer to any Watch-Dog, Big-Brother types, who may misconstrue the content of this blog-(which is grand scale hubris on my part, 'cuz I don't think anybody, aside from a select few kind people read this little Narcissistic E-Shrine & rantings of mine) But IF anyone is interested here goes:

ALL of the materials used in my creative works and sculptures were purchased & paid for from stores and or websites that sell such products. If not purchased or paid for from stores and or websites that sell such things, said items and materials were reclaimed, repurposed, and or reused items and materials from the trash.
The "trash" in questions was taken with permission from it's source of origin, or from a legitimate area designated for trash.
*Designated areas include: Dumpsters, Side of the road, etc,...

Thank you

John



P.S. Oh and anybody who has a problem with me or my methods can go fuck themselves

Abstract Free Form Sculpture

Repetitive shapes make for great looking sculpture!
These are metal hanging plates that are used where I work.
They (unintentionally) fit into each other a couple of ways at odd angles.







I used a nail set into a several layers of scrap foamcore to act a pivot point, the metal plates, nest very nicely together

Kinda looks like a Metal sea shell





Kinda looks like a bad-ass cybernetic Pacman



Looks kinda like a snowflake!







Eye see you!



*Disclaimer, work materials were borrowed for these pictures.
Nothing permanent was done to any of the materials. All pieces were undamaged &
left intact. And the foamcore was scrap from the trash*

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Driftwood Walking Stick

While on a pseudo vacation in Maui, I found a 15 feet long piece of driftwood. This was prior to me carrying a Leatherman, so trying to size down this massive piece of beach detritus was an undertaking. So I did what any smart man would do. I tried to cut through it with a Spyderco pocket knife-( yes this was way before 9/11 when you could carry a knife on a plane) I snapped the tip of the blade off of it in the first 30 seconds of attempting,..

so,. .

undaunted, . .

I backed the car over a portion of it and hulked up on it and snapped that bitch like it ain't no thing!!
*It actually was quite a pain in the ass!*
But I got it done! Like a fuckin' boss!
Once I got back to the hotel I borrowed-(had brought up) a hand saw from the concierge desk! and sized it down properly
Flash forward to when I got home. For symbolic reasons i used the Spyerco (with the broken tip) to free-hand carve the designs. And I added some leather cording for effect







(Even more) Fauxtography

Boredom + Camera = Mediocre photos


Sunlight pouring through the peephole in my front door
hee hee hee, . . . peephole



The blinds in my kitchen window



Sunflare through spy portal in my front door



A mini beer pitcher, refracting sunlight on my counter top



While on a walk with Kelly & Mack! Looks like the beach



On the way home from work, the sun was especially awesome in the sky




Backyard pics!











A very big Heron that frequents my backyard

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Cork Hand

Apparently I like sculpting hands & arms,. . and I like drinking wine,
and who doesn't like wine? . . . . Nazi's that's who
I started collecting corks from finished bottles of wine some time ago. Friends of mine have also been nice enough to foster my addiction to cork hoarding. I have quite a stash of them.
I guess you could say I'm a P.R.O.U.S. -(Pack Rat Of Usual Size!)
*Those of you that appreciate that bastardized reference, . .

are, . . .

AWESOME!

Anyway, I thought corks would make for interesting sculpting material. Repetitve shapes are of interest to me! A.T.G Spools? (If anyone is actually reading this, which I doubt :/ check out an earlier entry where I made a hand/forearm outta empty plastic spools)

Enough rambling.

Check it out