artwork - resonanteye

naked mole rat process round two!

19th of May 2012

In artwork, how-to, other media, pictures, step by step,

I woke up this morning with absolutely no knowledge about casts, molds, or anything

like that.

I had a stoneclay nakedmolerat, and a dream.
I also got: pam cooking spray, sculptamold, a jug of water, the oven on at 250 degrees, a fan, and the mole rat.I got: silicone caulk, glycerin, acrylic paint, a plastic spoon, a few bowls.

I also got aluminum foil, a towel to scrub my hands off, and a few extra things to scrape and mix with.

I mixed a bit of glycerin with a squirt of acrylic paint in a bowl, then added a TON of the silicone. I mixed it til it was consistent throughout, then sprayed my hands with pam and got them greasy, then I picked up the entire lump of silicone, and wrapped the mole rat in it, about 1/2″ thick.

I also made a silicone mold of a monkey face toy, a cat and dog and rabbit face toy, all which happened to be 0n the table I was working next to.

the silicone set FAST. like, within twenty minutes it was solid. I cut a slit slong the back, and pulled out the mole rat.

it had made a perfect mold of him!

I mixed up sculptamold. the package says one-to-one with water, but that was too wet. I just kneaded enough water into it for it to be like dough. and then pressed it into the mold of the mole rat, filling it completely.

I let it stand for a bit, then put it into the oven at 200 degrees.

when I pulled it out, it came out of the mold easily…

the mole rats I made this way are very rough, the surfaces are really bumpy and uneven. I might sand them down a little bit tomorrow.

I’ve begun painting the smoother ones and the original I’d made the mold from. Part three of this epic project saga will be online late tomorrow night.

I made a birdy friend.

12th of May 2012

In artwork, personal, pictures,

I hung out a cheap, dollar-store hummingbird feeder yesterday.
My drawing table faces out of one of the big windows, so I figured I’d put the feeder hung there by a string tucked into the window. The feeder is right in front of me while I’m drawing, about a foot from me, on the other side of the glass. I kind of thought no bird would come to it- mainly because I am sitting right next to it cursing and breaking pencils- or at least it would take a while for a bird to find it.

I hung it up, and sat down to draw. Halfway through the first sketch a fast movement caught my eye- A BIRD HAD ALREADY ARRIVED. So tiny, it drank and then sat down. It looked at me a few times but seemed not to mind me.

This bird, and another like it, came to the feeder all day, off and on. About every half-hour they’d come back and guzzle then take off again. I got out my camera and got a few pictures of them.

And that is why I was distracted all day and only got half the drawing done I’d planned on.

online selling, etsy, ethics.

25th of April 2012

In artwork, clients, complaints, deep thoughts, DIY, dos and donts, ethics, how-to, interview with the artist, pictures, politics, posts with links in them, tech, true stories, wtc 9/11 einstruzende neubauten artistic poetic terrori, you,

Update: people are beginning to migrate from the (myspace )I mean – etsy. Here is a page attempting to list their new shops and venues. And other are protesting it all.

The place has always had resellers; people breaking the rules to pass off mass-produced stuff as handmade.
There’s a lot of money to be had from people who want to NOT support corporations, who want to buy local, handmade stuff. A lot of people don’t like buying things that were made for pennies by slave labor. Lots of companies know that, and will lie about how their stuff was made, to get that dollar.

The people who produce things with slave labor want that dollar, too.

“Former eBay and PayPal executive Stephanie Tilenius has joined the Board of Directors of Etsy, joining Etsy founder Rob Kalin, FlickR’s Caterina Fake, Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, and Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer (also on Walmart.com.’s board) on the board. Tilenius left eBay last year and now heads Google’s commerce division.”

So they invaded etsy (and a few other places) and have been trying for a while now to find ways to successfully sell to people who don’t want to buy from them. Recently, an attempt to pass off furniture built in Bali as “handmade in CA” was busted. The thing is- etsy isn’t supposed to be a place to buy factory-made goods being resold. Its own mission statement says that buying direct from people who are making things by hand, not in factories, is the point.

I signed up there because of that but now…well, the fact that when confronted with a (GIANT SHITPILE OF) evidence, including an email from the man who actually makes the furniture, that the stuff is not produced in CA, and that the original seller is a fraud, etsy chose not to apologize, not to admit fault and remove the seller—but to close discussions about it and deny. (note- the fraudulent seller? is not only still open, but still in their list of “featured sellers”)
So, I’m in the process of migrating. (check out my home page– new links to my stuff for now! All my rocks, sticks, logs, and moss will stay on etsy- but anything I made, art, paintings and stuff- originals- has been moved. still debating whether to keep my prints there or not, my “production work”)

(more…)

grey fox, antler, and roses

18th of March 2012

In artwork, caveman art, morbid art, other media, pictures, taxidermy,

what I ended up working with today. I’ll post the sasquatch tomorrow- he isn’t done yet.

photography

15th of March 2012

In artwork, photography, pictures, prints,

I’ve been taking pictures for a very long time. I finally am putting together a shop to sell prints- after all this time.

I guess photography has always been something I do for myself, and I’ve always been amazed when someone wants a print of something I’ve taken. So I figure it’s probably time to list them somewhere.

I’ll be posting new things for the next few days here at the photography shop, if you’ve been after one of my photographs, that’s where they’ll be.

birthday!

4th of March 2012

In artwork, love, personal, pictures,

I am having an amazing birthday time!

(I made this happy flamingo art yesterday. it’s prismacolor and watercolor on arches hotpress.)

sketching out and beginning a skull mount.

3rd of March 2012

In art, artwork, caveman art, morbid art, other media, pictures, taxidermy,

sketching it out, deciding what materials to include.

laying out the structure

a few pictures of the process.

the workspace

1st of March 2012

In artwork, interview with the artist, morbid art, oregon living, pictures,

Just a few shots of my processing area for skulls and bones and such.

I’ll be hanging more of my art tomorrow, (landscapes this time, and canvasses) at Jameson’s … they will be up all month!

My skull mounts are still on display at the Oak St Speakeasy until the end of March, and my colored pencil art is hanging at the Museum of Unfine Art until then too. I’m all over Eugene this month!