Zaftig Cat Girl

MTAC

2009-04-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Pics from all three days. I somehow didn't take nearly as many as I did at ConNooga. I actually ended up in one! How did that happen? Also: I need to do an analysis of these pics along with those from connooga. Despite being radically different conventions, they have some very interesting similarities in terms of what people choose to wear. I don't mean just being in costume but how and what they choose as costumes.

Learning To Love You More Assignment #43

2009-03-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Make an exhibition of art in you parent's house.

Here we go...

This clock used to hang in the eating area of the kitchen, now it's above the kitchen sink. I keep changing my mind about it. Sometimes it looks ugly or silly and sometimes it's cute and fun. Now it's mostly nostalgic.

My Dad loves MC Escher. We have a couple more prints of his work, but this is the one that's always been around. I could stare it for hours when I was younger, trying to figure out how I could do that.

Poster of a Matisse collage. It used to be in the Guest room in Michigan, then in my bedroom for a few years. I loved how it was the brightest craziest thing in the whole house.

There used to be two of these. I don't remember who made it. I do remember it used to look like just blobs and took me years to finally see the bull, then the horse and it's rider.

This is a page of actual dollar bills. My parents got it someitme before I was born. I used to count all the bills to make sure the number hadn't changed.

My Parent's Ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) used to hang in the living room, but now hangs in their bedroom next to their wedding photo. Until I knew it was their ketubah, I thought it was the worst piece of art in the entire house. It's a shame the ink has faded so much. The first picture is a close-up on their hebrew names and the signatures, one of the only parts of it still easily readable.

This is another poster, I think. It's always hung in the downstairs bathroom, in Michigan, we even painted the bathroom in colors that complimented it. The walls were much more interesting than the art they were supposed to compliment.

This is a needlepoint sample piece my mom made that used to hang on the wall by the stairs,. Mom used to do a lot of needlepoint work, but eventually got too busy with 'real work'. I used to think it was really ugly, but now it's really nostalgic.

The two Ansel Adams posters used to look boring to me, but now I really appreciatte them from an aesthetic point of view.

This one used to hang in the living room right next to my parent's Ketubah. It took me years to realize it was flowers in a vase, not some fantastic creature.

Out of all the posters in the house from museums and things my parent's saw before i was born, this is the one I remember most. I think this what inspired me to go through my hat phase in preschool. I wore hats everywhere and my favorite on looked like the hat on the statue in this poster.

This is a poster from an opera, I think, I used to stare at it for hours on end trying to figure it out.

It's a fuzzy dreamcatcher! Honestly, I still don't know what it is, but it always goes on the living room wall.

The next two pictures are wall hangings that are part f a set of three, the third hasn't been around since I was a kid, so it doesn't go in the exhibit even though it's huge and awesome.

These baskets match the wall hangings and fuzzy dreamcatcher and go on the mantle over the fireplace, they feel like they go together so much, I never think of them separately.

learning to love you more assignment #33

2009-03-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Braid Someone's Hair.

I wasn't intending to do this assignment. Then I noticed how much fun it would be to braid Lizzy's hair. It's so long...

Chag Purim

2009-03-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

There's this Jewish holiday called Purim that's infinitely more awesome than Hanukkah. It's like Halloween, only the treats are delivered to you by friends and family and neighbors and people who think they owe you something (It's called Mishloach Manot). It's also like Mardi Gras because we're supposed to dress up and party/feast. Unfortunately, Purim has gotten less and less party-like over the years because everyone makes a big deal out of Hanukkah even though it's not technically even a Holiday (as in Holy Day since it's about as Holy fourth of July).

Purim used to be one of my favorite holidays. We used to make Hamentashen (the traditional traingular pastry things) and put effort into our costumes. This year, I didn't know when it was until the day before. We bought Hamentashen from the Synagogue instead of making our own. We threw together our costumes out of random things around the house and things I use for convention outfits. And the worst part was, we were still the most enthusiastic group in the entire synagogue. Seriously, they used the smaller (though prettier) chapel instead of the main one. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of my family and our friend Lizzy dressed up for purim last monday.

Connooga Day 3

2009-02-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

And last day. Not as many pictures of this one. Also, I seem to have put some of them on a friend's camera and not mine. Strange...

Connooga Day 2

2009-02-22T05:14:00.000-08:00

Here's day two of the awesome con, including Saber Idol.

ConNooga Day 1

2009-02-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

A few pics from the first day of connooga.

Tower project- text to come if I feel like it later.

2009-02-11T21:06:00.001-08:00

and again

2009-02-09T08:27:00.001-08:00

this comic has the weirdest things...

They Fight Crime!

2009-02-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

He's an old-fashioned Amish stage actor from a doomed world. She's a beautiful junkie research scientist descended from a line of powerful witches. They fight crime!

He's an all-American gay cat burglar on his last day in the job. She's a ditzy junkie vampire married to the Mob. They fight crime!

He's a Nobel prize-winning chivalrous boxer in drag. She's an elegant extravagent former first lady living on borrowed time. They fight crime!

www.theyfightcrime.org guaranteed for some giggles and wasted hours.

a problem or an awesome?

2009-01-29T20:38:00.000-08:00

After taking two days off because of sickness I have begun to suspect I am far too easily amused. This could be a problem or very awesome. I'm not sure which. Or it could be a false dichotomy and really be dracula.

Escher Sketch

2009-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

No I didn't make this, I found it on Cracked.com's list of everyday objects as if MC Escher had designed them. It amuses me.

Anyway, Etch-a-Sketches always frustrated me when I was little because I didn't have enough control to make good curves. I didn't have enough fine control or patience to get it right. So I made a lot of straight lines then threw it against the walls. I actually broke one too, just like I broke the magna doodle. Anyne else remember those? They used magnetism instead of whatever the hell Etch-a-Sketch used. I remember it was impossible to get an unbroken line on mine because the little magnetic cells didn't line up like I wanted them to.

I was such a picky little kid.

Squiggles and mindless activities

2009-01-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

I like doing mindless things sometimes. It's calming, makes me feel more stable. The squiggles are one of those things. Some variations of simple algebra also work and writing out permutations of strings of numbers or letters (yes, I know that doesn't seem mindless, but it is for me). I once wrote out all the different ways to rearrange the letters in "aardvark" but I lost the notebook so I can't prove it anymore. It took me a large chunk of senior year in high school.

Anyway, the squiggles were happening long before that. I don't make the squiggles, they happen when I let my mind go blank with a writing utensil in my hand. I do have to deliberately start them, but they make themselves without conscious guidance. I keep the ones that look interesting in the end. I do them mostly on post-it notes now. I used to use pages of my sketchbooks, but I would always start thinking before I finished a page. I didn't like that, so I went to a smaller size.

I mostly use sharpies now, I used to use pencil but I hated having to stop sharpen them or even to click the mechanical ones. The squiggles are all single lines that tend to cover the entire post-it. I don't keep many that don't cover it entirely, I don't like when they feel incomplete.

They tend to reflect my physical rather than emotional state I think. the second one down was done when I had a stomach ache, for example, the first one was a headache.

whailing

2009-01-22T08:44:00.001-08:00

This is from a webcomic called Bunny. Yes those are bunnies...

Bas Relief

2009-01-19T15:20:00.001-08:00

Yes it is. What amazes me is how white can look so off-white depending on how you hold the camera. oh yeah, and I got myself a decent camera to work with.

Comparison

2009-01-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

Old Wings taken with a better camera:

New Wings, taken with camera on my phone:

Ignoring the lopsidedness, I think the new ones are a good improvement. Besides being overall larger, the shaping (look at the right side, please) is more realistic. The feathers themselves are trimmed to be rounded rather than pointed and the overall shape of the wing is closer to what I wanted, longer than they are wide with a smoother curve on the inside edge. They don't even use that many more feathers than the first one due to not doubling up the lowest layer of feathers. And the layering of the feathers themselves is less controlled. This looks messier, but more natural than the old ones, tough the old ones are more shiny because of it.

First pair- finished!

2009-01-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

The first pair of wings with the new design is finished. Turned out a bit lopsided, but I know what went wrong so the next pair should be fine. I'm going to start several pairs at once now to be ready for the convention in February.

Also, you can see my table in the third picture without the nice cloth set up. This is where i work on everything. Art, Wings, Randomness. Basically everything not done on my computer is done here. I'm constantly cleaning to keep different materials from getting onto each new thing. Going from a charcoal drawing straight into working on these pretty white feathers would be a terrible idea as would accidentally gluing feathers to my 3D work. So I'm constantly cleaning up. I have to be neater and more organized than ever before in my life because of the limited space in which to work.

More wings

2009-01-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

This is what goes underneath the feathers.

I start with a metal frame made out of fencing wire.

I like this wire because it's easily bent with sustained pressure, but won't bend if it just gets hit. This is important for the wings because they'll get bumped a lot as you walk around with them on. I use three pieces of wire then crimp and solder them together to make the places where they join strong.

The first three pictures are different views of the frame.

Then I wrap the frame in fabric matching the color of the wings: white in this case. This is in pic four. The frame doesn't provide enough places to anchor all the feathers, that's why the fabric is important. I'll hot glue the feathers directly onto the fabric and use the way the fabric is cut as a guide for placing the feathers.

Wasted day

2009-01-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

I slept all day today. I hate when that happens because now a lot of the things I meant to do today will be delayed until tomorrow and I'll be up all night. Then tomorrow, I'll tired from having my internal clock thrown off and have twice as many things to get done. That said, it felt great at the time.

Oh yeah, the picture is a painting done on a minicanvas during an art club lock-in. I didn't make it, I bought it for ten dollars because it amuses me.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

2009-01-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

My Dad used to use that expression a lot. I wonder why he stopped...

This comic strip is from the webcomic Something Happens by Thomas Dye. So is the one in the previous post. I didn't draw them. I doubt any comics posted here will be drawn by me because I don't have the patience for it.

This is not a blog post... wait, yes it is!

2009-01-08T14:38:00.001-08:00

To understand this comic, you need to know about the painting The Treachery of Images by Rene Magritte. Use the wikipedia if you must.

Dead Bird

2009-01-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

I can be a bit morbid at times. Sorry if you're squeamish and had no warning before you saw these. I'm not sure how it died, but I found a dead bird outside my dorm a few months ago. Morbid curiosity got the better of me so I took pictures of it's intact wing with my cell phone. The other one seemed to be broken because it was at an odd angle to the rest of the body.

I didn't touch it directly, but I did take care of the body afterwards.

Boxes o feathers...

2009-01-08T14:09:00.001-08:00

These are all the feathers I use in making wings. the first is a box full of tom rounds which I use for most of the wings I make.

The second pic has Marabou, which are fluffy and used on the tops of the wings.

The third is the box of Marabou, use caution when opening because your room could end up coated in a pound of fluff if you don't. Yes, they crammed a pound of feathers in there.

The fourth and fifth show the Turkey tom round feathers which are curved so I got half a pound of left and half a pound of right to have both sides of the wings work right. Also, if I had only one side, I'd fly in circles. The round need a bit of trimming to look extra pretty.

I also have both kinds of feathers in Black, but the pictures of these are clearer.

WIngs

2009-01-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

Wings. I make them. And I plan to sell them so I don't have to get a real job. This is the old version. I'll get pics of improved ones up once I have pics. I don't currently have a decent camera... It's problematic.

The first

2009-01-08T08:59:00.001-08:00

Starting things is always the hardest part. So I'll just take the easy route on this one and complain about how hard it is.