Posted: November 25th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists, Thoughts | Tags: collaboration, parallax print series, sharing | No Comments »
Building this new social network has been consuming what little time I don’t have, but almost every second has been enthusiastic. Amidst the flurry of activity that is now ensuing I am dedicating the next minutes to a post on collaboration. The type of collaboration I’m talking about is not necessarily active, but more along the line of sharing ideas. Many people think it is best to lock up their ideas in the fear that someone will “take” them and gain from it. This ridiculous because no one will gain anything from an idea in a box. For me at least I have a huge surplus of ideas that I would love to give away, I get sick when I think about hiding them from other people.
Two summers ago I began making my Parallax Print Series. After making some posts in the art forum at 40konline I got a response from a fellow gamer over in Australia told me my work was inspiring to him and wanted to know more about how it was made. I told him my entire process. This is 3 of the 20 he produced. I was quite shocked. In my opinion he did way better with this process than I have done yet. Enjoy Derikari’s work.
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Posted: November 23rd, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: social network | No Comments »
I can’t for the life of me start my school projects whilst this network isn’t up. *sigh*
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Posted: November 20th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Projects | Tags: social network | No Comments »
Since last night I have been in a frenzy. I enjoy surges of energy like this because it means the creative juices are flowing freely. And we all like free flowing creative juices, most of us anyways.
I’m attempting to build a social networking site centered around the Milwaukee area. This is something that I have large aspirations for, but realistically have no skills for. Teaching myself how to build websites (albeit not very well) is quite a bit different than constructing an entire social network (even with Dolphin 6.1). However, I am a stubborn mother fucker to say the least and this site will be built.
The central goal of the site is to create strong connections between artists and encourage creative collaboration. I am envisioning all sorts of supportive elements like personal profiles, uploading and downloading functions, a forum, a rating system, flash, articles, news updates, art critiques, and the list goes on. To keep with the concept of collaboration (and the fact that one person with my knowledge (or lack therof) can’t do this solo) I want to invite others to help out with the project from all backgrounds. Graphic designers, web developers, programmers, photographers, musicians, etc. Built by collaboration to fuel collaboration.
Enough day dreaming, web logistical shit needs to be taken care of. Expect lots of updates.
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Posted: November 19th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: developement, failure, growth, success | No Comments »
Most of the time I post images of my work that I think are overall successful. I think it is important to ask what makes a work successful, and also what makes a work a failure. One of the things I dislike most about American culture is the negative attachment to the word failure. Everyone is trying not to make mistakes, which is like carrying a sieve full of water up a mountain. Mistakes are supposed to happen and they have a purpose; they are the growing pains of learning. I have found that you need to fail in order to succeed. Like many things in life going the “wrong” direction actually brings you to where you want to go.
While success may feel better, you don’t learn as much from it. The fact that I want success and don’t want to fail is something I am trying to reverse. I should want to fail and I should strive to put myself in situations where things are difficult. My life should be a triple scoop of failure and a cherry of success on top. Learning (just like positive and negative spaces) is about learning what to do and what NOT to do. The drawing above, for example, taught me many things about color that I should NOT do. Failure breeds accidents, malfunctions, errors, etc which can be some of the most lucrative idea sources out there.
Good luck people, go fail today!
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Posted: November 17th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Finished Works, Projects, Sketches, Thoughts | Tags: charcoal, dad, drawings, friends, hers project | No Comments »
Today was a very productive day. I did six new drawings, most of which I’m relatively pleased with. I did two drawings which apply to the Hers project. These are drawings I really enjoy doing because of the strong connection I have with these people. A month or so ago I was focusing on issues of a war because I thought that maybe personal issues were not as significant as collective issues. I still think this is true, but damn this is a lot more fun than drawing people dying. Some other posts on the Hers project can be found here or here.
These drawings are quite reflective and I enjoyed the flavor mix of nostalgia, discursiveness, and productivity. This is a drawing of a very good friend of mine jamming. Today was the first step towards stepping out of the female focused drawings to a wider range of influential people in my life.
Today I took an emotional blow, broke down, and cried for the first time in a long while. I don’t want to go into any details, but it involves my father and some very poor choices. I don’t know where he is, if he is ok, and very little about what has been going on with him. What little I do know really saddened me. Drawing this allowed me to vent a bit and I think for the first time I am truely understanding how and why artists express their personal lives. It is amazing the transitions in peoples lives, how far they can rise or fall within short spans of time. Wherever you are dad I will not (“do or do not there is no ‘try’”) make the mistakes you have made, but mostly I hope you are well.
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Posted: November 16th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: domestic violence | No Comments »
Its kinda awkward/frightening/sad when you wake up in the morning to people screaming at each other upstairs and parents threatening t0 (and then starting to) beat their 5 year old kid. I can’t write anything more right now.
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Posted: November 15th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: hibernation, nostalgia, winter | No Comments »
December approaches. As the cold creeps south I can feel it, even in my young bones. I hope this winter is kinder than last. I will be glad to be back in Madison soon. I miss the people there and it feels like ages. I miss the taste of the LD, the familiarity, the fam.
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Posted: November 14th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists, Finished Works, Sketches, Thoughts | Tags: art jam, collaboration, drawing, electronica, mr. Squirrel, school | No Comments »
I particularly enjoy this blog because it allows me to reflect on my own work as well as the work of others. This helps me chart my growth as an artist as well as give me some bearings of whats going on in the art world.
This my most recent drawing and I think it is one of my best. In terms of technical aspects I think the proportions are good, and I have a very solid figure ground relationship. This is a drawing in which I can see the physical weight of the figure. Also I think I did pretty well on the lighting, especially in the drapery. There are some value structure issues in some of the limbs and elsewhere, but this drawing has made me proud of my emerging visual skills.
I would now like to introduce one of my favorite emerging musicians and artistic collaborator a Mr. Squirrel. Specializing in electronica Mr. Squirrel displays a unique sense of sound which enables him to create some really awesome songs. I have known the squirrel (as I will refer to him herein) for many many years and it has been inspiring to watch him progress. He has provided many new ideas for my idea bank and given me some new perspectives on artistry and life in general. To the right is an image that I worked on for the squirrel’s first EP (which comes out Christmas Eve btw) in collaboration with Katie Drake (another artist full of potential).
One of the collaborative ideas sparked between the squirrel and I was that of an artist collective. The clash between visual and sonic arts we feel has great potential to produce some kick ass art. Art jams are an idea that the squirrel gleaned from the British electronica group Underworld (whose art jam page can be viewed a here. To the left is the result of an art jam between the two of us a while back. In the upcoming months we hope to start doing art jams more frequently. An interesting part of this cooperative is that while it is better conduct these improv creation stations in person they can transcend distances. All hail the machine god.
In today’s age collaboration is absolutely necessary for things to get done. This is reflected in all aspects of our daily lives, after all human progress needs humans to work. Cooperation and the sharing of ideas is one of our greatest assets as a species (adaptation being the other). As artists, and a people, harnessing this potential could yield amazing results (amazing art and music included).
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Posted: November 12th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Finished Works, Thoughts | Tags: drawing, painting, school | 1 Comment »
Yesterday in art class was good day for me. I produced this painting. I was a bit impatient about taking a photograph so the color is slightly off.
This week is going to be a little hectic starting today. In each class I have large projects, but none of them really started, only prepped.
Instead of working on school work late last night my roommate and I had an idea for an installation piece. Since we just sealed our windows and are prepared for hibernation mode, we are setting up white paper on the walls to work on. As we continue to work new pieces will be added. I’m excited about painting and drawing on this.
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Posted: November 10th, 2008 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: temperature, winter | No Comments »
My whole body is constantly cold now. Heavy coat is becoming more and more obsolete. Temperature reporting at 45 degrees fahrenhei. The only solace of warmth I find is at work, biking, sleep. Off to bed.
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