Category: Art

  • Some Days it’s Like This

    I think I learned about four different ways to make something like a tornado in Blender and it probably took a month to finally get it the way I wanted for this image. Sadly the time it took is probably more related to the fact I’m using a 2015 Mac laptop.

    Again, this was designed to be viewed in a feed like Instagram where the video autoplays and is virtually indistinguishable from a still image in terms of presentation. I wrote a bunch on Instagram about the thing you let yourself focus on.

    I’ve always been interested in cinemagraphs. I like the idea of a still image moving that is different that a still image or a video clip. I made one of my daughters years ago, but I didn’t pursue it much farther at the time because there wasn’t really a great way to display it. Now that the NFT movement is finally causing people to value the digital viewing experience, I am more motivated to explore this once again.

    But my concept of having only the tornado move worked better in theory than in real life. To my way of thinking movement in good cinemagraph should elevate and add to the piece and not merely be a gimmick. It just wasn’t flowing right to my eyes.

    So I started by adding movement to the character which you’ll notice, and some motion in the light on the ground, which you probably don’t (at least right away). But what is so amazing about our perception is that even though motion often attracts our attention, our reality detection supersedes this. I found the lack of movement in the trees was actually distracting. So I added some very subtle movement there added, too.

    This is made with a self-portrait. The street is made up of several photos of my street and stitched together in one, 3D software, photo and video editing software.

  • The Lost Art of Waiting

    This piece was originally conceived specifically to be viewed on instagram, if not on instagram or if instagram changes, this is/was a feed-based platform where the video would autoplay and virtually be indistinguishable from a still image. The idea was that you’d see it, and the subtle movement would cause you to to wonder if your eyes were deceiving you. I can’t tell you how exciting it is for an artist to get to a point in time to be able to conceive and create this kind of experience.

    But I wasn’t sure if it was the right experience for Instagram because if you are just whizzing through your feed, you’ll miss it. But, I decided that was ok. Maybe that’s the point.

    The concept of waiting, and “waiting ages” is obviously very relevant for this pandemic period we are currently living in. We are all waiting for our lives to begin again, meanwhile, life is passing us by and we are not getting any younger.

    But I think it relates to the change in society as a whole. We no longer have the patience to wait for anything in the short term. We cannot and do not wait for a phone call, we cannot wait without pulling out our phones. I’m sure being stuck in traffic is far greater torture than it ever has been, (assuming that we are playing by the rules and not secretly checking our phones).

    But in other cases, we wait. We all wait. Not just for society to lift its restrictions. But to truly live. Some of us think we are being ripped off, like life has been taken away from us, like we are missing out. Without realizing that this is it. This is life. This pandemic was destined to happen and play out the way it did. This is your lot in life. You are not missing anything.

    But pandemic aside, this speaks to an even greater inclination of ours. We wait for things to happen, for events to push us in one direction or another. How many of us are not living authentically, meaning, how many of us are not actively pursuing what we feel like we were put on this earth to do?

    We spend the majority of our time lost in activities that we won’t even remember. How many of us feel trapped in relationships or jobs or life situations that we might actually be able to do something about but we tell ourselves we can’t or it’s too late or it’s too hard? Alternatively, how many of us suffer from the grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome. I deserve more. I am entitled to more. When maybe you really aren’t. Maybe it’s time to stop waiting and start seeing and embracing the value of what you’ve got.

    When you hit mid-life and see evidence that you are no longer immortal these issues start to become more urgent. You must grow or get to the end of your life in a full panic realizing that you simply can’t go back and re-do, that you were wasting time. The Universe keeps whispering in our ears about this. You know that feeling you get after an hour of mindlessly browsing or scrolling through feeds? Yeah. That’s a whisper.

    But there are other meanings here that maybe some of us more than others will get. Waiting for that call that you were right to expect, but that will never come.

    The piece was made using a self-portrait, AI software, photo and video editing software.