Anatomy and Art

Introducing a new painting!  This one was one of those that took a really long time to make.  I actually found this photo with a digital date stamp reaching back to August of 2011.  So, I’m thinking that must be the summer when I started it.

Sometimes you get stuck in the making.

The last couple weeks I’ve been driven to get back into it though.  My hands have been in poor shape this last month, so I feel lucky to have been physically able to tackle this one again when I needed to.

About a week and a half or so ago I had it this far…

Honestly, the gradient on the wall interrupted by the door was surprisingly technically challenging.  In the beginning I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with that wall, but when I finally had that decided, and then finally managed to get it right, the rest of it was on.

There may be more layers of paint on this one than anything I’ve ever painted before.  But I like where it’s landed.

I went to another Nerd Nite last week, and well I’m thinking of testing out my public speaking with a talk on skulls.  I haven’t given a talk since grad school.  And my first thoughts about giving a talk had me all nervous about striking the right balance between giving an interesting talk and not betraying any kind of business, trade secret, or medical confidentiality.  But skulls, I love skulls, and I know a lot about them, and I have pictures galore to go along with a talk like that.

So, I haven’t submitted anything yet, but I’m thinking that I will. I’d have to do a lot of brushing up on information I’ve been quickly forgetting since grad school, but what a great way to do it.

And yay, SKULLS!!

🙂

So,  I’ve been avoiding posting lately, under doctor’s orders.  Theory is that I’ve strained a tendon in my hand due to repetitive use, most likely being a matter of too much computer and also texting time.  Well my phone was out, and I was texting more, and I do spend a lot of time on computers, but I’m not entirely certain that that’s what’s going on, and what’s worse is I’ve lost some confidence in the medical advice I was given after confirming that I was given inaccurate anatomical names for what was happening.  This is most likely, just a normal and natural mix-up, but I can’t help being a bit shaken in confidence.  I was told that I had strained my abducens tendon, but since that doesn’t actually exist in the hand, I have to assume that the doctor meant abductor pollicis longus, or possibly abductor pollicis brevis.

Anyway, I haven’t forgotten things around here.  And I will return to post more soon!

Last week I made another tree painting.

I took a few cell phone shots along the way again.

I kept adding branches, and refining, until eventually I got this.

Lately I’ve been giving some thought as to what makes a good creative environment.  About a week or two ago, I had one of those rare surges of creative energy and I knew there was short window on when I could start something and really get a good run on it.  But my place was a mess, and I had too much to do, and I just couldn’t go for it.  I’ve been lamenting that loss ever since.  And while I’ve gotten things picked up now, I haven’t quite regained that sense of inspiration.

I’ve also been looking into making a move lately.  I’m staying in Austin, but this apartment can’t be my home forever.  One of the things I have to ask myself when I look at all these spaces though, is how would I create there.  Space and privacy are big factors in that for me.  Lately, I’m also finding that basic digital resources are factors too.  I use the internet a lot, and in the past few years it has become my television and phone as well.  Being cut off from basic services that one has learned to take for granted, can be a real block in trying to get more creative endeavors done.  It doesn’t always have to be, when you plan for it (who hasn’t thought about going out to a cabin somewhere with no phone or internet and just making things for days?).  But realistically, when you count on something, and then it doesn’t work, it affects your sense of control over your environment.  And what is art, but an ultimate exertion of control over some physical ground?

Anyway, these are just things that I’ve been thinking about lately.  And I haven’t been writing here as much, so I thought it was time to chime in again.  If any of you reading have thoughts or stories to share about what makes a space work for you, I’d love to hear them.

I have been meaning to post this one for a while now, but the holidays got away with me. Sofia Wraber and Nanna Kereutzmann first put together a documentation of 101 men from ages 0-100 as a class project for the Danish School of Media and Journalism.  They then went on to create the same style of series with 101 women.

http://www.onehundredone.dk/about.html

The effect is that you get a really interesting portrayal of the aging process, from birth to old age.  At one point I read that the models used were all from the same family, but I haven’t been able to find that tonight, so I can’t be certain about that.  You don’t see any ethnic diversity though, so the emphasis remains on the aging process rather than individual differences.

I encourage you to check out both series in their entirety at the link provided above.

I know that I’ve been a bit lax lately in keeping with the posts around here.  And this isn’t much in the way of writing to come back with, but I did think that this was a neat picture.  I don’t know who the photographer is, but I’m passing it along through the internet anyway.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

I’ve been doing some work to get started on a new animation at work lately.  This one is about DNA replication, and some of the animation needed to tell the story is making for some interesting challenges.  Now, if you just want to model some DNA within Cinema 4D, this is hands down, the best tutorial I have seen for that.

http://www.bmc.med.utoronto.ca/bmcwiki/doku.php/technologies:cinema_4d_tutorial_-_schematic_dna_1

There’s a part 2 to that too, so do keep going if you get into the first one.

The trouble with this model though, is that you can’t unzip the DNA to show how replication works.  So I’ve been trying some alternate methods lately.  At first, I was very excited about getting the backbones to open up like this.

But I still couldn’t get the bases to work with me.  That version was utilizing the helix shaped splines and sweep nurbs set at 130º.  And the spherify deformer could be animated to open the double helix according to keyframes.

One of the tricks with trying to do this is that you can’t apply your deformers to the double helix at large without mangling your model.  You do a lot better to apply them directly to your splines and set up your bases as cloners to those splines, and your backbone as sweep nurbs along those same splines, so that the individual strands maintain their shape.

I also learned, that it’s much easier to line up your bases if you start with a straight ladder sort of arrangement, and then apply twist deformers to a null object containing the double helix so that they stay together.  You can then animate your deformers along the strand to wind and unwind your DNA, and with the addition of an FFD deformer along each spline, you can then animate the stream opening as you unwind it.  And the big trick, that you might not think of with that – uncheck the align clone option in your cloner.  For hours and hours, everything I did sent my bases all over the place, until I finally tried unchecking that box, and then they stayed align.  I could go on about that for a while, but the important thing is to mention it so we all know not to get stuck like that in the future.  Honestly, now that I’m thinking about it, some of my earlier attempts may have actually worked out, had I tried unchecking that box sooner.

And of course, being a big crazy 3D program, there are absolutely other ways of getting at a solution.  In looking for ideas with this one, I wound up using the AMI listserve’s professional groups, and came across an animator in Germany named Andrej Piatkowski who found a way to do this without using splines at all.  He felt like they just got in the way, and as you can see, he got some really cool results with what he did.

He doesn’t have it connected on the other side, the way I’m wanting for my purposes, but I love how neatly everything fits together and then rips apart so smoothly.

So remember, in your own efforts, there are many paths to the solutions you seek.  But hopefully something here can help you out a little if you’re doing similar work.

I finished the new painting today.

Introducing Grace…

As always, any of my work on canvas can be viewed at http://snapshotgenius.com/paint

So EAST had a lovely first weekend.  The event really is huge, and even though I’ve only seen a fraction of it, I feel like I’ve been able to see a lot of really cool art.  The Wherehouse, where I am showing, has been really great too.  I kept expecting things to be more difficult, but it just hasn’t been.  And not having been in Austin for so long, everyone’s work is so new to me, and I love seeing it and being able to share mine with my new community.  I think we have about 10 artists showing inside The Wherehouse, and a handful of others displaying (or performing or running classes) outside.

Do come out if you have the opportunity, 1023 Springdale Rd, Austin, TX 78721.

Buy a Wonderlounge pint glass and sample some tasty cider.  Stand on our soapbox and tell the world what you have to say.  Take in the paintings, and prints, and digital culture jamming art, and photographs.  Fire a crossbow out back, and get something embroidered on a shirt.  Maybe take a dance class.  We seriously have all of that and more!