Today i done kicked some Vista ass - u have to admit System Restore is one pearl of Win XP that deserves the price of admission & luckily they have brung it on into Vista as well. Though u could put the chiken-egg query that if the OS were not a POS u would not need a system restore... but since it works i am calm & happy to use it.
Then i whence to the studio. The car dudes next door are moving over & taking the space in front of our building as they always do til they get a whack & tomorrow i will kick their lily little asses over it but today there was a ton of free parking everywhere so i just put up with it. It is annoying tho as they TOO could park across the rd & maybe not even block the driveway with their crapola but i will just fill their bin with my plaster rubbish & think happy thoughts in the morning.
If they would get their bin emptied that is. Think they are cost-cutting as they have had their dumpster bulging all week since i filled it last wednesday & they just been adding to it.
Thus the need to get in early & use their bin... life too short to pile it up inside our place as the boss put her food rubbish in there before she went away & we got TOO MUCH da rubbisch now...
Important stuff u will agree..
Sadly i was without inspiration in the studio & did not do much atall. Then other studio inmates turned up & nice as they is there wasn't gonna be any work occurring while i sat about chattering so i went home & fell asleep again. It is the time of yr when the sun beams at 5am waking u up, & it being warm & Springy weather u don't go to bed til midnight. Thus an imbalance occurs.
Have decided sculpture (this week) is all about DRAWING. I have learned i think to use drawing to seperate the men from (form) the boyz sculpturally speaking & progress into the glorious sculpting future without touching clay/plaster. This is good i think. Previous i never drew at all but if u add drawing to yr repertoire u can make things complicated and do many at once.
Hm another step along the path of the bleedin obvious is it not, but we is never one to learn from other peoples' experience are we, generally...
But i sees this as a positive i gained from the past few weeks of horror doing the proposal etc, trying to look at the up side, since it is what it is, & it affects u how u let it, as Marcus Aurelius was keen to posit.
I think i've learned a lot from these past few weeks & i will attempt to point form it here:
- drawing is good.
- get the full concept sorted fully.
- don't write yourself off completely. think before u go like crazy, what do u *really* need to do?
- i will not be unhappy if i don't get the job, cos if its as hard as this i don't want it.
- they had a computer Projector there - i could have done a bloody Powerpoint!
- if they are paying expenses stay overnight.
BTW that book i asked the National Library to copy, "Modelling & Sculpture in the Making" By Jagger, 1933, they have done it! I can't wait to download it! But as it is the end of the month we are at sub-dial-up speeds & it bring a tear to yr eye & a paralytic clench to yr face if u try to even look at a pictorial webpage. I must wait til tomorrow when i can get the 33 meg at decent speed.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Crabs or no crabs
Today was dad's b'day so we went to the cemetery & then for lunch where he used to like going for cuppachinos. Dolls Point. You can stroll about near the sea & sometimes there are millions of crabs when the tide is low. Tide was high today so no crabs. Is funny i never went & saw the crabs with them cos i never had time. You get that i guess. I miss a lot of stuff cos i always feel like i haven't got time for nothing. Its an illusion probably. Anyway when we got home i dropped into a coma for the entire afternoon & missed me mate on the radio at 5.30, as usual. I will never catch that show i guess but maybe one day they'll podcast the bastard so i got a chance.
Should get into the studio this week, this is great opportunity as other ppl's commitments = i should have the place more or less to myself. Need a wee rest though. Tomorrow i spend the morn attempting to fix a mate's Vista pc. which should be a horrible experience indeed. Just using the POS OS is bad enough let alone trying to fix it when it won't go. Shall ask for some valium before i start.
Should get into the studio this week, this is great opportunity as other ppl's commitments = i should have the place more or less to myself. Need a wee rest though. Tomorrow i spend the morn attempting to fix a mate's Vista pc. which should be a horrible experience indeed. Just using the POS OS is bad enough let alone trying to fix it when it won't go. Shall ask for some valium before i start.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Presentation over n outskies
Awesome its over. Another day of abject terror has bin survived. i can has get myself a few days in bed now i hope. We (me n my project managr) went to Canberra we found de place we carried on trolley a pile of crap & set up there in fronta about 7 ppl (one a stenographer who just took notes) and attempt to BS without much preperation. I think i fell down here as my concept a bit too conceptual n not concrete enough however one cd argue that that's the point of talking about a concept. Still i have seen 1 of the competition & he is bloody good, i doubt got anything to hold up & squint at, when stood against that bloke.
Anyways hope i will not get kept awake tonight by my heart stopping at random like last night & my lungs aint any better but at least if i lie on the right side they don't crackle like a cats paws walkin in a cat tunnel.
Th cat tunnel to which i refer is the 1 u can get next week at Aldi as advertized in the weekly email spam i subscribe to. It is enough to make me wish i had a cat just so i can get one.
Anyways hope i will not get kept awake tonight by my heart stopping at random like last night & my lungs aint any better but at least if i lie on the right side they don't crackle like a cats paws walkin in a cat tunnel.
Th cat tunnel to which i refer is the 1 u can get next week at Aldi as advertized in the weekly email spam i subscribe to. It is enough to make me wish i had a cat just so i can get one.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Deterioration
Like usual happens, my body is giving me unsubtle signs that it don't want to play no more. I been pushin it too hard. Complains the only way it can think of, by deteriorating like crazee. I got some revolting lung thing, a bad back, rashes all up my arms & a pain in the stomach. And that just what i got *right now* lying in bed. Other things happen during the day at random to keep me entertained.
Anyway tomorrow is the Presentation & i can tell u i will be spending a few days in BED after this.
Anyway tomorrow is the Presentation & i can tell u i will be spending a few days in BED after this.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
On it goes
My TB cough from the dust storms is getting quite impressive. Just coughing up a lung now, Ok back to it.
Yes, today was spent pulling the mould apart, cleaning them up, and putting them together & filling them with plaster. If they were slightly better moulds this might not take an entire day. I actually have to assemble the plaster mother mould mostly first by plastering the bits together before i can lay the rubber inside it. Cos the rubber is so floppy & rubbish with ripped holes etc. Horrific. In fact a mate from the foundry popped in & saw them & said, gee if u had called me i could have come give u a hand. I said nonono - paper-thin rubber moulds is usual for me.... i was jokin tho. Ahem. Yes. Not great. But anyway i got the bastards together & fulled em. I pulled one out, and it was good. The thing is they get so damaged you probably can't use them more than once or twice, with great deterioration each time. But you know, if i could tell hey this one would make a great edition of 50... but usually i don't really want many of em. This time i just need 1 of ea for the presentation monday.
Ben came by with a black dog, fed me lunch & then left with a grey dog. Its a bit dusty in the studio. The owner is away so i'm plastering like mad & making a huge mess. Like a real studio!
Yes, today was spent pulling the mould apart, cleaning them up, and putting them together & filling them with plaster. If they were slightly better moulds this might not take an entire day. I actually have to assemble the plaster mother mould mostly first by plastering the bits together before i can lay the rubber inside it. Cos the rubber is so floppy & rubbish with ripped holes etc. Horrific. In fact a mate from the foundry popped in & saw them & said, gee if u had called me i could have come give u a hand. I said nonono - paper-thin rubber moulds is usual for me.... i was jokin tho. Ahem. Yes. Not great. But anyway i got the bastards together & fulled em. I pulled one out, and it was good. The thing is they get so damaged you probably can't use them more than once or twice, with great deterioration each time. But you know, if i could tell hey this one would make a great edition of 50... but usually i don't really want many of em. This time i just need 1 of ea for the presentation monday.
Ben came by with a black dog, fed me lunch & then left with a grey dog. Its a bit dusty in the studio. The owner is away so i'm plastering like mad & making a huge mess. Like a real studio!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Plaster day
Nother long day in the studio. After pulling my weight in the house before i left like a real person does. Tho sometimes i think the goalposts move when i'm not watching. Anyway today i just spent the entire day putting on sections of mother mould in plaster over the rubber mould i did yesterday. It takes so damn long, its amazing. It was well dark out by the time i left. Think there must be some advances i can make in speeding it up, like getting a bigger bucket, but u can't go all slapdash eh cos if u bugger it you've wasted a sculpture and a LOT of time.
Realised today i actually have to Write a Presentation for this proposal business. F***. How do u write a presentation? I done speeches but this is different. Speeches are about getting the hell off the stage... presentations are Selling Something. You actually care what people are left thinking afterwards. Damn. I'm really thinking i don't want this job. Its gonna be a terrible hard work, like harder than anything i ever done. But then i could do something Different to the usual lif sized bloke. I could do something pretty cool. Ah, anyway, i do my best to get it & see what happens. Won't be 100% disappointed if i don't get it though.
Today i went & bought an electronic scale so i can measure the catalyst properly for rubber moulds etc. Its a real issue if there's not enough catalyst it will never set, thus ruining your original work & wasting loads of time & mould materials. If you use too much catalyst, then u run out of catalyst before you run out of rubber, which is a PITA. Also of course you need it when you cast plastic which is pretty picky about ratios by weight.
Hmm i remember when electronic scales were a big newfangle deal & i used to see em get sold down the pawnbrokers auctions & everybody KNEW they'd been pawned by drug dealers cos who else could afford one or need the accuracy. Anyway that was then this is now & got mine for 29 bucks at Big W & the geeky side of me was weighing AA batteries & SMSing the results to people within 3 seconds of unwrapping it. How little it takes to entertain me when i'm alone in the studio huh.
Reading book about Charles Sargeant Jagger. He was a student of Lanteri who wrote my bibles of sculpture that i study all the time. That Lanteri bloke got around, he knew just about everybody who did decent sculpture round then. Anyway Jagger did a boatload of WW1 memorials & very striking they are. Sadly they all patina'd black as, so u can't see much detail in the pics. Bummer. He was pretty damn amazing modeller & he did write a book himself which is outta print. I asked the national library for a photocopy so we'll see if 1933 means its outta copyright yet. He did that pointing technique of enlarging which i'd like to try one day. Definitely an exercise to work that out. Its a bit boring & mathy apparently but having sat & mathed for hrs per large bloke i made, i suspect its actually an easier way to do it.
Realised today i actually have to Write a Presentation for this proposal business. F***. How do u write a presentation? I done speeches but this is different. Speeches are about getting the hell off the stage... presentations are Selling Something. You actually care what people are left thinking afterwards. Damn. I'm really thinking i don't want this job. Its gonna be a terrible hard work, like harder than anything i ever done. But then i could do something Different to the usual lif sized bloke. I could do something pretty cool. Ah, anyway, i do my best to get it & see what happens. Won't be 100% disappointed if i don't get it though.
Today i went & bought an electronic scale so i can measure the catalyst properly for rubber moulds etc. Its a real issue if there's not enough catalyst it will never set, thus ruining your original work & wasting loads of time & mould materials. If you use too much catalyst, then u run out of catalyst before you run out of rubber, which is a PITA. Also of course you need it when you cast plastic which is pretty picky about ratios by weight.
Hmm i remember when electronic scales were a big newfangle deal & i used to see em get sold down the pawnbrokers auctions & everybody KNEW they'd been pawned by drug dealers cos who else could afford one or need the accuracy. Anyway that was then this is now & got mine for 29 bucks at Big W & the geeky side of me was weighing AA batteries & SMSing the results to people within 3 seconds of unwrapping it. How little it takes to entertain me when i'm alone in the studio huh.
Reading book about Charles Sargeant Jagger. He was a student of Lanteri who wrote my bibles of sculpture that i study all the time. That Lanteri bloke got around, he knew just about everybody who did decent sculpture round then. Anyway Jagger did a boatload of WW1 memorials & very striking they are. Sadly they all patina'd black as, so u can't see much detail in the pics. Bummer. He was pretty damn amazing modeller & he did write a book himself which is outta print. I asked the national library for a photocopy so we'll see if 1933 means its outta copyright yet. He did that pointing technique of enlarging which i'd like to try one day. Definitely an exercise to work that out. Its a bit boring & mathy apparently but having sat & mathed for hrs per large bloke i made, i suspect its actually an easier way to do it.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
In the bad books
I'm told i ain't pulling my weight at home. This is typical of my family in that they may be right, morally, *perhaps*, but they pick a moment when i'm working 12 hr days toward a hideous deadline & i have only 3 days to go i've been getting 5 hrs sleep a night & i'm on the ragged edge of insanity & then they tell me i'm in th shit cos i didn't clean the bathroom today & thursday is household cleaning day & its my turn to do the dishes cos i didn't do em lately, probably cos i wasn't here, i was working. And what am i gonna do about it.
I guess that i'm sposed to not work every day til i need a hospital bed, rather i should leave a tad early while i still feel fresh so i can do household chores in the evening. this does sound very civilized & all. If you care about household chores. But who ever did great art by stopping before they got tired, FFS? I'm not even arguing, i'm not gonna state my case, cos nobody wants to hear it, they all know they're right, and they are, but only in their own way. This is the reason why they say women can't make great art, its cos they tend to squander time & energy on caring about household freakin chores. Not even the doing of em, but the caring about em. i'm just avoiding everybody now, my default technique for dealing with conflict. I know they're right, but so am i!
Some other ppl in the house needs to get a j*o*b & not hang about so much counting how many sets of dishes weren't washed by me.
The answer to some o this of course is to do stuff Early in the Day. Walla. V simple. Sadly for other people this means instead of tippy toeing about in order not to waken peacefully slumbering ppl before i go to work, i will be wakin em, but hey i reckon in the end thats just Tough with a capital Titty. Its the only way i'm gonna get them chores done cos after work forget it.
Oh yeah i'm really here to talk about sculpture. Much more interesting. Today i did one, a maquette. I was quite happy with it & i'd got a big tub of rubber mould material & so i covered it up. Noice. If smelly. That collection of related tasks took me from 9.30am to 7pm & i was pretty well ruined by the end of that time. Don't sound like much of a day really when i look back on it but with 10 mins for lunch that was it.
Do it again tomorra. FTW!
I guess that i'm sposed to not work every day til i need a hospital bed, rather i should leave a tad early while i still feel fresh so i can do household chores in the evening. this does sound very civilized & all. If you care about household chores. But who ever did great art by stopping before they got tired, FFS? I'm not even arguing, i'm not gonna state my case, cos nobody wants to hear it, they all know they're right, and they are, but only in their own way. This is the reason why they say women can't make great art, its cos they tend to squander time & energy on caring about household freakin chores. Not even the doing of em, but the caring about em. i'm just avoiding everybody now, my default technique for dealing with conflict. I know they're right, but so am i!
Some other ppl in the house needs to get a j*o*b & not hang about so much counting how many sets of dishes weren't washed by me.
The answer to some o this of course is to do stuff Early in the Day. Walla. V simple. Sadly for other people this means instead of tippy toeing about in order not to waken peacefully slumbering ppl before i go to work, i will be wakin em, but hey i reckon in the end thats just Tough with a capital Titty. Its the only way i'm gonna get them chores done cos after work forget it.
Oh yeah i'm really here to talk about sculpture. Much more interesting. Today i did one, a maquette. I was quite happy with it & i'd got a big tub of rubber mould material & so i covered it up. Noice. If smelly. That collection of related tasks took me from 9.30am to 7pm & i was pretty well ruined by the end of that time. Don't sound like much of a day really when i look back on it but with 10 mins for lunch that was it.
Do it again tomorra. FTW!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Today is dust day
Today started bright red, dust storm across the town. I had organised to meet some work ppl for brekkie at carriagwks & so with some small foreboding i drove there. I went extra early, in case the traffic was bad, cos visibility was pretty poor. I got there in like 10 minutes... I was an hour early. There was NO traffic whatsoever & i got every green light i never even managed to get any of the organising done that i usually do at traffic lights. Hm. so i went & took some photos round there of the Conditions. Then i called people & we had brekky. My old boss is going to ask around if there is any PT work available for me. My old job needs FT but she will just ask EVERYBODY. How awesome is that :) Not even just IT but anything. Man, you couldn't get a better place to work.
Then i went to studio & flogged myself to work work work. I made 3 soldiers sneaking thru the jungle. Then i made 1 soldier up a tree looking thru binoculars. I need some moulding rubber, eventually i ran out of space to make things & next step is to start moulding so i can make space to make more. I am using my trolley based work surface & it is absolutely brilliant, its exactly at the right height for working while standing & i can turn it easily on its wheels. Its long enough to do 2 sculptures on. I would go so far as to say these excellent new trolleys are the next "milk crate" in terms of how damn functional they are. They do take up space & u need a flat surface to roll them on but i reckon in terms of actual usability they are superb.
The whole point of makin these sculptures is to take them as maquettes on monday for the presentation. So even if i think they are kinda ok but fairly useless i still got to mould them & make copies that will last the travel distance. So tomorrow i go shoppin 4 rubber.
The dust smell was everywhere even after mostly it had blown away by the arvo. I was a bit thinking about my asthma all day, cos they were talking on the radio about staying home inside with the windows shut etc. But luckily the studio is amazingly airtight for a rattly old tin shed & inside i hardly smelled dust. i didn't have no trouble till the evening when i got home & i suddenly couldn't breathe much at all & i was feelin a bit misery. But then i realised my puffer didn't have the extra notch that they got this year on the packaging & checked & the damn thing was an old expired one from 2006. Hell nose where my good ones were cos i don't even remember when i used em last. So i borrowed a real one off mum & that improved me.
Yesterday--- an amazing device arriveth in the maileth. My sister, under strict instructions to call me if i get the sculpture book i'm expecting, rings me. She sez u got a parcel; its from san franscisco. I sez, i thought it was comin from Perth. I sez how big is it. She sez its small. I sez, so is it thick? How thick is it? Thinkin a small sculpture book *might* be OK but at least it should have a few pages. No its thin, real thin she says. I am flummoxxed. Should i open it, she says? I says well yes, cos i have tremendous curiosity & this will make me come home early from the studio cos i will be unable to think of anything else even if it end up being some stupid shite advert from Dell or summink.
So she opened it. She says, its a cd. I says from who? she tells me & its nobody i's ever heard of. Hmm i says.
Later i get home & discover it is an extraordinary device wired into a cd case (with a cd of music) ... you can PLAY the box, its an electronic musical instrument!!! So i guesses who might have sent me that & i'm waitin to see if i'm right!!!
Then i went to studio & flogged myself to work work work. I made 3 soldiers sneaking thru the jungle. Then i made 1 soldier up a tree looking thru binoculars. I need some moulding rubber, eventually i ran out of space to make things & next step is to start moulding so i can make space to make more. I am using my trolley based work surface & it is absolutely brilliant, its exactly at the right height for working while standing & i can turn it easily on its wheels. Its long enough to do 2 sculptures on. I would go so far as to say these excellent new trolleys are the next "milk crate" in terms of how damn functional they are. They do take up space & u need a flat surface to roll them on but i reckon in terms of actual usability they are superb.
The whole point of makin these sculptures is to take them as maquettes on monday for the presentation. So even if i think they are kinda ok but fairly useless i still got to mould them & make copies that will last the travel distance. So tomorrow i go shoppin 4 rubber.
The dust smell was everywhere even after mostly it had blown away by the arvo. I was a bit thinking about my asthma all day, cos they were talking on the radio about staying home inside with the windows shut etc. But luckily the studio is amazingly airtight for a rattly old tin shed & inside i hardly smelled dust. i didn't have no trouble till the evening when i got home & i suddenly couldn't breathe much at all & i was feelin a bit misery. But then i realised my puffer didn't have the extra notch that they got this year on the packaging & checked & the damn thing was an old expired one from 2006. Hell nose where my good ones were cos i don't even remember when i used em last. So i borrowed a real one off mum & that improved me.
Yesterday--- an amazing device arriveth in the maileth. My sister, under strict instructions to call me if i get the sculpture book i'm expecting, rings me. She sez u got a parcel; its from san franscisco. I sez, i thought it was comin from Perth. I sez how big is it. She sez its small. I sez, so is it thick? How thick is it? Thinkin a small sculpture book *might* be OK but at least it should have a few pages. No its thin, real thin she says. I am flummoxxed. Should i open it, she says? I says well yes, cos i have tremendous curiosity & this will make me come home early from the studio cos i will be unable to think of anything else even if it end up being some stupid shite advert from Dell or summink.
So she opened it. She says, its a cd. I says from who? she tells me & its nobody i's ever heard of. Hmm i says.
Later i get home & discover it is an extraordinary device wired into a cd case (with a cd of music) ... you can PLAY the box, its an electronic musical instrument!!! So i guesses who might have sent me that & i'm waitin to see if i'm right!!!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Panic stations
Since the sofa left, a lot of stuff's got done in the studio. (that is very ungrammatic but can't work out why). I made an armature for a 1m long maquette, dismantled a coffee table i had there into a large piece of table top & using big chunks of foam I set that on top of the magical shopping trolley in such a way as the table top is totally flat, just like earth (i know this cos i put my cup of coffee "level" tool on it & it is very level). It all went very easily & fast & i was so pleased that i took yesterday off to find my tax papers & clean my bedroom.
Early in the day I got an email that my proposal had never arrived & did i actually want to enter one - thankyou Australia Post, did you read my blog & decide to make me pay, i doubt it. Anyway I explained i had sent it & yes i did want to be considered & they rang to say i have an appointment in Canberra to do a presentation NEXT MONDAY even tho they haven't seen my paper yet so hell knows.
That lack of postage is extremely disappointing & just about what i expected. Really if you base your hopes & dreams on AP & leave it til the last moment based on their service agreement, well u deserve to lose the lot. If you want something done, do it yerbloodyself. Or send the freakin thing by courier - one of those american ones who actually deliver sh*t.
Next monday tho is a lot more sudden than i was expecting & i really need to get some good sketches & maquettes done & a 1m long one is never gonna get finished in 5 days. So unfortunately i'll be making little ones which aren't as exciting as big one would be, nor allow me to actually work out the full catastrophe cos i still dunno what figures will go where. Not good really. Not good at all. And i've agreed to go to the gym today with my sister & i got 2 hrs to wait for her to wake up so we can go at 9 & i'm just panicking here quietly. Hey maybe i can do a sketch!! OK over n out.
Early in the day I got an email that my proposal had never arrived & did i actually want to enter one - thankyou Australia Post, did you read my blog & decide to make me pay, i doubt it. Anyway I explained i had sent it & yes i did want to be considered & they rang to say i have an appointment in Canberra to do a presentation NEXT MONDAY even tho they haven't seen my paper yet so hell knows.
That lack of postage is extremely disappointing & just about what i expected. Really if you base your hopes & dreams on AP & leave it til the last moment based on their service agreement, well u deserve to lose the lot. If you want something done, do it yerbloodyself. Or send the freakin thing by courier - one of those american ones who actually deliver sh*t.
Next monday tho is a lot more sudden than i was expecting & i really need to get some good sketches & maquettes done & a 1m long one is never gonna get finished in 5 days. So unfortunately i'll be making little ones which aren't as exciting as big one would be, nor allow me to actually work out the full catastrophe cos i still dunno what figures will go where. Not good really. Not good at all. And i've agreed to go to the gym today with my sister & i got 2 hrs to wait for her to wake up so we can go at 9 & i'm just panicking here quietly. Hey maybe i can do a sketch!! OK over n out.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Flushing out a Blockage
This morning a friend popped by in his van & we removalled the sofa from the studio. Was a bit of a drain on the work ethic having it there. Very comfy it was and i love it but it was only put there cos there was nowhere else at the time. Now its in storage & it already obvious its been a really good move.
We did that first thing this morn & once i got back to the studio i started doing messy stuff that i couldn't do before in case i splashed the sofa i.e. cleaning out goopy buckets with turps & hosing the floor to get rid of the reek of turps cos yay the turps bottle fell over. Then i did some welding of an armature which i was slack in starting before cos of worrying about setting fire to the sofa. I also killed the torch flame problem, aced it. So its been a greatly effective flushing of a massive blockage in the studio. I used to go in to the studio, as if to work ... but It would suck me towards it i would sit down just for a moment & it was so comfy & then i'd make a cup of tea & read & then have lunch & then after all that tiring sitting about i'd have a nap. Then go home feeling mildly distressed & pathetic cos of having done jack sh*t. Its not what u pay rent on a studio for is it. You pay that rent to have a place to Suffer for your Art, nu?
The straw that broke the camels hump tho was the other day i was enjoying the comfy so much i did some sculpting while sitting on it & after a few hrs of that i'd buggered my neck. You cannae slouch while sculpturing - it just against nature.
Anyway i stood up all day today, worked hard & never needed to sit down... i been sucked toward that succubus of a couch every moment that it was there. I had felt like i was ill, as standing up was so hard, when it was just there, inviting. Now its way cool that standing up working hard all day is still in me :)
Yay!
Speakin of tho, been very pleased to have killed the torch flame. I got a hand from the family who when i said argh i can't do this torch flame, mum & sis explained to me how torches are made. The old ones were made by tying together a buttload of bullrushes, and then lighting em. So the torch flame is actually a LOAD of small flames that all join up to make 1 big one. By knowing that you can work out how to make a torch flame eh, or at least grok the nature of a torch flame, which make it easier. Well, that and studying the Statue of Liberty torch. Though hers was not pointy at all, probably cos it was so damn huge it would look pointy from a distance anyway.
So well since i done a flame and clouds now, i reckon the next one is water. I'm gonna make waves & water out of clay. Orright. Its kind of a confidence builder to make the Elements of nature.
We did that first thing this morn & once i got back to the studio i started doing messy stuff that i couldn't do before in case i splashed the sofa i.e. cleaning out goopy buckets with turps & hosing the floor to get rid of the reek of turps cos yay the turps bottle fell over. Then i did some welding of an armature which i was slack in starting before cos of worrying about setting fire to the sofa. I also killed the torch flame problem, aced it. So its been a greatly effective flushing of a massive blockage in the studio. I used to go in to the studio, as if to work ... but It would suck me towards it i would sit down just for a moment & it was so comfy & then i'd make a cup of tea & read & then have lunch & then after all that tiring sitting about i'd have a nap. Then go home feeling mildly distressed & pathetic cos of having done jack sh*t. Its not what u pay rent on a studio for is it. You pay that rent to have a place to Suffer for your Art, nu?
The straw that broke the camels hump tho was the other day i was enjoying the comfy so much i did some sculpting while sitting on it & after a few hrs of that i'd buggered my neck. You cannae slouch while sculpturing - it just against nature.
Anyway i stood up all day today, worked hard & never needed to sit down... i been sucked toward that succubus of a couch every moment that it was there. I had felt like i was ill, as standing up was so hard, when it was just there, inviting. Now its way cool that standing up working hard all day is still in me :)
Yay!
Speakin of tho, been very pleased to have killed the torch flame. I got a hand from the family who when i said argh i can't do this torch flame, mum & sis explained to me how torches are made. The old ones were made by tying together a buttload of bullrushes, and then lighting em. So the torch flame is actually a LOAD of small flames that all join up to make 1 big one. By knowing that you can work out how to make a torch flame eh, or at least grok the nature of a torch flame, which make it easier. Well, that and studying the Statue of Liberty torch. Though hers was not pointy at all, probably cos it was so damn huge it would look pointy from a distance anyway.
So well since i done a flame and clouds now, i reckon the next one is water. I'm gonna make waves & water out of clay. Orright. Its kind of a confidence builder to make the Elements of nature.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Proposed
OK i got that proposal in. Goshdarnit but what a job. it ended up about 22 pages if u include everything like CV n that. I sent it off Express Post n by gum AP better get it there or i am BLOODY WELL getting my free Express Post envelope which is what u get if your life is ruined by the thing not getting there in 1 day as advertised. p.s. I remember that tosser at the delivery centre who ripped off the express posts coming thru to coogee. Its always the middle management who rip shit off in the post, IME. the people who are one pip above the floor are the ones who still have touching access to mail and loads of time. The ones on the floor get hassled by the feds but all the naughty we used to do was steal those stupid unsolicited junk mail pens from the mail to do our job with, cos the pitiful few AP biros we could get were shit. They wouldn't order them often, cos we'd just use them. Thats one of the cost benefits AP gets for putting rejects in to run the office. It maybe balances the unbenefits like having them turn up drunk & root the redirections every morning.
Anyway.. the proposal was a very hard thing to do & thank goodness its done. Well part 1 is done cos i'm going to have to go give a presentation as well, and i better have some gear, like maquettes. But hey i need a few days off before i worry about that ok.
The people who seen the proposal think its good. One feller says its amazing, he sez the more he read it & understood it the more amazing it got. What a nice thing to say. I'm chuffed about that. Lets hope if i get the job that i can actually do the extravaganza that i painted in the proposal eh. Heh.
Attempted to make a flame today for a handheld torch thingy. Massive failure... man its difficult! I'd managed to do clouds the other day, so my confidence was up. I got defeated in the first round though. All i have to show for it is a cricked neck that's making grinding noises now when i turn my head. Try again tomorrow, but this time i'll look at some photos of flames first.
Anyway.. the proposal was a very hard thing to do & thank goodness its done. Well part 1 is done cos i'm going to have to go give a presentation as well, and i better have some gear, like maquettes. But hey i need a few days off before i worry about that ok.
The people who seen the proposal think its good. One feller says its amazing, he sez the more he read it & understood it the more amazing it got. What a nice thing to say. I'm chuffed about that. Lets hope if i get the job that i can actually do the extravaganza that i painted in the proposal eh. Heh.
Attempted to make a flame today for a handheld torch thingy. Massive failure... man its difficult! I'd managed to do clouds the other day, so my confidence was up. I got defeated in the first round though. All i have to show for it is a cricked neck that's making grinding noises now when i turn my head. Try again tomorrow, but this time i'll look at some photos of flames first.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Death by MS Word
Flogged myself all day from sunrise to sunset doing the Proposal. Did not finish :( Realise my design idea is absolute arse on paper. I'm fairly sure it will work great in reality. Difficult to say though isn't it. Need to make a maquette & see but of course there is no time for that. Have been nobbled by the very thing i have been ignoring. Damn and i thought i had that version of mental visual procrastination sorted n my work, but it snuck by me. Bugger it.
Must sleep.
Must sleep.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Rukkus in the Pizzeria
There was kerfuffle in the pizzeria last nite. i was at the local in alexandria buying some no-ham-no-too-cheesy for the family who were comin over 4 dvd nite. I had to send an sms to sis saying there was a ruckus in the pizzeria & i might be a little late. There was a woman pissed cos there had been a hair in her pizza the night before. She brought them in & they weren't gona give her money back. They were real rude & shitty & pulling bullshit outta her words. If i hadn't already ordered i woulda gone down the rd instead, i tell ya. There was 5 men who's manhood was at stake over the cost of a pizza. Thats exactly what it boiled down to. So stupid. They lost a bunch of customers that night, i'm never going back there, no matter the pizza was good. Who wants to deal with a company who tell u to get f'ed if there's a problem? You'd have to be insane. And regardless who was right over it, they're idiots. She threw some stuff around & they called the cops over it. Meh, idjits the whole lot of em.
Still workin on my proposal. Have procrastinated so severely that i've done one days work in 6. Argh. This is supposed to be fun. Why isn't it any fun & why is it so damn hard to apply myself.
I went home after my week of houseminding. I spent some time thinking how awful my feet really stink. Couldn't believe they could smell so bad, wondering if my head cold had been blocking that out for ages. Felt quite horrified. It followed me around wherever i went. But found out later that evening that it was the usual - the neighbours have filled the front yard with Dynamic Lifter and stunk us out again. Every time there is a sunny hot day, they dump that rank shit everywhere. Its like they mean it. When i used to work outside in the yard all day, a really hot day i'd be out there retching, sick to my stomach from the reek. So when i park in their parking spot, i know they hate it, but its just a tiny bit o payback.... they obviously don't mind having a yard full of foul smelling shit, so what else can u do to em?
Still workin on my proposal. Have procrastinated so severely that i've done one days work in 6. Argh. This is supposed to be fun. Why isn't it any fun & why is it so damn hard to apply myself.
I went home after my week of houseminding. I spent some time thinking how awful my feet really stink. Couldn't believe they could smell so bad, wondering if my head cold had been blocking that out for ages. Felt quite horrified. It followed me around wherever i went. But found out later that evening that it was the usual - the neighbours have filled the front yard with Dynamic Lifter and stunk us out again. Every time there is a sunny hot day, they dump that rank shit everywhere. Its like they mean it. When i used to work outside in the yard all day, a really hot day i'd be out there retching, sick to my stomach from the reek. So when i park in their parking spot, i know they hate it, but its just a tiny bit o payback.... they obviously don't mind having a yard full of foul smelling shit, so what else can u do to em?
Friday, September 11, 2009
House minding
Am houseminding this week. A lovely holiday in a tall house with the biggest tv in the universe & 20,000,000 dvds, 5 mins drive from the studio. Unfortunate that i have so much work to do this week & can't just veg here watching movies.
Jolly nice house 4 levels & at least 4 bathrooms i've lost count. Nice as it all is, its not really my kinda style. Everything is very sharp. You could hurt yourself on just about anything. I guess if you knocked your head in the kitchen on laminate it would hurt as much as it would hitting it on granite benchtops, but the stone seems harder to me. You could break a plate just putting it down. The cabinet knobs are small & painful to use, for no apparent reason or benefit. Walking up the stairs you have to be quite alert cos not only are the stairs open to the basement so whatever u drop will go right down there, long way down, but they're sharp & hard & the railing is pointy & sharp edged, made of steel with wires. Its not a house for children unless u want em to grow up with dents or be naturally selected by the whims of a steel house. A little puddle of water on a stair would be enough i guess. I reckon in my kinda house you could stagger upstairs pissed & bounce off the railing without opening a vein. Thats more my style. Bit more forgiving. Maybe not even ANY stairs. That would be nice.
Jolly nice house 4 levels & at least 4 bathrooms i've lost count. Nice as it all is, its not really my kinda style. Everything is very sharp. You could hurt yourself on just about anything. I guess if you knocked your head in the kitchen on laminate it would hurt as much as it would hitting it on granite benchtops, but the stone seems harder to me. You could break a plate just putting it down. The cabinet knobs are small & painful to use, for no apparent reason or benefit. Walking up the stairs you have to be quite alert cos not only are the stairs open to the basement so whatever u drop will go right down there, long way down, but they're sharp & hard & the railing is pointy & sharp edged, made of steel with wires. Its not a house for children unless u want em to grow up with dents or be naturally selected by the whims of a steel house. A little puddle of water on a stair would be enough i guess. I reckon in my kinda house you could stagger upstairs pissed & bounce off the railing without opening a vein. Thats more my style. Bit more forgiving. Maybe not even ANY stairs. That would be nice.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The magic of tax deduction
Today went the long way down to the Gong, thru Macarthur big mall. Using the new little GPS i did something i'd never attempt, & it was transformed into a doddle. The reason to go there was to hit the hobbyco down there & buy some warplane models. I decided to make a maquette of a warplane or 2 for upcoming project proposal & the simplest possible way to do that would be to get hold of a 3d representation of said planes & whip something up by copying. Loads easier than printing up a collection of photos off the net & imagining it in 3d, eh. The most awesome thing is its all research & thus buying a bunch of model kits is bloody well tax deductible. Sure its work & all... but - awesome!
GPS was spectacularly successful & i somehow ended up with about 2 hrs spare in there which i had to waste. But next time i won't feel it necessary to leave quite so early, if i can trust it to actually get me there.
Its been showing me a whole bunch of streets locally which are actually named totally different to what i always thought. First i thought this thing is just wrong but no each time i dscover it know better than me. And i also found out my car speedo reads about 10KM under @ 80KMH. No wonder everybody always passing me. Hmph.
GPS was spectacularly successful & i somehow ended up with about 2 hrs spare in there which i had to waste. But next time i won't feel it necessary to leave quite so early, if i can trust it to actually get me there.
Its been showing me a whole bunch of streets locally which are actually named totally different to what i always thought. First i thought this thing is just wrong but no each time i dscover it know better than me. And i also found out my car speedo reads about 10KM under @ 80KMH. No wonder everybody always passing me. Hmph.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Shopping trolleys are following me
I had a strange feeling that we were meant to be together. From a month or 2 ago, i seemed to see one in my periphery wherever i went. Just one at first. Sitting by the side of the road out of the way, just quietly watching, waiting. One here. One there. Just one. One upside down, even, outside the Registry of Births Deaths Marriages. Then finally i saw them down the local mall, one at a time at first, then brazenly, in groups. I'm talking about those new shopping trolleys. The ones with the long legs & high basket, long high ones with a certain jaunty look. They look back at ya, as if to say, how about it. Yesterday i was again visited by one. The studio back lane is a gathering place for all sorts of strange stuff. There it was, waiting for me. I borrowed it from the back lane & now its with me. It just seems like we were meant to be together, like fate.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Baby comes back
I just bought one of my own sculptures at an art auction. It came up cos the guy who bought it died & all his stuff went to auction. Kinda sad, he died about the same time he bought my little sculpture. I ended up paying the same as i got paid for it, so less the gallery cut it was about half price. The price feels right & i was surprised how happy i was to get him back in my hands again. Felt like getting a child back after he been missing. He nestled in my arm like a cool hard puppy & i was very happy to see him again. Owning something is a strange feeling. When i make them i don't own them, really, they just are. But now i bought one, i own it. Feels good. The patina has aged nicely the purplish layer of bootpolish on top has faded away (maybe it was rubbed away by dusting in its previous place?) & the green under it has aged to a fine colour.
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