Shpongle Shack art

The painting pallet of Shpongling :)

 This is an ode to Lizzi Giller and Margot Parsons, ah remember the days in high school driving in your car, Margot, listening to Sublime.

 Beautiful art done by Kaitlin Murray, it us made using liquid paints on a transparency of a fish. Placed over a foil sheet for optimum reflections :)

A list of quotes from the Shpongle Shack created by Justin Cacuchon, Kaitlin Murray and me.

Diego the Dinosaur, created by Margot Parsons and I for Ultra Music festival 2011. Diego's tail is proudly is attached to a children's red light saber [that doesn't light up, how lame] by neon orange duct tape. He was carried around on March 27th, my birthday as a second pinata animal [with the first being the infamous Tiki from Bonnaroo]

The Shpongle Bot

Science fiction project for my Illustration class
Meet- The Shpongle bot.
Inspired by the great band, Shpongle

These are my preliminary drawings for my 3D assignment. I will create a 3D model of the Shpongle bot in Maya 2011 (:

phase 2

So I've been riding Sheila around for about 2 weeks now since the project. and surprisingly, mostly all of the photos have stayed glued on my board ;) The most I get is a bunch of weird looks from people asking me what the hell is on my longboard, and i simply reply- my face. Its for a project. Although Sheila is now a work of art, I feel she has increased awesomeness. I really like riding her around with my face on it, as awkward as it is stepping on myself. Anyway it seems to be unravelling pretty well. I'll upload other photos as phase 3 rolls around in another few weeks :). My board definetely grabs a lot of attention, its interesting to tell people the story- Lots think its even pretty cool ;)

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Bueys used a lot of different materials to create his artwork such as food, fabric, animal fat, honey and bees wax. He studied sculpture at Düsseldorf Academy of Art and graduated in 1952. He used war as an inspiration for his art work to respond to the current events going on around him. Eventually, he met up with video artist Nam June Paik and joined a performance group called Fluxus. The group performed concerts and it were these that Beuys used as inspiration for his performance and installation art. 

He planned a project in Baltimore called the Tree Partnership Project. A project to plant 500 trees. He focused on energy conservation and global awareness in Carol Park, Patterson Park, UMBC, and Wymen Park Dell. This was an ongoing project first started by a sculpture called 7000 Oaks.

He did a titled project 30 Oaks which is a concert of performance artists and local Baltimore musicians. This art work was only meant to be performed at this space. He wanted to create a strong human relation with the forest and greenery around the performers. There was singers, dancers, sculptures, artists and dreamers participating in this project. 

One performance art included > How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare. In this performance Beuys sat in a corner of a gallery and held a dead rat in his arms for the duration of the time. He carried the dead bunny around like it was very special to him. He spoke to it and treated it gently. Holding a dead hare was trying to create a radical statement on society. Sometimes people need to let go of the idea of something or someone being there all the time. Sometimes you have to give up things that you don't want too. But carrying around it's memory is just a lie to yourself that what you desire is coming back. In my life, the hardest thing to do is let go. That is what I take from this piece without reading a prior description explaining Bueys' true motives.

In his piece Infiltration Homogen für Konzertflügel (Homogenous Infiltration for Grand Piano), 1966 Beuys covered a piano in felt fabric to hide the musical instruments true purpose and sound. He used a thick covering to show that the object has been taken away it's original use. This is no longer a piano, but a wrapped object that underneath could only appear to be one. I believe Beuys was following Marcell Duchamp's Dada ideas for the de-contextualizatoin of this object.  

http://feltworks.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/joseph-beuys-felt-metaphors/

http://www.walkerart.org/archive/2/A84369EE5A576E446161.htm

Marcel Duchamp - Rotary Glass Plates, 1920

Marcel Duchamp created Rotary Glass Plates in 1920 as part of the DaDa movement. He used ready made objects and transformed them into a working machine. This machine consisted of five glass pieces attached to a horizontal spinning metal pole. The pole cuts through the center of the glass and the glass sheets increase in size from front to back. On each piece of glass the front has curved black lines on the sides in a spiral design. When the machine moves fast, the glass spins with the metal pole. Images of a moving spiral can be seen when the glass plates spin fast. This kind of creates a stroboscopic effect much like the work of (  ), the dream machine. Each piece of glass was mathematically configured as well as the base pieces of wood and spinning metal pole. The lines on the sides of each glass are carefully measured and sized with equal distances from each other.according to the Yale Art University website "eCatalogue" "Rotary Glass Plates was the first actual machine that Duchamp made in his quest for a new world that would no longer separate art from idea." 

this sculpture was innovative, interesting, and functional. It creates an optical illusion of black and white full spirals.

Orlan

Orlan was a bit of a nutcase. She loved the female body and learning the limitations of what she could alter on her own face. She performed plastic surgeries live to be taped and photographed. She wore awkward bright color clothing when she was being operated on. The surgeons themselves also wore ridiculous attire during this process. It was an act. She expiremented with black and white self portrait photography. She was the model for 80 percent of her work. She optimized on transformation of the human body and digital face modification. What if you could be someone not yourself? She implanted bumps on the sides of her forehead to create the look of horns. She wears bright colors and is a strong feminist . 

In one piece she held in front of her a image of a naked body that covered her torso. Her head was held over the top. To the wood, someone could insert a coin and receive a kiss. The coin would drop down a pathway into a holder at the bottom of her torso.

She was bold, influential and downright out of her mind. Also, without a fear of needles or pain, clearly because she performed every surgery fully awake.

One of the most shocking images from Orlan's website is in her plastic surgery triptych series. In this series three images are placed next to each other horizontally in which the two images on the right and left are the same rectangle size and there is a photo in the center, with a smaller width but a different image. On the duplicated photo is an image of her face looking to the right, laying on her back holding a devils staff. The staff she is holding cuts through a sculpture of a human skull.  The photos are in color with four mini, white, outlined square boxes in each corner. The central photo is black and white. It looks to be a glamour shot of her face in bandages after the completion of a plastic surgery. The photo has an odd subject matter and is shocking because it is not the most pleasant thing to look at. It has a dark tone and the amber and red coloring give the photo an uncomfortable feeling. Also, it is important to note the face in each different photograph is highly over exposed

In this piece Orlan is dressed like a Biblical "Mary" from the Bible. Now, I don't know anything really about the Bible- so chances are it's not really Marry that she looks like. I could just be making that up, however, Orlan is dressed in long colored fabrics with a head piece and cape that remind me of something I would see in a children's Bible story class. Except there is nothing Biblical about this photo. She is clearly standing on a thick metal pole used for holding up a car in the center of a garage. How classy? In fact, she is even more out of place because her dress style makes me think she needs to be in a marble atrium or something. Anyway, she is standing in a pedestal in the center of a garage. A dirty place meant for holding the outdoor machines like lawn mowers and garden tools. It's also a very cold place at night. This is an interesting piece because she is suspended in the air above the concrete floor like she is a goddess. There is also smoke coming up from ... whatever that pole is, which makes it odd like she is some sort of genie.  

Xerox project \ phase 1

For this project I decided to use the one thing in school that is most important to me right now. I absolutely love this longboard, I call it Sheila. I wanted to take a Marcel Duchamp approach and cover and object to leave the viewer wondering what is under it. It appears to be a longboard, but what if it is not? Anyway I wrapped the board with seran wrap first, and decided my approach to covering the wheels. I decided against wrapping the wheels because red is my favorite color, and I wanted that to show through. I printed out scanned photos of my face. I wanted my photos to make it appear as if I was trapped inside my longboard. I covered the center photo with seran wrap and did not paste photos over that area for this effect. I then, cut and pasted photos to cover the rest of the board. If you look carefully you will notice that the hands and some other parts intertwine over each other. I added subtle red, blue, and yellow coloring over the top of my photos to add a splatter effect.

My plan for this project is to take photos of it day by day after using it. I will document how the board unfolds back to its original state.

Overall I really enjoyed this project and I had a fun time making and coming up with the idea.

So far this is phase 1 of my board