Fun-A-Day 2009 is over….for those of us who do not abide by the lifestyle of “Fun-A-Day Forever!”
These are the official redrawn pictures used during the charm/strange experience performance at the Fun-A-Day show. Thanks to all those who engaged us and took part in the performance. It really was the high point of my life…until right now, of course.
Atoms are made of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Protons and Neutrons are made up of quarks. A proton contains two up quarks and one down quark, while a neutron consists of one up quark and two down quarks; the quarks are held together in the nucleus by gluons. There are six different types of quark in all: up, down, bottom, top, strange, and charm. (That’s where we got the name from.) It seems like the smallest piece of matter can be found, but sooner or later it can be broken down into even smaller parts. That’s the idea behind these images:
These were created using a spirograph and some CS2.
Pay attention to the world and you will find all the answers you’re looking for. I’ve gotten so caught up in the process, I’ve forgotten the bigger picture: those patterns, being repeated on different levels, different scales. Basically, these pictures don’t fit the thesis and need to be scrapped. Harsh? No, not really. The central idea of the project needs to be evident through out, and I seem to have forgotten that. Putting pen to paper, or pen to tablet in this case, knocks me into another world…if I don’t have a solid roadmap, I’ll get disoriented and totally lost. That’s becasue I wasn’t being aware. Thinking too literal about all of this has trapped me…shake it out, remember the fun, and just go for it.
I used to think way more linear about drawing comics…you know, write the story in words first, know what will be happening in every panel, rough the pages, go in and draw, take the roadmap and go on the journey. Lately I’ve just been kind of looking over the map and heading out without it. It’s all about the journey, right? There’s still structure to everything…even no structure is structure.
blah blah, here are some jellyfish:
We have to keep going. What are we going to do, stop? I can’t not do this.
Listen to this guy:
Fun-A-Day is progressing nicely. Over 200 pictures need to be drawn to complete phase 2 of the charm/strange experience project. I’m in the middle of creating a series of images showing the timeline of life, basically from the Earth forming up to the dawn of humans. Not only is the subject matter of the pictures showing more complex life emerging, but the way it’s drawn changes as well. I’d rather not envoke the old “It’s just lines on paper” quote, but it’s really just colors on a screen, frequencies of light bouncing around, settling on the eye, being interpreted by the brain. I’m becoming less and less interested in actual subject matter, more and more interested in the story of “the colors”, what they are doing, how they are changing, which ones are existing. Following this train of thought, while still having a specific pictorial subject matter, creates more levels, makes things more challenging, makes it more reflective of what actually seems to be going on. I’m obsessed with this, because this is what I observe in real life. Art, comics, drawing, is my way of interpreting this incredible web we call reality. On top of this, this project also involves some beautiful piano music, adding another level to delve into. I won’t even mention the bubble machine…
Deep sea life emerges:
Things start to shift…
Primordial black clings to life, dispite the continuous lanscape of shifting color. Will Color dominate Black? Will Shapes prevail over Lines? What is the balance? Good question. So many levels…
More Fun-A-Day:
Life on Earth started in the oceans millions of years ago. The planet was a churning mass of colors.
Deep under the sea life developed around heat vents, energy from the Earth pouring out, mixing chemicals, colors, creating constant changing shapes…
Chemicals swirled about, bonds were made, patterns began emerging, leading individual strands to work together, creating a cohesivness that can only be seen on another level…the single cell.
Communities
Pull back another level and you get societies
It really seems like similar patterns are being repeated on different scales. Let’s be aware of this and see if that is an idea that makes sense.
I started working on Fun-A-Day in November. The charm/strange experience will be performing at the show, meaning that there’s over 200 pictures that need to be drawn. These pics are the Earth forming…the art forming…lava spewing, the atmosphere churning, colors all over, scribbly lines…yet all structured. The gimmick is that I can’t keep spending an hour working on a picture that will appear for 2 seconds. It’ll all make sense somehow…
