Girl on a rainy day

Still have a lot to do on this one... but here she is.

best things to steal

Weapons are the best things to steal. Steal them from the sweaty fingers of evil people and tie the gun barrels in knots cartoon-style, and collect all the knives and hurl them out of the atmosphere. Try not to hit the moon, because then astronauts will find them and pick knife fights with each other and poke holes in each other’s space suits and deflate. And then our rocket ships would just be parked on the moon with the keys in the ignition, waiting for aliens to find them and go joy-riding. 

Steal bombs out of bunkers and replace them with pianos and tubas and model ship-in-bottle kits, so instead of bombing people the terrorists could have hobbies. Don’t forget to include sheet music and wood glue. And snacks, because new hobbies make you hungry.

Steal the black belts right off the waists of kung fu masters. If you can do this, you deserve them more than they do.

Steal animal traps from fields and forests. Set them up in the lobbies of places like Haliburton and GE and the White House. Bait them with money and no-bid contracts. Have a taxidermist standing by to stuff the severed hands as a warning to future generations.

Steal Gothic spires off cathedrals and use them as trellises in your garden. Grow tomato vines and green beans on them and then when you eat your veggies a little bit of holiness will make its way through your digestive tract and into the plumbing, and eventually, to the rivers and oceans, which are in some need of holiness.

Steal coins from wishing wells and see if you can tell, by holding each coin in your fist and concentrating really hard, what wish went with what coin. If you find you have a talent for this, become a fairy godmother.

Steal souls back from the devil. You’ll have to distract him with a Gameboy and then dig up the field in Texas where he keeps the souls buried in small black wedding ring boxes, caked with dust. The souls will be shrunk to the size of lentils or smaller. Take them and go on a pilgrimage -- whenever you find someone without a soul, slip one into his beer or back pocket. The rest will happen naturally.

Laini Taylor

"Effect of the Butterfly" Piece Finished.

It's over, and here we are =] I'm quite happy with it. Oh britain. I've added in some more shadow work, emphasized a few key areas that needed it, and done my share of texturing and darkening of the image as a whole.

wicked texture dude.

Lately I've been researching new processes to try out with my images and areas of the art I have not yet ventured into. I want to do work in ways that I have never done before- so in addition to my current project with the pennies, I am doing a lot of reading and experimenting with macro-lens photography, the application of more textures and gradients in masking, as well as still photographing people to sketch back on the laptop. It's been interesting thusfar- and I'm shooting at having some more artwork up here to display within the next week here =]

Remember...

"Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless;
peacocks and lilies, for example".

John Ruskin

What makes you happy?

So.. If I'm looking to manipulate a good mood in people picking up these pennies, I should use imagery that makes them feel happy. So I've been thinking about things that make me happy- heres a short list of possible ideas and thoughts that could become imagery for the pennies.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Some things that make me happy:

-popping bubble wrap

-fortune cookies

-finding lucky pennies

-making a wish on a shooting star

-blowing out birthday candles

-watching someone you care about sleep

-listening to drunk voice-mail messages

-wind chimes on a windy day

-walking on crunchy colored leaves in autumn

-secret handshakes

-trees

-picture books

-music

-balloons

-Laughing for no reason at all

-getting letters in the mail

-Driving down a scenic and peaceful road

-Tuning a radio to your favorite station

-Lying in bed just listening to the rain

-milkshakes or smoothies

-Watching the sun rise and set

-Waking up grateful for another beautiful day

-bubble baths

-good conversation with a friend

-having someone tell you that you are beautiful

-sweet dreams

-hot chocolate, tea, and coffee

-going on road-trips with friends

-making cookies

-swinging on swings

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What makes you happy? =]

Poppyseed muffins for two.

Sleep deprivation isn't nearly as much of a boost as it was made out to be. Now my frontal lobe is kicking me down =]

Fortunately, bamboo still clicks when it sways in the wind by my desk and electronics can create an ambience in a room like no other. 

Seriously. Shut off audible noise makers and tune in. It's interesting that we tune out such basic noises that we almost hear during the day.

This chai is delicious. 

I'm thinking about getting felt tips for my wacom tablet's pen. smooth.

I enjoy water. 

I should start a dream journal. yeah.

A penny for your thoughts.

I was thinking about ways I could integrate the butterfly effect topic into an artistic event of sorts and incite some change in peoples lives through a project. I was talking with friends about something totally off topic and the idea came to us-

I could get 25 pennies. On those 25 pennies, I could do gel medium transfers of some smaller and simpler pieces I'm working on right now. Upon drying, those 25 pennies would be distributed picture side down across campus in places that they would be seen and picked up.

While the images would be small, I want them to be emotional pieces that the finder can't help but look at and identify with. I would of course keep copies to be saved for show, along with papers describing the idea behind the project.

The more I think about it.... I really think it could be interesting to see how the copper tone of the pennies interact with the digital prints. Maybe I should play with my transparency in the images. =] hmmm.

Still working on some of the finer details, but I'm excited to see this one become a reality.

Forced Penstrokes.

Okay. So Mr. Lichty would do well to take English 101 or 102 with Professor Schmidt from the English department.

I can guarantee that by the time the professor got to the second paragraph, the page would already be inked with red beyond recognition.

Can you say, "what a wordy mess."

yuck.

A piece's worth comes from the viewing audience's response to the work. Thats it. And yes.. the Artist could be considered part of the viewing audience.

Sketchy. sketchy.

These are just a couple sketeches I've done recently that may fall into later pieces. Just thinking ^^

The Embodied Effect

The Embodied Effect. A starting break-off of the theme, The Butterfly Effect. This is my first piece Im working on. Still working on some blending and such, but its starting to come together for me. I'll discuss in crit tonight, but imput would still be great =]

thanks..