So ok. I haven't posted anything in a while and I feel bad about that. This is for me as much as it is to let people in my life know what the heck is going on in my odd existence. So whats been going on is this game called Spore. I wasn't going to post anything about this because it's a dumb game. Well....not so dumb the more I think about it. I am doing art here. Yes. it will be gone in a year and a half when this game loses popularity and thats part of why I left the video game industry. Once the game is old news your work is flushed into the digital void. Burned to a disk or drive and chucked into a dark hold in some building on the planet. Worse yet, it's just deleted and literly wiped from existance as if it were the last copy of a book and burned. So I won't be into Spore for long, but for now ot's fun. I have literly been amazed by what some people have been able to create.

Now this isn't all I have been working on. I have a fish to show the world, but it's not quite finished yet. Just about, so be looking for that soon. Also, Erin and I are looking forward to Art and Soul! Only two days away! =D I look forward to seeing everyone there. Talking with those I met at AU and meeting new folks.

All things Day of the Dead

The fat lady has sung and it is done. A shrine to Skeletons, Marigolds, Jalapenos, and Tequila. As I was reading about Día de los Muertos these things were the re-occurring theme. Now, the Jalapenos are used to cook things left at the graves of loved ones passed, but I love them all by themselves, so they get a special place up front. By the way. Never NEVER taunt the chef by saying something stupid like "This isn't even close to hot enough." Oddly enough this was NOT the direction I was thinking of going originally, however the more reading I did the more I was drawn to this theme. Yet another huge learning project for me. Ferric Chloride for some reason hates me. Each piece of copper took different times to etch. The main image took 55 minutes and has a nice deep etch. Each of the side bits took times varying from 60 min to almost 80 and on top of that the 80 etch still isn't that deep. BUT WAIT! Before you suggest that I not reuse etchant, I didn't. This was fresh stuff and the copper had been cleaned and sanded lightly before the resist image was put on. I have no idea what happened to that one... There is another thing as well. Getting the images onto the copper.... Good god almighty what a pain in the arse!!! I started by illustrating the main image into my sketchbook. I scanned it and photoshop touched it up a little. Printed it out on my Brother laser printer, taped it to the copper at the corners, applied acetone and....AND....AND....nothing. Only the slightest of ink shown on my copper. I was so pumped for this. Jazzed and excited even. To be able to illustrate stuff, print it off and etch it into metal just sounded SO cool! To get absolutely nothing was ... Well, you know when While E Coyote is in a hot air balloon with goodies to drop on Roadrunner, then something pops the balloon. He is frozen in mid air till he processes what just happened and then he falls to his doom. Kinda felt like that. So after my big let down there I tried Office Max. They printed it off for me. (I was hoping it was an ink thing) Well it wasn't. I received precisely 2% more ink off of that print. 2% more than .5% sucks, however it was enough for me to see the image. So with my deadline approaching I got down to what I knew needed to be done. Hand inking the whole dang thing. I grabbed 3 different sized sharpies and went to town. So the main image has an "original" to it. The rest were inked right onto the copper and are one offs that can't be duplicated. You can imagine my stress when I put those into the etchant. If one came out with a bubble or something bad I got to start all over again. Well fate loved me that day. I had no problems at all. The door was hand cut with my jewelers saw and putting the hinges on was fun. I ended up using a small pen drill and drilling pilot holes. Then I cut the screws down by half. I am very happy with how this turned out and also quite happy to be done with it. lol

Tease time

So, for the last two weeks I have been working on a cigar box shrine for the street kids of Oaxaca auction. (See tease image) I am happy with how this is going thus far and have found it to be a good challenge for various reasons. Everything seems to be taking 2 to 3 times as long as it should. Etching has turned out to be slightly more challenging than I thought it would be. My times were not solid. Some bits took far longer to etch than others, but everything is working. So woot.

In other news: My wife and I have just celebrated our 12th anniversary and 14 years together!!! Oh yeah! My wife, my muse, my beloved. She is, in fact, amazing. I am so dang happy these days it's kinda crazy. Everything flows well with us. Now we just have to make sure we keep it this way. (looks up at sky) "No more tests for a while please." We went to Teatro ZinZanni for our anniversary dinner on Sunday. If you are in the area and can make it to this place then GO. Drag queen plus random member of the audience = more laughter than I have experienced in a VERY long time. "Manchester" was the guy/girls name and is only the MC for the show. The entire show was hilarious and very fun. A 5 course meal with cirque like entertainment. Really great stuff. The show changes once every 3 months or so. Some are more comedy tuned and others are... well different somehow. I'm not sure how, but that's what I was told, so there. Just think Cirque Du Soleil in a small venue with great food as well.