The Village of Trees

Color Wheel

after about 48 hours it’s finally done. i had to use cheap paints but it turned out alright..

Fundraiser at Harder

I didn’t get to take any pictures of the other stuff, but it was good stuff indeed. i donated this painting. I don’t paint to much but it was fun to mess around. i call it F-you. if you look at it long enough you’ll understand. or  not..

the Camera on my phone is not too shabby

Madd bored at the library, and i came across some critters

Formation: A Unfamiliar perspective

After many hours and little sleep, my installation is now complete and I have succesefuly accomplished my goals. The critique today went very well, especially since i didnt have any troubles with the piece.  I am satisfied with this installation, although it would have been a much more interesting piece if there was more time considering the message i wanted to display, and how i could do this with out words. This relies on how the environment and the piece speak to the viewer, which is very complex.

While at first the idea of nature juxtaposing industry is quite obvious there is much more behind this general category of green simpathy. This message isn’t about me or a cry out for help but rather a symbol of acnolledgment. a Visual display of what many others and myself see everyday. But theres no stopping it.. Maybe we can slow it down.. but theres no stopping it. People live their schedualed lives so vigoursly, its rare when someone stops to look around. Simply think. This ignorance bugs me, but i cant change others, nor do i want to. I have come to notice that most often the little burst of light someone has when they are inspired, evolves and last much longer then teaching or telling a person what you believe in. This Symbol of acknolledgement was an attempt at forcing people to think. 

Final Project: Progress cont’d

With the help from Brett Hunter we were able to build a better box to block out the light. This new cave is safer and it looks much more professional. I have not gotten to decorating the cave yet, rather I began working on the sculpture. When working with Brett in making the cave I got a new idea for the shadow of the sculpture. The shadow will be the silhouette of an industrial power plant, which juxtaposes the raw and organic qualities of the objects, I found on the line, for the sculpture.

Thanks to the Foundations class, I now have two very nice flashlights that I can use, instead of my little dinky one!

Final Project: A work in progress

A mini presentation of the exploration of the word Formation

During the last week i have been thinking hard on what i want to do concerning the final project for my class, as my word is formation there are a number of things i can pursue. In the end io want to explore shadows and how they are formed. In order to display this interest my plan is to create a sculpture from sticks and small things i have acquired while on the line. When the piece is finished it wont resemble anything but a pile of sticks. When a light is casted on it in the right angle and spot the shadow will then resemble a figure or object of some sort. To start this project i have been in the process of building a small “cave”, if you may, in  order to block out all  the light as well as collecting the objects from the line that i will sculpt with..

The cave in the process of being built

The chair is not part of the piece but a place holder for the sculpture

Now my goal along with creating the sculpture is finding the best light source to create a shadow. If i am able to attain a flashlight like the Cave Dogs i would but very happy, but these tend to be expensive. In the photo above, i am simply using my head lamp but im quite sure i can find a better light.

Final project options

Here are three ideas i would like to explore for the next two weeks. Its hard to make a decision but I’m quite sure ill be able to use concept from all three. I see myself leaning towards shadows, so that might be the main feature of my project.

Formation: Cloud Formation

When at the ends of the line the clouds are very visible and sometimes very cool looking. Both sides are the most elevated spots, not only on the line, but in the general area of our campus so these places are ideal for watching clouds. I spent the good amount of time on both sides watching the cloud formations and the slow movements they have. While watching the clouds i took some pictures. After looking at the images i decided to identify the type of cloud through it characteristics. Clouds are formed when air containing water vapor is cooled below a critical temperature called the dew point. This resulting moisture condenses into droplets on microscopic dust particles (condensation nuclei) in the atmosphere. Through the variation of wind currents and the temperature, clouds can form many different shapes and sizes. Here are some examples of different cloud formations that we have seen here at Alfred in the past week.

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Formation: No Longer Blue

While I was observing the clouds I couldn’t help my self when I was distracted by the Crows that were making their sunset flight throughout the sky. They always fly in large groups and their flight patterns or formations are very attractive. In spite of this I wrote a poem that was inspired by how the group of birds acts as one and how this one is alone in the sky.

No Longer Blue

Swimming freely in the sky,

the dark shadows ascend so high.

Do you remember the day,

when nothing could fly.

This massive gang seems like one;

hiding behind the sun.

Waiting for me to come,

the nightmare has just begun.

My mind is way overdue;

I knew I shouldn’t have withdrew.

I wish I could fly,

so I can come see you

Formation: Plants need the sun too

When I was in the forest working on a recent exploration I noticed that a lot of the plants were bent in a general direction. Knowing of photosynthesis, I knew the plants were bending in order to receive the most sunlight possible because the sun is like food for plants. I became curious to how the plants actually do this so I did some minor research.

After sometime online I learned that the ability of a plant to bend to the sun is known as phototropism. There is a hormone in a plant stems called auxin, and it causes elongation. Light destroys auxin when it hits the stem but because auxin is still present on the shaded side of the stem, the cells on the darker side are able to grow more than the cells on the lighted side, in turning forcing the plant to bend toward the light.