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August 21, 2005
The Agony of Defeat
I like to design and produce my own clothing. Not the actual fabrication of textile or the stitching together business but the patterns and images that go on already existing vestments. As seen in my first sentence there are two halves to this process, the first being design in which I feel both confident and competent to rise to the occasion; it is, in fact, the field in which I hold my degree. The second variable in the equation is production which is always an adventure. To be a successful creative person, or artist as they are sometimes known, one must have a firm grasp on both. Many people come up with great ideas and our world is filled with legions of talented craftsmen, the idea is to be in possession of both skill sets.
The entirety of my creative process begins and ends in the computer which is magnificent when the intended outcome is pretty pixels for throughout the duration of a project I have absolute control. When an article of clothing is concerned, however, I have a myriad of choices to consider: I could continue my hands off approach by stooping so low as purchase hideous iron-ons, employ the horrible services of café-press, have them screen-printed at great expense or figure out a way to do it myself. The last choice is often best because it joins together low cost, good image quality and the satisfaction of a job well done.
My prior endeavors into the world of clothing stenciling have been, by and large, successful...until tonight. I had a design done that I wanted to print for a while and figured that putting inks on top of one another would go as smoothly as before. It turns out that you can retain straight lines if you put white on top of black but not vice-versa. The white paint I have is so thick that it creates a non-absorbant layer on top of the fabric that causes the black paint to bleed all 'whily-niley'. The printing was going swimmingly well til the application of the very last layer of text and disc details. Needless to say I was crushed, not just because I had sunk hours into both the cutting and printing but because the shirt I ruined cost $16 from American Apparel. I think from now on all my future projects will be one-color jobs since they print the cleanest. Below you can see pictures of my intended design and how it came out; perhaps the subject matter doomed it from the start :)
I'm not sure why I posted this but I wanted everyone to see that an integral part of the creative process is failure and the ensuing desire to learn from your mistakes and try doing it all over again. Now if only I could have the same mentality about dating and understanding the fairer sex. I do have one more American Apparel shirt, however, and I plan on making it into something pretty rad.
My intended design.
The finish printed shirt.
A detail shot of the ink bleeding on the text. Notice the crisp lines on the speech bubble in comparison the the muddy edges of the text.
A detail shot of the ink bleeding on the disc details. Again, all the other edges (especially the black disc edge) are all clean and precise.
Posted by Jon at 08:00 PM | Comments (3)
August 20, 2005
Broken Traditions Renewed
With the onset of this chilly weather I feel as though it is necessary to embark on some kind of adventure. Over the past few days these late August days have felt as though they belong in mid-September and the numerous after school sale advertisements have switched in me a desire to find new surroundings. Though this will be my third consecutive fall bereft of a return to school the residue of the experience still lingers strongly and many times throughout my day I catch myself wishing I was still a part of the ritual; much like a salmon who is instantly and inexplicably drawn from the sea to discover the shallow streams of its birth.
I always enjoyed school, not so much the worksheets, papers, projects and forced busy work but the daily social interactions one could count on to sharpen the mind and provide endless candidates for possible dating scenarios. Though there was so much I arcanely hated about high school, the first-day-back experience of simultaneously wearing new socks, shoes, underwear, shirt and backpack is certainly nonpareil. But even my most Bayside-esque encounters at Plymouth North paled in comparison to late night tea with Jersey Fresh and the other boys of Witmer 4th, sharing conversation and turns at the decks.
My halcyon falls in Grantham were punctuated with evening soccer games, chilly walks to long dinners in Lottie, rousing matches of floor wide Half-life, Tuesday nights at 'the V' for midnight Amistad Sessions and walks with beautiful rosy-cheeked girls who all might end up my wife. Just the ritual of stopping down to get Jeremy and Nate from the evil clutches of the 'Great Imbilicus' for dinner conjures up images of fondness permanently stored in my vault of precious memories. Though I always dreaded the return to actual work I was always promised something new when I returned to the halls of education; something that now, I truly miss.
Life for me lately has been wonderful. After a six-month stint at Best Buy and a year and a half of coupon-creation I landed myself an incredible job where I am entrusted to make relevant design decisions and have been generally praised for my work. The biggest kicker is that I get to create from the comforts of my own desk and decide from the location of my pillow when the work day should begin. It was the sort of employment agreement that I dreamed about while studying and though it is certainly comfortable on most levels I still crave the adventure of starting afresh at the end of the summer.
Not ones to easily reliquish the past, Jed and I have been talking about getting a cabin/beach house for the weekend of Hallow's Eve and extend the invitation to all relevant alumni of Messiah. I can assure you that the event will be a cornucopia of pleasures including a variety of fiery libations, house music, pumpkin carving, cookie baking, warm tea, spooky movies, warm sweaters, George Winston records and cool brisk walks. Generally a return to the traditions of our collegiate experience. Anyone else interested?
The cost would be fairly low considering it would be the off season and especially so if we adhere to the adage of 'the-more-the merrier'. In order for this reverie to take life and find a place in history the cogs must be set in motion as soon as possible. So, lets begin the head count shall we? Just state whether you would prefer a New England beach house on Cape Cod or a spooktacular cabin in the heart of the Poconos (or other tree-laden expanse) as well as how many from your locale will be attending. If New England is your choice I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to be your personal shuttle from the airport and back; flights to Providence on Southwest are positively abstemious on the wallet.
Posted by Jon at 02:17 PM | Comments (3)
August 08, 2005
Shared Mental Conditions
I have always been arcanely fascinated with autism and all that the condition entails. The movie Rainman made a very solid impression on me with the toothpick counting scene now permanently etched into my memory.
Part of autism's intrigue lies in its occupants inability to express themselves in regards to the disorder. Their communicative attempts are either simple distant displays of discomfort or a meditative rocking motion indicating contentment. It is needless to say that when I read this I was instantly smitten with the implications.
I have always considered myself somewhat of a mild-autistic citing my fascination with numbers, patterns, repetitive music and single minded concentration of the task set in front of me as solid, though vague, indicators. Have you seen my senior project from college? You can browse to it at respondcreate by following portfolio>multimedia>Senior Show or you could just click here to see the video and here to read my artist statement. I constantly find myself consciously hallucinating by imagining the world around me in swirling patterns with different shapes interacting with one another to create vivid parallel universes. These imagined reconstructions kept me sane in high school classrooms and paved the way for my passion to create; pure and lucid empowerment flows over me when I can make these abstract ideas take physical form.
After reading the aforementioned article I wanted to sit down with Mr.Tammet and pick his brain for hours about the places he has been and what sort of images all those numbers in his head create. If the hypotheses are correct and there are areas of our brain that we can unlock I'll be the first on the list to get the alterations necessary to see as Daniel does. It seems like a worthwhile trade to forfeit social graces in order to experience the lush complexities that he describes take place in his mind. Though if through my metamorphosis I found the beach to become a place of overwhelming stress that might prove to be the ultimate deal breaker.
Speaking of autistic, single-minded fascination this game has become an absolute obsession. It's the sort of electronic entertainment that could be grouped in the category of Wario-Ware-esque-mini-game-haberdashery. All that is required of you, the player, is a simple click of the mouse which will dictate to that lovable hamster that you want him to turn to the left. Stay within the course and try to beat my high score of 1746, I dare you. Mr. T has become my mortal enemy and we have moved to exorbitant lengths to best each other in this competition to outweigh our inadequacies as men. If any of you ovary wielding readers out there want to emasculate me please take a crack at that high score. It goes without saying that I'll need to see screenshots as credentials for your validity in this arena. I am also well aware that anyone with a passing knowledge of Photoshop could easily forge a score of fantastic proportions so I implore you all to act as upstanding gentlemen and ladies.
Though it has been already linked I should mention that Matty has recently plunged himself simultaneously into both the world of LiveJournal and webcomics concentrating both pursuits into one potent stop on the interweb. Both his insights and his creations are worth your time and I encourage you to check it out.
Posted by Jon at 08:05 PM | Comments (3)