Base14

So, I bet you’ve been wondering why it’s been a while since my last post. The reason is because I’ve been working non-stop on this new series of handmade silk scarves. Each pattern is hand drawn through a gutta resist dye process. The color is then painstakingly painted on using a liquid dye. (The red scarf alone took over six hours to add color to.) This process is followed up with steaming, rinsing and finalizing.

The series was created for a Donald Hall exhibit that will open at Purdue next Thursday, November 5th. The scarves are in response to the line “beautiful terrible sentences unuttered” from his poem ‘Without.’ Like many, I know all too well what it feels like to lose a loved one to cancer. This series of scarves follows my reaction to Hall’s poem as I personally related it to recent events in my life.  Each one travels deeper into my interpretation.

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So last Tuesday night I suddenly realized I had two days left to produce my experimental “under the camera” assignment for ANIM 705 – Animation Aesthetics and Practice. When the project was assigned over a month ago, I knew I wanted my medium to be stop motion with Lego bricks, but procrastinated for weeks on just how I would apply it.

Finally, in a flurry of indecision, I settled on a narrative piece structured around one of my favorite songs from musician and good friend of Base14, Rick DeSutter. Rick has been a key player in all of our recent short films, providing original music for Ara, Brian Paulson and Duck ♥ Teslacoil. The song I chose was “Shasta Creme Song,” not only for its wit but also its extremely short run time – only a little more than a minute. I set up a rostrum camera and lighting system Tuesday night and started animating bright and early Wednesday morning. By 11:59pm Wednesday, I had finished all animation and had the whole video wrapped up before class Thursday morning. Not bad!

The video was uploaded to YouTube Friday and has already garnered an impressive number of hits. It may not be perfect, but it’s spontaneous and fun, which makes it charming in a crude sort of way. Anywho, have yourself a watch and enjoy!

Back in July I blogged about our involvement in the Savannah 48 Hour Film Project, which was some of the most fun I’ve ever had working on a film set. Our short film entry, “Frozen,” was well-received but strangely enough, didn’t win any awards. Shortly thereafter I got tied up with my trips to New York and Hollywood with Duck ♥ Teslacoil, and never got around to posting it online. Well, with midterms week in full swing and all my time being consumed by some new, exciting projects, I thought this lull was a good time to show off just what all the summer fuss was about. When you watch it, remember that we did everything – writing, planning, filming and editing – in only 48 hours. Enjoy!

I was just telling my Flash CS4 Workshop last night that Duck ♥ Teslacoil wouldn’t go online until late this year or early next year. But I was completely unaware that one day beforehand the Digital Artist Awards gave Duck ♥ Teslacoil a “commended” award and published it on Vimeo. Oh snap!

This probably could have gone by mostly unnoticed, but then this morning, the Flash animation blog Cold Hard Flash featured Duck ♥ Teslacoil in its very own post! Wowzers! Now that the cat’s out of the bag and I might as well release an official online version of Duck ♥ Teslacoil.

I wasn’t done planning DHT’s viral video campaign yet, so while it now is officially online, I’m going to keep the fanfare low until after the Savannah Film Festival. I suspect that will give us the big boost we need to really ratchet up the film’s popularity!

Update:Duck ♥ Teslacoil is now playing on YouTube!

Generally, I post pieces made exclusively for Base14, but it seems there is a desire to see more of my fashion portfolio. So here is the first of a series of mini-posts with works from spring and summer.

Purdue Fashion Show: Spring 2009

All fabrics were dyed and treated by hand. The waist of the dress is hand smocked by yours truly. Pricing information available upon request.

Tonight was the first Adobe Mentor Workshop sponsored by SCAD’s Contemporary Animation Society and taught by yours truly! It went really well and I want to thank everyone who attended! Look for more Adobe Mentor Workshops in the future! Thanks again everyone!

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