don't hate me because i'm beautiful

the closest it gets from a safe distance

heres a video of the tank at the opening.

tank

this is a sneak peak. little is revealed in case some of you still want to visit.

infiltrators

sometimes you have a girlfriend that has a belt that has a lock and key on it. and sometimes while she is busy watching tv you can lock the lock and hide the key without her knowing. then when she has to pee she will be stuck in her pants until you tell her that the key is actually in her pocket. then, if you forget to log out as blog administrator, she will add an entry resembling the one below as revenge. and the cycle continues.

movie projects

so i have been thinking a lot lately about all the things that make me tick, and i realize that my love for musicals plays a big roll in who i am. thinking of scrapping all of my previous thesis show plans. instead i will concentrate on whittling the whole cast of my favorite move, Grease. pretty sure it is my best idea yet.

tank

My buddy Gordon and I are working on this big big tank. here are some parts completed. The idea is a metaphor of the futility of our attempts to understand warfare. It's also been crazy for me to be working in such drastically different scales. The little version of Gordon I'm carving is going to look pretty rediculous on the tank. Hopefully.

collaborations

i've been thinking a lot lately on the nature of collaborations. i have a project right now where i ask people to help me with making a portrait of themselves. or i actually whittle the portrait of them out of wood and they help me make the setting for it. i began by asking them to collaborate with me but now i'm having issues with using that word since the pieces are my idea and are for a show i will be formatting. it is tough for anyone to measure the level of personal investment given by another person so the only thing i have to go on is if they seem willing or excited. so now i just ask them for their help on the project. i think i'm okay with this. in return for them helping, they get to keep the final object.
the whole issue i'm having is just with how to word things. approaching people with a project like this is hard. i want to genuinely cooperate on something and not have there be any undertones of exploitation. i wonder if that is even possible.

alright

so i've been ramping up energy for some new blog posts. the blog's been on hold a bit while i gathered some thoughts. these are some unfinished whittlings i've done of my friends. the faces i'm saving for later because they are hard.

some entries soon to come maybe...

-collaborations

-the history of whittling

-tanks

-gifts

sigh

views of my fake home from shelby davis on Vimeo.

adventures

landscapes

whittling

whittling is a fascinating pastime.

Sculpture we saw in LA

we saw this on our trip last may and it has stuck with me a bit. big toy. it gets pulled along the beach and leaves a tiny repeated version of LA in the sand.

portland from mid willamette

the hunter

this is a post on foundmagazine.com for oct 2nd. it describes my graduate school experience in a way.

da vinci

"For the ambitious, to whom neither the beauty of life nor the bounty of the world will suffice to content. It comes as penance that life for them is squandered. That they posses neither the benefits nor the beauty of the world. And if they are unable to perceive what is divine in nature, which is all around them, how will they be able to see their own divinity which is sometimes hidden?"

The Fences of Italy

sucks to be made of marble

this seemed like an appropriate thing to photograph at the vatican museum.

all my MFA bloggers

you folks is awesome

amy steel -- http://yumyumsnack.blogspot.com/
shelby davis-- http://davisactivities.blogspot.com/
kate simmons--
kevin nagler -- http://bullshithighschool.blogspot.com/
amber moss-jensen -- http://www.ienfaod.blogspot.com/
Joel Garcia -- http://everwonderwhatitallreallymeans.blogspot.com/
emily rose "posie" currin -- http://posierose.blogspot.com/
miles goodwin
bethany hays -- superkitchenwitch.blogspot.com
Damien Gilley -- damiengilley.blogspot.com
Vanessa Calvert
Laurel Kurtz -- http://lorol.blogspot.com/
Cyrus Smith -- http://www.cyruswsmith.blogspot.com/
sandy sampson -- http://sanone.blogspot.com/
Varinthorn Christopher -- http://varinthorn.blogspot.com/
Avalon Kalin
Katy Asher -- http://katyasher.blogspot.com/
Steve Baggs
eric m steen -- http://ericmsteen.blogspot.com
rebecca shelly -- www.rebeccashelly.blogspot.com
social practicers -- http://socialpractices.blogspot.com

light switches

chess

i'm digging on chess these days. this is the game i played with walter in standard notation.

1. Walter started it off by moving to d4, as a direct response, i moved to b5
2. Walter moved to g3 and i moved to Bb7
3. Walter moved to f3 and i moved to d6
4. Walter moved to e3 and i moved to Qd7
5. Walter moved to h4 and i moved to e5
6. Walter moved to Ne2 and i moved to d5
7. Walter moved to Bh3 and i moved to Qd6
8. Walter moved to Nbc3 and i moved to b4
9. then, Walter moved to Nb5 and i moved to Qc6
10. Walter moved to a4 and i moved to b3
11. Walter moved to c3 and i moved to Qc4
12. Walter moved to O-O and i moved to g6
13. Walter moved to dxe5 and i moved to f5
14. Walter moved to Nf4 and i moved to Na6
15. Walter moved to Qd4 and i moved to Bc5
16. Walter moved to Qd3 and i moved to Ne7
17. and all of a sudden, Walter moved to Ne6 and i moved to Qxd3
18. Walter moved to Nexc7+ and i moved to Nxc7
19. Walter moved to Nxc7+ and i moved to Kd8 which might not have been that great a decision.
20. Walter moved to Ne6+ and i moved to Kc8
21. Walter moved to Nxc5 and i moved to Qc4
22. Walter moved to Nxb7, took my 2nd bishop, and i moved to Kxb7
23. Walter moved to Rd1 and i moved to Nc6
24. Walter moved to Bf1, that sneaky son of a bitch, and i moved to Qc5
25. Walter moved to Rd3 and i moved to Nxe5
26. Walter moved to Rd1 and i moved to Nxf3+
27. Walter moved to Kf2 and i moved to Nh2
28. Walter moved to Bg2 and i moved to Ng4+
29. Walter moved to Kf3 and i moved to Rae8
30. Walter moved to Ke2 and i moved to Rxe3+
31. Walter moved to Bxe3 and i moved to Qxe3+ 0-1 and then i had him.

pretty awesome but it was a really long game. like over 3 weeks. i don't know about this internet chess. its a little drawn out and there is no anxiety to manipulate your decisions. it isn't real chess but its fun and it gives you something other to check than your email.
i played real chess with Gordon last night a little drunk and really got my ass thrashed.

rafting

this weekend i went rafting with my buddies ben, gordon, and joel. Joel had never been rafting before and it was exhilarating to watch someone get so giddy about it. it makes me feel good to be providing that as a service. the rivers around here are really awe inspiring.

right now

The latest thing is a video editing class i'm taking as a summer elective. It is an intensive week and I ought to have some sort of an interesting product by the end of it. The tentative plan is to compose a video that incorperates interactions with sculpted and modeled landscapes to go alongside a captured video of a google earth tour. There will also be glimpses of narrative in the form of quick clips of footage I have taken in the places I'm rendering and virtually visiting. We'll see how it goes but that's what I'm working on.

earth

this is the roughest version of my self portrait in google earth. created like 10/2006

The ole first post

well who the shit really knows what to put on a first post. not everyone really is all that cut out for blogging. its like having a public journal. this for instance is a three legged cat and i could say that she is the inspiration for all of my art. then later on i could say something else was. its nice having your own little space where you can make stuff up and no one will judge you for it.

hold on.. that's exactly what they will do. that's okay i suppose. i'd do it to them.