Laser Fun

I have stumbled across the wizard of all crafting tools: a laser cutter! I lucked upon the opportunity to use one through a friend. She has been using it to make jewelry and crafts of her own - check out some of the awesome things she has made:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativeninjask/

The laser can precisely cut and etch a variety of materials including paper, wood and plexiglass. The cutting is automated by a computer which reads drawing files. It's surprisingly simple to use and cuts quickly and flawlessly. So far, I have visited the laser twice. I showed up the first time with some simple materials and a few prepared drawings, curious as to what the laser was all about. Here is what I came away with:

Wood etching

Paper cutouts, intertwined

For my next visit, I wanted to craft something for the holidays. I decided to create a snowflake. Their beautiful symmetry, complex geometry, and perpetual uniqueness has always appealed to me. I also have a vivid memory from elementary school when we decorated large plastic snow flakes for the holidays. I always wanted to make my very own...

If my laser cutting has inspired or sparked your curiosity, check out the place I've been going to:  http://pagodaarts.com/ 

Let me know if you have any questions or aspirations of your own!

Happy Holidays with wishes of health and happiness.

Cinque Cinque

When I was younger, I wanted to be an architect. I thought it would be fun to draw buildings. Once I learned that computer programs have more or less taken the place of hand drawn blueprints, I decided architecture was not my calling. Even still, I am attracted to the linearity of buildings. For this project, I knew I wanted to draw some type of buildings. I had planed to draw on inspiration from my travels in Amsterdam, where the buildings reminded me of the Victorians adorning the streets of San Francisco. At the last second, I changed my mind. I had a calling to draw a different panorama from my travels: Cinque Terre.


Cinque Terre, whose direct translation from Italian is 'Five Lands', is a string of 5 towns on the northwestern coast of Italy. Still somewhat out of the tourist's fray, these towns are beyond wonderful. During my time in Italy, I visited Cinque Terre. While there, we enjoyed pesto (Corniglia, the town we stayed in, claimed to have invented it!), met some great people, and hiked the trail that connects all of the villages. While each town sits right on the sea, they each have their own character and flair. I was struck by how the sea, sky, land and dwelling lay juxtaposed. I remember being inspired to draw this:

Riomaggiore

Manarola

I chose my medium to be the long lost art of colored pencils. I had not used colored pencils in years, so it was a nice revisiting of old ways. After studying the pictures above, I decided to learn perspective drawing. I taught myself the theory behind drawing in 1-point perspective, thanks to the help of wikihow.com and youtube.com. Below is a series of sketches leading up to the final piece...

I AM.

Premise 

'I am.' - the shortest sentence in the English language. At some point over the course of my stellar Language Arts education, I learned this and was sure to never forget it. It is simple. I like it. Know you all now that words are not my forte, however they do fascinate me. In my opinion, poetry is one of the most stunning forms of art. The piece I am about to present to you can be seen as a derivative of poetry. Not only is this piece composed solely of words (with one minor exception), but it is also devoid of color. Both elements are very unlike my typical works of art.

Inspiration

A few months ago I was living around the corner from a gallery featuring art made by graffiti artists and the like. I frequented the gallery and not just because it was in the neighborhood; I have always appreciated graffiti art. In a way, it is my generation's rendering of fine art. Initial inspiration for my piece came from a series of pen drawings featured at the gallery. Each depicted a word that was made up of smaller words written in the ubiquitous and hardly discernible graffiti font. A couple of musing conversations later, I AM was created.

Process

The idea was to use one word adjectives as the building blocks of the three letters needed for the sentence in focus. The one criteria for these words was their ability to follow 'I am' and still compete a sensical sentence. I found it fitting to incorporate adjectives within the 'I' that describe me as an individual. The 'AM' composes itself with words that positively describe anybody. Many of the words are written or positioned in a way that represents their meaning.

Presentation

I: lucky, balanced, prudent, curious, independent, sm/art, humble, creative, shrewd, 24, shy, Paul Lowe Kirschner.

A: beautiful, growing, unique, alone, small, peaceful, 

infinite (symbol), home, eager, alive, ?, alone.

M: delicate, iridescent, special, content, free, 

complicated, !!, dreaming, ok, human, strong, love.

I AM.

Paniting, Part II: Figments

After some playing around in my new found world of painting, I decided to try my hand at more palpable objects. My days of smattering are not over, but I simply wanted to expand my horizons by trying to paint my figments. I knew that my first piece had to incorporate both simple colors and shapes. I found this to be a good starting point. Below is the initial rendering of my envisage:

I created this design with a balance of shape and color in mind. I used paper cut-outs and masking tape to aid in painting the shapes as true to their dimensions as possible. Even still, this proved to be tedious. 

SHAPE TONE

The white line is unpainted canvas and the only uninterrupted object. The blue ellipse was created with the method I documented in my first post. The yellow circle is that of the inner ring of the masking tape. I used a compass to create the green equilateral triangle. All of these are true colors except for the red square, which I achieved by mixing the orange with magenta. The last layer to be painted was the black negative space.


My second piece was initially inspired by PERMANENT DUSK. I liked the concept of having a horizon split the piece into two very different, yet related, scenes. My secondary inspiration is a picture I took while traveling through Arizona:

My piece ended up being more simple and surreal:

ROAD TO EVERYWHERE

I was so content with how the blue of the sky came out, I decided to skip the clouds. Similar to the sky, for the land I used a technique of fading in color on approach of the horizon. I continued to use my tape method for the lines of the road. All the while I painted, I enjoyed contemplating this composition's metaphorical implications. I will let you come up with your own, but please do share!


I am decently proud of my final works. Pablo would be too. 

Paniting, Part I: A Smattering

I knew this day would come...


... but I patiently pushed it off, as I waited for the right time and nerve. Once this day came, I knew a whole new world would be unlocked, which is a scary notion in any context. This day has arrived; I bought my first set of acrylic paints, a few brushes and some canvas board - so my humble journey begins.


In my first strokes I learned that there is SO much for me to learn: everything from how paint spreads with different brushes, how paint spreads on canvas, how it spreads over dry paint, wet paint, the way colors mix, how colors layer... and on, and on.  It took me a while to shift my mentality away from the detailed symmetry that typifies most of my work. Painting is exponentially more difficult than any other medium that I have used (colored pencil, marker, etc), which means it is that much harder to get right. I quickly gave up on even considering completing a piece in the way I fist imagined it.


I suppose this is the beauty of painting. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind work of art. In the very least, it is unlike any other painting and cannot be reproduced exactly. Paintings are composed of unique brush strokes, each stroke leaving its own finger print of paint. In making this realization, a weight was taken off my shoulders; the perfection of a painting arrives on a whim.


My first installment is of three paintings, each a smattering of strokes and color representing my very infant phase of painting. They are all done on 6"x6" canvas board using a 1" coarse hair brush. I felt obligated to don each painting with a trite title, while I also included a behind the canvas blurb from the artist.

MAGENTA MAR

This started with a square of magenta, 

the same paint used on the framed jigsaw. 

I wanted to play around with changing the 

hue by mixing black and white paint with 

magenta. What you see here masks no less 

than seven layers of paint below.

AQUA FLUSH

Similar to MAGENTA MAR, this mixes blue

with green and white. I have always been

drawn to this color combination, and I 

wanted to paint it. I really enjoy this

haphazard blending of colors.

PERMANENT DUSK

This is a continuation of my exploring

magenta and her hues. I originally set 

out to shade from black to white through

magenta. Instead, I ended with my first 

landscape painting.

In Part II I will work my way towards more concrete objects and colors. I hope you enjoyed.


NOTE: Commissions currently run free of charge.

Transcendentalism (Part 1)

Ever since learning about the progressive and rebellious philosophy in high school, I have been a big fan of everything Transcendental. In an effort to proclaim and solidify my place in the ways of transcendentalism (whatever that means), I undertook the endeavor of reading Thoreau's Walden. This was 5 years ago, and I am almost done with it! The reason for the delay: I allow myself to only read it while outdoors.

More recently, I came across a quote by fellow transcendentelow, Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Success

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty,

to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better,

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier

because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

I found this to be poignant in the sense that it cast an affable light on success. It speaks nothing of monetary compensation or notoriety, but instead focuses on virtuosity. 

I have always strongly believed that quotes such as these should be cheesely adorned and hung on the wall where it can be read by everyone, everyday. So...

I first created a base template I could trace over:

 

I then tried my hand at different designs. Here are a few I came up with:

In the end, I satisfied my vision of a cheesy wall hanging, however I remain unsatisfied with my end product. I restricted myself with a narrow vision and as a result, I bound my creativity.


This is part one of two. Look forward to another transcendental quote (and hopefully work of art) in the near future.

Jigsaw

I love puzzles. I am not sure why, but I do - always have. I enjoy all types of puzzles, but most especially jigsaw puzzles. I have fond memories of being a kid and doing jigsaws of white wintery wonderlands along with my family in front of our wood burning stove. We never looked at the box showing the finished picture. Really, this is what makes a jigsaw a puzzle. 


A more resent enjoyment of mine pertains to another type of jigsaw - woodworking. For the past few years I have had aspirations to build and craft things out of wood. Only recently have I begun to produce; after working with a carpenter for a few months, I learned some skills and gained confidence in my abilities to yield a saw and other tools of the trade. My first creation was a shoe rack, something I am very proud of. 


My most recent project melds a jigsaw and woodworking (however, no jigsaw was used) together into one piece. I had a hankering to do a puzzle, but did not want to take it apart and box it up afterwards. I decided it would be fun to find a puzzle that I could custom build a frame for. So this is what I did.


Step 1. Assemble
I bought a puzzle depicting the skyline of New York City. The initial reason for this picture was my infatuation with the view. I have been through NYC a number of times over the past few years, and I find the skyline of the iconic city to be breathtaking. Additionally, both of my parents grew up in New York City, so my roots partially reside there. While I worked on this project, I amused myself with how my love for puzzles comes from my mom's side, while my paternal grandfather was a superb carpenter.

As always, I started with the boarder... and that is the only secret of my puzzle making technique I shall divulge. I will admit that the puzzle took longer than most. A majority of the time was in completing the sky, which was embarrassingly tedious.

Once complete, I glued it together with Mod Podge, which is A+mazing. Not only did it nicely glue the pieces together, it gave the puzzle a great textured, glossy finish. I then glued the puzzle to a thin wood sheet for support.


Step 2. Build
Nearing completion of the jigsaw, I started the frame. I had never built a frame before, nor did I have any clue how. This is usually the way most of my projects begin, however I did have a solid idea of what I wanted. I bought decorative wood molding that would become the frame. With the help of a very handy and talented friend we made the necessary measurements and cuts to fit the frame to the jigsaw. After two rounds of glue and reinforcement, she was ready to be dolled up. 

I went to my local art shop (BLICK, new favorite - sorry Michaels) and bought some acrylic paint. I chose Magenta, which was a bold move. The way I looked at it was this: most frames are intentionally bland, as to not captivate attention away from what is framed within. For my piece, I wanted the captivation to be equally weighted between the frame and framed.


Step 3. Meld
Finally, the jigsaw and frame came together as one...

I am happy with how everything turned out. Now this will probably never hang in a museum of fine art because it is a $15 jigsaw puzzle, and the frame is more or less from Home Depot, but I am OK with these things. More than anything, it was nice to be able to turn my jigsaw hankering into a decently fashionable piece of art. I thought the Magenta did its job in calling attention to itself, but at the same time complimenting the inlaid cityscape. 


From assembling the puzzle to building and painting the frame, I really enjoyed this project. A HUE thanks to Tom for being incredibly helpful in lending me his time, resources and expertise. Until next time, enjoy the view!