Saturday, March 18, 2017

18 His Rats

Neo Cairo Nepenthes love his rats. Loves his rats. He loves his plushie, stuffed, toy rats. There's really no other way to say it. It's just that simple, just that true.

With Infinity More Monkeys, a picture a day.

Friday, March 17, 2017

17 Las Flores

Camellias, flowers so beautiful, even dropped, fading, decaying, they evoke allure, grace, dignity. Youth, perfection, so-called flawless qualities are only one kind of a beginning, an easy thing to love. I also love time-worn things, a long story, the creases in a page, the substance and resilience beneath the shine.



In a passing stroll, mere minutes, I was delighted by a lot of beauty. I am happy to have noticed.

With Infinity More Monkeys, a picture a day.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

16 On a School Night

Maria's school had a STEM Family Night, an evening of demonstrations and science-tech-engineering-math activities for some of the fifth and six graders and their families. It's not a program Maria has been participating in, but she was invited to be part of the group who exhibit. So, we brought Da Vinci out of semi-retirement (really, it was more of a sabbatical,) painted him blue, dusted off his drawing table, ran some diagnostics on his programming, and lent him a team hat. He was raring to go! So was Maria. She reviewed all the technical aspects and systems that operate Da Vinci, our drawing automaton. She's got it down... that he runs on Inkscape, the opens source app that allows our Egg-bot circuit board to direct three motors to move magnets along the x and y axis, plus the up and down motion of Da Vinci's pen hand. And she can discuss vector vs raster, or pixel illustrations, how she develops original art in Scratch, up loads it in Inkscape and Da Vinci can reproduce her drawings.

And one more thing... we get a surprising number of people that stand before our creations, scratch their heads, and ask, "Why? What's it for?" This question, and also the implication that our pursuits are pointless, can be frustrating for us, and have dismayed us, too. Geoff and I tend to get a bit defensive, even incredulous, because we think the answer is so obvious! The answer we often proffer is, "Why not? But we know this doesn't do much to achieve outreach, to help someone who doesn't get it to appreciate the elegance, beauty, purpose of making strange things. It's not always easy to maintain our energy and message when demonstrating at a fair for ten hours, two days in a row, but Maria shared her thoughts on the question,"Why? What's it for?" and I think her words are going to do a great deal to help us feel like we have a thoughtful and succinct response.

So... the next time someone, with a puzzled expression, asks incredulously, doubtfully, "Why? What's it for?" We can reply, in Maria's words, "We are here to demonstrate what we've made, which are things that might not seem 'practical,' but which show the principles of science, technology, engineering, art, math, music. The skills and knowledge applied, and taught, in making our creations are practical skills, which can be applied to 'real life' challenges and objectives, invention, innovation, and fun. We learn how to make, we share what we make, and we inspire more making."

Nice.

Happily, most of the time, people totally get it, and that's what we love about bringing Da Vinci out, on a school night... sharing our love of STEAM is fun.

With Infinity More Monkeys, a picture a day.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

15 Media

Media: a means by which something is communicated or expressed.

Synonyms: means, method, way, form, agency, avenue, channel, vehicle, organ, instrument, mechanism

Pencils and paint have been my media, deliberately, diligently, since the end of December. And rats are the result, mostly. "Mostly," because that's mostly what I have produced, and because they aren't exactly entirely "rats." They're mostly rats, but also a little bit mousy, almost people-y. Maybe just, mostly weird.

Geoff wonders if I wouldn't like to introduce the rats and other sketches to an iPad Pro, go digital. If my drawings were scanned, then I could paint them and play with them. Hmmmm, thought I, and asked Alex to come with me to an Apple Store.

In the Apple Store (and no, they are not my sponsors, yet) I asked a genius to convince me to buy an iPad Pro. He did his best. I guess. But I was not convinced.

1. They don't let you sit at the table where the iPads are displayed, which is just as well because...

2. It didn't feel like I could get comfortable enough to hang out for an hour or four, and really immerse myself in their apps, exploring what I might like about being a digital artist... probably Apple geniuses don't want me hanging out for four hours?

3. Pencils are so much more affordable than digital media. I might not become a talented, income-generating artist, but it's worth exploring on a pencil and paper budget. I'd feel really donk if my art career tanked after investing in cool kids club.

While we were there, Alex added a Martian to their digital art, demonstrating that he is definitely worthy of entry into the cool kids club.


My skills, and artistic impulses are probably less... dignified? But I did have fun.

Other media... re-bar tie wire, and a can of spray paint. We gave our automaton robot sculpture a makeover, in blue. This is the wire sculpture Alex made for our Benevolent Order of Makers creation, Da Vinci

Acrylic craft paints. The little cylindrical bottles. I like MS brand best, but the more I paint, the more I am convinced that it may be time to look into finding a better quality paint. Maybe. Or maybe I should look into trying out markers, like Prisma pens.

Alex likes Tombow Brush Pens, and so does Maria. This panda... it's really good, and a favorite of mine, but Alex reminds me that it was just a doodle he did (with one color) to test the pen. The results do a fine job of demonstrating that the brush pens are a cool medium for making art.

Other cool medium for making art... everything William did to achieve this image, which Geoff describes, "William experimenting with Deepart.io. He modeled these in 3DSMax, fed them through the Deepart.io neural network. He "hand" colored the models to guide Deepart's color choices. Next he's going to experiment with custom convolution filters (controlling the "style" of the resultant image). Now this... this is cool kid stuff.

With Infinity More Monkeys, a picture a day.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

14 Tuesday Night

Sometimes I am tempted to just post a series of pictures, with no text, no captions, no deep thoughts or other musings. Maybe someone will be curious. Perhaps questions will arise. I am more than happy to offer explanations, share details. I could tell you about the artists in residence, here at the Bird House. Maybe mention that there was a cupcake delivery, that my crochet hats are coming along splendidly. Would you like to know where Grant is going, why he needs a Team Zissou beanie?







Yeah, there's a lot I could say about any of these moments, Tuesday Night, in the Bird House. Or any other night, for that matter. There's hardly ever a dull moment, here. It's nice that way.

With Infinity More Monkeys, a picture a day.

Monday, March 13, 2017

13 Home For Purim

A fairly quiet evening, at home. Plans to watch Contact. Popcorn and yogurt for dinner. It's casual. We're happy about having put away the laundry, washed those extra loads of dishes. It's just a comfortable time, with no big expectations, when the door bell rings. And then things get awesome...

Oh, man. What can I say? We simply have the best friends, neighbors, life! Happy Purim, from Leslie and Ido, from Simon, Bex, and Spencer. Happy mishloach manot! (A tradition that, once again, saved me when the next morning I was challenged to assemble a decent packed lunch for Maria. Raisins, juice box, mandarins, homemade, yummy hamantash? Yes, thank you, please!)

A holiday that commemorates the defeat of an evil plot? One with festive feasts, masquerading, giving gift baskets? It's brilliant. Our friends are brilliant. Unicorns with fresh baked cookies... brilliant!

I am so thankful, so glad we were home for Purim.

With Infinity More Monkeys, a picture a day.