atoms&electrons;

This is the result of my first experiment making a sliceform object from interlocking pieces of cut cardstock. I got the idea and the name “sliceform” from a variety of folks on the web who are experimenting with this. Just as I was posting this I discovered these pictures on flickr from someone with the exact same colors of cardstock.

Who the hell came up with Pin The Tail on the Donkey? And furthermore, why on earth are people still playing this asinine game? The wisdom of taking a bunch of kids, spinning them around until they’re dizzy, then sending them careening around the room blindfolded with the instructions “stick this thumbtack into something” is questionable at best. It’s one of those games like the 3-legged race where the amusement is not so much for the participant as it is the spectators who hope to laugh at some minor tragedy. Both games are based on the premise of performing under constraints – not being able to see, not being able to move freely, etc.

Constraints show up in creative projects often. The choice of medium for an art project will impose constraints, and those constraints force you to think creatively about how to deal with them. Success can come from turning the constraints into an advantage, like the staples sculptures here. Or it can be less about the actual results and more about the Sisyphus-like effort involved in the creation.

I have many random memories from my childhood – one of them is the time my mom and I tie-dyed some T-Shirts together.

The sentence that you just read, while being completely true, is also potentially a shining jewel of disinformation. Having read it you may have imagined me and my hippie mom barefooted and doing our tie-dying, stopping only to flip over the Janis Joplin record that was playing. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Names and branding matter. My instincts tell me to never drink something called Calpis, so that name is a pretty big hurdle to get over. Having said that, if it tasted really good I’m certain I could get past the problematic moniker.