Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Reverse Alchemy

So, I've got every hour of the next two weeks accounted for, trying to meet my deadline for Scope Miami. I had previously given up on the possibility of showing anything at this Scope, because school had so completely derailed my work on the project. Now I'm trying to make the deadline after all, and it's a crazy feat because there is so much experimentation and trial and error necessary to figure this project out. The ridiculous thing is, I'm essentially trying to make an insanely expensive material look like a fairly cheap, common material. This is not by choice, but because the process of working the cheaper material costs exponentially more than what I'm currently spending, and requires specialized, heavy-duty equipment unavailable to most people.
Bad advice from a "tech support" guy yesterday, led me to ruin $120 worth of material in about three minutes! I called him back after this disaster, and he said, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have suggested that."

D'ohh!

1 comment:

Squerl said...

Hi Shannon,
I just made it to your personal (Portfolio) website and blog. Your art work just amazing! I would call it arcane except that I am so dialed into the dry humor. We must share a common DNA for funnybone. The other standout feature of the work is that it is so beautifully crafted! I loved so many of the pieces it is hard to choose a favorite, but the one that exposes the teeth,(f-ing hysterical, I almost died laughing) and is definitely on the list as is "Air Drill" and the Knee hammer one. We students are so lucky to have you here at SJSU. You should have your own design group like Diller, Scofidio and Renfrow or they should have you. Anyway, I am glad you are teaching except that it cuts into your valuable art making time. Hope the project is coming together. After seeing your work, I sure do want to learn more about wood working because I love the super clean precision of the work you do. Oh that reminds me - I love the "how to use the public restroom," drawings too. That is exactly how I do it. I also enjoyed your stream of consiousness blog. Funny-Funny stuff. Squerl