The Last Day

of 2008 and an entire new year of opportunity and creativity to look forward to.

Is most good.

The Mask that cannot be named on the web...

......the non-breaking space, the core of self.

Symbology of HTML (Human Theological Markup Language) -- an idle musing of code application to the Human Condition.

Life-sized, ceramic bisque fired and acrylic finished.

Macro visions....

within the curious world of mathematics. A dna strand found deep within the fractal realm.

A Mask in which to.......

dream and every one a King or Queen...or Cat.

Life sized, ceramic bisque fired and acrylic finished.

Art...

in a more universalized general non-specific sort of sense.....if you know what I mean...and I think you do. Argh.....shall we say "process?". Yes. Very good. It is this, that thing.

Life-sized ceramic bisque fired....acrylic finished.

"Science is We....

...Art is I" -- Claude Bernard

Ceramic bisque fired. Finished with acrylics.

A most difficult mask

for some to wear....

Life size, ceramic bisque fired and acrylics finished.

It's that time.....

And may all your LEDs be bright....

iD...

the undocumented self, long buried at the core...broadcasting dreams into the EGO.

Life sized. Bisque fired, acrylic paint & varnish.

Think...redux....

"Think #2"....a re-examination of the I in thInk (thin ink)....that puzzle of gears, circuitry and cellular activity.

Life sized. Bisque fired, acrylic glazed & varnished.

Create

....a mask to wear tracing that unique collection of nodes that result in something not before seen in this space.

Life sized. Bisque fired. Acrylic paint, glaze and varnish.

Shaman Armor #2.....

...soldier....enforced muteness...and quilted against the arrows of interaction. Hard upon the border of Ego, id and self....inviolate.

Life sized, bisque fired, acrylic glazed and varnished.

Ego....

and the definition of how we balance the self within parameters using learned connections, outcomes and probability....

Programming Quotes

Sigh.....just cannot resist.....

http://www.jroller.com/rajvissa/entry/programming_quotations

Something Red 2008 Reception

The artist reception and awards ceremony took place last night....the First Wednesday of December. My work is displayed at Dave Wilson Goldsmith (along with about 6 or so other artist's work). The shop features the most incredible old brick wall that certainly makes the artwork pop against it.

The reception was enjoyable -- several people were most enthusiastic and it was good to be back out showing my work again. I'd forgotten how much fun these sort of things can be and it was good to discuss various mediums with the other artists.

I did manage to get out to see a few other pieces of work -- walked down to the Umpqua Bank where Bobby Aster's wood sculpture is on display and while there, met Michael Cushing. I found his work quite intriguing.

You can see it here: http://www.standingwaveart.com/home.html

And then.....time to hie off to the award ceremony. No one was more surprised than I to be named 2nd place in Mixed Media for "Goodbye Houston". Small things can be so very satisfying. All in all, a very enjoyable evening.

And here's the link to my January 08 post regarding the creation of "Goodbye Houston":

http://artshaman.blogspot.com/2008/01/goodbye-houston.html

Think...

permutations...code....branching.....all those things that burble in theory until the binary drips from the lips.

Ceramic, roughly life sized. Acrylic glazed & varnished.

Long Buried....

but whirring constantly...the id, the hidden hard-drive of the psychic apparatus. Muted for the masks we wear.

Ceramic. Life-sized. Bisque fired, acrylic glazed and varnished.

Shaman Mask: Armor

for the times when the Shaman must be self-contained....armored against the aether.

Roughly life-sized. Bisque fired, acrylic glazed & varnished.

Thought Schematic

All the circuitry never seen...etched just below the skin.....circles squared to pi ... connections attoamped in real-time.

Roughly life sized. Bisque fired, acrylic glazed and varnished.

Trance Music for the Shaman

in all of us......set it free:

http://www.ektoplazm.com/

Symbols & Technology

fill each, our waking days. Connected abstractionisms that often have little linear meaning at the base.

Roughly life-sized. Bisque fired, acrylic glazed, painted and varnished.

Ceramic Mask

Mask #3 in the Ceramic Shaman Series. Approx lifesized. Bisque-fired, asphaultum glazed, acrylics.

New Series begun

Ceramic Shaman masks....tied to both the Human Condition and technology. Bisque fired, asphaltum glazed and varnished. Roughly life-sized.

Something Red 2008

I was fortunate enough to be juried into Salem's Artists In Action December show, Something Red 2008. Two pieces of my work, "Crux" and "Goodbye Houston" will be on display.

Feels good.

http://artistsinaction.org/content/index.php

Excursion

of the Damned. Back to the waters from which we sprang, polluted with the debris of rusted societal structure.

Composited photographs with a bit of digital filtering.

Shaman Carnival

Musing. And image mashing.

Keeper of Reliquaries

Keeper of the dead...the obsolete...the ikonic. Saints preserved in vacuum...past the fresh date. Halo'd by knowledge of Ohm's Law -- that penetration of mysteries muttered mantra-like E=IXR though the resistance of the masses threaten the current and voltage of Tomorrow. All shall be kept safe through the Dark Ages.

The Mist

Still rummaging about in my photos from Cape Lookout.

CAT DREAMS #3

Seasonal dreaming.

Still Life

Based on a photograph I took many, many, many years ago. Image processed.

PROCESSED

Processed. Possessed. RFID'd and wired into the system. Catalogued, pigeon-holded and categorized. Tapped and tapered to fit society. Do you dare unplug?????

Mystery

Playing around with image processing.

Cthulhu Rising

Pencil sketch 11x14. Colored in watercolor pencil.

Featured Artist

well....of the day at Mac Tonnies' Post Human Blues.

Unexpected..and a nice morning suprise.

It's time for a NEW religion

Recursive, thinks I.....I think...thought...until the possibilities inherent within a grain of sand blinds the inputs, bringing each to a Boolean NAND. The fractal is infinite and the future so bright, we need to wear shades as we jack into the altar of alternatives.

Cthulhu Returns...

Pencil drawing. Full size is 11x14. Cthulhu striding forth from R'lyeh.

Cape Lookout Oregon

This is a panoramic stitch of 10 photographs looking south (left) to north (right) on the spit at Cape Lookout State Park in Oregon.

The program is Auto Stitch (Google it) developed at the University of British Columbia. Cool stuff.

Cthulhu drawing in progress

Pencil drawing. 11 x 14. Cthulhu emerging from a newly risen city of R'yleh. Still in progress.

A Bird in the Bush....

An image captured during my recent sojourn to Cape Lookout State Park in Oregon. Nikon D40 with 55-200 mm lens.

My work is featured

at/on/in BURST! -- a relatively new e-zine devoted to showcasing 'Art'.

http://burstwherethoart.com/issue-3.php

Raven Laughing ....Finished

Acrylics. 11 x 14 inches.

Raven Laughs

Yeah.... It's been a month since the last posting. I HAD hoped to have the "Evolution" base finished...but have had some unforeseen issues with obtaining exactly what I want for it. Now I'm back to musing on just how to finish the piece.

So....in the interim, I have decided to try acrylic painting -- something I have always admired, but feared greatly. This is my first attempt (still in progress) and yes, I have some ways to go (grin).

The process is vastly intriguing and has endless possibilities. I'm glad I finally decided to just try it.

EVOLUTION nears completion

Head modeled in DAS clay over a styrofoam armature. Studded with miscellaneous and sundry electronic components. Life-sized more or less. The head is done..I think....now I need to work on the base.

Technical Evolution....Continued

More components added. Point to point wiring added. The piece is finally beginning to emerge.

Technical Evolution ....Post #4

The piece progresses. Schematics, barcodes, et cetera added via xylene transfer off toner copy. Paint applied in a 'grunge' manner via a flux bottle (very confined nozzle).

More to come...

Evolution Continued Yet Again

The process continues....

Technical Evolution Part 2

To be continued. This is the first layer of glaze (though it might need to be rubbed back a bit..we'll see after it dries overnight). Some additional components have been added.

Technical Evolution

In progress. Life-sized head modeled in clay with various and sundry electronic components.

Schemata

Eclipse

New burl bowl

I received a large chunk of an unknown burl last summer. This weekend I took the chainsaw to it and whacked out a few blanks. It appears to be a bit unstable in as far as voids and cracks, but after a few tries, I managed to get this bowl. Diameter is 8-inches. Watco Teak Oil finish with wax.

The Shaman Box in Operation

A 10 second (or so) exposure of the Brain Wave Audio Machine (aka Shaman Box) in operation.

The Shaman Box

Aha!!! Finally.....I've completed the Brain Wave/Audio Machine (aka The Shaman Box) and I think I'm in love. I've always been a sucker for flashing lights. Years ago I began building the original Brain Machine glasses that interface via the parallel port on my old DOS box. I'd set the pattern to something interesting and slip on the headphones with some heavy techno...and just relax. (in fact, my author photo shows the original glasses I built).

I was never quite happy though....of course, because of issues getting the Brain Machine software to work on my XP laptop. XP does odd things to the parallel port addresses. I happened across Andrew Moya's page at hackcanada.com and knew I had to build it. So....it's taken me a while..but I got there in the end.

I LOVE this thing! The left/right LEDs are driven by the two channels output from the audio source (in my case, my aging MP3 player)......so the pattern displayed on the retinas are directly pumped in via the music. I've wired in a 3.5mm pass-thru, so I plug in my MP3 player and headphones to the two 3.5mm jacks. The glasses plug into the RCA jacks. Unlike Andrew's original schematic, I used a double-ganged 50K pot (since I found some surplus). I coated the clear safety glasses with GCE's Insulating Compound (aka liquid electrical tape)....to cut out ambient light, protect the LED interconnections and well....it just looks cooler..grin. The enclosure is a Hammond box. I connected the 9-volt battery in an external holder since I think it'd be a pain to open it up to change the battery.

This is easy to build....taking a few hours. And so well worth the effort.

Andrew's site: http://www.hackcanada.com/homegrown/wetware/brainwave/audio_machine/index.html

Note: I have found this site: http://www.bwgen.com/magicjim/.
I don't know if MagicJim is the originator of the schematic or not, but hey, check it out.

The original Brain Wave Machine (parallel port interfaced) site : http://www.hackcanada.com/homegrown/wetware/brainwave/

Check it out. Wire your brain.....and trip the light fantastic.

Lathe Lore Continued

Yah! Mesquite bowl. Roughly 4.25-inch diameter x 4-inches high. Watco Teak Oil & wax.

Turned down through the log. Managed to keep some of the bark and yet show the incredible richness of grain available in this wood.