This is a stop motion experiment, and a submission for Etsy’s “Handmade Moment” video contest.
Also, if you’ve wondered what my worktable looks like, it looks like this. I didn’t do much besides clear off my cutting mat when I set up my camera.
Please check it out!
Posted to Etsy Handmade Moment by specimen7 on June 15, 2009
My next step is trying to animate clay.
Posted on June 18th, 2009 by shing
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I’m back from my vacation to Malaysia!
more images in my flickr gallery.
Posted on June 12th, 2009 by shing
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Vintage green sundae glasses for .99 each at a local Goodwill. I bought all four they had.
And here is a better picture, mainly because it is filled with brown sugar ice cream, and Lemon Chalet Cream cookies.I love dessert.
Posted on May 13th, 2009 by shing
Filed under: home, food | 2 Comments »
I’ve been on a dissection kick recently. This little octopus is up for a lobotomy.
It’s up at my Etsy shop. We installed laminate hardwood flooring a couple weekends ago, so I have a whole lot of engineered flooring to use up…maybe wall plaques might be fun!
I’m working on some fun props right now(like a giant egg) so there’ll be more random crafty stuff coming up soon.
Posted on May 11th, 2009 by shing
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There were many things I wanted to be when I was younger, and being a fairly diverse sort of girl, they ranged from princess to astronaut to architect. The first two are now impossible, and I didn’t know the third required drafting then. On that list, however, was a job that I thought was the most wonderful of all - a muse. I’m not sure how I learned the word, possibly in a book of Greek myths, possibly in some art book, possibly on TV.
What I did know was that a muse was something important. Someone inextricably linked to the arts, one step below a patron saint, and quite a few steps higher than a flower girl. I knew that muses were people that men coveted, but more importantly - they were the wellspring of art. Beautiful things happened because of muses.
When you’re a little girl, all astronauts look a certain way, and all princesses look a certain way, and all muses look a certain way. If I had an Art Nouveau book as a child, I would have believed that muses looked like Mucha ladies. Instead, I had a book of Baroque art. I don’t recall looking at it much, but the one face in it that I decided was most muse-like was this one.
For years, I held that face in my head as The Muse. This was the physical representation of a woman that inspired men. This was the face that launched a thousand ships and Beatrice in the red dress - I was absolutely certain of that.
I’m not sure why I chose that face. It just seemed right. I was a bit of a weird kid too.
Many years later, I learned who that face was, and who had painted it. I must have blocked out the man in the process of being decapitated in the original painting.
It is from a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, called Judith Slaying Holofernes.
I’m not sure why I chose that face. It just seemed right. I was a bit of a weird kid too.
Many years later, I learned who that face was, and who had painted it. I must have blocked out the man in the process of being decapitated in the original painting.
It is from a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, called Judith Slaying Holofernes.
As the story goes - Judith was a widow, wary and untrusting of the Assyrians, who are in the process of conquering Israel. She seduces Holofernes, the Assyrian general, and beheads him while he is drunk. With a maidservant(as often painted), but otherwise alone, in an enemy camp. She carries the head back to her countrymen. She saves Israel.
Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter. Her father taught her to paint. At 19, she was denied admittance to the all-male professional art academies, so her father hired a private tutor. The tutor, Agostoni Tassi, raped her. He promised marriage, and the sexual relationship continued.
After finding out that they were not going to be married, Artemisia’s father pressed charges against Tassi, which led to a 7 month trial. During this trial, Artemisia was forced to repeat her allegations under torture with a variation on the thumbscrew. As the descriptions go, these were cords of rope tied around her fingers and slowly tightened, crushing her fingers. Ah yes - medieval justice - crushing the hands of a painter to make sure that she was telling the truth about being raped, wasn’t a whore, and was a virgin at the time of the rape.
Tassi, the rapist, was sentenced to a year in prison. Artemisia’s father arranged a marriage for her and she moves to Florence. She paints Judith beheading Holofernes.
She is successful in Florence, and later, Rome and Naples. She paints a second version of Judith beheading Holofernes. She is the first woman accepted into the Accademia del Disegno.
My muse is a hero and murderer, painted by a rape victim and a brilliant female artist. I’ve had my share of self esteem issues(I’m good now, though).
I wanted to be a muse - that beacon of creativity and art that inspired music and poems and stories.
Finding out that my muse was Judith made me realize that I’d might as well just paint and write, instead of waiting for some semi talented fool to get around to it.
Posted on May 7th, 2009 by shing
Filed under: etcetera | 1 Comment »
I got my cigar boxes back from the gallery!
This unfinished autopsy was one of my favourites. I put a couple boxes up on the Specimen7 Etsy page, if you’re interested in more.
Posted on May 5th, 2009 by shing
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I was reading this article about the live/work spaces of Design Glut, who’ve brought you such wonderful things as the teacup tiles and Egg Pants. Eggs. In pants.
Anyway, in the last picture of the slideshow, they have three posters from ISO 50 up. And I thought - I have one too! It was actually the first piece of art I put up in my studio apartment, and now the first piece of art I’ve put up in my studio.
They’re awesome and only $17. I love bears and I love this poster.
If you want your own awesome poster(or shirt), you can find one here - the ISO50 shop.
Posted on May 4th, 2009 by shing
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A picture of my studio workspace, before I actually start working in it.
I’d like to remember it neat and uncluttered at least once.
The globe has been on a few different theatre sets. I just peeled the $7.99 thrift store sticker off.
The wooden box used to hold slides and now holds polymer clay.
The orange buckets hold any current projects that fit in a bucket, usually sewing ones.
My dad built the desk. It’s a weird colour, but it has grown on me.
The wall paint is Behr’s Atomic Tangerine. I was deciding on a couple, but decided on the one with the word Atomic in it.
I didn’t realize that the paint colour I picked would match the vintage ball knobs on my Ikea bookshelf so well. The knobs are different sizes.
That side table was thrift stored for $15. It used to hold DVD’s. Now it will probably hold lino cut print blocks and related supplies.
The bunny is something I made for Jason when we started dating. The tag says “I totally have a crush on you”.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 by shing
Filed under: home | 1 Comment »
I’m not entirely certain how many of you really want to follow my house moving in/fixing upping progress…but it’s what is consuming most of my life right now.
Here’s our new house. It’s a 1921 house, but was heavily updated and remodelled in 2004. It’s lost most of the old little charm(at least I assume it had it), but makes up for it with large bathrooms and doorways thart Jason does not hit his head on.
We ripped up the carpet and installed engineered hardwood last weekend. I’m painting a lot this week.
Posted on April 30th, 2009 by shing
Filed under: home | 2 Comments »
I’m really not entirely sure what to use these for, but I really want to use one for something.
Posted on April 28th, 2009 by shing
Filed under: etcetera | 1 Comment »
