Todd McClellan

Whoo child these artists are just a never ending barrage of...well, awesome.  My latest find (though I'm certainly not pioneering anything...) is a photographer by the name of Todd McClellan.  I came across him while going on my ritual hunt for the next creative monkey to catch my eye and steal my heart. 

Now...this isn't to say that I've fallen madly in love with Mister McClellan.  Rather I've become quite intrigued by his latest body of work, since it seems that he is more versed in using his photography skills for commercial related materials as well as automotives, places, etc.

This last one's my fave.

Now his most recent body of work, which tackles a much more conceptual based (at least, what I can tell from my perspective) topic seems to have come out of left field.  Or chances are he finally is in a place where he can appropriately express himself outside of mainstream venues that help to pay the bills.  Hell, he probably loves all of it and I'm just being silly.  We'll never know.

The latest in his new series is called "Disassembled," and it is a series of photographs that goes to meticulously take apart old pieces of technology that we've taken for granted and organize them in such a way that it is photo ready right down to the itty bitty washers and pins that hold everything together.  This is definitely a kind of focus and dedication I can understand, and in all seriousness I hope to someday be able to lose myself so completely in my work that what comes as a result are a bunch of tiny minutely detailed pieces of radical awesome.

His work has been examined by DesignBoom , Juxtapoz, Twisted Sifter and LostAtEMinor , sites that I try to visit religiously to seek out what's going on in the art world. ( The last two I just added to my repertoire, and I hope that I'll continue to be intrigued by what I can pull from there.)

What makes this work really stand out is, simply, its precision and attention to detail.  This is an artist who has taken the time to really examine the makeups of what we have used in our world and magnifies the definition by forcing the viewer to really look at everything that makes up what seems to be a very basic mechanized tool for every day use.  Push a button and it works, right?  But do we really think about the textures and details that make the whole for what it is?  Do we really see that?

It's times like these that it helps to just stop, take a minute, breathe and...be.  Just be.

Shaun Tan

Well friends it looks like I've found myself another artist to become twitterpated over.  Which is wonderful for me since I'm stuck at the PDX airport waiting on mine and my family's flight to San Diego to watch my brother graduate from the Marine Corp Boot Camp.  Alas!

But, *ahem* onward!

The artist who has recently captured my eye is the inimitable Shaun Tan.  He's originally from Perth, Australia, which is where a good chunk of his inspiration came from for consistently implementing the clear open Western Australian skies in his work.  He'd recently won an Oscar for working on the animated short "The Lost Thing," which was based on one of his already illustrated picture books.


Excerpt from "The Lost Thing"


He's a tireless worker, finding more pleasure derived from creating his next illustrations in the quiet of his home with wife, parrot and budgies.  I add this little tid bit in because honestly...how often do you find someone really living such a quintessential life?  I'm a fan, essentially.  I'd be doing something almost entirely mirror-like, except I'd have an artistic wife and a few moose sized dogs gallivanting around the home.


Excerpt from "The Red Tree"


His childhood to adult life is also a classic progression to fame.  Never his goal, but as a child he was known as the "good drawer," which was better than being known as "the short kid."  A quiet serious fellow, he attended Balcatta Senior High School in the arts program graduating in 1991 and attained his Bachelor of Arts at University of Western Australia graduating in 1995.  Since then he'd been working as a freelance illustrator and taking whatever gigs came his way to hone his craft and pay the bills.

Now, obviously, things have taken quite the drastic turn.  Over the past 16 years he has won numerous awards for his picture books and continues to wow people with his insane ability to narrate using hardly any words to accompany his visuals.  There isn't really a specific age group that he aims for, he just wants to tell a good story.

And boy I can't wait until I get my grubby little paws on his stuff.  This is more than just exciting for me.  This is the kind of work I'd like to someday aspire to.  I've no idea what my style is yet, other than it being light-hearted whimsy based material.  Which doesn't always stay on paper.  But at least I have an idea of where my style lays!
 


The Rabbits


The Arrival


Tales From Outer Suburbia

Keys.

Every time I hit a wall I always remember something that my guru said to me.  People seem to find themselves in cages but what they don't realize is that they were the ones holding the keys the entire time.  You don't have to settle for what's in front of you and be upset and angry and think that there's no way out.  There is.  You just have to decide that you're going to make this change.

Sometimes the absurdities we put ourselves through allow us to forget why we did them in the first place.  We forget how sometimes there are happy moments and as soon as they're gone we remember why we were sad and hold on tighter to that.  It makes me wonder, why do we always hold on to what makes us unhappy?  Why should so much energy be expended into maintaining a stasis which serves no greater purpose other than to offer unfortunate health problems and a fouler than thou mood?

Working three jobs puts a few things into perspective for me.  Number one, it leaves very little time for self care, much less time spent with lovers and friends.  Number two, all I think about is work.  I worry about whether or not I'm accepted, whether or not I'm doing a good job, rearranging the order of events I normally perform in my head so as to be more efficient and somehow earn more kudo points.  If people notice.  I mainly always wonder if I'm noticed.  Some rubbish childhood trigger of always being made invisible or some such thing.  Who knows. :P

I've allowed myself to settle into this commitment to a relationship I haven't even given myself the time to properly explore.  And I don't mind breaking my back (sometimes literally) to make sure I'm helping move the day along that much more smoothly.  I love the people I talk to, I'm actually really liking my bosses and co-workers (most of them, anyway), and the road continues to get brighter as things go on, hiccups or no.

But all I think about...is work.  Money.  Savings.  Or lack, thereof.  I thought this time out of school was to be spent working and having fun.  Not working and being exhausted all the time.  I hold the key to my fun.

Didn't I say I was going to draw more?  Work on music more?  Dance more?  Laugh more?  Didn't I say that I was going to give myself a chance to breathe and be and exist and celebrate?

Well, didn't I?

I think I did.  I'm going to unlock myself now.  I'll see you when I get back.

Another blog? Geesh.

So, like most folks, there's that "steady stream of consciousness" thing that happens, and so far I've been writing to myself in my journal because it allows me to 1. remember what it is I've thought and felt, 2. work on my censor. Or, rather, to work on not having one.

And yet at the same time, part of me misses the act of blogging personally. I mean I've got my side project for my future webcomic going, and it's great because I've been desperately wanting to get this thing going for almost a year. So in Teresa-land, that means I am meant to make this happen.

I've kept many blogs in the past, going through the phases of LiveJournal, Xanga, AsianAvenue (pre-n00b status, i.e. we had to create the html ourselves to make the site bad-ass), and most recently, MySpace. I've been skirting the blog-o-sphere and letting myself be public again because I've been enjoying the past 2 -3 years of being private. It was a habit that needed practicing because the very fact that I needed so much validity from others to commentate on how my life was going was inevitably leading me to very low morale and self esteem.

And it's average enough, thank you very much. Or better than, I suppose.

So...to give a summary about the things that have happened recently:

I'm finally sticking to a career choice and not putzing around with school anymore. I've picked my focus, which is Arts Practices (meaning that I can pick almost any art classes I want and add up the score at the end to say "I win!" and get my degree). I'm minoring in Psychology and when it's time to get my tucus to grad school, I'll be going into Art Therapy. By the time I'm done with all this I'll be in my 30's, and while some people are grumbling and mumbling about how they wish they could be back in their 20's, I'm looking forward to when the hum drum of school gets left behind. I'll miss it, for sure. And I'll reminisce on bygone days when I was an irresponsible (sort of ) hooligan. But I know I'll be grateful for the present and look onward towards the future.

I'm in a lovely committed relationship with my partner, Noah. Come November we'll have been together for two years. TWO. YEARS. Longest relationship of my life. And his, coincidentally. It's been quite the gender bender since we've gotten together, and I find myself feeling more or less content with my identity and how I sit inside myself as a human. Part of me wants to say I've finally reached my peak and realized that I finally know for me what "queer" means...but I know that it'll turn itself on its head in the future and to that...well, we'll see what happens.

Somewhere in this silly month was mine and my second husband Tim's 5 year anniversary of being besties. (Noah's the first) After being in each others' orbit for this long we finally become roommates. Which was about damn time, in my opinion. Because I'm loving my refurbished family. Two cats, two husbands, and while I'd like to say I'm the ringleader of it all, I prefer to be the one who exists in this strange and adventurous land. I'd give it a title, but I can only call it...This Land. ;)

I'm 23 years old, and while that's decently young part of me feel more than decently seasoned. People say I act like I'm 24 - 25, so I wonder what'll happen when I reach that? Silly business.

Work is steady again, finally. After almost two years of absurdity and bouncing around from job to job I'm ready for some stability. I love my co-workers, my boss is rad, and the hours are where I want them. It also seems like I'm here to stay, so hopefully I won't be looking at potentially getting shafted again. It's been a big fear of mine for a while, but after 6 months I think it's finally time to relax.

I'm currently immersing myself in comic culture, meaning that I'm trying desperately to brush up on my history, learn the ins and outs of "the greats", and in the process create, create, create.

I guess that's it for now. Until next time.