Well hello my name is Simon, and I like to do drawrings!
Remember Mike Meyers in a bathtub? Of course you do, you cheeky monkey! I've been trying to document some of my sketches over the last few days. I'm slowly posting them in my "drawings" section. I thought I would post a few of them here on my blog, as well.
This is Neyteri. I am a nerd. I doodled this while on the set of The Office, earning me the nickname "Avatar." Being called "Avatar" by Craig Robinson was a delightful geek moment for me. More on that after the episode airs...
This is a quick sketch of Doctor Orpheus from The Venture Brothers. My reference material was my iPhone and I scanned him before I could finish his hands, but I plan to do more of him. He's really fun to draw:
More to come. I had been waiting to get a scanner, but I have found that my iPhone takes decent pictures of drawings as long as I have them in the sun. I think Neyteri might be a tiny bit warped, but the idea is there.
"I Was a Film School Reject"
These may be words that come out of my mouth someday in an interview with Filmmaker magazine or Inside the Actor's Studio. I'll say those words right after James Lipton asks me what my favorite swear word is... I have officially received the "best of luck in all of your endeavors" letter from the film and video program at CalArts. I have to admit that I wasn't really expecting that. I was expecting to panic about having to find a way to pay the extremely high tuition costs at that school after having been accepted. Based on the advice of people I've known who have gone to that school or who currently work there, I thought I had a real shot.
Yeah, that might seem a little cocky, sure. I am pretty confident in my abilities, though, and 100% sure of my ambitions and motivations. I also think my work shows at least a little talent. If not, I think the potential is there. It's quite possible that I had just applied too late, applied to the wrong program, expressed too much love for Terry Gilliam or the color blue, or just didn't have the academic recommendations or variety of film work they wanted. Whatever their reasons, I know what I'm not doing in September, now I just have to figure out what I am doing...
Why am I sharing this with the world? Because I learned something valuable in all of this: if you really want to know more about yourself as an artist, apply for an MFA! Even if you don't get in, it's worth the application fee to discover valuable things you may not have known about yourself. I learned so much about myself, my influences, my goals, and my ambitions and desires through writing my "artist's statement," and my "thoughts and influences" and whatnot that I actually still feel more confident than defeated by the rejection. In fact, my personality is such that it makes me more determined to do what I want to do. In the end, all this means to me is that I'm saving $36,000 in tuition this year. That money might be better served as an investment in my own film, anyway.
I share it too because perhaps this could apply to a lot of people in a lot of situations- not just artists seeking MFAs. You might get rejected, but you have to try. So many of us build up walls around ourselves and live in "some day" while the world goes on around us- we don't apply for that job or that scholarship, ask that cute boy out, tell someone we love them, move to that new place, etc. because we feel that a "better time" might come along... So far, the only thing I have gained from that philosophy in my short lifetime has been a feeling of regret. So I'm plowing forward full speed. I'm proud of my rejection.
Just thought I would share that with the inter-sphere, the web-iverse, or what have you. We tend to be critical of ourselves and one another fairly easily, but support and understanding is often a little harder to find. Whoever you are in the world, let your freak flag fly! I don't know why we have to make things so hard on ourselves and on each other, but often times, we do.
In response to one of Lipton's other "10 questions," when he asks "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?" My answer will be "yeah, so... sorry about all of that weird shit." :)
Obama in 30 seconds
It's a little late to be posting this- voting closed a long while ago. I felt it was appropriate, though, seeing as how it looks like Mr. Obama is going to be our Democratic nominee. It's also appropriate because, well, I actually have time to post it! It looks best if you click play and then the little "monitor" icon in the middle of the right hand side to play it full screen. It was drawn in pencil. At such a small size, it's pretty hard to see. I made this for moveon.org's contest called "Obama in 30 Seconds." Obama was my second favorite Democratic nominee (and no, Clinton was not my first, though I liked her too). I really do like the guy, though, and I'm happy to vote for him. Politics aside, there was a $20,000 prize (redeemable in video equipment) and it gave me a chance to play with character animation. I drew several pictures that I scanned and animated in Flash. The lip sync was a little tricky because Flash seemed to want to play the video and the audio at two different frame rates, so I just had to trust my dope sheet (I'll try to post a page from that tomorrow and explain what it is). The animation is a little... basic... but it was my first full-blown character animation with lip sync and it was supposed to look "grassroots" (which is now an adjective). It's really amazing to see a character that you drew come to life before your very eyes. Carl Fuermann was the voice of America.
(Note: heated/bigoted/negative political comments to this post will be deleted- sorry, but that's what every blog seems to become these days and no one ever said mine was a democracy! I alone hold the power of comment approval! Mwa ha ha ha!)
More on L.A. - The Getty Center
"There is no There there." Okay, I've heard some of my more "cultured" friends use this Gertrude Stein line on me to try to dissuade me from my desire to live in Los Angeles. First of all, she was referring to Oakland (about which I know nothing), not L.A. Secondly, there is plenty of "there" in Los Angeles, if you know where "there" is. I will admit, the greater Los Angeles area has its fair share of strip malls, chain restaurants, and uninspired suburban cookie-cutter neighborhoods, but there are a lot of unique, funky and -gasp- cultural places, as well.
I didn't make it to LACMA, through which Steve Martin roller skated as "performance art" in one of my all-time favorite films, "L.A. Story" (though I do have the shoes for it now- see right). I did, however, manage to visit the Getty Center- a huge art museum with a stunning view:
The Getty’s window’s adjust automatically to allow natural light that will not damage the art.
We’re all falling off! Or… just a humorous camera angle. Looking out at the 405 from the Getty.
Looking out at L.A. from the Getty
The Getty Center - Front Entrance
The tracks of the Getty tram and a view of the hills.
Downtown L.A. from the Getty
Travertine squares- gaps between the stone allow for earthquake movement.
The Getty from the sculpture garden
The sun setting behind the Getty
The Getty Center
The Getty’s travertine and aluminium squares against a blue sky.
A framed landscape of Los Angeles from the Getty
The Getty- travertine and blue sky
L.A. at night from the Getty
Admission to the museum is free once you pay for parking. You take a tram to the top of a hill to get to the museum. I took the guided architecture tour while I was there. It's really fascinating (as you can see from the photos and read about on The Getty Center's architecture page). The entire structure is covered with 30-inch squares of travertine (a sedimentary stone) and aluminum. The grid is based on a line that is approximately eye-height and spans the entire complex. It even lines up with the horizon of the ocean (which, due to the hazy fog, you could not see that day).
Despite the museum's modern look, its specialty is Western art from the Middle Ages to the present (a more dignified roller-shoes pose may be in order). They do "mix it up" a little, though. There was a really great video exhibit there (California Video was the name of it and it runs through June 8). I couldn't take pictures there, but my favorite artists were Jim Campbell (Home Movies 920-1 my favorite by far), Jennifer Steinkamp (Oculus Sinister my second favorite), Martin Kersels (Pink Constellation), Bill Viola (The Sleepers), and Paul Kos (Chartres Bleu).
There was also a lovely sculpture garden, where I did cut loose with the camera (again- click the thumbnails for larger views/slide show):
Getty helipad.
Looking down on the sculpture garden at the Getty
Pink lilies of some sort…
Rebar trees
A “rebar tree”
Closeup of a “tree” made of rebar that had viney plants growing through it
Flowers in the sculpture garden- Getty Center
A stream in the sculpture garden- Getty Center
Succulents in the sculpture garden at the Getty
I think this is what they call a desert rose…
The sculpture garden at the Getty
The cactus garden at the Getty
Yang T'ai Chi
A sketch I did in my all day class. The instructor told many colorful stories while we sat and listened.
Poor little Callisto...
...experiencing technical difficulties. Where did Callisto go? My original file is gone! :( (Non video types, skip to the end of this paragraph) I'm trying to get the digital recording from the betacam back online. I copied it to a digital 8mm tape, but got rid of that camera, so I can't recapture the video. I ordered a digital 8 camera from ebay but wound up with... a camera that records to DVDs? Not at all what I need. There, nerd talk over.
I FINALLY have the camera now and plan to get that and other neglected videos back online (including one that didn't even make it onto the DVD). In the meantime, I will shamelessly plug myself here:
Come vote for Snowbird on "The Lot!" http://films.thelot.com/films/28908
"Wait," you ask, "didn't I already vote for this film once?"
Well, how would I know? Who are you? And how in the world did you just type that above?
Yes, this film is up on the IFC, and yes, I begged my blog viewership to go and vote for it there (that's right, all ten of you- according to feedburner statistics, anyway). BUT this time, I might win $1 million development from Steven Spielberg to make my first feature AND I would be on the equivalent of American Idol for filmmakers. Just think about it, you could be watching TV and saying, "wow! I actually know that very sad, sad person!!"
Plus, there is now a 45 second introduction before the film that includes drawings and a moving, talking me (unlike the stationary me in the upper right who just produces text).
Okay, you have been sufficiently coerced. End transmission...
Art in Science/Science in Art
I briefly interrupt my film show to announce that tonight is the opening of the Art in Science | Science in Art show at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS). Yours truly was lucky enough to have a piece chosen for this show (which will be traveling- I will announce venues when they become available) as well as two pieces for the online show. I was interested in how many of the finalists also worked with polarized media. I can't wait to see some of these pieces "up close." I felt that the competition was somewhat slanted more toward "Art in Science" than "Science in Art" (I think I fall into the latter category), but there are some really amazing pieces (such as this one, below, by Marshall Dines).
In this piece, the artist injected "cells" of bubble wrap with paint.
