Starting up journal entries... and a few inspirations.

State-o-mind: focused

Task at Hand: Journal Entry, Post Inspirations and Proposal Questionaire... oh and email blog address.

On The Horizon: Model building

What is working: Me!

What is not working: any nagging doubts regarding my abilities, exorcised those demons... funny thing is they have a habit of returning... they do not get to rent space in my brain... not time for that!

Other thoughts: Inspirations... I really don't try to imitate other works of art that inspire me but interesting to see how they reflect my own tendencies. Must be why I am drawn to them in the first place.


Inspired by the inventiveness of Avatar's environment and plant life. I was blown away at the "genius" of how something new can be familiar.. then when looking for images to post came across James Cameron's marine influence on his films. Of course!! Nothing better than Mother Nature to show you diversity and variety, texture and pattern.

Surprising, I have not previously added Mary Blair to my inspiration list. Her ability to mix color, pattern and texture still inspires me today. Although the song gets on my nerves, I will never forget the first time I visited It's a Small World After All at the ripe old age of 18. I think I like the visual harmony of many elements, giving the eye lots to explore and ponder.

Looking for some stop motion inspiration I came across




Kihachiro Kawamoto - The Demon



In the beginning I was ready to dismiss the short, as I thought there was not enough movement, but the story caught me and I was waiting to see how it ended. He had a nice sense of how to build tension and move the story along, keeping me engaged. The mixture of puppetry and 2D elements is interesting to me, in some scenes where the puppets are on a black background, he added some visual texture to keep the scene from being static, without taking away from the subtle animation.

Professional status

So summer and fall terms did not produce a finished project, however more stuff marinating in my brain. After three weeks off to work, settle after a major move and just play DK, watch TV, and be me, I feel energized and ready to go. Perhaps I was suffering from a major case of burn out, or gave in to major resistance. Steven Pressfield states in the "The War of Art" pg 79. "The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist... ... once he gets into the action, his fear will recede and he'll be okay."

I am turning pro today, this is a declaration and commitment to art. Pass or fail, suck or not, time to charge forward. Writing this down will help me to remember to keep working.