It might be a little soon

. . . for Halloween festivities to be well under way, but I hear people talking about it and see them getting excited already, and it reminds me how much I love Halloween. In preemptive celebration I'm going to start posting costumes I've worn, and for the most-part made.

Kicking it off is Jack Skellington from Halloween 2005:

Seeing as I was even skinnier back then, I made for a pretty convincing skeleton. That and a vertical pinstripe can be very slimming.













Here's another shot of me lamenting:

More costumes to be posted before this year's Hallows, but now the main dilemma is coming up with this years costume and finding the time to put it together.

I'll be attending a Mad-scientist/Sci-Fi party so at least I have some guidelines to start from.

I can't wait!

Moving right along

Because I have yet to post anything text-based, I thought I'd put up a poem. Here's one that I concocted in a Texas airport on my way down to Guatemala last summer (2009). I was inspired by a man I saw who seemed to be . . . bitterly uninspired.

_______________________

Lump

Oh here comes Mr. Toad.

Gullet drooped like dripping tallow,

Little leering nodes,

And skin like soap eroded—shallow pits of sickly pallor—

And his knuckles knots of rope.

His eyes spit mist of swollen sorrow

All across your toes.

No taller than your feet he grows.

No innocence he knows.

Slack-jawed staring, hardly caring

What bones he cracks or brains he lacks.

His smugness stays intact

As he waddles through his woes,

Bottled in his mottled clothes

Of slimy sin and salty grins.

Oh why so bitter, grim Sir Toad?

The loads you bear are paltry, hardly fair

To call them grandiose.

They’re composed of your own shyness,

Squinting faces of the self you loathe.

How can you dare to hate us so when you were born a fetid soul?

Redemption thrown through pleading windows, that’s the fate you chose.

__________________________

I'm going to go get a glass of juice. Cheers.

-T

Apparently pinching doesn't work

Last night I had a dream where my teeth were falling out. It's one I have fairly consistently, and as a result, I became aware this time that it was likely unreal. In the dream I began to pinch myself with increasing force, but nothing happened and the dream proceeded as normal. When I woke up it took me a while to remember that it had happened, but I seem to have lost a little faith in reality.

Moving on. Here's a sculpture I did last February (2010). I didn't have anything in mind when I started making it, so its form was plucked from the aether and surprised me as it manifested.

Maybe one day it will be painted, and as long as we're dreaming, I'd really like to make a cast of it and make resin replicas. We'll see how that goes.

I only have a little scrap of Sculpey left and I haven't been able to find anywhere to buy more in Arkansas yet, so my sculpting may cease for the time being.

May you always wake up when you want to,

-Theo

Subsisting on caffeine and kitten giggles

. . . and the latter of the two are fairly hard to come by, so I'm pretty tired.
The weekend is here and I'm going to be baking pies. You can't be mad or stressed (or any other negative emotion) when you bake a pie. It's just not possible.
The only food related piece I have is a shirt from last year, rendered for my good friend Steve.

Picamas was our "hotsauce of choice" when traveling around Guatemala. It was green and opaque, and looked a lot like Ninja Turtle ooze, but it was also delicious. We joked about going to the factory where it's produced (wherever that may be), and picking up a shirt for Steve, but we never did, so I made one with fabric markers. The picture is just what's on the label.

Best. Tent buddy. Ever.

Now back to work, and daydreaming of desserts.

Legos are the building blocks of my childhood

Here's a stop-animation I made 4 years ago over the summer. I used Legos and a little bit of MSPaint, and it all took around 2 weeks to put together. I've wanted to animate more but the time investment is a bit much for my current lifestyle. That and I didn't lug all of my Legos down to Arkansas.

This video is set to a great Johnny Cash song which warns of the dangers of mixing politics with . . . well really with Anything else.

Enjoy

My family just got bigger

I want to wish the warmest of congratulations to my sister Elise and my new brother in law Jonathan. I just got back from their lovely wedding where amazing food, company, and dancing were in abundance. It's gems of comfort like this that really fuel you through the year. =)

All that I have to post that is slightly relevant are some sketches from the bike-trip in Tuscany I went on with them several months ago:

The first is a wishing well from a courtyard in San Gimignano.
The second is a low angle shot of an arched walk way in the same town.

The last one (below) is the top of the Duomo di Siena as seen from across town.

 

Each sketch was done in a couple of hours with mechanical pencil on heavy acid-free paper . . . if it matters. Please click the photos so you can see them full size; they look much better that way. This is true for everything I post on this blog.

. . . torn apart by idle hands . . .

Today's piece is from a couple of years ago:

Tiger Mask

-Fall 2008
-Paper, markers, tape
-Not of my own design, actually from an old french template I found in my garage back in California
-Not a mask for wearing, more of a wall decoration

Paper Tiger: also a really cool Beck song.