Something about the plastic and the digital
My interests in art are wide. I am currently obsessed with the ideas of AI creating art. Unfortunately my coding abilities are some what lacking and my laptop would lack the power to handle a neural network. Big sad face.
That being the case I've opted for the idea of producing paintings and drawings and glitching or datamoshingthem as a digital siblings to the 'plastic' actual painting.
This has been a big learning curve for me. I started off with processing ( and I will someday master it), but I found it hard to commit the time required to learn it due to a little thing I like to call life. So I began looking at glitch art and datamoshing.
I'm using ffmpeg to create loops of the paintings and then cause the pixles to move with various filters. Its been a long road, but I've been helped by my friend google , and a lovely group on facebook. They have taught me many things.
Enough words have a look at thethings below. I'll update part 2 of this at some point in the near future.
Not everything has to mean something, Oil on deep edge canvas, 10" x 10"
This is the image I've chosen to datamosh.
The next stage is to refine the above movement and to add glitches.
I've been through a lot this past year. More than some and a lot less than others. A bad bout of depression, turning 40 and recently the death of an old and dear friend.
They say ever experience is a chance to learn. What have I learnt? I'm still learning from these experiences, but my immediate thoughts turn to the knowledge that pretty much everyone I know is or has suffered from some mental health problem.
Knowing this has given me strength to face my own issues and deal with them. I wonder if this is why I'm feeling drawn to portraits at the moment?
By being open about my issues others in turn have opened up to me. I never knew how much some close friends were suffering and I wish they had felt they could reach out to me.
I've taken tiny steps to right myself. Things like drawing a little bit more often. Being more precise about my daily routine. Nothing really earth shattering in itself. However the effect on my mental out look combined with medication is nothing short of phenomenonal.
I travelled back to Omagh for a friend's funeral, rather than sit on my phone I took a cheap sketchbook and a H pencil. I filled my travel time sketching. The results are mixed. I had to work at speed as I could not tell how long anone would hold a pose.
Turns out drawing people on the sly is difficult.
The backs of heads can be more interesting than you'd think.
Sleepy airplane lady slumped pretty much as soon as I started.
This was a quick 5 minute sketch I was hoping to get to work into. But my model got off at the next station.
This model was really inconsistent moving their arm all over the place.
The foot model shifted her foot as soon as I started drawing. I had to wait 30 minutes for the foot to return.
Just loved this really odd composition.
The longest drawing I managed to complete. There was some kind of scandal about someone called Sam.
This would be my favourite of the drawings. I love the unconventional cropping.
Something something something
I'm gearing myself back up slowly. Very slowly, but soon I hope to be running at full cathal speed and be on this here blog with regular updates and have my art all updated and up to scratch too.
I've been to Northern Ireland to see my folks and get some R&R. I also turned 40. To celebrate this momentous occasion I gathered together a few friends and attended a life drawing session arranged by Dr Sketchy in Derry . It was great fun. I only have some small images that I have posted to Facebook on my page. I'll shove them all over to my laptop and post them here as well before long.
In other news I have been uploading details of paintings and images I like to redbubble, who will print the image onto all most anything for you.
Anyways I can hear my kids calling for me. Laters
Something or other
The last time I was on here I was saying how tough i was finding things due to my mental health. Well currently things are on the up. Mentally I'm feeling a shit ton more positive about every thing. I still get my odd intrusive thoughts, but I'm able to brush those mad things to one side and either deal with them later or dispose of them. Thanks science and your chemicals
The issue I'm having now is I'm either 'SORTING ALL THE THINGS EVER' or I'm practically unconscious. I don't have a real answer to this, it might be the sciencey chemicals or it might be a sleep routine I have to adapt ( I'm a night owl) or it might be due to me being lazy. Who knows? Not I.
Anyways I'm painting again. Looking at glitch aesthetics, portraiture and generative elements. It's an odd lot to try to compile together. But I'm having fun doing it. There are deeper concepts in the work which I will put down in a more concrete fashion sometime. I think it was Someone who said and I paraphrase here ' Doing is not the time for thinking.'
I'm busy doing. Ideas evolve over time, goal is not to be tied to the original thought but to let the idea and work evolve.
So any way enough words have electrical impulses paint an image based on mine in your mind.
m/tbr/wn a glitchrait in progress. Hopefully not much more to do on it.
/l/c/gl/t/h wip as well working and working.
details of above.
Stuff and Guff
Soundcloud is where I put my sonic dreams. When I make them.
