What's all about now

Well, I've thought of writting this for months now, but always forgot

The pictures are from a tattoo I got around the end of october. The design is exactly what it seems, a mix of the pieces that went to the Reflektion exhibition. I was opposed to tattoos for all my life, but after months of thinking, I value them now, at least, if they have a real meaning or true purpose. Mine is a memory and a promise, might sound chessy, but last year really marked my life and how I see it. It was also my happiest year, I think that it changed me forever, so I also get a mark in my body to remember it.

But it's not about memories, it's about keeping up the pace. Like I did with my identity, I broke down the whole experience of Sweden to it's core: growth, confidence and freedom, promising to myself that I'll live like I did there: taking all the chances I got, doing everything I could, experiencing the most and enjoying all of it...Back there and then, I thought "When this year is over, I don't want to regret that I missed any experience, I'll do everything, so when it's over, it'll be a shame, but there won't be nothing to regret, I did everything that could be done". So the tattoo is a remindert, so I'll never loose opportunities and regret it later

I was against tattoos because it's a forever mark on your body. I countered that by thinking that we are constantly marking ourselves and our bodies, be it sports, drinking, smoking, accidents, fashions...Everything we do marks ourselves forever, and usually it has a bad effect. A tattoo is a voluntary mark, a decision like studying arts, or going to Sweden, I chose it. I also think, that it's a beautiful link with my art, as now it's on my body. Anyway, I don't think I'll ever get another one, and I think I'll never regret it, as I'll never regret going to Sweden, or living as I live now

About life nowadays, I'm taking a serious dessign course, so I learn how to properly use Ai, Ps and ID. Also, I became an university assistant, so I'm giving lessons on my home faculty, It's also about dessign and those programs, but I also get to use the installations on the university to work on my projects, and I'm also learning a lot about teaching. To top it, I'm also working to take the Proficency Test in english, which I hope I'll get in March, and I formed a working group with some friends to work on animations and learn more...I finally chose to learn about effects, so my work is linked with fire, water, sand, explosions...everything that flows in an animation

To finish it, I'm looking for a master on this, so probably next year I'll live abroad again, hopefully, given the options, USA or Canada.

I'm still working on art projects, finishing the bronze ball, and planning new sculptures and engravings, so I'll update this from time to time, even if it's only for me to write it down and keep a diary of it

What is not seen

With all that had to be done for the exhibition I didn't have time to upload here this small video I made

It's made of all the extra footage that I took for Mike's course, when I was shooting the interviews with Linda and David I'd usually leave the camera switched on, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by mistake, but they weren't aware of it, so what was captured is how they really are and behave when they don't have to act...it's usually what we never get to see when we watch a movie or a video

The subtitles were added in a rush as the screen on the museum didn't have a good sound, so I removed it then, they only have the most important parts so you can understand what's going on

Reflektion!

Well, everything went perfect, after a lot of work, the inauguration was a success, the press came and it showed in the newspaper and internet here:

http://www.folkbladet.se/kultur/default.aspx?articleid=6067829
http://www.kultursidan.nu/?p=6719

And what can be said...This exhibition is not only a great opportunity, it's the closure of an amazing year here in Sweden, I've experienced and seen a lot of things, both good and bad, I've truly evolved myself, and to resume everything in this exhibition is more than wonderful...

So, tack så mycket!

the bronze casting

To make this piece I had to go back to Spain, the installations here in Sweden were too small to make this

The process of bronze casting a piece like this is quite long, first of all, I had to make a plaster cast of a ball, then in two pieces, make with it the two sides of the ball with wax, as it's empty on the inside, I had to do it aplying thin layers of wax. Once I had the teo sides of the wax ball, with a hot iron I started making the different holes on it, and refining the borders.

Once the ball was ready on itself, I had to add a lot of wax pipes which will be used later to let the molten bronze in, I also had to add some air exits. When the pipes are ready, the whole wax piece goes inside a block of plaster mixed with brick powder, and when it has dried, it's placed inside a hoven. Then, all the wax melts and goes away, leaving a block which has inside the shape the piece and the pipes had.

That leads to the video, the block is placed in sand, because if something goes gronw it could explode, then, with the bronze molten at 1200 Cº, we pour it inside the pipes, as the video shows, I also worked on this, the first two blocks contain this piece. When the bronze has cooled down, the plaster block is destroyed, and if everything goes well (which is not so common), the piece is almost finished, there is only left removing the pipes, as the first two pictures show, and then polishing it

I think it's quite funny, how this piece, which is about my own identity, is the project where I recieved most help in my artistic life, I had the colaboration of three teachers and the help of a lot of friends in order to finish it and be able to bring it to Sweden on time...I believe, that this process and how I was helped really suits the piece.

stamp

I haven't done an update on this blog for a while, I've been really busy, with a trip to Spain, and the exhibition coming closer

This are the stamps of the woodcuts I made around february and march, I had to stamp them in Spain, and bring them back to Sweden. I'm really happy with the final result of both of them, eventhough I won't be using the footprint one in the exhibition, on the other hand the finguerprint will be used to design the poster of the exhibition

Self-Identity

Here is the sketch for the last project (unless I finish it really quickly, which I don't think is possible) for this course, a piece that represents my idetity

Reaching this point was really difficult, I've been trying to achieve this for months. I found quite hard to summarize my identity in a single image/piece...When I started looking at my own identity, I found out that there was so much I should represent, so many different things, aspects of my life, that I didn't know how I should start...First I tried to think about it out of the blue, but that only lead me to think about my personality and my relation with society, leaving out some important things...Then I decided to change my strategy, and tried to think about it by parts, but that didn't help much either...

Anyway, that set me on the right way (I think), as I started learning things about myself...I finally started writting everything down, giving it shape, and listing all the different aspects of my identity...with all that learnt and in my mind, I ended up creating this design

It works as a whole thing, everything is conected and moving, flowing...I feel this piece represents everything that I am right now at this point of my life, I feel identified with it

Now comes the technical part, I'd love to do this in bronze, but I really don't know if it's technically possible, or if the University has the equipment needed for this...I know I could do it in wood, but I thinks it's important that it's made of bronze...I'll have to check the different options

2 weeks later

Two weeks later I've finished the plural identity project...Basically, thanks to Easter, I worked a lot...As the theorical and concept explanations are on the last entry, I won't write about them now

The piece was way harder from wat I expected when I made the sketch, it took more time and effort than expected, but I managed to finish it before planned at the end

I gave each spike it's shape, and then when it was polished, cut it in small pieces and glue it again. When all the spikes were ready, I glued them together and repeated the process with the lower zone: shape it, polish it, cut and glue it again...at the end it became really difficult to keep it on because I couldn't attach the piece to something stable enough to cut it properly

I'm quite stisfied with the final result, it's similar to the first idea I had and working with a lot of small pieces turned out as I expected, although it possed a lot of extra work which I didn't count with at the beginning