Latest News:Thursday, May 15th, 2008, 09:36:19 PMWow, long time no update --The last several months have really slipped by. I started a new job last year that, though a much better job, has left me a lot less time for my art, not to mention that I can't put any of what I'm doing now in my portfolio because it's internal to a web-building program that our clients pay for access to. Both of those combined with the fact that I'm finishing my undergraduate degree haven't left me much to update the site with. I'm about a week away from finishing my classes, though, so look for more updates on the knotwork progression I last posted on in August. I'm also working on a new site for the LARP Tony and I are putting together and redoing my World of Warcraft guild's site, so you can expect to see some updates in that direction as well. Most excitingly (for me), work's just at the edge of walking distance from Lake Michigan, so now that the sun has decided to occasionally revisit the land of the great northern people-sicles, I hope to get out with my camera and get down to the lake on my lunch hour. Wednesday, Jan 23rd, 2008, 12:01:21 PMDo you want to live in a theocracy? I don't. -- I've participated in a Secular Coalition for America Action Alert by asking my U.S. House Representative to vote NO on H. Res. 888. This resolution calls for a revised history of the United States as a Christian nation. You can read more about H. Res. 888 and take action yourself at http://action.secular.org/t/5367/campaiIn fact, I didn't send my message through SCA. I know who my representative is, so I'm sending it directly. I'm including it at the end of this post. For the full text of HR888, here's the link at THOMAS: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c Pay particular attention to items 2 and 3 at the bottom. If you're not familiar with some of the events mentioned in the 70+ whereases, don't take any of them for truth. They are filled with ignorance and outright distortion. Please write to your representative to stop this. Here's the letter I sent to Sensenbrenner: Dear Representative Sensenbrenner, Do not let yourself be used to promote a lie. We are not, and have never been, a country founded on any religion. I am an historian, intimate with our founding, and I am begging you to help us stop these nonsensical revisions of our nation's rich and vivid history. There are those who seem to be too stupid to understand the difference between "deist" and theist, who are completely ignorant of the history of our country, or who, worse yet, are willfully trying to confuse Americans on that point for no reason other than to make themselves more powerful. If you vote yes on H.Res 888, then you are obviously one of these people and you are broadcasting that fact to the entire world. Will you stand up to be counted with the enemies of our country who want to subvert history to promote their own totalitarian agenda in the present? Make no mistake, this sort of extremist religion is as much a threat to our country as extremist religion is in the Middle East. The name it calls itself is irrelevant because they lead to the same ends. I note with deep disgust that you voted for HR 847 last month, so I suppose this plea will fall on deaf ears. This country was founded on Enlightenment ideals, on the theory that Humanity was capable of making the right decisions without a god or a king to do it for them, and that humans should only be bound by laws they themselves had a hand in creating. Resolution 888 is an outright slap in the face of every one of those ideas and of the men who turned them into a Constitution. And to top it off, most of it's "whereas"es are half truths and outright lies! For a truly outstanding discussion of several of these "whereas" statements, please read this page: http://www.talk2action.org/story/20 An example bespeaking the lie of the "Christian Founding": When Thomas Paine died, some of his enemies concocted a wild and later disproven story about a deathbed conversion to Christianity TO DISCREDIT HIM. Does this sound like an accusation that would be made to discredit someone in a country that some bleeding idiots claim was "founded by Christians"? NO. If you are a Christian, and you wish to practice in your private life, more power to you. However, you were sent to Washington to represent all of the people of our district, not just the Christians. I can think of few ways you could represent me LESS than if you voted yes on this abominable abuse of "ceremonial" powers. Sincerely, Crystal Odenkirk Saturday, Aug 11th, 2007, 09:36:03 AM New addition to my gallery:Illuminated Knotwork in Progress, Part II This is a closeup of the second stage of production for my modern take on celtic knotwork. Once I have the basic shapes laid out and I've created a grid, I mark out voids where something else will be visible from behind the knotwork as though through a window, and put a dot in the center of each box. This dot is the pivot point for the weaving of the knotwork. Placing the dot serves two purposes for me. One, I have a tendency to stretch and distort my grid so that instead of rectangles, I have a lot of trapezoids. Placing the dot helps me keep the boxes orderly and the knots organized. Two, in later stages of production, it can become easy to loose the edges of the boxes and to mistake lines drawn between center points for edges. By physically drawing the dots, I ensure that I will be able to tell the center from the edge. Like measuring, this is more important for close-in work, such as the dense rectangles in the inverted V. You can click here to see Illuminated Knotwork in Progress, Part I Friday, Aug 10th, 2007, 09:35:00 PM New addition to my gallery:Illuminated Knotwork in Progress, Part I I've been asked a few times what my process is for a new piece of knotwork, an art form I do constantly but haven't really put much of up here on the website. In answer to that, I decided to take snaps of my current work in progress at each of the stages of production. This photo shows the very first stage of knotwork creation (I can't really call it celtic knotwork because it's a very modern adaptation). I start with a blank piece of parchment-textured paper, a pencil, a ruler, and some Beethoven. From there, I stare at the paper until all of my stresses and intruding thoughts are drowned out by geometric shapes and soundwaves. Most of my artwork starts as a free-form geometric shape. I often use the ruler to draw straight lines, but rarely do I use it for any real measuring, except in cases of very small work such as the inverted V in this piece, where even spaces are crucial. Each of those rectangles and trapezoids represent a point that the knotwork will revolve around, so this is most critical stage of production. It is not uncommon for me to finish this stage of production in one or two sittings of three or four hours. Click here to proceed to Illuminated Knotwork in Progress, Part II Friday, Jun 8th, 2007, 11:06:48 PMPhoto Icon I needed an icon for posting new photo additions to my gallery in my LiveJournal (Read Crystal Odenkirk's LiveJournal). Self-portrait and digital color manipulation. Friday, Jun 8th, 2007, 09:23:44 PM New addition to my gallery:Sunset over Liberty Park We had a spectacular sunset this evening. This is from the top of the hill at Liberty Park looking back toward Pewaukee Lake. Thursday, Jun 7th, 2007, 10:06:32 PM New addition to my gallery:Storm Rolling In Another view out my porch door this evening just before sunset as the approaching thunderstorm swept in. Thursday, Jun 7th, 2007, 08:53:59 PM New addition to my gallery:Oncoming Storm This was the view out my porch door this evening just before sunset as the approaching thunderstorm swept in. Monday, May 7th, 2007, 07:28:46 PM New addition to my gallery:Threshold This stone wall is part of the retaining wall outside my dining room window. Isn't it just daring you to step across? Monday, May 7th, 2007, 07:13:38 PM New addition to my gallery:Forsythia bloom There's a wall of mature forsythia by my patio. I snuck in a few photos before the rain reached us. Sunday, May 6th, 2007, 09:16:41 PM New addition to my gallery:Grayscale Abstract Acrylic on Bristol, 11"x14". Abstract shapes without intended representation... but I just want to know when Cthulhu invaded my abstract art! When I started drawing, I thought of those curled snake-like tentacles as vines or tendrils of smoke... but no. Cthulhu again. I blame my husband, who is currently running a roleplaying game with a Cthulhu-esque Elder God as a threat. Friday, Apr 13th, 2007, 06:02:11 PM New addition to my gallery:Schroeder Brothers Construction, Inc. This one might just be the best design I've ever done. It's certainly one of the top ones. And they made it really easy to make the site for them. They do amazing work and gave me excellent photos to work from. If I was building a house, I'd want them to do it. And I'm not just saying that because they're clients. Go take a look at some of the gorgeous woodwork in the gallery. Design and development of site, including banner ads. Work done for OnYourMark, LLC. Thursday, Apr 12th, 2007, 05:56:59 PM New addition to my gallery:Summer Snow Art Summer Snow Art is an art prints ecommerce site based (at this point you might say loosely based) on osCommerce. They frame art prints and they've got a technique to give the prints the look and feel of canvas. Great pictures to be looking at all day while I was working on the site, and my initial design ideas before discussing it with them were exactly what they were looking for, so there wasn't much revision from the original design. I'm always on board when it comes to making what looks like mixed media online. However, all that painting was actually done by hand in Photoshop via brushes and layers (no cheap filter effects for me). I'm happy with the design but I think the best thing I did on it was the dynamic frame-changer on the product pages. Spiffy. Responsible for all design and programming, inclucing banner ads. Kristen Day put together initial html template from psd design. Work done for OnYourMark, LLC Wednesday, Apr 11th, 2007, 10:02:16 PMTake Action -- You will probably notice there's a new page in the navigation called "Take Action". On that page, I'm aggregating information on various activist subjects including global warming, gay rights, green living, gender equality and pretty much anything else green or social justice I can find. Mostly, it's a jumping off point for me, but you are welcome to visit it as often as you like. Future additions include action alerts from various organizations, links to petitions and possibly a blog with a combination of activist news and my adventures in activism.Wednesday, Apr 11th, 2007, 07:50:02 PMProtect Darfur Women and Their Daughters from Abuse and Genocide --Dear Friends, I have just read and signed the petition: "Protect Darfur Women and Their Daughters from Abuse and Genocide" Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 100,000 signatures - please sign here:Protect Darfur Women and Their Daughters from Abuse and Genocide Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well. Thank you! http://www.thePetitionSite.com Friday, Jan 12th, 2007, 03:34:31 PM New addition to my gallery:Precision Screw Thread Corp Includes animation, javascript mouseovers on home page and animated logo on interior, programming to add customized blog rss feed on home page, menu with sliding pointer, flash-embedded movie, centered media-center style home page with liquid design interior pages for text and products. Work done for OnYourMark, LLC Wednesday, Dec 6th, 2006, 10:03:22 PM New addition to my gallery:WisMusic.com your Wisconsin music resource for musicians and music lovers alike! WisMusic is a place for Wisconsin musicians and music fans to gather online and share their passion for music. We welcome all Wisconsin musicians and music lovers to participate. Friday, Sep 1st, 2006, 11:42:16 AMNew addition to my library page in How Not To Run A Business:Counterculture Recruiting -- As Whole Earth Catalog creator Stewart Brand wrote in his essay "We Owe It All to the Hippies," "The counterculture's scorn for centralized authority provided the philosophical foundations of not only Continued. Friday, Sep 1st, 2006, 11:16:24 AM New addition to my gallery:Three Trumpets Three beautiful blue morning glories. Saturday, Aug 19th, 2006, 11:02:48 AMNew addition to my library page in How Not To Run A Business:Generation Gaps -- This article has it all wrong: http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/16/news/economy/grayceiling_qa.fortune/index.htm GenXers don't switch jobs out of an over-developed sense of "entitlement". An over-develo Continued. |
Latest Additions...Gallery
LibraryCan You See Me? Save a Pet! |
View News Archives | Site Last Updated:
Thursday, May 15th, 2008, 09:36:19 PM