Now what's this all about?

Think Creatively

2013-02-19T12:01:00.002-05:00

I've been keeping my eyes open as to see how I can best utilize this art degree I've got behind me. It's actually coming in handy much more than one might think...Besides developing posters and registration forms:

2 pictures taken from Google images (Which I really don't like doing) put together
with some filters and such

The image game from shutterstock, but a Lot of editing went
into making it personal and into making it better

Once again, quite a bit of editing went into
this to make it look right

The back of the form--the bottom section
is cut off

Though those are great fun to make and all, I still feel like there's something more on the horizon. I've found that the greatest gift I have been given was to be able to think creatively. I honestly thought after my graduation that I'd missed that train and never really was taught to think outside of the box. The more I get into the "real world" though...I'm realizing just how much I actually did manage to pick up. To be able to improvise means a great deal.

I also never knew how studying as an artist for four years would affect the way in which I perceive...well, reality. When I pray or talk about God, I'm naturally drawn to stories of creation and imagery of which I feel best conveys my thoughts or ideas. I use words like "saturated" and talk of "strokes" of love and visualize lessons and teachings as opposed to seeing them written in black and white. Where is this all headed? Who knows, but I couldn't be more thankful right now to be outside the box. Everyone says it's lonelier...and they're right, it is...but the view is much better.

Nostalgia

2012-12-20T22:28:00.000-05:00

So, I got nostalgic last night. I've been to Africa twice in the past year and a half, but man I miss it. I used to travel so frequently--settling down for grad school and with a job, even though I like them both, is difficult because I can't take the time away that I would like to for mission work. It is through mission work, after all, that I've been led down this path I'm going. In that nostalgia, thinking of my experiences abroad, I unearthed some footage of a few of the worship services we attended and decided to put them to a video. The video is really meant to act as an article in a journal would; it doesn't tell the whole story, but does just enough to jog my memory.

Anywho, enough chatter. Here's the vid:

Africa 2011-2012 from Joshua Gale on Vimeo.

The Change-up

2012-06-26T20:39:00.002-04:00

As aforementioned in a previous post, I'm starting a new blog.
Go to it to see why and maybe suscribe?

Http://www.joshuagale.blogspot.com/

A little more web design--A rollover tile mosaic

2012-06-01T02:48:00.003-04:00

So, for those of you who actually occasionally read my blog, you're aware that I've been working on a website:

http://www.totheleast.com/

I'm actually pretty proud of it. It's mine through and through from the very beginning. I haven't used any templates and it's Mostly all HTML--therefore it can be viewed on iDevices. I don't normally blog about process anymore, but I have a little bit of time on my hands to do so, so here it is.

The problem: I forgot to add a tab on the menu: Inspirations. Normally not so much a problem...just go in, add it, and wah lah, a new page! Well, considering I created most of the website using Photoshop, I made my own template from there to work off of, I had to edit the template...and lots of other little things that I won't bore you with. (The solution!)

The tricky (fun) part came after I created the page. The problem is that on the previous website of his, the Inspirations page was just a list of random links...which worked fine there because that site was basically just a draft, but this one needed to be a little more up to date. How could I display links in a way that worked well with the flow of the site but also easily navigated (not using flash)? I wasn't sure so I took Cedric (my dog) on a short walk and began the brainstorming process. I finished with the idea that I wanted to do a mosaic of images...but I wanted to overlay an image over all of them that joined together saying the words "Be inspired." To get an image of what I mean, go ahead and take a gander at the finished product at:

http://www.totheleast.com./inspirations.html

I did the math and decided that I wanted it to be a 4 row, 3 column table and then divided it according to the appropriate dimensions. You can see here that I added lots of layers on the same small canvas:

This way I was 100% sure that every tile of the mosaic was the same size. When on the website, each tile takes you either to a different website or asks if you'd like to download a PDF. So the Stitches of Love that you see here is all in one neat little folder. If you click it, on the website, it will take you to an article about a group of old church ladies stitching together clothes for needy children.

After this, I created a document with a width of x and height of y. x=the tile's width * 3 and y=the tile's height * 4. That way I had a 3x4 grid that I knew was the right size. (I knew in the beginning that the width of the table could only be 670 px wide, so in the very beginning I decided to divide that by 3 to figure out the width of each "cell" in the table[grid]).

I wanted this to be what laid over everything (minus the blue lines (slices), those came later):

Note the groups again, they make things much cleaner.

After designing that and deciding I like it, I hid that layer and put all the pieces of the mosaic together and formed this:

And then proceeding to chop each one into slices. I didn't try to slice manually, though. If you look closely at the time I have a "Fixed Size" slice. The dimensions were the same size as each of the little tiles/cells: 222x187 px. Here I saved each image for web and devices, then I turned on the Layover group again (the one with the "Be Inspired." design) and pulled down the opacity then saved all the tiles as for web and devices again. That way I had 24 individual files: each slice saved 2 ways, 1 with the layover on top of it and one without.

In dreamweaver I created a table with the right number of cells and dimensions then just added each image in the table as a rollover image and linked each photo to the correct file/destination.
DONE!

So there ya have it, creating a mosaic of tiles utilizing Photoshop. Woop.

If you haven't seen the finished product yet, click HERE.

--------------------------------------

Also I finally framed (horribly) this painting I bought in Ghana--I'm going to redo it...something went way wrong. I'll tell you the story about the painting on my next post.

Cubism made its way to Winneba, Ghana!

Ketchup

2012-05-11T17:53:00.002-04:00

Is gross.

For those who didn't know, I'm working at a church in Chamblee (see the poster below) as a youth pastor. It all looks a lot different from home up here...

I took my break from creating much art for a while there; for lots of reasons (moving, adjusting to a new area, getting things straight with the new job, figuring out how to take care of my dog...). I just finished a project and I must say it feels good to break out photoshop again--to actually create it for a specific purpose, one that I don't have to explain to the class "Why I chose this subject matter." It's simple, practical, and straightforward--I needed to advertise an event.

With stars?

Or without...?

What I'm most satisfied about is everything, except the film strip in the background, was all created and designed by me! See, pops? I did learn Something in school other than how to stay up all night...

It's not finished, obviously; hence the "Beginning August X," and I'm sure it will get changed around a good bit more, but this is how it is now. The biggest thing that I'm regretting is the size I've made the paper...it's 8.5 x 11 now, but I have a feeling I'm going to change those dimensions to make it more poster-y. I guess it's good to have one this size too, though. That will be work for another day... In the Bible study, we'll be watching films and TV shows to base the study on--not really a New concept, necessarily, but it will be new to the youth. When is the last time you based a Bible study off We Were Soldiers or Phineas and Ferb?

I did kick out a quick design for an 8x5 magnet that displays our summer schedule about 2 weeks ago, so I'd be lying if I said that the above image is the First time in awhile I've broken out photoshop, but it's a fun little design that didn't require as much work:

Success? Sure all the design elements may not be the most perfect ever, but the parents who received these magnets were Ecstatic, so yes. I consider it to be a great success.

Alright...that's it for now. I have to go pickup Cedric from daycare (not really, it's just someone else's yard). The main thing is FEAR NOT, everyone, I'm discovering I've still got lots of creative outlets to explore!

Wilkinson County Newspaper!

2012-03-23T16:31:00.001-04:00

A letter to my school teachers

2012-03-05T06:34:00.000-05:00

I apologize for my occasional classroom disruptions, for leaving stray fragments of paper around my desks, and for eating Poptarts when I was supposed to be taking notes, but I am slightly older now, maybe a little wiser, and have a short story I would like to share with you:

At the time of this writing I am sitting on the porch of a mission house in Ghana, Africa listening to the drummers in the distance and am trying to remember the last time I had running water and electricity both at the same time—it takes but a moment to realize that was about 20 days ago (when I stepped off American soil). It is here, in Winneba, Ghana that I understand what those “bare necessities” are that I once sung about, and here that I am reminded of the beauty of a simple gesture.

“Obone” is the title the Ghanaians have graciously given to anyone with light skin—meaning “white man” or “red skin” (it’s blazing hot here!) Everyday, as I walk out of my room on the top floor of the building where I am living, I am heralded with the screaming of maybe 10 dancing and waving children who are shouting, “Obone! Obone!” Normally I smile and wave back, but the favorite is always when I make a paper airplane (yes, that really cool one I learned how to make while sitting in the back of your class) and send it soaring the thirty feet down towards them where it finally lands close enough for them to get it and play. You would think it was Christmas the way they look up at me and smile.

Yesterday, I took a moment out of my day to walk over to the mothers of the children with a pad of paper. I was pleasantly welcomed but could tell from their expressions that this was no ordinary occurrence. They fetched a stool for me and asked me to sit, so I did. I ripped out a sheet of paper and flipped the pad on its back to use it as a small tabletop. What started with a circle of 5 or so around me ended up being a small crowd of more than I could count, but I continued to sit there quietly folding my origami creation in front of them. While jokes were passed back and forth, they sat patiently waiting to see what in the world I was doing. I unfolded a paper crane and handed it to one woman’s tiny child and they all burst into applause, amazed that a sheet of paper could be turned into an animal. I smiled back at them and walked home knowing that I had just made at least 20 new friends, with not a single word being spoken.

Having graduated with a 4 year college degree, I realize the importance of knowing how to write a grammatically correct sentence, but, having had the opportunity to experience a world beyond my own means, I am aware now more than ever that supported academic materials without application are simply that, words on a pages. Like that page I once sat in your classroom, with all potential of being shaped into and used for something. Some of us get squished into paper balls like those I should not have hurled across your classroom, and while all are uniquely shaped, some standout and become something truly amazing, like a paper crane, and want to fly, like those airplanes did.

So I want to thank you for every time you turned your back to the class or walked down the hall for a short, unexpected appointment, for it is in those moments as well that I sat, being taught by a friend how to make an airplane that would impact the world around me far differently than could be done in any classroom. So the next time you pick up a paper frog off the floor, before you crunch someone’s creative spirit by putting them in detention, remember this: we are all called and unique in purpose, it sometimes may just take creativity in your approach to encourage us to fulfill it.

Sincerely,
Joshua Gale

---
A couple more (unedited) photos for the non-readers to look at...

Awesome kids.

This about sums it up, haha.

Ghana

2012-03-02T07:12:00.001-05:00

I wrote this a few days ago...I'd to add a part 2 to it for my next blog though. It was a little more harsh than I meant for it to be...

2/28/12
What have I seen/thought/felt? It's good to debrief.
            What have I not seen? At 22 years old I sit here on the third floor of a missionary complex in Ghana, Africa, trying to figure out where in the world I am being called to go. Africa, from my narrow exploration of it, is a place with an extreme amount of potential, full of people and places that vary greatly from area to area, crossing the spectrums of morally good to bad and monetarily rich to poor, but mostly poor. Abandoned by the materially developed world rests a beautiful people who have an understanding of their environment completely different than I do. I use the word "different," not to be confused with better or worse, but different for I believe they have been created equally to myself. When an African child is born, his slate is as empty as mine was. If evolution thrives from variety, then why is it that most citizens of the western thought have let Africa lay to waste? Is it the innate human desire to be better than someone? Has our selfish desire to feel better about ourselves come at the expense of placing a lid on our potential to learn from a society that has survived longer as a species than most countries of the modern world? It doesn't take a scholar to realize how stupid that sounds, yet we perpetuate this concept daily.
            Please, lest we forget that at one point in time every person living today has ancestors who lived in a primitive lifestyle, living a less sophisticated life than most of our "primitive" African brothers and sisters today. Primitive is not a word that we should associate with cognitive ability--need we pull up statistics? Yet we do it anyway--assuming businesses won't work and explorers won't survive it. I thought we stopped believing in fairy tales as children, yet just west of Asia and south of Europe is a forbidden forest where humanity doesn't exist--only savages and only the daring come back. Try this for a fairy tale:
            2 hours ago I with 3 other Americans stood in front of 40+ children with a large piece of luggage we had brought from home filled to the brim with homemade dresses. The little girls were eager to try on their new presents, but filled with even more joy than the child were the children's mothers. I recall one particular instance when I was maybe 12 years old. I had gone to maybe 3 different shoe stores with my mother trying to find the perfect new pair of kicks for school. We finally found the pair and took them up to the counter to make the purchase, and the clerk told me that I could put those shoes on and wear them out the store if I wanted. Without hesitation, I pulled open the box and put on my new pair of shoes and walked proudly out of that shoe store. Unlike my adolescent experience, these dresses were taken back off the little girls, exposing again the rags of clothes they were previously wearing, the dress not to be worn again until a special occasion were to arise. And they lived together happily ever after.
            What is it then? Where is the disconnect? Why does that little girl not to get to enjoy her dress daily when I can not even remember what my aforementioned pair of shoes looked like because my memory is clouded from all the other shoes I have owned? I would love to blame one blame one place, a nation perhaps; China for seeping in and stealing their resources, 17th century Europe for excluding them in the partial success of quest for total enlightenment, 18th and 19th century America and Portugal for exploiting the slavery system put in place by the Arabians and the Dutch, or any other crimes from both our past and present that have caused the stint of Africa's progress. More than any of that I, as a Christian myself, would love (and hate) to point fingers at the religious sect for allowing these things to happen--for, in some cases, encouraging these things to happen. A million things are to blame, including myself in my unintentional pursuit of ignorance, that could be bickered over all day, and are, but the question that I think we need to focus on is what are we going to do about it? Are we, as fellow citizens of the world, going to help? Or is it too late? I don't believe it is, but until we drop our egos and chase after righteousness, the death and torture of the people on an entire continent is not going to rest solely on the conscious of our ancestors, but ours as well.

It takes forever to upload photos, and none have been edited, but here are a few:

Portrait of a teacher

Everyday...


There's not electricity sometimes...so I took the opportunity to do some night photography

Where's the hardhat?

2nd Wind

2012-02-03T03:27:00.000-05:00

So, I've ALWAYS hated sitting still. I am driven crazy by idle hands. So, then, what all have I been doing since graduation?
1) I worked on 2 separate resumes. I will be working to update my website soon, and will post them there.
2) I wrote an autobiographical statement, which I posted on this blog earlier
3) I wrote a ballin' research paper. I don't really expect anyone to read it, but I do think that this is one of the best papers I've ever written, so if you like learning about/getting refreshed on your 20th century art history, take a look:

4) Got accepted into Emory for grad school
5) Built http://www.totheleast.com/ from scratch. Go take a gander. It's not done yet, but there's definitely been progress made.
6) I got turned down by several jobs, more to come about that though--my luck may be turning!
7) I'm going to stop here because the rest of the post will be about my newest project: turning an old piano into a desk. It started as...

As with any other project, I had no idea what I wanted the end product to look like when I started, nor do I know now, but I have come to the conclusion that nothing will Ever get done, good or bad, until something is done. I originally bought this piano for $200 awhile ago with every intention to restore it. Keys are stuck, it's out of tune, etc., but I recently realized that I'm broke and that I wanted to do something cool with it, and that I want a new desk. So I played a tune on it, to make it feel loved, then started the disassembling process.

In the past, during guest artists' Q&A sessions, I have heard people ask them so many different questions asked about so many things, but when responding to the question that inevitably comes up about their artistic process, nearly every time I think there is a big part of their process left out. So, I think I am going to start asking this, "How do you keep yourself SANE while doing art?" I listen to books. I download an audio book and crack it open. I tend to work long hours straight, generally at night, and preferably with not many interruptions. Though, today I changed it up and skyped instead. Perhaps the secret is to keep yourself distracted from the Work of the project so that you only work on instinct and enjoy it, moment by moment.

Anywho, I won't exhaust this post with things I learned from this project so far, because I'm sure there will be at least 1 or 2 more posts about it, but I will end it with some photos I've taken so far.

It's getting fun here.

Hope you have a strong stomach because this is its guts
~chuckle, I crack myself up.

Took me FOREVER to get this back panel off...

I promise, I know what I'm doing! I've got direction still!

I've got much to do, but it's gonna happen and it's gonna be awesome. Stay tuned.

And the first greenscreen attempt is a...?!

2012-01-18T21:54:00.002-05:00

Failure? No! I find that I refine most of the things I know by mistakes. Like this one?

So it must be said, greenscreens, unless used well, are going to be cheesey. I went ahead and embraced the cheesey-ness by finding flames to put behind me and adding the 2nd guitar in there. And for that matter, most of my tests are cheesey anyway--why am I apologizing again?

ANYway, things I learned:
-Make sure your greenscreen is stretched tightly (but note that stretched fabric makes it more transparent--more about this in a minute).
-Guitars are shiny. So what? Well, if your guitar is reflecting the GREEN fabric all around it, the color that is being taken away (keyed out), then, well...parts of your instrument are going to be keyed out as well.
-They take planning and space. This screen is relatively small in comparison, and it takes up quite a bit of my parents living room. There's a good bit of hassle to take it up and put it down. Go in with a plan, setup as necessary from there and make changes as you go.
-Cheap greenscreening is actually rather inexpensive, but as you try to do more advanced techniques, they quickly become really expensive and quite difficult.

That's a lot to take in if you really break it all down, so I won't say too much more about it in this post, but there will Definitely be more to come. The main other thing is that I set up in front of some windows, no big right? Wrong. You'll see that my fabric was loose in the posted video (watch to the right of my head from 0:30 forward) because I had yet to buy the right clamps to fasten it, but after I did get nice and tight, I realized you can see light Through it quite easily, so when I was going to play with it some more today, the light from the windows was shining right through the fabric. The key to a good greenscreen is to make it all one solid color.

Here's a picture of the setup (so far). I really want to save up and buy some nicer video cameras, but that will be a long way away. I need to focus on getting a job first.

Classy, right?

I'm not dead.

2012-01-13T00:11:00.000-05:00

I never finished out posting videos from last semester, and I just crammed a lot into the post I did little while back. But anyway, here it is, the last project (pretty much) of my undergrad college experience:

I really enjoyed making this video. I did it with my brother Matt and a good friend of mine, Neal. It would be quite easy to make a sequel to it actually. When making this last video I realized quite how much I sometimes overdo the work, trying to make things perfect, with some of my videos and projects. After watching the (great) movie Troll Hunter, I realized how nice it must be to embrace the simplest of things, like a shaky, home-video camera. I've always hated a shaky camera effect before, but there was just something about it that I thought would work well with this project.

I'm also aware I overdid the static-y effect...these are the things you learn from experience. Oh well, it still worked for what I wanted to do. I was able to condense all the footage I had down into a shorter time period from it, which was really the whole purpose of it. Problem--I had over 20 mins of footage to use. I could have just made normal cuts and edits, but I wanted it to be suspenseful. Solution--Use static, breaks in the footage, as a way to not only add to the intensity, but also condense all of it down.

I also love the black. I'm just saying. What if you were in a room alone watching this with the volume really loud? THAT was the effect I was shooting for. It's a select audience, I'm aware, of people who do that, but still...quality experience.

Also, I've made progress with my dad's website, here's a screenshot:

I've been working pretty hard on it, but I still feel like there's something missing. It's been nice jumping back on the html scene though. I've done the whole thing without a template.
Anyway, that's all for now...I feel like there are some really exciting things on my horizon. I finally sent in my application for grad school--I'll be anxious until I hear back from them.

Documentary photo project--you've probably seen most of these photos but whatevv.
Kenya Photography

A beautiful contradiction.

2012-01-10T03:31:00.000-05:00

No, I wasn't playing the air guitar. It just looks like it.

--Ecclesiastes 3:12
I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
--Ecclesiastes 7:14
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.

Interesting, this photo is. Who would have guessed that in this photo I was actually quite the unhappy camper? It's almost laughable, really. Just look at this photo, what was there there to be frustrated about? I actually had a rock and was tossing back and forth from hand to hand. You know, King Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, as much as he messed up during his life, he really had some good insights.

--Proverbs 15:13
A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.

I was walking with Brittany and felt that it was about that time I throw a pitty party, about time to crush my spirit. I'm in a real strange place of transition. In one week I will have been dating a girl for 6 months--coughwhat? Already? It's been amazing and all but Boom, there it is. 6 Months. That's crossing the threshold of getting into something serious. I can't wait to see what it brings, but even going into it in the best of circumstances, there is still the unknown ahead and that can be an intimidating thought. I just graduated--WOO!--but now what? I've been asking that question for 2 years, and still I have no answer. I'm applying to seminary, who knows if I will get in? Tick...Tick...Jobs, let's not even get started about those. And money? Yeah, what the world revolves around, well it's not in my pockets. Plenty to freakout about, right? Bring on the rain.

Yet, there's just something not right about that. Why is it that I can't just be happy being UNhappy? And why is it that that fact makes me even MORE unhappy? Maybe I am just crazy. What is it that God wants me to learn about joy? In fact, it Okay to be in this state of mind--Ecclesiastes 3:4, Psalm 56:8. I am not completely sure how to soak it all in, but one thing I do know is that Satan is just as scared, if not more so during these troughs. Take it from Screwtape, a devil who teaches other devils about Christianity--and how to wreck it,
"He [God] leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be...He wants them to learn to walk and therefore He must take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles." (The Screwtape Letters, pg. 40)

My 17 month old niece just took her first steps, and we're all so proud of her. It would have been impossible for her to make those steps on her own if she weren't left to try it herself. I can guarantee you everyone was just as happy to see her TRY to walk as we were to see her actually walk.

Through much encouraging, she's finally going on her own!

Anyway, back on track. All that to say that it was easy for me to walk ahead of my girlfriend (who was still in a good mood), to focus on the rock in my hand and not the gorgeous blue sky that has been placed in front of me, but the real time of growth comes when I decide to slow back down and look up. There's so much to see. We can choose to be unhappy, but the joy that is ignited from within us by God can be covered, but it will never burn out.

--I now proudly have access to a green screen and a pretty nice lighting kit--more about that to come. I can't wait to really get my hands on it. I know theses past 2 posts have been wordy and somewhat depressing, but no worries. I finally got everything together for grad school and I'm working on building a website from scratch for my dad. I've got some exciting opportunities presenting themselves, such as in February I'm going to Ghana for 2 weeks, so this blog should still have plenty of eye candy for those of you who only visit for the art. But, when all else fails, I'll still always be a real...

And that's plenty enough for me.

Ding...

2012-01-05T21:28:00.000-05:00

And the first photograph of 2012 goes to...

...and then I straightened up my tripod. Taking a second to think about the irony of this photograph presented a thought to me that I felt like sharing, a nugget of my own existence and personal walk.

My friend's camera is broken and he asked if I'd take a few photos of him because he was tired of only ever having the same photographs of himself to use for whatever reasons he needs them, facebookcough. Anyway, that's unimportant. I obliged and before he went home I wracked my brain of interesting poses or funny things I'd done or seen in the past for ideas of how to do it and came up blank, which I guess makes me a terrible photographer really--they're supposed to be able to boss people around. So I set up some redneck lighting right quick by turning off the over head light and positioning two lamps around my room hoping that would spark something in either of us. We decided to just do a generic photo for the first shot, so I mounted my camera on my tripod, pointed the camera his direction, flipped my camera's setting to "manual," set my aperture, metered the lighting, and changed the focus to auto so it would focus, essentially, on the object closest to the camera, in this case the subject (my friend). Everything was set. I had the perfect exposure. I said "smile" and pressed the button.

Of course, it took probably less than half a second after capturing the photograph for me to realize I'd done all that without ever looking through the viewfinder, then "lens." We chuckled at the mistake, the tripod was adjusted, and on the night went. The switch never clicked on for me of how silly a mistake that was until I took a moment to review the photographs later that I had completely lost sight of, pardon the pun, the major, actual, picture. The profound thing is that I managed to focus on doing everything just right, the lighting, exposure, etc., but the most essential and basic photographic elements--of what I was actually taking a photo--I'd forgotten to look at.

I'm a victim of this in so many areas of my life though, and I don't think I'm alone. In school I would take on a hundred different things, or just a few things but really dive into them, and forget that my life was still moving in a direction, Somewhere. The distractions so many times win and I find myself looking everywhere but straight...and yet I still wonder sometimes why I just can't find consistency. In my Christian walk, I hold on to silly things to identify myself with and things that are meant to be good, like DOing what is right, and I somehow let event that distract me from remembering about the love Christ has for me...just for ME, the way I am. The list goes on really, and floating around, such as many do in college and in life, let's be honest, doesn't feel like the worst thing while it is happening. But, like debris in water, one does not drift in the same spot, they go Somewhere.

I believe the true tragedy is that this moment of enlightenment doesn't always happen for people, or when it does, it's been too long. They take no or believe in no real direction. For me, the revelation of a seemingly little mistake was reviewing the photographs I'd taken. It will be tonight when I lie in bed reflecting over what a long day it's been, and tomorrow when I learn from the goings of today. I think it's time for my lacking of intentionality in this area to change. Time to refocus. I mean, I Claim to believe it--in the Christian realm we call it God's will. The wonderful thing about that is I think God already has that planned out ahead of me, all I have to do is trust in him and walk it. My girlfriend, Brittany, has asked me several times what my new year's resolutions are and I just kind of shrug it off or make a joke--I've not once ever stuck to one. Maybe this can be it for this year though. I've let a lot of things get me down and steal my joy, but here's to a readjustment, one more time. Here's to getting back in line, something I was always terrible at in grade school. Whenever a better time to do it than at the mouth of a new year, the last year ever at that according to the Mayans.

I planned on continuing on to write about the beautiful mistakes that are inevitable to happen even when I've done everything I can to prevent them, but I think that's a topic for another post. Here's a glimpse at that, the very next photo that proceeded the one above.

Autobiographical statement. What?

2011-12-23T03:30:00.000-05:00

As a part of my application for seminary I had to write a 4 page autobiographical statement. So here it is, for anyone who has ever wondered about where I stand in my faith and why I am...the way I am. It's not completely done, and there's a lot left out--you can't really add much detail in only 4 double spaced pages when you are trying to summarize 22 years of life. Anywho, enjoy.
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My life began (9-months before) November the eleventh in the year of 1989 in Vidalia, Georgia. No matter the fact that it would only be another fifty days or so before the year 1990 would roll around, I still consider myself to be an 80’s baby. Of course, when people talk about the year 1989, it is not known as the year that Joshua Otto Gale was born—instead everyone talks about the Berlin wall falling, which apparently was a bigger deal—and though I am sure Heaven rejoiced, here on Earth the resounding noise was that of, well, the doctor scribbling his signature on a piece of paper that is complimentary with any successful delivery. Maybe there was the sound of the pounding of the second hand of a clock ticking away, a baby book opening, or my family quietly rejoicing that the sixth, and final, member of our family had been born.

I say this because on that Veteran’s day I was just another child to be added to the statistic of an ever-increasing human population on our planet—in the eyes of humanity, the wheel continued spinning away. My father was a pastor of a Methodist church in Lyons and my mother hard at work at home trying to raise my three older siblings and me. My parents were from Savannah, and when my father answered the call to go into the ministry, I would be willing to place bets they were quite shocked to find themselves in the small farming town of Lyons where its neighboring city of Vidalia would be best known, of all things, for its immense amount of onion crops. I spent the first seven months of my life there learning the ways of the farming life as much as a toddler could.

My father was then appointed to a three-charge church in Irwinton, Georgia, where he would serve for the next thirteen years of my life before leaving the pulpit ministry to start his own nonprofit ministry, Unto the Least of His, to do mission work all over the world. With a population of 583, Irwinton is also the place where I call home and where I was raised. There is one public school in the entire county, of which I attended as a part of the white minority. The church, located across the driveway, was where I received my informal education in nearly all matters, such as how to use the PA system for karaoke. Of course, one of the best, and arguably the worst, of places I gained my informal education from, besides my parents, was from my older siblings. I had two older brothers and one older sister. It is mostly from them I learned how to play the guitar and piano, how to juggle, how to throw a Frisbee and how to hit a baseball, how to make paper airplanes and a plethora of other useful things that any human being would probably be okay without ever learning. It is from all those unique people, places, and things that I ever interacted with that I developed my Christian faith.

Never did I have the pleasure of having a single moment that I could pinpoint as the moment that I gave my life to Christ and was saved. In fact, because this somewhat worried me during my second year of college, I made sure publicly reaffirmed my faith in front of a whole church congregation…if for no other reason than to make myself feel better. I consider my mother and father to both be champions of faith in my life, because it is from each of them that I can look back for as far as I can remember and see them exemplifying genuine Christianity as I know it. It is important to note that it is not only the words I heard them say that impacted my life, but it is from their actions of integrity that they always drove the points home and made the best impressions.

High school came around and along with it came probably the first major struggle in my life. All three of my older siblings got married within one year and moved out of the house, my dad started the aforementioned non-profit ministry meaning we had to move, and there were the natural transitions that occur between middle and high school. Unto the Least of His offered a major opportunity to spread Christ’s love nationally and internationally, while the atmosphere of high school offered the opportunities to become very self-serving, and my newfound loneliness begged of me to grasp hold of something. Fortunately, I found a solid group of friends to become a part of, and with them I was able to find my identity as someone who did not have to reject my morals to become accepted. It is there that I set that pace for the rest of my high school and college careers.

My faith, at that point, had yet to fully become my own, but it was evolving with each new day. I declared studio art as my major, not knowing the ideological confrontations I would find myself facing. The reason, I found, that it began to mature with each day, is that each day comes with its own challenge, and in college those challenges became much more frequent. With every year my choices as a Christian were put under more pressure and I really began searching. I needed God as an anchor in my life, but I felt as though the ground I had given Christ was beginning to shift—I, and my faith, was becoming my own. I never abandoned my faith in God, but that is not to say it was never tested. I began to realize God would never back down from my questions.

In early 2010, a variety of sour circumstances caused me to feel like the floor had fallen from underneath my feet. I had been diving into artistic theory and learning of human psychology at the time and I landed myself at a low place where I felt as though I was stripped of nearly everything I had ever known. It is from there that I read the Psalms of David where God is put into question many times, or read in places like Hebrews 11:6 where it says, “anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” I went to the Dominican Republic that summer to do photography and mission work in the Haitian bateys. It is from there that I began to see God as an artist, painting the most elaborate painting ever; the work of God like the pigment for what secular Joseph Beuys wrote as the “social sculpture,” everything collaborating in unison to create one large social work of living art.

The rest of life is now at my fingertips—the paradigm is mine to shift. I am not completely sure what God has in store for me to do with the talents and skills I have been given, but what I am sure of is that I want to use them to glorify God and to further Christ’s ministry throughout the world by working in the ministry and fighting for what is right. Ignorance is rampant, and I realize now that I have spent much of my life fighting against it. Unfortunately, the religious have become infamous for being naïve to reality. Many have become incapable of listening and discerning what they hear and therefore have become their own worst enemy; their inability to see and interpret the context of their actions is their own downfall.

Against the odds, I have come from a small town and have not become trapped by small-town thinking. Against the odds, I left my tiny high school and have become the first of my graduating class to receive a 4-year diploma. Against odds, I have maintained my faith through a variety of circumstances and feel stronger and more confident than ever. After spending a month living amongst the indigenous people of Kenya doing work with water wells this past August, I made my decision to apply to Candler’s MDiv program because I became aware that there is still so much to the mystery of God to unravel, and with the unfolding of each layer there is always another beautiful discovery. Candler’s reputation for being a place for open-minded people lines up with my own educational experience thus far and is not only a place that I feel that I would like to be, but is also the type of place that I feel I belong and need to be.

Transition.

2011-11-24T01:16:00.001-05:00

Every day that goes by that I don't post something to this blog it gets harder the next time. It's been nearly an entire semester since I last posted anything. Here's to getting the ball rolling.

For some reason, this semester has been really difficult for me. I have heard from multiple people that your last semester tends to be your hardest, but not necessarily because the work gets more difficult--it's everything else. I find myself extremely satisfied with some things, then with others it's as if I'm left squirming through a cave, trying to find my way out...confused at times how I got there in the first place.

I tried really hard to get one of these built:

but failed. The university put up too much red tape and for one of the first times at something like this, I feel like I fell on my face. I made models, I got letters written from prominent figures, I had major national and international attention and the university turned me down. That's life, I guess. It's time I meet the real world anyway.

I feel like I've been running all semester only to realize that the carrot is still on the string in front of me...not but maybe an inch closer.

I made this motion graphic the other day in my digital class using After Effects:

It isn't perfect, but with a few tweaks I could get it to look a little better.

And I guess while I am posting videos I did in digital this semester I might as well post this, too:

But honestly, this is one of my favorite things I made all semester:

It's simple and quick but gets the point across.

My audio equipment has stayed packed up most of the semester. I pulled it out once but didn't really do anything with it...In fact, I haven't hardly played any instruments at all, digital or acoustic. What have I been doing with all my time...?

Either way, it's Thanksgiving. So I'm going to end this downer post with a few things I am thankful for.

This picture is so dorky--but I'm thankful for this girl that has put up with
my craziness this semester.

I'm thankful there are still people in this world willing to help each other.

I'm thankful I am not drinking water from here.

I am thankful for my family. For my friends. For soldiers fighting for my freedom. For SO many things.

Psalms 91.

I have a feeling I am going to be starting a new blog soon. This one will still occasionally be updated--I have made a pretty solid effort to keep it mostly art related. If I do start a new blog it will be much less formally about my art and more about my own thoughts and, I guess, a bit more personal. More like a journal. But nonetheless, stay tuned. There's more to come.

Photography in Kenya

2011-11-24T01:01:00.001-05:00

Kenya Photography

Western impact, Eastern society

2011-08-10T08:23:00.000-04:00

Another journal entry...I've time to spare so I figured I would put it up.

I have never seen the implementation of such an extreme mix of cultures in my life. I'm at a church service right now just outside of Maralol, Kenya. There is a sound system projecting the sound waves of a keyboardist who is playing traditional African music to the pounding of, not a real drum, but of a preexisting rhythm programmed in his half-sized Casio keyboard--the choir is up now shouting, dancing, and singing in a native Kenyan style and language while most of them are dressed uniformly in matching gray business suits all poised around a singular microphone. There are probably 50 children here, several of whom might not eat tonight, sitting under a tree sporting bright yellow, screen-printed Sunday school t-shirts.
Now that I think about it, where is the electricity coming from?
How are there over 100 people here and only 3 cars in the parking lot?
Is that a lamb I hear baa-ing ever few minutes?
I've not seen a computer since Nairobi was in my hindsight, but pardon my neighbor to my left--he has an important text to attend to...or 6.

I know this sounds bitter but it isn't. Not intentionally anyway. My opinion on the matter is of no concern to me at the moment and, in fact, even if I did attempt to thwart an opinion on these kisses of Capitalism that have nuzzled themselves right down the neck of this section of society I wouldn't know where to begin. No, this is simply an observation.

Vessels of Westernism have gone beyond the doorstep of this community. Whether on purpose or not the people here have welcomed and embraced the benefits and, incoherently, the potential evils of Western thought from riding on the coat tails of the West's ever quickening advancement as a civilization. The marriage of the 2, of traditional Kenyan social devices and communal interactions derived from the East and the contemporary "communicative" mechanisms of the West, has coupled the 2 at this social function where a culture clashed child has come into existence right in front of me.

Many would say this is wrong and that we have tainted the ornate fabrics of Kenyan culture, and to them I say who am I, or you, to dictate the "direction" of their cultural advancement, to refrain them from attempting to bettering themselves advance themselves via technology in the same way all of humanity has done throughout the course of history? Much of my purpose in coming to Kenya has been to work alongside a native Kenyan man and to document the fruits of his labor in the development of water wells, which are only discovered, analyzed, and drilled via the benefits of Western technologies. I have had several discussions with him about the dangers of introducing modern technologies to an in indigenous community and he is convinced that without being given access to clean water, for one reason or another, there would be no culture to degrade because the people, and therefore their culture, would simply cease to exist.

Others would say "This is great! Our technologies are becoming so accessible even the far reaching portions of the planet are using it!" And to them I ask, would you give a child a gun and send him into battle? Hush your voice and be intentional with your actions; young ears are listening and without proper instruction you could be handing the child a grenade and calling it candy.

For me, today, there isn't much I can do but learn. Learn and listen to the quiet buzz of the PA system that in a strange way reminds me of my comforts of home so for a moment I can pretend I don't miss it. It's the same buzz and feedback that happens in the sound system of my tiny, country church that is currently over 8,000 miles away from me, that buzz and the pang that shrieks through everyone's ears caused from a quirk in the wires of an electronic system that is just the right tone and pitch to transcend time and space and sets me back at the feet of a global marketing giant where communication with my friends is a text away, my shopping needs are a few keystrokes away, and my school and work is a short drive away. As for tomorrow, well we'll see. It has yet to arrive.

A journal entry

2011-08-03T05:23:00.003-04:00

I'll (hopefully) be writing several essays over my experience here in Kenya over the next little while, but I figure I'd share with the blogsphere something I wrote in my journal today.

Stuck in miles of traffic cars in Nairobi swerve recklessly from lane to lane to make even the smallest bits of progress. Well, I say "lane" but that word is relative--the once clear paint marks on the road make no difference as there has been made 5 lanes out of a supposed to be 3 lane road. Somewhat frustrated about it all my friend asks Michael, the Kenyan native and our guide for a majority of the trip, "Michael, is there not something the government can do to regulate this mess?"

He responds after just a short moment of silence. "You see this traffic? This 'mess'? This is a good model of how our government is functioning."

Never before had it been so clear to see the government's lack of performance when it comes to its essential duties, responsibilities. The conversation proceeded on and turned into a discussion about Western concepts and political ideologies being thrust upon Kenya's Eastern mindset and the discrepancies that are formulated from that happening. Kenya's tattered democratic governmental infrastructure who's primary purpose is to serve the people of Kenya has abandoned its responsibilities of offering basic needs to its citizens. In the grungy gears of its political mechanism, the lack of productivity has stabbed apathy into its own heart.

Recognition is step one into solving any problem--unfortunately we have got lots of step one people who never make their way to step two, offering a solution. What then can be done? The good fortune here is that people have gone ahead of us here and relief efforts are being put into place despite the governments own shortcomings.

Whenever we asked our leader of the trip how long it would take to get to our destination, a community of indigenous Maasai Sumburu people of Northern Kenya, from the airport his response was simple. "Forever," he said. 18 hours later split between two days of driving, over half of which had been on the worst dirt road I had ever ridden on, we understood what he meant, but none-the-less we finally arrived. Our journey had begun in the city of Nairobi with a population of over 8 million and along the drive poverty became more and more evident--houses constructed with less Western materials, communities grew smaller and and the space between them grew larger, jeans and t-shirts were becoming less common being replaced with symbolic fabric and beaded jewelry of a wide variety, and gauged ears, bracelets, and necklaces adorned the people's bodies. The drive ended near Maralol, a tiny city miles and miles from any Western development. By that time it was dark--we unloaded our luggage and just before walking into the house that was made of mud and straw I looked up at the star-lit sky, and it was beautiful.

A large portion of my time I have spent in Africa has been dedicated to visiting wells that have been placed in order to document the work that has been taking place. Little did I know that two days after I arrived we would travel to a place that put the aforementioned "forever" road that we had deemed "the road to Hell" to shame. It led to a small town chiseled out the side of a mountain where an epidemic of waterborne diseases had broken out because there was no clean water to be had, only a dried up mud hole where stagnant water had formed. The water wreaked of bacteria and parasites. We arrived at the well that was placed there. Women happened to be fetching water from it with 5 gallon jugs and we told them that we were representatives of the people who raised money to have it installed and they were instantly grateful. Love that transcends boundaries and color erupted from withing everyone there. The children were dancing and playing and gratitude welled up from withing the adults with the exception of one lady was only suppressing her joy because she was scared of the cameras, something she had never seen before. Efforts are being made. And solutions put into action.

To see images go here--I've only uploaded a few. These images were taken at the Bonaire well which is the one that was being described in the journal entry above:

Kenya

Talent

2011-06-24T01:40:00.002-04:00

Those first 2 pictures started out as a third flyer design but somehow ended up there...and then I couldn't choose which I liked better. Suggestions? I can actually see that being a poster for some organization or something with just a few more touch-ups here and there. That makes me happy because I'm not very easily satisfied by my own work...
But anywho, what I do find very interesting whenever looking at the 2 actual flyers is the style of them. They almost remind me of the random flyers we see around the art dept and Mayfair. Our quirky artsy sense of humor sometimes gets the best of us and we end up with these types of things. If I were to analytically approach each of the 2 flyers then I could talk about composition, style, color, negative space, etc. and I could rip both them to shreds because they don't hold hard to any of those rules necessarily, but, for some reason, I think, they just work. There is a personality coming out of those flyers...my personality. It's exciting to see myself weaving so seamlessly through my work, even if they are just flyers.

So what are we learning then in this ever so common formula of an art curriculum? What is it that is really breaking through if in the end I find myself breaking the rules anyway? I'm not going to go much into it but I definitely think those are really important questions that we should be able to answer before we leave school. For me, the very fact that I know that I am breaking rules is important, because yes anyone can break them but not everyone can identify them and abide by them If Necessary. It is up to me to decide what is the best route to take in order to get my information across, be that through humor, entertainment, style, or any other artistic principle that we have become so aware of. It makes me happy and feel a sense of accomplishment to feel like I am well on my way in that area, like maybe all this time and work actually IS leading up to something...even though it is still really frustrating that I don't know what that something is.

On a different note, I've still been messing around with playing instruments and recording audio stuff. I was trying to learn how to record my own acoustic loops and how to implement them in the program I've been learning on, Ableton Live. A few of them are just a little off-beat of each other, you'll notice one of the instruments occasionally finding itself getting off-time, but it always makes its way back around.
Real quick, before I post the video (track I made), I'm just going to explain basically what you're listening to and its significance. There are several different tracks that were recorded to put all of this together. I started out listening (in my headphones) to a metronome tick, and then improved a little 4/4 piano progression. I played the progression ONE time, but because it is played on a loop, it sounds like I played it over and over. I did not play it over and over, the track that was recorded from the one time I played is just repeating itself. So then I listened to the repeating track of the piano (a loop) and added on top of it the drum, then the shaker. I'm pretty sure I played the guitar last of all and then went back in and changed up the piano some for a variation. The important thing here is that everything played was physically, acoustically played for only a few seconds at a time but can be looped and made to sound like they were being played forever and ever. So then you can just add and take away instruments at your discretion in post as an audio engineer...er whatever they call them.
I'll make some more of these soon, but this was my first demo:

What's been happening?

2011-06-08T03:01:00.004-04:00

Hm, what Has been happening? There's so much going on, especially since I last blogged, that it is difficult to keep track of it all.

Recordings.
I'm very pleased with the uses that I have been getting from my microphone. It's helped me publish the Bible study I'm doing to a live stream online with crisp audio, with a homework project, and even with recording my friend Eric who needed to make a few submissions to attach to his application for a large band.

Here's his video #1:

And here is his second video:

As mentioned in some of my previous posts I believe audio to be a KEY factor in the way we watch and process information, particularly digital information such as via television, radio, and the internet. In reference to the recent political ads that are very "Hollywood-ified," Bob Mondello, a big shot film-critic, says this, "The sweeping soundtrack doesn't hurt, either. And there's a history of using soundtracks to pump up speeches in Hollywood." And sure that is something we all know, then why is it not being put into practice? I've seen more low-budget movies over the past year than probably the rest of my life and nearly Every time they skimp out on the quality of audio, and rarely it adds to the overall effect but normally its not quite that way. It doesn't take much to make it work--do it.

I am no audio expert, but I am working on it. I put this together in a short period of time...it focuses on narration. And yes, this is my voice and no, I didn't manipulate it hardly at all:

That doesn't conclude my auditory endeavors but I do think that it is enough to show the general base of work that I have been trying to accomplish. A friend of mine asked me to do her college graduation and senior pictures so I agreed...here are a few of the shots:

I am pretty please with the photoshoot. I'm really working on composition in video and in my photography and I THINK I am beginning to get there, but I know I've still got a ways I can go. It's just not something that always comes naturally for me. I just realized I only showed 1 of the pictures of Caylyn at the Greenway so here are a couple more:

Playing with the wide angle lens. It really gives the image an interesting dynamic.


I actually Really like this one in full color, but there's just something about this black and white that make it a really interesting shot.

So I am pretty sure that I've no desire to become a professional photographer...photography is fun to do and the techno dork that is trapped within me frees itself through the understanding of the way my camera works, like Really understanding aperture, shutter speed, sensors, ISO, etc. and comparing my camera with other products, but it is difficult to put on a persona that a "photographer" requires. I've got to keep the mood upbeat and happy. I have to make sure that the smiles are real smiles and not just fake doing it just because ones. Combining that with composing shots and changing lenses and adjusting for the continuously changing lights is quite a challenge, one that I fully embrace, sure, but it is difficult! I'm hoping that it will all come together one day.
Since I'm on the note of videos and photography and whatnot, I'll add that I was never until recently aware of how connected they, and their core concepts, really are. Video is Seriously just a whole bunch of photos placed together consecutively of course, but understanding photography has helped me understand the way video works. For instance, when recording videos the cameraman is responsible for dialing in the correct aperture and shutter speed, both of which are KEY things to understand with photography, and according to they way he decides to go about doing that, the quality of video and light change as well. A slower shutter speed will create "blurrier" pictures so if you put a whole lot slow shutter speed, more blurry pictures together as frames in a film, it will look blurrier and perhaps more fluid. If you use a high shutter speed the photos will be much more crisp, so if you put a whole lot of "crisp" photos together as frames of a film, you get a much more crisp video. Both of which, by the way, are good for different things.

I put a lot of photos together consecutively...they're pictures I took of BRAG when it came through Milledgeville. Check it out:

I know there are lots of things to do to make the video better, the main one being stability, but it was fun to make. I plan on doing more of these (better) but I had 30 mins to spare and wanted to try one out to see how they work. It's an interesting stop-motion type thing but the camera is moving instead of an object. Meh, I don't know.

And finally...it's time to get crafty.

I am working on not one but two crafty projects!

Numero uno:
I am learning to make paper! I have bought a lot of screen for it to dry on and a lot of wood to build frames (that make the paper a specific size). The wood/screen I have bought is enough to make 12 12"x15" sheets of paper and one 12"x30" sheet of paper. Why those numbers might you ask?
I'm going to make my on calendar(s)! I'm going to make the paper and then print and bind them myself. This originally started as an idea for gifts but I really think, if done well, I could sell them too! How awesome would that be?! I want a homemade calendar right now. But I guess I have to wait till I make them...

Numero dos:
Also...I will be making my own custom bookshelf for my room (because I actually have enough books of my own that I've read to need one now!). There are some really creative designs out there, some practical, some not so much, but I really like the idea of installing a large vintage window into my wall and turning it into a bookshelf. That may seem far fetched now but I'll sketch up some ideas and return to this one later...

Oh, I'm also painting a large headboard to a bed that someone gave me...but that will get done when it gets done...

I was unaware of all the projects I have taken on. But either way, I always enjoy ending my blogs with a few photos, so here we are. A few more shots I've taken recently:

This brings back memories...My friend Neal and I went out to what we call "The Pit" to take pictures
of some toys around my house. We created a full story and everything. It was to practice with a new lens I'd gotten.

I took this of my brother, Matt, on the same day I was recording the story of the dinosaur above

I'm actually not much a fan of this picture at all, but it's just more experimentation. This was done for my art history
class about the artist Rembrandt. I was working with light and posture in the same way our master Dutch painter may have.

An Introduction to Hebrews

2011-05-11T01:12:00.003-04:00

Imagine. Only as far back as your grandparents have people been worshipping God through specific rituals and patterns. The way of forgiveness was through confession to the high priest, and it came at a sacrificial cost. Lambs were slaughtered, sums of money offered, time, property…spent. It was no easy ordeal. Councils were created to maintain that the law was being followed and in a rigorous manner. "Walking up hill both ways in the cold without your sandals on" could very well have been an accurate representation of how difficult it was at times. You know the stories that are told; those who were found be disobedient to God’s law being persecuted in the name of religion and malicious acts of violence directed toward men and women who look just like you, speak your language, and lived "just across the farm."

And I'm aware that you know this, but something happened--something that would sweep change all over the land and flip religious virtues as we know them all around. The puzzle, because of one man, got all jumbled up again and it came a time to rethink what we thought we already knew. Your parents remember that man. His name is Jesus Christ. Or, how you're parents put it, “There…there was this...guy! No, no. So much more than just a guy. People were calling him the Messiah. The lame were dancing, the dead rising, the mute singing. It was incredible. He came here once when I was a child—he paid attention to us and instilled deep within in our hearts hope and confidence like I've never experienced before. It was…unbelievable! Like a revolution, all packed in one person!” Of course, the story always concludes with hearing about that dark day in Calvary when a just man was crucified, punished because of his words. Your parents recall though the magnificent hope of what Jesus’ closest friend said some of his last words were: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
"YES! Freaking great! Not only was he the final eternal sacrifice and forgiver of our sins so we no longer need to confess and offer our sacrificial lambs to the high priests. He said that those tight-wad Pharisees were really “not fair, you see” and those Sadducees were, well, so “sad, you see…” You have been set free and sin no longer is your bound! Forgiveness is readily available and All you have to do now to get to Heaven is Believe in him. I mean, that’s not so difficult, is it?
He’s coming back! …Well, that’s what they say. Actually, now that you think about it he was supposed to have been back to get His people already. HE said he would. Well no, he didn’t give a time but I mean he is coming…right? Yeah yeah, of course", you say. You know, Esaac down the road is saying this Jesus guy was crazy. And that you’re even crazier for believing him. Work has not been fun to say the least. You’re always getting the worst tasks because “that’s what crazy people do.” In fact, it’s gotten way worse than just being socially ostracized. Emperor Nero has decreed that all Jewish Christians be persecuted because “It’s their fault that big fire started that destroyed much of Rome.” This a serious threat. To be a hero means that you are the good guy, people are on your side. It's not that way though. Your death, as men would see it, is empty. Are you ready for that? For persecution?
I hope you think it's worth it. Sure, this Jesus guy said some cool things and, I mean, he performed miracles…right in front of people’s eyes! But, it’s not been easy, and well, being put down by your used-to-be friends is getting old…quick. No. Seriously you need to Stop.

Pause.

The cattle will get their water.
People are dying for this man,
That's right. It's martyr.
Are you really going to continue this plan?

This is the context in which the book of Hebrews was written and is a fictional of representation of what it very well might have been like walking in the shoes as a Christian 1,941 years ago.

Overdue

2011-04-28T02:01:00.008-04:00

So, I'm very aware that this is way overdue but it's about time that I post some about my senior exhibition that occurred 4 weeks ago and that I've been going on and on about for the past 7 or 8 months. Immediately after it I was so exhausted. My mind was still like what I'd imagine a sailor's to be after a storm calms--glad it's over but still pacing around as if there's something else to do. Speaking on those terms I realized after it was all over that the day ends and another one comes fully prepared with its own bag of tricks, or as Matthew would say it, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." I'm happy more than ever now to find myself being a project oriented person because now that that particular chapter has closed I can look forward to see all the new adventures that are to come, the next things on the horizon.

Before I move to those things though I think it'll be good for me to jot some things down and pick them out of my brain concerning my senior exhibition. For those who missed it for whatever reason and are wondering what it looked like I put a little flash thing together to show you! Check it out!

.::Move your mouse across the image to make it move::.
(You might have to click on it first)

Sure, I know the animation is cheesey and I could have done a little better with the documentation but I'm happy I got any done considering how much was happening at once.

My teacher, Michael, introduced me before I gave the talk about my work and generously pointed out a few things about myself and my work that I hadn't quite acknowledged before...my desire to experiment. I've done it in every art class I've had since my Freshman year. For whatever reason I always feel as though I need put my own spin on the assigned projects. To make them something that's...me.
That brings me to my 2nd and main thing I realized about my project after it was completed. As much as I tried (and did a pretty good job of I think) to display the information in an unbiased way my own ideas and opinions subtly cried out. I know that sounds like an oxymoron but it's true. My ideas were neatly knitted within the work in such a fashion that had one not known me or had not been looking those particular ideas would not have known to notice, but as soon as I look at the reasons of why I displayed the information this way or photographed them like that or whatever aspect I did intentionally I become very aware that I am as much a part of the work being exhibited as the photographs themselves. I might as well have drawn a target in the room and put my face in the center of it.

In my 1940's to Present art history class we have studied artists whom I really like such as Rauschenberg and John Cage, who was working mostly with music, who have spent their life figuring out ways to create work that exhibits itself without the artist's presence, meaning that whenever you look at the artwork there is no way of deciphering who the artist is...or was. I appreciate their efforts in pushing the boundaries of the art realm but I do not believe presenting my views, particularly in the way I did, through my artwork is in any way "weak" or bad artwork. In fact, considering the subject matter I think it actually strengthens the overall affect. Think about it. It's almost as if I had a conversation with anyone who looked at the work without even having to exhort my breath. What I have been working on for so long is trying to understand how to create and control one's experience he or she has through their, intentional or not, interaction with the artwork. I feel as though I successfully created an atmosphere in which the viewer of the exhibition felt a connection to the artwork, it is nearly impossible not to because of the encompassing nature of the exhibition after you've walked into it. As you move it changes and all the photos seem to converge and move... The work, whether purposeful or not, that is an embodiment of my own ideas forces a dialog between itself and the viewer and, hopefully, stimulates a psychological and mental discussion between itself and that very viewer. Makes me wonder what some of those great art theorists would have said about it. They probably would have ripped it apart.

Either way, wading out of the deep end...the entire experience was one that won't be forgotten and one that I think, overall, was a success. It felt good to finish it. As aforementioned, I'm now pressing forward and moving along at making other projects come to life of which I've previously been working on. I have set up a challenge for myself to see if I can come up with some creative fundraising ideas using my artwork be it audio, photography, video, or whatever else I scrounge together to raise $5,000 for my trip to Kenya which will be a whole another experience, artistically and otherwise, within itself but that deserves a post to itself. I've got some things that I have been working on but I will reveal those ideas as time progresses.

Bravo, if you've managed to read this far and follow my train of thought. If you feel like I missed something or would like for me to elaborate on any other part of my senior exhibition post it in the comments box and be it worthy I will make another post. :)

Poet

Encaustic!

Presence of the artist

Boom.

2011-04-10T01:52:00.000-04:00

Retired was how he depicted his "identity." The last 5 letters of that word ("retired") sum up how I am feeling quite well.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

2011-03-30T23:52:00.000-04:00

Someone drown that noise, please (the 'ticks'). They're going to be ringing till Monday.

For privacy purposes I won't be posting photos that I've taken in my expeditions through Milledgeville for my people project, but I will just post these 2 because I like them and especially the one above serves as a good model for how most of them look. Actually, I'll post another. Here's a familiar face to us Mayfair folk. :)

Anyway, haha. The progress I have made over the past few days has been wonderful but I'm getting nervous. I still have a good distance to go. And then there's actually putting it up and installing it...I may be frantically texting people looking for help in a few days. I am stoked though and am trying my hardest to make this a fun but effective show. If all goes like it is in my head (and it inevitably won't, but not always in a bad way) then it should be, I think, a good exhibition. But, there are a lot of variables and crunch time hasn't Quite hit because I'm not installing until the weekend. That's when we'll really see what's gonna happen.

This is the other photo I mentioned previously. I just think it's a fun picture. I have no idea if it will make it into the show, haha. It probably won't.

Mural and Amoxicillin

2011-03-27T16:03:00.001-04:00

So this is me slightly stressed over the fact that I have one week to complete all the work necessary for my senior exhibition and I am sick. I've been sick for the past 2 days and am all drugged up. I thought that I was going to be able to get a lot of work done over the break for my project but that didn't happen quite to the extent I'd planned. I was going to take more photos on Friday but the fact that I felt like my head was going to explode sort of halted all production.

I went to New Orleans on a mission trip with Wesley (the GC campus ministry) and was given the chance to paint a mural in one of the rooms so I took it. It was a growing experience actually because I was the one that really headed up the 3 person production team that worked on it and we were able to finish it in 2 days working on it for a few hours each day.

The verse is from somewhere in Amos

It was a cool experience to see the skills I have been learning at school be able to be used somewhere other than just on my school projects and, a bit more personal, to furthering the kingdom of God. The room in which the mural was painted works as a sort of community/worship room. The lady who heads up all of the teams was real excited about it and several teams will see it in their time of communion.

I've also gotten several more of the prints done for my project. They're taking just a little longer than I'd thought but it's okay still. There's a nice twist I decided to do in New Orleans that won't take hardly any time at all but could make message I'm trying to say much stronger without being overwhelming. I probably won't post anymore about it or my actual exhibition stuff on my blog though because it's too much to type. You'll just have to go to my exhibition and see for yourself!

Also it is important to note that all the "white" you see on these photos will actually be absent of any ink at all and it's going to be on a transparency. So it would be completely transparent.