Lee's Artlog

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2008- I’ve adapted a particular strategy when working in Illustrator in regards to the pen tool which is particularly evident in Sidewalks and Concrete. On most organic shapes I read no solid lines. Animals, people, trees, and natural landscapes for example rarely if ever have real defined straight lines either. I tried to emphasize this in the piece, with the trees and people, contrasting it with the city landscape looming into the piece from either side. What makes this piece interesting is the amount of sheer detail on the opposite sides of the street, and then how it fades into the background. The mind has a tendency to fool our eyes and create symbolic imagery it relates to when the eye views things from a distance. A good example is when you take a photo, and you zoom in closely to the background. The figures may look like bricks and squares but the mind attempts to associate it with a common shape. I took advantage of this problem and ‘cheated’ replicating this same effect as the piece descends further back. All in all this piece took around 30 hours to complete due to the sheer amount of heavy detail that I was using.

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2008- I’ve been very fortunate to have been so lucky to have found such great ‘landlords’; -That being the first time I have referred to them as such. Joe and Joey have been extremely supportive of me, and great friends to me in Pasadena. We hit it off immediately when I checked out their house and they have been amazingly accomodating. On a private dead end street with their house surrounded by fauna, trees, and quiet, it seems almost out of place in an increasingly urban area.

My room is small, but thankfully I work in my study (red area) most of the time and with my ‘housemates’ help, we have customized the Dojo to make the study more to my tastes, laying down laminate, and painting the walls ivory black and dressage red. It used to be a sunroom but with a few changes, including tapping out the window and turning it into a doorway, and an A/C unit to boot, it has more of my feel. A small couch sits by the corner of my back door when I decide to have an evening drink to relax. The drawing table sits snugly against the wall across from a low bookcase with a display top. The only thing I neglected ironically to include in the isometric piece was my desk, which would have been against the wall closest to the divide between the study and my room, however the complexities of the rounded tops in combination with the angle would have made this frustratingly impossible to accomplish.  The closet is in between the bedroom and the study, but is not pictured due to the angle. I used a vector shaping tool in Illustrator and put the finishing touches in by including some of my art that I hangs upon the walls.   

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2008- With student activism and political upheaval engulfing the school, the media began circling above, casting their large shadowy wing across the campus, ironically because of what started over one student’s annoyance over a styrofoam cup. The president and his administration attempted to quell the dissent, and let go of an employee after she spoke up in favor of the Education First movement. (The administration attempted to portray it as her job was abolished.)

All the while the president and his staff dodged my questions. In this they failed to address the fact that their arrogance or lack of transparency there in on issues encouraged me burn with righteous crusadic fervor towards an end goal of fixing priorities.  I had become jaded and filled with a deep, dark smoke as my gears began to wind up into faster and faster revolutions. The whole movement began taking its toll on my spirit and soul. Friends were feeling ostracized because of my distance from them. Others who did not embrace with the same fervor the problems we were trying to address felt put off by my aggressive behavior.  It was at that moment the vultures began to feed off the carrion, and the walls began to collapse.  

The president had a meeting with the board of the school. The board seemed…. unaware… of what had transpired, and was surprised by the silent protest. It was a balmy 100 degrees or so and around 100 students showed up in the end to show their discordance with the administration’s viewpoints. I showed up late, but wanted to show my support of the student body, eventhough I disagreed with the student government’s passive protest. Admittedly it worked to some degree, and I was wrong.

Within a few days it was announced that my adversary, the president would not have his contract renewed after it expired in 18 months. People were excited, but myself, I felt a bit grim.  I don’t see any gain for anyone when we tapdance on a dying man’s epitaph- and to complicate things, with such a resounding focus on my attention now released I struggled to find myself back in my work. 

Nightscraper was done in the midst of all the turmoil at the school. I added a filter glow to the windows and cast the clouds above the dark building tops. Based on the Chrysler Building it took me a few hours to complete with the pen tool, and utilized perspective lines to form the angles properly.