Saturday, May 21, 2011

Tiny Norse Shrines!

I made this pocket shrine to Odin today, and I think it's going to be a contest prize or something for a podcast I'm planning to start. That's him in the middle, with his wide-brimmed hat getup, with his dogs Gere and Freke on the bottom and his ravens Huginn and Muninn on the top. I'm thinking about doing one to Thor as well, and maybe Loki, but the mythology I've been able to find is a bit vague on what he looks like. I might end up having Thor's shrine just be a shrine to Mjollnir. Or hell, maybe I'll be too lazy to do anything at all!

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In my big man hands for size comparison:

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I like working this small; I had to paint some of the stuff in there with the tip of a needle!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Christopher's Room Installation

This was the installation I did for my exit show. It's called Christopher's Room, and it follows the story of a young prince, Christopher, whose life changes when he is attacked by the great snake Ezra. Christopher defeats the snake, but takes Ezra's mask so that he is never hurt again. The mask gives him strange new powers, but renders him pretty soulless and zombie-like. The installation itself is a corner of Christopher's bedroom, in which the viewers can poke around and find goodies that expand the story. Here's me in the installation:

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The snake Ezra:

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Christopher's mother, the Insect Queen, doesn't recognize her son after he puts on the mask, so she collects pictures of him as he used to be:

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A family portrait of Christopher and his parents:

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Christopher's father, the king, uses Christopher's new powers to eliminate two potential assassins, the twin brothers Felix and Asher Orthrus. Christopher must send the king their tattooed hands to prove they are dead:

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Each of Asher's fingers is in an individual box:

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There are lots of little goodies in the cabinet:

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Here's the little pamphlet in the cabinet that shows Christopher fighting the snake, and which I posted on this blog earlier:

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New Books for a New Chapter...of my Life...Get it? It's a Metaphor

Well, it's official: I'm a college graduate! Here are a couple books I finished recently. This first one is a cake-shaped book for my little sister's birthday:

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Then I made this book and box so I could have a little book that was a perfect cube:

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And finally, this is an altered book that I made out of a thrift store find called "The Adventures of Philip, Volume 2." It was published in 1900, and I thought the title was so hilarious that I had to illustrate it. The author's name was Thackeray, but I thought that in my story, Thackeray should be a monster that Philip has to defeat:

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Everything inside is carved into the actual book pages and painted/collaged; the dirigible is a pop up!

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In the end, Philip just turns out to be a dorky guy dreaming of adventure from his study. Aww. The middle panel has holes in it, so you can see from spread to spread:

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Later tonight, I'll post pictures of my exit show installation. But for now, thanks for reading about the books!