Category Archives: Fun
Danny Gregory: A Kiss Before You Go
A new book by one of my favourite authors, Danny Gregory.
I have a few of Danny’s other books, including The Illustrated Life, The Creative License, and Everyday Matters. His books are among the first I reach for when I’m looking for inspiration- a flip through the pages is usually all it takes. I am amazed by his openness and vulnerability, and the courage it takes to share journal pages. (I know a thing or two about that as well.) As his work is primarily for his journal, it is raw, spontaneous, and seems to be true to himself (although I know that what makes it into the books is carefully chosen). It is a glimpse into his life and personal experience, and I feel lucky to be witness to that through his books.
I am also thrilled to see another book from him listed as coming up on Amazon – An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers!
Embroidered Portraits: Cayce Zavaglia
Mechanics Alive!
Nitinol
Ok, maybe it’s an experimentation and research phase (as it applies to material and technique).
This is Nitinol. Nitinol is a shape memory alloy, which reacts to heat. Let’s start at the beginning.
It works like magic.
Well, no, not really.
(And this one is trying to be dramatic…)
So…. how might this be useful?
See the possibilities?
This is interesting, although probably not very relevant to what I’m doing…
Arduino, the Documentary
Cool things Arduinos can do:
Arduino Tutorials: Jeremy Blum
Jeremy Blum’s video tutorials on Ardunio/ electronics are great! He explains things in a simple easy to follow format, and has explained a few things that I had seen mentioned but not really discussed, such as how a voltage regular works. I think these videos are really going to help me understand more on how to build my circuitry and arduino to do what I eventually intend to do, which is animate the morphoids.
On another note, I managed to redo and actually solder the Bacteriophage circuit so it works! Previously, it was a breadboard stuffed inside a Bacteriophage (yes, I admit it.)
Inspiration: The Piano Stairs
Birthday Splurges!
As it’s coming up next week, I bought myself a couple of things for my birthday. Meet Gerardo, my new studio sock monkey! He has such a happy tail!
He fits my studio perfectly- he’s spunky and funky, and colourful. Has a bit of attitude, and is unusual. I think he’s a great addition.
The sock monkey is much more fun than the other part…. research. I’m also planning to put part of my payment for the Art Gallery of Calgary show towards some materials, some electronic parts and building supplies. Before I do that, though, I need to decide what I need.
Some books from Amazon:
Twyla Tharp, the Collaborative Habit (I absolutely love the other book I have of hers, the Creative Habit. It helps a lot when I need to reground myself, when it seems difficult to work. Often times, it helps me get going again, reading a section which stands out to me. But that may be another post…!)
Making Things Move (Dustyn Roberts) is about building simple kinetic machines… lots of info on mechanisms, materials, basic electonics, motion… physics, actually. I’m hoping this will help get more moving Morphoids started.
The Arduino Cookbook (Michael Margolis). This one is a beast. 673 pages of technical stuff and arduino code. (Gulp.) However, if I get even a little out of this, it’s worth it.
Making Things Move and the Arduino Cookbook aren’t easy reads… I have taken both out of the library, but to get the most out of them, I will need to write in them, underline things, sticky tab pages, break the bindings, you know, USE them. (It seems that in buying myself a birthday gift, what I’ve really done is give myself more homework!)
The Official IMR Gift Shop!
![St[art] Residency](http://jenniferakkermans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Start-215x161.jpg)
