Draconaei’s Blog

(cross-posted in my Borrowing Light class blog.)

After a few failed attempts, I found out that making “glow liquid” out of Mountain Dew is a hoax.  It’s disappointing, but makes me feel a little better about the ingredients in Mountain Dew.

There is a way to make glow liquid yourself, but the chemicals are expensive, so I caved in and ordered larger glow sticks with more liquid in them.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about the core of my glow stick project.  I’m fascinated with embodying light in a liquid, and the surreal quality of actually experiencing it as a liquid no longer trapped within a container.  This has led to countless broken glow sticks in my apartment.  Here’s a video of me pouring “liquid light” into a glass:

Dripping Light

This sparked the train of thought that led me to where I am now:

Fascination with glow sticks –> ordering a lot of bendy glow bracelets online –> twisting glow sticks into different shapes –> realizing these bracelets could be twisted to look like compact fluorescent light bulbs –> realizing that actually, they didn’t look anything like light bulbs after all.  sadness.  –> decided to create a hollow light bulb, fill it with glow liquid, and drain it –> acquired a hollow light bulb look-alike from a glassblower –> fill, drain, record the change over time… but what happens after it leaves the light bulb?

This can challenge the way we view light- it starts as a familiar form (the light bulb) and over time the bulb is drained, and the light only exists in splatters on the floor.  It also embodies the energy we use, oddly quantifying the light by its escape over time.  It thinking of how to push the project further, I’m currently pondering a setup like this:

The light still runs and gathers, and the form on which it drips is very simple (basically a half-sphere, with raised edges so the liquid doesn’t run all over the floor) but the patterns the liquid will form won’t be simple.  They won’t be predictable either.  It’s controlled in some ways, but random enough that I won’t actually know what the final product will look like until it’s happening.  As soon as my larger glow sticks arrive in the mail, I can start experimenting.

The assignment:
Demonstrate various properties of light through an intervention.

The hardware:
100W (equivalent) compact fluorescent bulb, socket, wire, plug

The natural material: wood
My ever-present desire to create harmony with opposites came through in my material choices here.  I chose to use on natural and one unnatural material, the natural one being basswood.  Wood is a material not usually seen as having much of a relationship with light.  However, when thin enough, light transmits through it.  Because wood is an organic material, the light is not transmitted evenly, and we can see woodgrain, knots, and other “imperfections” in the wood by different levels of transparency.

Layering these thin slices (1/32″) of wood on top of each other created an entirely opaque layer, which served a structural purpose as well as an aesthetic one of contrast.

The unnatural material: fiber optics
Fiber optics redirect the path of light through total internal reflection. Therefore, if the fiber optic is bent at a sharp angle or cut in any way, light will escape.  In this case, the fiber optic cable has been notched in a number of places, which appear to be glowing “spots” of light in the photograph.  The effect is more subtle next to the glowing wood.

The difference between the lit and unlit forms shows some potential for light as a design material, though the focus is still on the non-light components here.  The next assignment will focus on the light itself.

Flavoring vodka with skittles is delicious and easy (and looks really cool too!)  I originally found the instructions here.

Here’s a list of the items you will need:

• non-flavored vodka (I use Smirnoff)
• skittles
• 5 bowls to separate out Skittles flavors
• funnel
• coffee filters
• 5 water bottles (or any containers to hold the Skittles vodka during the infusion.  Mine are actually little cranberry juice bottles.)

Step 1: Separate the skittles into their individual flavors, and count up the number of skittles you need of each color.

You will want ~10 skittles per oz. of vodka you mix them with, so plan accordingly.

Step 2: Pour the skittles and the vodka into the water bottles, and give them a good shake.  You’ll already be able to see the colors mixing into the vodka- these bright colors will stay!

Step 3: Let the mixtures sit overnight.  Shake the bottles again to un-stick any mostly-dissolved skittles from the bottom of the bottles, and then filter out the excess sugar using the funnel and coffee filters.  I found that I either needed to filter through two coffee filters together, or filter the entire liquid twice, but this will depend on the filters you use.

Step 4: Once your flavored vodka is free free from goop and clumps of sugar, place in your fridge to chill.  Beware that even though the mixture may not taste strong, it is nearly pure vodka.  Don’t be deceived!

Skittles vodka can be mixed with many things, but I would recommend a clear mixer to enjoy the full color effect (I personally enjoy really sweet drinks, so I use cream soda.)  Mix and enjoy!

Having already posted about the tattooing process, I won’t bore you with more of the same.  Instead I will inform you that my tattoo has now mostly healed, and has given me a delightful surprise: the flame aligns straight up my leg while my foot is flexed, but curves along my foot when my foot is pointed.

I placed the tattoo along the interior curve of my ankle, in order for the shape of the flames to coincide with the contour of my anklebone, and because of the high significance I place on my feet, as a dancer.  The bright colors now hide the subtle shadows of my protruding bone, but more interestingly, the tattoo appears different from different angles.  From the front, it appears as designed, but from the top, bottom or sides, the design is truncated to the tips of the flames, or a single tongue of fire.

I enjoy how the two-dimensional tattoo has become three-dimensional, living art.  It moves as I move, and as I dance… its appearance is tied to my motion and the perspective to my body.

After years of declaring myself too fickle to design a tattoo for myself… I’ve designed a tattoo for myself. Check it out!

I love designs imbued with several layers of meaning, so if you’re curious to understand my own, read on.

Fire contained in the shape of a teardrop is an embodiment of two elements and two extremes simultaneously. The fire represents passion, anger, and hope, while the water represents sadness and tranquility.

For personal reasons I won’t get into here, achieving harmony with two opposing forces is very important to me and an integral quality of my being. When the two extremes combine, they temper each other; limiting tongues of fire to within the frame of a teardrop brings some calm to the flames, but gives more life and energy to the water droplet. The most beautiful part of the design comes from the balance achieved here.

Three tongues of fire connect the design to the Holy Trinity, representing God’s influence in myself and my art. The color scheme is one I draw a great deal of personal energy from by including my favorite color (purple) and all the sequential warm colors of the rainbow. The particular outline is one I’ve been doodling as early as middle school and has remained appealing to me consistently throughout my past.

There you have it! What do you think? Even though this is my own personal tattoo design, I would love to hear everyone’s opinions!

Recently I had the good fortune of traveling to Jordan on scholarship, to study the cultural use of architecture and space. As a part of this study (and for my own artistic desires) I often took a series of photographs in linear sequence to later stitch together and form a panorama. My favorite site for this was Jerash, the ruins of an ancient Roman city.

Time has a strangely disjointed feel, where the ruins feel frozen in the past, and stand in stark contrast to the overgrown plants, and you walking among them. I wanted to emphasize this feeling more strongly than would be conveyed through just a photograph, so I isolated past and present artifacts by use of color and greyscale. (click on each image for a larger version)

The files are quite large, so I plan to frame some large prints soon for my new apartment. Post showing the photoshop process, coming soon!

This was my first experience watching someone get inked, so I learned about the tattooing process and stipulations to keep in mind for any future tattoo designs.

First, the tattoo artist will have plenty to say! They will modify the design based on their artistic opinions, detail capability, and ability to mix and blend colors, all of which vary from artist to artist. The first lesson came somewhat as a surprise.

Black and colored inks behave differently. Black ink retains its shape beneath the tissue, while colored ink tends to spread and bleed. A color outline would soften the tattoo’s edges, so tattoos are generally outlined in black ink to retain a sharp, crisp image. My friend’s tattoo was no exception, so after a brief discussion, the design was modified so that all major components were outlined in black.

Once the tattoo artist and the customer have reached a design compromise, the outlines are stenciled onto a type of wax paper, and then transferred onto the client’s skin. They can then look at the design and evaluate the location, size, or other modifications before any permanent work is done. The stencil can be washed off, modified and re-stenciled until the customer is happy with its appearance.

When the stencil is finalized, the tattooing begins. Black ink is drawn in first, following the stenciled outline. The tool used by the tattoo artist somewhat resembles a fountain pen, with a needle in the center that rapidly moves up and down at the touch of a button. The artist dips the end of this pen into the ink, presses it to the skin, and the needle rapidly punctures the tissue. Ink from the surface is pulled beneath the skin, becoming permanent body art.

The tattoo artist keeps a cloth handy to wipe the skin every minute or so, which cleans the surface of excess ink, and blood from the many micro-puncture wounds.

Outlining and black inking complete, the artist begins to fill in the colored portions of the tattoo, one color at a time. The colors have a very particular order, which is a little counter-intuitive because it is the opposite of painting: darkest to lightest. In this case, the artist began inking the dark green, and finished with the yellow, still wiping the skin every minute.

The brightness of the tattoo depends both on the ink colors and skin color. The paler the skin, the more vibrantly colors show through. It has nothing to do with contrast between skin color and ink color; because the ink is below the skin, the tissue acts as a filter or screen over the tattoo itself. For example, a white tattoo on a dark-skinned person would be effectively invisible.

Because my friend is pale-skinned, and chose a tattoo with bright colors, the tattoo’s appearance is strikingly vibrant… behold! The body art in it’s finalized form.

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This story begins with the most random of meetings.

A friend of a brother of a friend, at the party where we first met, offhandedly mentioned wanting a new tattoo. Despite being only a small step removed from strangers at the time, I offered to design one for her, and she actually took me up on it!

The request: design a tattoo representing, but not having the literal appearance of, a phoenix. Include the symbol in this painting on the right, titled “Phoenix,” following the same color scheme (red, yellow, and green.) Add a pair of wings in the same style.

Adobe Illustrator is my program of choice here. Vector graphics make for quick, easy scaling and tweaking. That being said, this is a good time to explain how I work with digital media. In a nutshell: many, many, many iterations.

I love exploring a million subtle alterations in design, and taking a project in a variety of different directions. This is perfect for the computer, where duplicating an image is as easy as ctrl+c and I can compare each modification side-by-side in an instant. I’m also reluctant to quickly commit to any given change; I like leaving copies of old design iterations around to refer to later, so I end up with files that look like this:

Cluttered as it may be, it allows me to see my own design process, and I can return from a less successful design to a previous idea without any trouble.

After several meetings and many designs garnered from the process above, we settled on this as the final tattoo design:

Stay tuned for descriptions of the tattooing process and photos of the finished body art!