The Secret Formula

Two years worth of tiny self-portrait avatars made for the blog

Time Flys... It's a Bloggoversary Already!
March 31st, 2006 was my first blog post ever. As I'm sure it's true for you as well, the internet and its marvels have forever altered the course and richness of my life. A day doesn't go by that I'm not in awe of what is possible to do online, directly person to person, with the intelligent tools available now. I can create a piece of art and send it to a friend for them to see while we are talking on the phone together, that fast.

Having this blog in particular, hearing from the fine people who read it, has caused a complete turnaround in the project. I can share and document my progress with Halfland here and have people from every corner of the world deeply root for me and offer their help and suggestions. It's made all the difference.

Looking back, I'd say the biggest and most crucial secret formula I've been given over the course of the last two years has been simply to do the film the way I want, exactly how I want, when I want, without a shred of worry that there's a better way to do it (of course there is! always!) or that I'm doing it wrongly (of course I am! I couldn't care less though!). Having that approach inside has turned the project around from being a daunting impossible burden to an out and out thrilling pleasure to engage with.

No *success* yet, but a ton of fun trying! I made three small foam clay heads and bodies based on a fly photo Paul found. After they were mae I thought of making their bodies instead out of real watch gears and parts. Reader, Enrica Prazzoli, suggested a resource, Alpha Stamps for buying watch parts. I bought 6 tins full and have been trying to use them in a plaster mold with glue to shape them.

More interesting to me than common real world house flies, a photo Paul found inspired me to make Halfland's Time Flies (Musca Tempora) enlongated and orange winged. When I used a clear crackle medium for the heads (lower right above) in the mold, the parts rusted but looked like a conglomerate of watch parts like I'd like. The body didn't hold the shape so I tried embedding the parts in hot glue, which doesn't read like watch part well enough. I'll figure a way. I'm going to use tiny springs (maybe uncoiled accupuncture needles) for antenna and painted fine mesh for wings.