A Carnival in Paris!

In le Jardin des Tuileries, there is a carnival along the rue de Rivoli.

Susie, I thought you'd like this clown with a saxophone.

Yes, we are in France.

This delightful image actually represented a more dimensional object!

It's a little roller coaster!

This fair, like most contemporary carnivals, demonstrates many creative uses of fiberglass. This guy was really big.

Bat/bird man/boat

This was the first food stand that I saw.

This is in its perfect context.

This is rad, no matter where. I should go eat there tomorrow, just because I can.

Update: those churros tasted like old oil, had no cinnamon, and no creaminess inside. California churros have much better flavor and texture!

The games have interesting prizes-- cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronics. These prizes seem even more inaccessible than the stuffed animals in the rigged carnival games that I'm used to.

You could even win a crepe griddle (in theory, if not in practice.)

Another RISCA show!

Elena Calderón-Patiño, RISCA's Community Arts Program Director, curated a show at the Atrium Gallery in 1 Capitol Hill (across the street from the Rhode Island State House.) Elena is working to support creativity from diverse ethnic communities, and this is a show of work by Asian artists. The work pictured above is in the show, which will be on display until the end of August.

I milled out the Internet Zero boards on the Modela. More information on Internet 0 can be found here, and the files for the boards can be found here, under Internet 0.

When I tried to cut the boards out on the Modela, the bit consistently threatened to drag itself through the milled traces, so I used the drill press to perforate the boards and then break them apart. (I didn't have a jewelry saw and the wood saw blade was too wide.)

When separating the perforated boards, it is important to carefully apply even pressure to each side of the break. I find the easiest way to do this is to lay the board on a table, with the perforated line parallel to the edge of the table (directly over it.) Push down on the piece of the board that hangs off the table, while simultaneously holding the other half down against the table. It should snap easily along your line.

I started to stuff the boards and I hope to get stuff closer to working!

Full Circle

Today my mom sent me a link to something that was posted on BOING BOING.

SHE sent it to ME!

Processing

I've been figuring out how to use this open source program called, "Processing". You can download it for free and find tutorials on the Processing website.

I created the image above with one of the simple beginning codes, and the images below were created by modifiying that code.

A sort of storm

Undulating waves like unraveled knitting

Then I figured out how to code different colors.

I drew this with a mouse.

From Here to There

This is most of a letter I wrote to accompany a letter of support from MIT, asking for assistance to attend the Fab Academy graduation in Amsterdam!

In the summer of 2009 I was very fortunately awarded the Fellowship of Craft by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. That September, while teaching at the Rhode Island Maker Faire at Slater Mills, I was invited to participate in the Fab Academy, the pilot year of a program in digital fabrication. I decided to invest my fellowship money in furthering my education, and I enrolled as one of half a dozen people in America who participated as students in this exciting and prestigious new program.

Though classes were held at AS220's new Fab Lab in Providence, the program was taught through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Barcelona, via international video conferences. This communication technology connected us, not only to MIT and Barcelona, but also to the other Fab Academies in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland; Pune, India; Capetown, South Africa; Amsterdam & Gronigen, Holland; Nairobi, Kenya; and Bermeo, Spain.

Nearly fifty Fab Labs, or digital fabrication laboratories, have been created in sixteen different countries around the world. A Fab Lab consists of a suite of tools for digital fabrication, including a laser cutter, vinyl cutter, CNC router, 3D scanner, 3D printer, and a variety of other tools. These resources enable people to make almost anything, and can help everyone to better meet the needs of their community via rapid prototyping and digital design solutions. At the Fab Lab in Jalalabad, Afghanistan lab users designed and fabricated their own long- range wireless antennas to bring internet reception to their community. These receivers were built from plywood and chicken wire.

In our Providence and Rhode Island communities, I see a need for employment. Using the skills that I have learned in the Fab Academy, I hope to create jobs by building a lasercutter and starting a laser- cut textile business. In this endeavor I will unite these new digital techniques with my extensive knowledge of traditional craft practices. I'm currently researching different types of home-built lasercutters, and writing a business plan.

This August, the first class of the Fab Academy will graduate in Amsterdam at the 6^th annual FAB conference. I look hopefully forward to attending this event and to learning, teaching, and continuing to work in new ways in the future.

Electronic "Paper"work

I've been applying for a lot of stuff lately, mostly associated with the logistics around getting to the Fab Academy graduation in Amsterdam. I'm working on an interview/ article for an exciting magazine, and yesterday I gave an artist talk for the Providence Art Windows. I guess I haven't written in a little while because, focusing on work, I didn't feel outgoing for a few days. Now I'm finishing up projects to bring to Europe, and researching libraries, museums, galleries, and suppliers to visit while overseas. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

More Glass

Photos by Gisel Florez, except for the bottom one.

It took me a month to make this necklace.

I made some of these beads with vintage glass rods from 1950s France.

I etched the glass to look matte, like candy necklaces.

Hair- do

I don't usually post images of things I didn't make myself, but I really want to share these. Most of them are from Hairport in Lisbon, Portugal.

Evolving Bubblecloud

I'm always trying to figure out the myriad possibilities to construct the support structures for these forms I imagine.

Glass Robot and Sculpted Glass Heads

Terrific!

My friend, a student I had been mentoring, received some tickets to Gogol Bordello as her high school graduation gift. Tonight we went to the show, and it was so much fun!

I finished making bilingual signs for the community garden, the kiln is full of glass, and I feel great.

Oh, and of course- my tiny jointed glass robot was featured on BOING BOING, which is one of the most popular blogs in the entire world!! Huzzah!

Elsewhere on the innernerd

Waiting outside of the taxi garage

I finally added some work to my etsy shop, mostly bigger pieces. More smaller pieces will soon follow. Also, I put some new pictures up in my flickr account.

Textile hair

I love exploring these possibilities.

Diandre Fuentes approached me to be my apprentice, and I really appreciate her help. We lasercut this fabric and gathered the strips by hand. I made them into this wig- like cap by hand- sewing the gradients of color to a fabric base. I usually do every single thing myself, but I'm prepping a lot now for bigger pieces and Diandre's help is wonderful!

Women on Money

Hanging out at the door at a show

Downtown Providence

A number of storefronts in downtown Providence participate in a program called Providence Art Windows. Every three months, twelve people are selected to do installations. Pictured above is my installation-- 120 forms of lasercut textiles and flameworked glass. This will be up until mid- September at 201 Westminster Street.

The First Fab Academy

This our class in Providence, the first class of MIT's Fab Academy in the pilot year of the program. Click to enlarge, from left: our local teacher, Shawn Wallace, the photographer of this image, Elliot Clapp, Makeda's younger brother, Jemuel, Anna Kaziunas- France, Makeda Stephenson (blurred), me, and Noah Bedford. Anna joined halfway through and caught up amazingly fast. Makeda and Noah were both 17 when they started, and Makeda commuted from Boston 3 times a week. This picture was taken the morning that our final projects were due, and I had not slept at all the night before.

The way I feel looks like this; that's why I make these things.

I feel like I am the luckiest person I know.

Thank you for being.

A little artist statement

I'm frustrated by the inescapable theme of "Humans vs. Nature." To tolerate it, I have to find humor in the inanity of this idea, and its failure to recognize humans as nature. Though it might be possible for people or other animals to survive in mostly- synthesized environs, such a state of existence would be an artificial life.

The most inspiring works I've witnessed have all been naturally- occurring ones. I aim to make things that reflect my respect and awe for the natural world, my quiet sadness for its/ our uncertain future, and the irony of humans trying to control and recreate nature itself in artwork that can only strive to be as beautiful as authentic life.

A lot of my work is also inspired by math that I find in nature.

I wrote out this multiplication table and found cool patterns.

Studio Photos

Gisel Florez also photographed my studio in Rhode Island. Above are some screenprinted posters and drawings by me, Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Lisa Hanawalt, Paul Lyons, Caroline Paquita, and Rebeca Raney.

Additionally above are Merrilee Challiss, Liz Harris, and Xander Marro.

The painting on the top right is by Alex Schloss. I don't know who made the two prints in the middle. The name on one is in Russian and the name on the other is in Japanese.

My often- messy desk