Perhaps if you would have turned it sideways...

Today's class wasn't too out of line as to what I'd expect for the class. Most everyone showed off their egg project, and there were some gems in there. There weren't too many "holy crap, how'd you think of that" examples, but there was a decent amount of ingenuity in some of the projects.

I was especially impressed with the painting of the vinegared egg. I hardly recognized it as an egg. I can't say it was especially provocative or mind-bending, but the end result looked incredibly unique. I don't think the average person off the street would have believed it consisted of an egg and paint.

The emotional egg struck me as an alright sort of idea until it broke. After that, the meaning of the egg just took off to a whole new level. The event intensified the idea of how fleeting art can be (how we have to let go of our creations at times). And there's just something wonderful about literally putting your emotions down onto something only to have it shatter and ooze out all over the carpet. I'm curious as to what the owner of the egg felt after the event. Were her negative feelings washed away as the egg cracked? Did the egg remind her that it doesn't really matter what you felt in the past - that only the here and now really counts? Eh, who knows?

I think it was pretty obvious after this project what the point was - and it wasn't to see new and inventive uses for the egg. Nope, it was practicing the process of seeing common objects in a whole new way. Egg shells as a candle holder? Why not? Nobody will ever be able to fully divorce their thoughts away from pre-existing notions they hold on everyday items. The brain's just not wired to do that. But through constantly challenging the mind, shoving it twisting and screaming through the ringer every single day, we can begin to see past the accepted IS, and start catching a glimpse of the potential WILL BE.

Yay! Presents!

In thinking about WHAT an egg is, I came up with this:

And then I thought to myself, "Way too artsy fartsy."

(Note: the last couple paragraphs weren't actually in my initial thought - you'll see why they were added in a bit)

Still, I decided to stick with this message. The original idea was to bind an egg to a mass of helium-filled balloons. The above message would be attached to said egg in the hopes that somebody would happen upon it. Sounded like a good idea. And then I thought about it. An egg, though it is light, DOES have some substantial mass - a lot of balloons would be required (the thought of hollowing out the egg entered my mind here). Also I live in Shelbyville. You go 20 miles in any direction, and you have farmland. The odds of somebody finding it would be slim. Besides, I'm not too keen on letting a dozen or so latex balloons litter the landscape and having a hapless goat potentially choke to death on it. SO...back to the drawing board.

Luckily, my stay was short. Perhaps influenced by my ever-present Super Mario Brothers item box leering at me from atop my bookshelf, a thought crept into my mind. "Hey! Everybody likes presents!" I decided then to hollow out the egg, insert a little message, and leave it in a public place. And so I began. First off, I hollowed out the egg (tip: don't stand near a solid wood kitchen table when blowing an egg, lest you lose consciousness).


Next, I whipped up the "message" to hide inside. I decided to adjust my original egg thoughts a bit, and use that. Of course, that's a beast of a message to fit in a tiny hole, so I did the next best thing - linked it.

(Bonus potential traffic!)

Once the strip of link was rolled up and placed in the egg

(The tiny dark spot is the rolled up note)

I decorated the egg a bit, both as an homage to the inspiration (a Yoshi egg/Mario Brothers thing) and as a way for the egg to stand out.


Once my little guy was good to go, with message in shell, I placed him outside in the elements.


Then I brought it back in, where it became very moody after being out in the cold.


Or maybe not. I had fun thinking of ways to use the egg, and found a lot of frustration when ideas didn't work (especially after devoting some time to preparing them). Ultimately, I think this is a fun idea that would bring a smile to somebody's face. It could be a neat little experience to create a large amount of these message-bearing eggs, scatter them about, and wait to see if anybody actually responds. We shall see...we shall see.

You Found...

First Class

The above is my initial reflection to the first class (and the suggestion to focus on "round" things). May be a bit scrawly, but nothing beats the feel of ink on paper. I've been sort of forcing myself to jot down thoughts every now and then, so you may find me posting a couple of scans out of my notebooks.

This class seems very different. The lack of absolute instruction really does cause a slight sense of panic. I'm already feeling my brain sort of remold itself a bit. Just trying to wrap my head around what this class IS has caused some transformation. The weird thing is, recently I've been feeling my mind is in a very fragile state right now (not like...crazy, wacko fragile - more like very...moldable). It's almost like my brain is forcing things to reboot in a sense. So, in that case - I think this class could be coming along at JUST the right time. I look forward to having assumptions challenged in this class. I can't wait to see where this class leads.