I have a 3.5 year old son and his brain is the most amazing device I have ever seen in action. He only has to overhear me saying something once for the synapses to fire and the knowledge is indexed and stored away in his noggin to be quickly accessed at a moments notice. As i get older i find it harder and harder to grasp information. For every new thing I learn it seems that I have to make room and forget something else.
At the moment I am trying to learn to use Blender (open source 3D software) and as I watch tutorials my head becomes a cloud of information swimming around and most of it not settling to a resting place in my head. It seems to wash over me and I look on in wonder unable to retain it.
My little man is processing so fast I think he is a genius (All parents probably have the same perception of their child). Dinosaurs are his thing and he knows every one. Each given a chapter in his brain which seems like an encyclopedia with a hypertext index. I don;t even know where he learns it all. What I wouldn't give to go back to when my mind was a notebook with still so many unfilled pages.
The booking for the book of books
This Project, in a typical shopping center in Wijnegem, Belgium was about books and @stijgerart . Edith Van Der Wetering and myself were given the challenge to make a sculpture based on encyclopedias.
As a subject mater it was a nice one because as books they can be anything and we were not restricted to making characters or story lines to form some sort of illustration ie. we could take it anywhere we wanted and try and show the essence of what these books mean to us.
Diagram
The concept behind the piece was illustrative in certain ways, like many encyclopedias in fact, but with our twist. The information from these books of knowledge gets fed into your head and then inside we decided to show what happens, The muddle of letters is processed into your own books of memories and then stored away for later retrieval. ( In theory anyway).
In Dutch I believe they have a saying about eating books meaning that you consume the information they hold and this was our starting point. We were having alot of fun, well, at least up until the moment the Belgian girl I was going out with at the time broke up with me and my heart took a beating. One evening she met with me and said 'it's over'. Three years and that was that.
Processing the processor
The sand was really nice to work with and even though I usually prefer to work outside the shopping center allowed us to work in nice unchanging light and without the fear that the rain would come and mess up our surface textures.
The large head was carved smooth then using a hose the surface was textured to give a pore effect then text was drawn back on by smoothing the surface again. A nice delicate effect.
Getting out of my head and into another
Inside the head we decided to do some sort of devices showing how the information is processes and stored away with lots of textures to give it depth and as a nod to the our subject mater paper annotations turning it into a illustration.
We really goofed off on the detail and although I was heart broken over my lose of relationship I began to really enjoy my work and find in that some comfort. Throwing oneself into your work should be one of the five stages of grief... Ok, maybe the sixth stage.
Breaking up is never easy and I was in complete shock of how it happened but having my work and some great friends around me really helped me see that things were not all as shit as I was feeling them to be. In years to come when I met @clodaghdowning and we instantly clicked I realised that everything happens for a reason and I can't imagine me being happier with any other , especially now with our genius son in tow.
Closing the book
The sculpture was finished with an old leather bound book feel showing how revered that these type of books are.
I really liked that in the shopping center the sculpture could be looked on from so many angles and we made sure our design was worked form all of them.
In life I think it is important to try and look at things from many different angles and from other peoples perspectives.Like the sculpture, if the relationship wasn't working for the other person then how could it ever work for me in the long term.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
The Lion King - sand sculpture
Pillow Talk - music video
The first breakfast nativity - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon.
@ammonite
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This absolutely stunning, and I really enjoyed the story behind it.. I’ve never heard the Dutch saying about eating books, but it is really quite profound. When we read a book, we don’t just read it.. we consume it and it becomes part of us. Love that. You blow me away with your talent! Thanks for sharing this with us.
Thank you so much, It is so great for me to hear that people are reading my ramblings.
I wish I had more time now to read/ consume books but since my son came along all I have time for are bedtime stories.
Thank you so much, It is so great for me to hear that people are reading my ramblings.
I wish I had more time now to read/ consume books but since my son came along all I have time for are bedtime stories.
It is pretty cool being able to look at this thing from multiple angles including above. So you don’t usually do indoor sculptures? 🙃
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The great thing about sand is it can be made anywhere really as long a the floor takes the weight. Having tonnes of sand and a floor like this could be a problem if there is a basement below. Luckily this wasn't the case. I do do lots of sculptures indoors and it has it's good thing and bad points.
For me working outdoor in the elements brings another dimension to my work because I still have to deal with the weather but I like the open air. Working inside can be nice but I start to feel claustrophobic.
A stable light means I don't have to keep worrying how the sculpture looks at different times of the day , with different shadows. My work usually involves the play of light and shadows, if that makes sense. So, the location and environment dictates a lot about a sculpture.
the apple does not fall far from the tree - your son inherited good genes. I have the same problem with remembering as you (though I think you might exaggerate) - sometimes I think it is a blessing: I can watch old movies over again and be surprised by the ending, lol.
This work, like all your others, is pure genius!
I'm the same with films I can watch the same thing again and again and be shocked that the butler was the bad guy. I really don't know what my son gets from me, I just hope he doesn't go into the arts as he is our pension plan and this is a tough game as I sure you know.
wow this is really an amazing art piece! it is a 10 on 10 for the realization and even more for the theme and the concept, I think your little baby is so lucky to have so creative parents and he will enjoy to be learning from you, what a shame that we can not see it from real!
Thank you very much for the complements. These posts help my work live on.
This is such an amazing artwork, @ammonite ! I love the design and the idea behind it, and the finished work is amazing ! beautiful ! intricate and wonderful <3 <3 <3 What a lovely piece :)
I, also, found that it is getting harder and harder to retain knowledge, but children seem to internalize them like a sponge !
That is so true. Years ago there was a film called 'Limitless' about a drug that I guy discovered that could make him learn everything so quickly like a superpower, That is my son but without the drugs obviously. Thank you for your nice words.
Another wonderful piece :-)))
Thank you very much.
:-D
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Hello @ammonite, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
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Wow... such a lovely memory. 😍