ZonkeyTrope



This is a new public arts project I'm working on with fellow artist Brandon Leffel to submit to the City of Raleigh: Art on City Plaza 2011. I wanted to create an interactive piece that people could not only view but touch and activate.

I came up with the idea of creating three zoetropes but of course, I've never built one. That's where Brandon came in. He built the three you see above.



Next step, painting them. I wanted them to be colorful but not too much cause I didn't want them to look like playground equipment. I think my color choices are just the right amount of fun.



The last step will be to add the animation that makes a zoetrope a zoetrope. I've choose the classic running zonkey. I drew these by hand and then scanned them into PhotoShop to make sure the animation looked decent.

I'm pretty happy with this one. Now I have to figure out how to get the art drawings into the art sculptures...

Stay tuned!

Zonkey



I just did an image search for zonkey and to my surprise none of my images came up. What's up with that? I've drawn zonkeys on boxes, billboards and books. I think I should at least have one zonkey image come up when someone searches zonkey.

So in order to help google image search out, I have created this zonkey post with just a few of my many zonkey images. And just to make sure, i'm going to write zonkey a lot!



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Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys! Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys! Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!Zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey, zonkey. Zonkeys, Zonkies, zonkey, and more zonkeys!

And don't forget Zonkey Street and the Critters on Zonkey Street!

artsplosure



Alex and I went to Artsplosure today in Raleigh. One reason we went was for the Art On The Move ribbon cutting ceremony. All the artists were there and several of the buses. Mine wasn't there because it was at the new City of Raleigh Transit Operation's Center dedication ceremony. But I still got to be part of the ribbon cutting.



And then they gave me some ribbon. I will probably incorporate this into one of my pieces.




We also hid a few critters as part of the new Critters on Zonkey Street Project. This project has critters popping up all over the country. Click here and find out if a critter will be visiting your city.

Art On The Move



Has a chance to attend the dedication ceremony of the new City of Raleigh Transit Operation's Center. The ceremony included the displaying of three Capital Area Transit buses that feature the "Art-On-The-Move" program one of which was mine.



The ceremony also featured newly installed large-scale images of artwork from previous years of "Art-On-The-Move." This art will be on permanent display at the new Operations Center. One of which will be mine. How very exciting, I know!



Unfortunitly, they hadn't printed my other artwork so all I got to see was the bus.. which was still fun! Only thing, it was sooo sunny that I couldn't open my eyes. So here they are filming me with my closed eyes.



Then they wrote this article about the buses and include something about the Zonkey street bus...

Ian Sands' work is titled "Zonkey Street." The Apex High School teacher is an interactive artist dedicated to public and street art. In his work, Mr. Sands has incorporated one of his signature creatures, "The Zonkey." The creation represents two or more people interacting to create art. The background of the piece features sentences written by his students that incorporate the names of Raleigh streets.




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A Pollock Tribute.. sort of

I'm working on a new piece. I have always been a big Pollock fan and had this idea to create a piece inspired by Pollock's paint cans.

While doing a little research I can across a great photo of Pollock in his studio standing in front of two shelves loaded with paint cans. It was more perfect than what i had imagined.



So first step was to move a few pieces out of my own studio. Like Pollock, I'm currently working in an upstairs room. Unfortunately, there is no barn in my backyard or i would have moved out already. so instead, i moved the art into my dining room.



Next, I constructed the frame. I wanted it really simple, just two shelves. I toyed with adding a support beam in the middle but when i cut the wood and fit it in place I felt it did a disservice. This works.



The next step is gathering cans. Fortunately, I was at about the bottom of these cans so i have some to start with but i'm going to need a lot more. I'll have to ask around and see if anyone wants to clean out their garage.



Here are a few more cans. I'm painting them mostly solid colors though i am leaving a little of a drip look. It is a Pollock tribute after all.



The next step will be to make a few Critter cans. This little guy is a test can. i took an old critter that was hanging around and cut him to fit just to see what a critter can would look like. i think it they will work well.

What critters to make?? I'm going to try a crow. Pollock had a pet crow named Caw Caw.. I'm not sure how the crow will work. might be sort of dark. stay tuned...

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Tonight I went to the North Carolina Museum of Art Art of the Auction Preview party. This event gave prospective art buyers a chance to view the art of the show and start thinking about which pieces they might like to bid on.



Not only was I so very excited to be included in this exhibit, I was really excited about the placement of my piece. When entering the exhibit, mine was one of the first pieces.

I should mention they didn't really like us taking photos so i had to sort of sneak these in...



I was also in the company of other great artists, including my new favorite NC artist, Mary Carter Taub. This is her peice above.



another artist's work in the exhibit was Clyde Jones. He makes critters too. I've been following his work for some time.



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Critters on Zonkey Street



New York, Florida and California... Critters on Zonkey Street are coming your way!

Become a fan now to find your critter!

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New Piece: TV Shelf



This will be my 4th bookshelf piece. The first one I created is hanging on the wall of the North Carolina Museum of Art. The other two will be exhibited in the Betty Ray McCain Gallery in Raleigh’s Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts.



This shelf will be different for two reasons. First, I'm painting it red instead of white. Doesn't sound like a big thing but its sort of scary branching out from something you know works.



Second, the bottom shelf will hold a TV that will play critter videos. So this work will be sort of multimedia... How very exciting!

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