This time, the CD ain’t blank. It’s got mp3s from my playlist ‘lostandfound’, ‘listeningroom’ and a whole bunch of Philosopher’s Notes.

I’d prefer if my white marker tip wasn’t super fat though. The previous black dinosaur doodle was drawn with my trusty dual tip Sharpie. I could be more elaborate.

Any quick dinosaur doodle is always good fun nonetheless, especially if you have the mind and drawing ability of a 5 year old chimpanzee.

I still do.

This time, a blank CD was my canvas victim.

Seated on my balcony, Broken Social Scene in the background, I ended up doodling for an hour.

Here’s a closer look at the damage. (Click on the picture to zoom in)

That’s right folks.

I’m proud to announce, Doodling dinosaurs on CDs is the latest quick-fix stress relief fad!

Burst your medicine balls, undo your eye massage goggles, and delete your collection of naughty videos, because doodling dinosaurs on CDs will save your career and marriage.

It’s so simple even adults can do it!

Game?

You will need

1. A blank CD
2. Music you actually like
3. A permanent marker (I use one with two different fatness)

Benefits of doodle dinosaurs on CDs include:

1. Avoid real work
2. Save on petrol
3. Return to your childhood moments (the ones involving no torture)

Try it, and shout “Grrrrroooooooooooooo! (a dinosaur sound) when you’re done. You’ll be glad you did.

And upload a photo of it online and leave a comment here!

Feel free to download it, share it, and spread it. As long as you don’t hurt animals in the process.

“Shook”

It’s based on a photograph I took of a floor in Cameron Highlands. I was wearing the shoes I hacked.

The next one is called

“Blue Wood”

I know the name is so abstract and deep. Maybe when you get an arts degree you will understand what it means.

Till then, download “Shook” and “Blue Wood” for your 1280 X 800 desktop wallpapers. Both are simple and not overly distracting. Maybe a bit bleak, but perhaps you’ll see it in good light.

Armed with a mouse and my laptop, I used to draw a lot of trees. I didn’t look at trees when I drew them. They exist in my imagination. A whole forest full of them.

Today, I give you one of my trees. This one was part of a collage of trees I called “The Impossible Forest”. This lone tree is called “The Breathing Tree”. Drawn in Sydney, on August 31, 2004.

My other pixel sketches are here.

Photo by Andreas Till

What do you do with the person you love most in the whole world?

Take ‘em out and shoot ‘em.

~ From Photojojo

Each artist contributed six photographs of the person(s) who is most important to them, taken outdoors in a natural setting. The goal of the website is to portray the people who are loved, cherished, and inspirational to these artists.

This one is sort of my favorite.

See them all.

Today, I will detail my adventures with wax.

I’ll be going into detail about how I made that, and how you can try it, too. I will also talk a bit about why it is named “natural camouflage”.

How It Began

It was the aftermath of a massive party.

I was removing candle wax spilt on my living room floor.

.

Haha no, that’s not my floor (and it wasn’t me!)

That’s Matthew Barney, Bjork’s husband. I fell asleep watching his Cremaster Cycle in Sydney, 2004. However, I was at his exhibition at SFMOMA in 2006, and he blew me away…

He split so much wax on the floor! And created such beautiful landscapes with it.

Unlike Matthew Barney, I was interested in cleaning up the wax.

So I Googled for the smartest way to clean it and tried a couple of things…  one of the tricks was: “While the candle wax is liquid on the floor, use old newspaper to absorb it”.

Silly me put a paper towel on it instead, and I had a REALLY STUCK lil puddle of wax on the floor.

I resorted to using a spatula of sorts to scrape it off.

It was then I noticed the paper towel holding together the shards of wax… I had accidentally created the humble beginnings of my journey with wax sculptures (which my cleaner threw away the next day).

The next logical step

Like most of my ideas, this idea swam in my head… and like the few special ideas swimming in my head… this one idea kept drumming at me, and never let go.

To think… if I let different kinds of paper soak up hot wax, I could create moldable waxy sheets as a good medium for all sorts of unthinkable sculptures!

3 years ago, Matthew Barney opened my eyes to the beauty of wax. Now is my chance to create it.

And that is the basis of my wax experiment.

So.

Why did I choose paper and wax?

• It’s fast to create
• As a medium, I have a degree of control and flexibility
• I find it so beautiful!

Imagine the possibilities…

• different colors of wax
• soaking up wet wax with different papers / materials
• make a few pieces, and joining them together with more wax

And other ideas, like

• using cigarettes as the structural support for the wax sculptures
• perhaps spray painting the final wax sculpture
• mixing organic elements (like a bunch of 4 leaf clovers) into the hot wax

There’s so much I can do!

But I had to start somewhere…

Day 1 of the wax experiment.

I’m in my back yard, 7am on a chilly Friday morning.

I set up a simple workstation on the ground, using a piece of kitchen counter I found in my store room.

I lit my candles.

And sat around like an idiot till the candles melted.

I then spill the hot wax onto the “floor”, and blotted it up with 3 different kinds of paper.

Beginning with black “sugar” paper.

Then with brown sugar paper.

Then with thin, white paper.

And lastly, with my original paper towels (no picture).

Apart from the paper towels, all the papers were way too thick to absorb any of the wax!

See? It doesn’t soak in.

Useless! Do not use these papers.

In the future, I’ll stick only to paper towels, or experiment with very absorbent papers.

Good thing I managed to get some good shards of wax, or “wax crystals” for later use.

Ok.

Now I didn’t get many more pictures of what happened after this, because

1. My hands were partially glazed in hot wax
2. I completely forgot

But it’s kinda simple.

What I did was…

1. I let the paper towel absorb the hot wax.
2. While the wax is hot, I dumped a bunch of crystals on it to create texture.
3. I let it dry, then scraped the sheet off.

For my first sculpture, I rolled the crystal infused sheet of wax up.

What I ended up with looked like a wax condom for small animals (no picture)

Since phallic worship is kinda passe, I topped it off with a melted a cap full of wax crystals…

A fair bit bit of details in bending the shape, and melting crystals here and there…

And the first product was out of the lab.

So why did I named it “natural camouflage”?

Take a guess.

Test how artsy fartsy you are.

…

…

I’ll reveal the answer soon, so you better be guessing right now.

..

..

Ok.

You see, the original shape was very obviously penis-like, and my natural reaction was to make it not look so penis-like.

Why is it my natural reaction to “cover up” something which came so naturally? Is it very wrong to make penis-looking objects? What was I afraid of? What does this say about modern society?

Whatever.

All I knew, was it was a very natural reaction for me, hence “natural camouflage”.

And this concludes part 1 of my wax sculpture experiment.

In Part 2, I will talk about

• How to set my wooden deck on fire.
• The debut of Sculpture # 2, titled “Root”… something I created the very same morning.
• More pictures of “Natural Camouflage” and “Root”
• My next experiment… and how you I need your help

Till then.

Sometimes, for the fun of it, I design patterns and textures for web use. Hours of fun.

I mean, look how as standalone images they join together to look like something else. Where else can you find such beauty. Here are a few sites I go back to look at once in a while to get my kicks.

• http://citrusmoon.typepad.com/patterns/dark/index.html
• http://squidfingers.com/patterns/
• http://www.kollermedia.at/pattern4u/real
• http://www.theinspirationgallery.com/wallpaper/damask/wp_damask01.htm
• UPDATED!Thanks Rena for helping me discover http://danfunderburgh.com/pattern/: It’s sheer genius!

The general style is not really new but many pieces there are timeless.

I can imagine myself, with an oddly shaped glass jar, chasing emotion, and capturing it.

This glass jar can never be full. But I will strive to fill it, by capturing emotion.

I would capture my emotions in a song. A song with a broken voice.

I would capture my emotions in a large wooden construct, outdoor. Where I’d paint on it, and allow mother nature to strip it down and plead on its knees.

I would capture my emotions in a short story, written only once without alterations.

My glass jar empowers me as the curator of these emotions.

I can peek also expect you to want to peek into my glass jar.

Maybe not you.

Maybe you.

But I’m very sure some select people to want a ride in my vehicles of artistic expression. Why? Because it causes them to emote. And that is what they want.

They want to hear my song and cry to it. Again and again.

They want let the light and shadow of their lounge play with my wooden construct, transforming the space surrounding them.

They want to go where their imaginations have never been, and reading my short story will take them there.

And they will be willing to pay me money.

Or maybe we will barter… an exchange of emotions.

I can help them laugh, cry, or feel strange. And they can help me experience a priceless sense of pride.

At some point… maybe I will be paid with something even more valuable.

Something like a two week vacation to the island of solitary satisfaction… knowing that even my most selfish form of indulgence has value to someone else in this world.