Yesterday I ordered a CNC Machine. VERY exciting.

For those that don't know what that is, it's a computer controlled xyz (3d) cutting head. So I can design something in the computer, a 3d object such as a car, and the machine will then cut it out of a block of something. Say wood, plastic, plaster, aluminum, etc.

I've wanted one for awhile, and the new work I've wanted to do has pretty much 100% depended on me having one..

Well, soon I will.

Which means, new work soon.

Work that should make my previous stuff look like child's play. To say I'm excited would be an understatement.

I've been back at sculpting again lately. I've had a break the last 2 years and it's been great, but it was time to get back into things other than programming.

I've been focusing mainly on programming and the web for the past year, but there's some new sculpture techniques I've been toying with.

One of those techniques involves sculpting an object on the computer (which I do all the time using 3ds max) and then using software to unfold that object from a 3d form, to a set of flat 2d printable pieces. This mesh can then be rebuilt as a full 3d form in the real world.

If that doesn't make sense check out the low quality blackberry pics I have of a halo helmet (which a lot of people seem to be making these days) I did as a test.

yes it's only paper, but then the final stage is to brush or spray on resin to harden it and then fiberglass it.

 this is SO much more efficient than sculpting in clay, then doing a mold, then fiberglass. this gets the basic full form out right away and skips the middle man. Clay could still easily be applied to the surface though.

THE LIVING DEAD DOLL ART SHOW: RESURRECTING DESIGNER TOYS
Halloween, there couldn’t be a more appropriate night to debut the first-ever Living Dead Dolls Art Show. The internationally anticipated show premieres October 31, 2006 at New York's famous designer toy gallery "The Showroom NYC". Previously, all Living Dead Dolls have been designed by Ed Long, Damien Glonek and Michael "Mez" Markowitz; this upcoming art show invites over 100 artists to design, interpret and explore their own dark vision of the Living Dead Dolls.

Invited artists have been selected from numerous fields and disciplines, the list is a veritable Who's Who of notoriety and talent; Ed, Damien & Mez creating one-of-a-kind originals, other contributing artists include: Michael Dougherty, artist and screen writer on Superman Returns and X Men 2; comic book legend Simon Bisley; gothic artist and musician Voltaire; toy development power house Inu Art Studios; Oblongs TV show creator and artist Angus Oblong; famous Japanese designer Hiddy; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle writer, creator and artist Kevin Eastman and many more. (edit: by many more they mean nameless folks like myself)

The one-of-a-kind morbid masterpieces will be on display and for sale at the gallery from 11/1/06 to 11/14/06. A special, invitation only, VIP opening-night gala will be held on October 31st, Halloween night.

About Living Dead Dolls: Brought forth from the twisted minds and tortured souls of Ed Long, Damien Glonek and Michael "Mez” Markowitz, the Living Dead Dolls brand has grown to be a creepy collectable of worldwide fame. With over 60 unique characters, 6 different doll lines, apparel, games, stationary, glassware, trading cards and more, Living Dead Dolls has infested the hearts and minds of many building a large international fan following. For more information go to www.livingdeaddolls.com.

About the Gallery: The Showroom NYC is the premiere designer toy gallery; hosting internationally covered events for today’s hot new designs working in toy-related mediums. Located at 117 Second Avenue, for further information visit http://www.theshowroomnyc.com.

The only prize/scholarship I wanted to win, and I did, so how excited was I?! Very. Very, very excited to have the studio space I need to do bigger sculpture. (a $9000 studio, all to myself, who wouldn’t smile? I’m honoured the judges felt my piece worthy of winning).

I now have a personal 500sq ft studio in the heart of Toronto’s art scene at 401 Richmond, just a hop skip away from where I live. I’ll be finishing up the two small pieces I’m doing now, and then when I get the studio july 1st, I’ll be starting some large works.

Thank you OCAD, donors, and 401. Adam’s gonna make some crazy shit now. I won some other scholarships as well (listed under the CV) and those will go towards material cost. Mmmmm silicon skin. I’m going to make Genpets look like child’s play.

The music video shoot with the animatronic hearts went great. I was there just to make sure nothing went wrong, and surprisingly, nothing did. They survived being thrown, dropped, everything.

Summary.
Jeff got me to do 3 oversized (elephant size?) hearts for him and he needed them to:
1) Pump blood out of them
2) Be fully self contained. No tubes, no wires coming out.

How I made them.
The core component of the units is a 12volt DC pump. A magically strong pump that uses very little energy for what it is. Thus I was able to power it through 8 x AA batteries. Nice for filming as that way if the batteries happened to run out (it was a winter shoot) we could just go buy more at a corner store.

Then I just rigged up some tubing, and a powerade bottle in each heart. The pump was insanely high powered and could go through a bottle of water or blood in under 20 seconds, so I limited it a bit with thinner tubes, and stoppers near the tips to control the spray and drip action.

How it looked.

They looked pretty good but not perfect at first. I'm a perfectionist and the oversize made them seem not totally believable, but those were my constraints.
THEN we got BLOOD on them. It was night and day, they came alive. I’m not one to toot my own horn, but damn, they looked like fresh cow hearts, bloody and dripping, you could have almost fooled me.

And we fooled a lot of people, there were ladies that screamed as we were filming, (we were in public places) and EVERYONE slowed, got wide eyed, and stared. Which surprised me. In Toronto people never look, ESPECIALLY if you have cameras, but they sure did today.
Can’t complain and Jeff (director) was overly pleased, thus I am too.

** Thank you Crystal Pallister for painting them. We all know how Mr. partly colour-blind shys away from colour.

I’ll try to get some early video stills, but it’ll prob be a month or so.

Originally it was going to have full control by a microchip, and I had designed and built the 2 circuits, but the night before I ripped them out and switched to a simple push button trigger. It made more sense to give the actors complete control over the mechanism so that the hearts could bleed on cue at the directors discretion.

Overall, we only had to refill the blood sacks twice, and the batteries lasted for a full week of testing + 1 day shoot in the cold. I designed it around AA’s so that we could replace them if they ran out at any corner store, but it wasn’t needed at all.

Early still footage (Notice the spray)

It's pretty cool to have created a piece that hits so many people. From art forums, to corvette forums, to retro video game forums, people all over are discussing Genpets. Even if it's small scale, that tells me that I must be doing something right. Especially comments like:

"Wow.... what an absolutely shocking artistic piece. I'm really impressed with this."
or
"I realized after I googled it last night that it was indeed an art piece and it's creepyness went away and was replaced by a "holy shit this is cool" I think this piece is phenomenal"

Though it's annoying to see someone attempt to discuss the issues it raises and then see someone that's like, “man, it's probably just those assholes at PETA trying to make us think. This is lame, and so are all of you for falling for it. It's so obviously fake", that's part of making art public. some poeple will like it, some people won't. My only saving grace is that most of the poeple that insult me for having too much time on my hands have a post count of like 3,400+ next to their name, which speaks for itself. There's always going to be someone there to basically tell me I shouldn't have an opinion, I have too much time on my hands, and infact,.. I should watch more TV and play more xbox and buy more from the mall. I'm used to it.

There is a lot of question though as to where I get the time to do all this. For anyone wondering, I work 41hours a week + 8hours total in travel, so I dunno. I don't watch TV? Making things makes me happy man, back off. Get yer own sandwich.

As far as how the non-virtual Genepts is going, the far more important and scary one (the actual set of 19 sculptures) the feedback from having it in a queen street store window (Toronto) has been amazing. Everyday Crystal comes home with stories to tell me about all the people that had been mesmerized.

Apparently it's close to non-stop traffic. People just stopping in the street. Some come in to discuss, some don't. Many that do come in to the store, end up talking for up to 30 minutes about all the issues it raises for them. Issues they'd thought about, but now want to talk about even more. Or they just sit down, and stare at the other 10 Genpets in the store.

I'm glad I created something that affects all age groups and so many backgrounds. That was my goal. To make art, but again, art my way. Not the traditional way.

Traditions be damned, art got boring.

Art is about making things, about leading, about creativity. Not about sipping champagne and trying to act like you're above others*.

That's not the art I want to be involved in.

*I know I'm not the only one that thinks this way, but sometimes it sure feels that way.

Genpets Series 01 will be at Interaccess Gallery! From July 8 – August 6, 2005. That’s right kiddies almost a month!

Another year goes by and the Interaccess emerging artist show is on it’s way. I’m not a gallery type, but my understanding is that it’s a somewhat big event, that people notice.

Genpets was accepted for it and will be in the space, along with 5 other top notch emerging artists including; Pearl Chen, Rob King, Amy Learmonth, Ryan Pierce, and Brendan Wypich. The show is entitled “PULSE” and is curated by Angella Mackey.

Get those digicams charged up, because the Genpets are getting a sprucing. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

For those that missed, and want to see the Genpets moving and breathing and bleeping, ocad is having an Open house for graduate work from Friday, May 6 to Sunday, may 8, 2005, and my Genpets will be in room 358 on the 3rd floor.

So who’d of guessed? Plastic part #2 went smooth without a hitch! No shattered moulds this time (learning I am) and the plastics lab has a new gauge so I can actually measure the tank pressure, which made a huge difference.

Process. Clay sculpture-> silicon mould -> hydrocal plaster casting (positive) then loads of sanding (loads. The clear plastic pics up even DUST! So it better be a flawless sculpture, which is was, people were touching it and smiling) then vacuum forming x19.
P.S. Sweat. Hot room. Drenched head in water, but the plastic fumes still killed me. ( 6 hours to make 19).

Angela shot her film (not video) this weekend. I got there Sunday morning 11:20, left Monday night. 40 hours no sleep. Inanity. But so fun! And the film will look SO great! Everyone was so inspiring. Such talent.

I did the prosthetic neck wound, which was my first time doing prosthetics and would have been happier with a budget and specially fitting it to the actor, but crap happens, and it worked out anyways. Learned a lot. The tube still wasn’t wide enough, but we got blood and a great shot of it bleeding anyways. Spent the entire weekend playing with fake blood. Simple stuff was most fun. Making Kyle’s head pool blood ruled (he got his head smashed into the door. Crystal and Kyle made it so freaking believable…).