It’s been a crazy semester, packed full of projects and the like, and I’ve done my best to detail the best of them on my portfolio.

Over the summer I had some pretty major things going on, from my trip to Poland to the New Hampshire follow-up project I participated in, which were great projects.

I started the semester off performing in a poetry slam.  I came in 3rd place (out of 3 performers), but received very positive feedback.  Next I tackled a short film idea that’d been running around my head for a while, and made some good headway with it.  No plans for filming or even redrafting the script yet, but hopefully eventually; it was just nice to get into a project like that again after being out of it for a while.

Outside of school I rarely have spare time, but I found myself perusing Instructables pretty often, and entered their Halloween contest.  I didn’t win that one, but I did win 3rd place for their pocket-sized contest with my fork-knife-spoon piece from last year.  I wore the prize t-shirt last night :).

After that the workload picked up, and the projects got more serious.  At the end of the Spring there is an annual all-school-show where each department displays their best work.  One of my majors has a Fall show they put on as well, to showcase their department and the variety of work it produces.  Much of this is performance-related work (music, theater, dance, sound, light shows), and I was asked to be the stage manager for this year’s show.  It’s called the SIM Big Show, and it was a pretty huge event, with over 200 people in attendance.  In addition to stage managing, my music video from last year played in one of the video screening rooms, and I had a piece I called Practical Nature in one of the galleries in school.

Following that was the final show for my Food & Art class, the only requirements being that we make food to serve the audience and we make a piece to display in the show that had something to do with both food and art.  Mine had some more complex messages to it, and though simple, I was satisfied with it.

Lastly – and perhaps obviously, judging by the trend in my work so far – was my woodworking final.  All Sculpture majors are required to take a woodworking 101 class called Projects in Wood.  More artistic than last year’s Joinery, we made an experimental carving, another box – simpler than the ones from Joinery – and the final was an “interpretive box,” which I’ll detail more in its post.

Winter Break has been great; I went home for about a week for a period of total removal from everything school- and work-related, hanging out at home for Christmas and much time with no obligations, and it was wonderful.  Now I’m back in Boston, tackling some personal and home projects I’d set aside during the semester, and preparing for the semester to come.

Up ahead: casting & moldmaking with plaster, kinetic art, beat research (studying and making music and hip-hop beats), and hopefully being a TA for the Projects in Wood class I just completed.

Aside from that, I’m continuing working at Henry Bear’s Park toy store and as an usher for the Blue Man Group during vacation periods.  With the new year I feel more methodical about my approach to projects, and life, which I’m hoping will help ease the next semester, bringing less stress and a bit more time for relaxing between things, be they projects or simply moments in a day.

Hoping each of you are well,
and wishing all happy holidays,
Blake

First up…my new demo reel is online! Finally, I can share the last few week’s (and June’s) work with people. Also, after watching that [link], check out my new portfolio site here.

Also…in other newses….I’ve got a few new poems up at DA (my profile’s linked to from the portfolio site, but I wanted to give ‘em a shout-out on here too). They’re posted below with links to the DA pages.

It’s You

I keep sitting and thinking,
getting lost in daydreams of you.
My heart skips and jumps, clinking,
feels fragile as glass, sticky like glue.

It shudders with fear, closed and cold,
shedding its own tears of self-imposed
solitude, emptiness, will I be alone when I’m old?
But you send me smiles through wires like electric hoses.

I’m showered, bathing in your love,
I’m warm and safe cuddling your heart,
your smiles mystify what I’m afraid of
and glorify Cupid’s fateful dart.

I’m shivering in the grey city tonight,
but your giggle comes across the airwaves,
makes the fire in my heart re-ignite,
and I revel in a chance to see your face.

Link: http://runeshai.deviantart.com/art/Reminders-141881842

Life

I’m filling my head with punk-rock tunes,
ingesting the lyrics like revolution fumes,
talking about progress, changes, unity,
while I’m caught in everyday reality.

Stuck in my thoughts, lost in my head,
one of these days I’m gonna end up dead,
ghost heart and soul, a tired old ghoul,
drenched in depression, a sober old fool.

My life is my choice, as the days come along,
I better start living soon, and stop writing stupid songs.
I keep getting lost in my mind, floating into space,
maybe I’ve got what’s wrong with the human race.

Life won’t wait, they sang,
It’s your choice, songs rang,
but I can’t stop worrying,
I can’t fight off the fear.

Without you I’m lost in myself, aimless,
without them I’m lost in the world, gameless,
I’m tired of fighting, hoping and pretending,
this feels like a trick question that’s never-ending.

So I’ll retreat to my songs of meaningful days,
waste time away in the sun’s faded rays,
I’ll wish upon stars that I figure myself out,
and avoid life until my time trickles out.

Life is like a quest, but without a grail,
a goal I once had, I feel I failed,
but the days keep moving, the sun rises and sets,
so I guess I’ll do the same, and give it my best.

Link: http://runeshai.deviantart.com/art/Life-142037871

I’ve been playing a lot more with rhyming recently in my writing. Mostly inspired by a good friend’s writing, who’s super-talented at applicable rhyming in poetry (as opposed to non-applicable rhyming, which is what I’m good at :P), and read me a new piece recently. I’ve always admired good writing that rhymes, because for me, it takes much more thought and effort to get not only the thoughts into the right words, but to arrange those words lyrically and have them match a pattern, that can be pretty tough. So it’s nice when I get a rhyming piece out there that I still like a day or two after writing it (I almost always allow a ‘cooling period’ after which I re-read my stuff, then decide if it’s worth showing to anybody). Of course, sometimes I’ll throw a rhyme in to fit the mood if not necessarily the feeling I’m trying to convey, to move the piece along and get me into a new rhyme that might afford a better opportunity to express whatever it is I’m trying to express.

Anyway….rambling…I’m content with the pieces above, they’re linked, and my new demo reel’s online (yay!) so check all that out and let me know what you think (of any of it) :P.

The results of the binge, if you’re wondering, are to look for more of the following artists:

• The Sounds
• The Faint
• PlayRadioPlay!
• Owl’s City
• Uh Huh Her
• Plushgun

And I have to post this. Just because it makes me laugh.

Link: Leaving A CG Blood Trail

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vil-s82_LM0

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPAIAxpnUjM

Okay, they’re not all classics, but they’re well-known. Here are the older ones…

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FOyui9viSY

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chmL5AS352I

Via io9.