HackniacBLOG

Shirt Tattoos

I enjoy personifying things, and recently I turned my attention to shirts. Some things make good enemies, like kitchen utensils. Shirts are different, everyone wears them, so if I think of a shirt as an evil creature it will bother me a lot more than thinking the spoon locked in the drawer is out to get me. Besides, lots of shirts are comfy and fuzzy, they make bad enemies by nature.

To get closer to the point, and to illuminate things some more, if shirts are like people then the designs on shirts are like tattoos on people. I've made one such shirt tat, and my new shirt friends love it. It uses stencils, like the one above, combined with spray paint and luv [ab imo pectore]. Soon enough shirts everywhere will be sporting there own personifications of Mr. Hackniac Robot, and I will well be on my way to ruling the world of meat (world of metal should be first, but it is less fun sounding, and 'puters can't wear shirts).

Sweet Pain

Let me clear two things up. Even though I enjoy the artistic process I am not what is popularly referred to as an emo, and yes, that is the shadow of a sombrero on that photograph. The artists of yesteryear reading this will understand what I am talking about when I talk about the bittersweet pain of artistic expression, but for those less acquainted with the idea, I'll give a short explanation.

Pain in art is when you cut thousands of little squares out of handmade graph paper with an exacto knife, one by mind numbing one. You finish the first page, but you know that the torture continues for 3 more pages. The only thing keeping you going is the knowledge your effort might make something truly beautiful, although you also know that the chances for failure are numerous and close together. You also keep the star shaped (think shuriken, the ninja kind) thought of critical disapproval in the minds of your prospective audience. You combat that with the thought that what the others think doesn't matter, reality is a purely objective experience and only your opinion matters. That thought is depressing though, and requires other mental gymnastics on the part of the artist, but this short expanation is getting rather long and I'm afraid of infinite loops. This equation might help enlighten you.

artist + medium + energy = art + pain + happiness