Lisa Snellings-Clark

2008-07-19T00:09:00.000-07:00

Blink Habitual has a soft switch underneath that sets up an array of lights that play over the hand underneath, making it seem a wholly different thing than the one we see in the light.

For the VCon Program book cover image, Spencer and I built a small, sort of mad laboratory for even madder Poppets.

Poppets with tools and skill.

We took lots of photos along the way to show at the convention. (We missed MimiKo. We must build a set when she's here too.)

After, I'll post the shots here,.

The set and photo shoot took about 14 hours. We were tired, but the work was good.

Sometimes it's the habitual things that hang us.

It's the anti summer. We're working through it, sort of. It comes out in the work, mostly.

Take care out there.

Very Early Tuesday Morning

2008-07-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

Fallout is hell.

Your artist is making toys.

Again.

Phase Shift

2008-07-12T00:10:00.000-07:00

I seem to be experiencing a protracted moment of clarity.

Always dangerous, that one.

A whine, a click and a gear is shifted, a rhythm permanently altered.

So that the world looks much the same, but underneath is a changed machine with a strange new resonance.

Honestly, I'm a little afraid.

too much for words

2008-07-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was hot and close and humid. Today was mostly the same. Tonight is cooler, with lightning and wind. My plan to get to sleep early went away in bits as one task led itself to another.

We swam at midnight, Aubrey and I, under darkly luminous clouds with occasional flashes. We made up scenarios to creep each other out. Over the years, we've become very adept at this game. I can only imagine how our half whispered horrors might sound to the uninitiated, or how mad our delight in them.

I'm too much in my thoughts these days, with less to say than I wish. Some days are better spent letting information in. Quiet. Listen. Process. Inhale. Exhale.

Like the tide. It's coming around again.

Poppets Are Always Watching

2008-07-08T19:28:00.001-07:00

Well, at least we've got this going.

Here's our first Poppet t shirt!

Sweet in front, evil on the back.

We're pretty excited.

We have different sizes in the ebay store.

These are ladies' shirts, but not to worry, more will be coming.

New work is coming. But today is for lots of water. It's hot in this desert.

---later

not a word about inflatibles

2008-07-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

It seems to me now that many stories in my own experience have been reduced to a very strange sort of alphabet.

There are perfect moments.

Some people don't believe these sorts of moments exist. Others do believe, and spend their time and energies and money trying to find or create them. A few have experienced these moments and seek to understand them. And a very small few have learned to create them at will.

You may have met one of those individuals. Think back. Did you? Did you feel some sort of twinge when you passed them on the bus, or in line? Make eye contact? Feel like crying for no reason?

nah. Neither have I. And I've not a shred of evidence for any of it. But I'll have to say I belong to the third group.

Possibly it's the heat. I really don't know how human beings stay sane in this place. I'm not exactly sure why I'm still here.

And then there was the 4th. Another 4th. Did I think about America? Yeah, briefly. They weren't great thoughts, but very nearly hopeful. It was a good day for me, though still, as holidays are, it was another. Did you have a good 4th? Did you think about America? Did you wonder what took you from the last 4th to this one?

Where was I last year? I wonder. And now, what is?

Mostly, it's going to be about working these things out, somehow, in the language these experiences have become.

I'll show you. Sometime.

Holding Things Together

2008-06-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

This studio employs CA for projects. Cyanoacrylate, as most makers know, is the best adhesive out there for most projects. There's an art to using it properly. There's no repositioning once the process starts.

The spell is easily broken.

It requires sitting motionless for a full three minutes.

Sounds easy to anyone who hasn't done it.

Sometimes this Poppet Planet hydra I've created overwhelms me. It happens. It's not always apparent from the outside, so mostly goes unnoticed.

But once in a while, it's very, very difficult. So many choices to make, so many voices, so many distractions, so little time to work things out.

And then there are the larger questions at the edges.

Whether. Whether this or that.

Weather. Mental tornado inside, blinding light outside.

I hold two tiny parts together, waiting for the magic chemistry I can't see, but have learned to trust. I wait. I breathe. I clear my mind.

Three minutes.

I am sane. The glue holds. So far.

If I still feel like crying after the three minutes, a bit of perspective helps.

Little Black Poppets

2008-06-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Little Black Poppets

are back...

sort of.

A little more edge,

for Anti Summer.

We're so engrossed in studio work it's not terribly hard to ignore the sun's hammer. Until we go outside.

Multiple projects, multiple media. We're under the gun to finish Pete's costume for High Sierra, his No-I-am-Not-a-Cop, bizarro, mystical weirdness that includes a top hat arrayed with LED strangeness.

Photos will emerge eventually, no doubt.

We swim mostly at night now. I can't help thinking about how weird it gets here in the thick of summer. There must be some cool story that would fit such a strange setting. Anyone want to take that one on? I'll be happy to consult on Palm Springs life in summer.

gotta go. Little Black Poppets. Brains. Lights. Sounds. Motion.

We're all over it.

later...

George

2008-06-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

George Carlin is gone.

Bummer.

Just a couple of days ago I made the Bill Hicks poster for the sidebar. Pete introduced me to Bill's work several years ago. I'm very sad I never saw him perform in person. Bill was a quiet sort of savior, born in an unlikely place for a savior, who grew up with his eyes open, then traveled day after day after day to nudge the common man toward the light. He entertained not with miracles or magic but with language and laughter. He was misunderstood by the mainstream, crucified by the media and left us at the age of thirty two.

Now George, who was a tremendous influence for me in an earlier life. A life of college on a scholarship, working in a morgue, driving an aging MGB and stealing crackers from the school cafeteria to get by. George was there for me in those days, making me cry with laughter and teaching me more about humanity and language than in any humanities class.

I'm a card-carrying atheist to be sure. But I can imagine George awakening in some eternal place, where he'll evolve further or go back for another round, or do whatever it is souls might do upon waking from life's dream.

Possibly Bill is there to greet him. Possibly he just left a note.

Whatever is, that imagining makes me smile, and I'm extremely grateful for these talented and excellent human beings. George, bon voyage.

g'night

The State of Anti Summer

2008-06-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

I know I live in a desert. I get that. I knew it was a desert when I moved here.

I didn't fully appreciate what that meant.

I do now.

Leave, you say?

Why, yes! Of course! Let's!

Then, our eclectic group continues to grow. Eventually, we might have enough skills between us to make and or do anything we wish, outside of things like, say, leaving the actual planet.

I'm not leaving this desert until I can take them with me.

And therein lies the word for the day. How to survive another summer in a place where it's possible not to survive summer.

We will stay safely hidden in our caves, we will use our brains and we will live in our heads.

Poppets and other art will reflect this mentality. It can't be helped. What we create mostly always reflects our current state.

Solstice? Oh yes. We have entered the state of the Anti Summer.

Algernon's Poppet

2008-06-19T23:29:00.001-07:00

Today, from the perspective of its end, was more like three days than one.

I'm extremely glad to have experienced... them.

And we're left with these two, who seem as likely as any of us humans to figure things out.

We can only hope, silly humans.

g'night

p.s. Cookie Monster makes an appearance on The Colbert Report. If you didn't catch it tonight, catch it tomorrow. Don't miss it. Focus!

Virginia's Corset

2008-06-17T23:11:00.001-07:00

I sent Spencer a basic brain. He modified it a bit and added an LED array.

Then he gave it back.

Just as with any sort of collaboration, I was surprised at what I got back, and intrigued by the challenge of making it mine.

I think the coolest thing about her is that she makes even me slightly uncomfortable.

unexpected

The other coolest thing is that the cobalt glass sphere rolls, creating a strange tactile sort of interaction.

I cannot stop touching her.

The other coolest thing is that there's a soft button under her 'belly' that, when touched, sets off a series of lightning-like flashes inside that vary depending on the duration and cadence of the touching.

She seems alive to me.

At eight in the evening, Orion and I swam. It was 102 degrees F outside. We watched the bats come out.

Tomorrow is another day. Another brain.

Summer is here.

anti summer

2008-06-15T23:37:00.001-07:00

Summer is upon us. We work like fiends,
--Angie, Bent, Spencer and I. Working and swimming a bit and mostly keeping each other sane. We try to ignore the light outside, so bright we can hear it.

And at the end of the day too tired to do much more than put our feet in the water.

We make some cooler, darker, damper and more visceral things, exploring their spaces and ours.

Here are some bits of work in progress.

Like diving into cool water, sometimes we dive into dark places, don't we?

I'm thinking such explorations under the surface could help us better understand light.

So.

And.

Now we are swimming.

g'night

Light, Plants, Spiders, Ouch and the Elusive Hat

2008-06-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

What's going on today.... We are overrun with spider plants. How does this happen? It happens because your artist tends to be slightly anthropomorphic about things like poppets and plants. Hard to believe, isn't it?

What to do. I don't have the heart to abandon a single one. And these things are the rabbits of the plant world.

Likely a party is in order...one in which everyone goes home with a basket.
Poppet helps me survey the situation. But we don't last long. It's mid-day and the light is blinding. I can describe the heat, but really, you can't understand it without the experience.

a closer look at our friend.

Quite bright inside too.

Poppet is bombarded by a storm of

strange light.

Not to worry. None of us were harmed, but we stood blinking for some time after.

Note to self: order more goggles

I continue to work intensely on projects that fall outside my comfort zone. The work is fun and mind-bending. The physical toll is not fun and actually quite sucky.

I'm thinking, as I'm standing there trying to brush my teeth by moving my head instead of my arms, that likely it's time to take a break.

Nearly time. I'm having way too much fun. Yes, I am a sad case.

And lastly, I could use a bit of help. I'm trying to find a top hat, extra large( to fit Pete's head) to geek /hack into costuming for High Sierra Music Festival. So far our efforts have resulted in well, increased wariness of ebay purchasing of hats and little else. I'm happy to purchase and/or trade for Poppets, and/or to return the hat complete with it's strange improvements.

Anyone got any good top hat resources?

Back to the laboratory, er, studio.

Maximillian is Six

2008-06-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

The birthday boy.

Snapshots from his day, and of the people who celebrated with him.

Thanks for your discussion yesterday. Today was everything good about the marking of occasions.

Not so much writing tonight. Your artist has taken a day off.

Ahhh.... Palm Springs has its good points.

g'night

First question, work and water.

2008-06-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Alison and Logan were here for a few days.

Logan experienced his first swim.

or possibly it is his second swim.

Which swim is his first might be purely subjective.

We humans tend to mark firsts.

We crawl, walk, grow teeth, tell lies, have sex, drink coffee, get jobs, fight, try drugs. Why is it that we tend to document the "firsts" of these nearly universal experiences?

Some things get recorded in scrapbooks or video or family albums.Others are quietly and permanently inked into our private memories.

Is this noting of 'firsts' a cultural thing, or a human thing?

I wonder.

It seems sometimes we humans go to a great deal of trouble deciding which thing was first. Sometimes people get into great arguments over which thing was first. Sometimes those arguments involve great numbers of people and result in a great deal of suffering.

Is this the human race?

What is the root of the word "race?"

How does it apply to being human and to being first?

Let me know what you find out. I'll be back. I must get back to making things.

I'm in that place where I'm mostly working if I'm not sleeping. And I'm not sleeping that much. And actually, I'm beginning to feel as though I'm working in my sleep too. Possibly I am. Insanity is sure to follow without a break. Good thing I'm taking one soon.

We're hosting a birthday party here on Sunday for Orion's friend Maximillian, whom we've affectionately dubbed "Maxitrillion."

We'll celebrate with a pool full of kids. It will look like kiddie soup. With noodles.

A Weird Sort of Neil Gaiman/Lisa Snellings-Clark Sort of Almost Collaboration

2008-05-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

...in which dead things and honey were utilized.

I totally get into doing this kind of thing. It's like a grown-up version of that summer camp activity where you get some macaroni, glue, a couple of feathers and a jelly bean and are told to create something cool.

When you're a grown up it's the same, except that you get to start with cooler components.

In this case, it was dead bees from one of Neil's hives, and other stuff. What to do? Lots of ideas came to mind. Here is the first one finished.

There are lots of bees left...

We put this and also some of the honey produced this year in the BUG OUT sale.

You can scroll down for more photos of work or click on the BUG OUT box top right to get there.

We'll be adding new work all week.

Right to Left, Back to Front

2008-05-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Pete teaches Orion to read Dragon Ball Z.

Aubrey's into manga and seems happy Orion has discovered DBZ, so he'll have a library right next door...as long as he knocks first.

It seems a good idea to teach kids to read various formats. I didn't understand much about comics until I met Pete. But now I can see that reading comics and manga and graphic novels broadens vision and teaches us to approach concepts from many directions, to be more flexible.
--which will come in handy when he's an adult, for sure.

It also seems a good idea to take photos of our kids in their rooms, with their stuff. It's for later---like thirty years later. Orion will think it's cool to see his toys and posters, not to mention reading with his dad.

It'll be like .....you know...time travel.

Have a good Wednesday.

Off to work I go...

Some Very, Very New Lisa Work and A Very Very Short Story

2008-05-25T19:54:00.001-07:00

Inorganic

Flight Risk

All the Days We Didn't

and

Brave New Soup

For which Greg Carere has written a short, short piece you can read on The Two Minutes Project.

Tomorrow we're taking a day off. It was ridiculously hot, then cold and rainy and now we're walking around in our bikinis and sarongs.

On Tuesday, more work will be listed in the Poppet Store. I'm awaiting a package from Neil the Gaiman containing a dead Queen, a jar of honey and whatever other bits he sends me to put together into something entirely weird for the CBLDF.
We are nearly officially bugged out and intend to stay buggy for the rest of the week, possibly the summer.

Now it's Sunday evening and Orion and I have plans to watch Bee Movie

Bug Out, Pete rants and HDR rocks

2008-05-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

OK. So, kick me. Yes, we are behind getting the pieces up in the store.

Or don't kick me, because your artist is working hard on lots of things.

Really hard. And last night, I needed to put some stuff into my brain, instead of pulling stuff out of it.

It happens.

I got some good shots of Pete doing his comedy gig at the Red Barn. It's good for me, to not be the one on stage, to be the one in the wings, holding the water and camera and supporting someone else. He did pretty well, actually. The strongest opening I've seen so far for his act. Comedy is a tough gig. Go Pete!

Then LA band HDR rocked. I'll admit, I was immediately crushed out on bassist Amy Tung and took tons of photos of her.

After it was late night fare at, where else, California's classic In and Out.

Then sleep.

It's Saturday now. I have studio work this afternoon---we're working on some solar options for upcoming kinetic pieces.

But I promised to put new Buggy work in the store. I'll be putting things up, probably all week, because we have a lot of new stuff.

I'll have some of it in the store by tonight, I promise.

recreation

2008-05-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

I've just completed another 12+ hour studio day. Yesterday, the high outside was around 115, I haven't heard for today, but it was windy and mostly like standing in front of a giant blow dryer. I'm dirty, my eyes are irritated, my feet are dry and cracked and my brain says "No" and "uh-uh" and "lalalalalalalalala."

It's a short list I want now, which has nothing to do with working on it and starts with a shower and good music.

hope you have a good night too...

Triple digits, Bugging Out and Summer Drag

2008-05-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's here. And we're not ready, shade-wise, and I'm not ready, head-wise. I've been completely immersed in projects and Pete's been working like a fiend, gig after gig after gig. So we've been eeking through household stuff, calling each other on the phone to keep in touch. The canopies I bought are still lying in boxes outside, in the blistering sun.

Angie seems to feel pretty much as I do, but she plows on, getting the studio organized and helping me keep focus, making better coffee than me And Alison, infected not with our desert summer but with the "June gloom" murkiness that hovers over the coast this time of year. But she's working too, designing packaging for our future gift poppets and creating our database.

Ben takes it all in stride, as usual. Just look at him. Sheesh. He says he's never had a bad dream in his life. Sometimes he needs a kick in the shin. He is busily finishing up his turn at three different collaborative pieces. In the next few days, he'll hand them off to me, for my contribution.

They're like brainling children, these collaborations. Possibly that's why long-time collaborators begin to seem very much like family.

We'll be having a sale beginning on May 23. In honor of our summer-dread-madness, we're calling it BUG OUT. There will be lots of bugs. The Poppet studio will be somewhat quiet this summer while we make other things, but there will be a selection of Poppets always in the eBay store, and a few spontaneous one of a kind Poppets here and there.

Otherwise, we will work on projects, hide in the dark and in the water.

I got this great shot of Orion before he realized I was pointing the camera at him. Lately, when he sees the camera he either runs or makes a silly face.

I recognize this camera -avoidance phase. Aubrey is still in it.

So the heat is on. Not the crushing depression---just the nod of recognition it so unerringly demands.

Its the work that keeps us sane. And the closer look, (which is bigger inside than out.)
Except when it doesn't. Then we must flee for a reset.

Have a great weekend.

Chipping Wisdom 2.0

2008-05-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

Today I had a(nother) dental appt. Afterward I drove Pete to a gig in Indian Wells. Driving back, I listened to reports of the devastation and sad loss of life after the quake in China, reminded again that the filter created by distance has gone. Technology has brought every event into the here and now--makes us more aware of ourselves as members of the human family. At the break I switched to some Pink Floyd, and at the precise moment the music started, the numbness in my jaw fled suddenly and this fresh pain put bright edges around everything.

By the time I got home I was genuinely bummed out. So I settled in at the computer to work at minute image details for a project, feeling more and more overwhelmed as my mind wandered off to other projects---and the deadline trailing behind each. I remind myself to employ chipping wisdom when I'd rather curl up and sleep off this gloom.

It's sort of working.

I'm working on a number of projects, with a number of collaborators. The projects are each very different from the other, as are the collaborators. I send bits of ideas or images to them and they send bits back and once in a while that feels a lot like solving a jigsaw puzzle with a best buddy on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

That's pretty okay.

Grapefruit and How to Kill an Idea

2008-05-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

This afternoon found me eating a grapefruit over the sink, trying to decide how to fend off this latest idea assault.

It's the second of the day, the first occuring at about 5:50 am.

It's that time of year again. Orion and I are swimming in earnest. In another week the water will've warmed enough for everyone else.

As always, with the change of season, the vision imp arrives, this year like the lion's roar.

So I'm there with my grapefruit slices, leaning over the sink because I don't want the comittment of a plate.

A plate means I'm stopping to eat.

Not happening today. Instead I'm deciding whether to put this one in 'the notebook' while the previous one is burned into Memorex.

So, here's the thing--writing an idea down can lead to its death.

I have only loose theories about why, but I have experiences.

Many ideas should, without a doubt, be written down. But some should not.

Herein lies the choice.

If this particular vision is the latter sort of idea, it won't survive being put on paper. Like Dorian Grey in reverse, the ink is archival but the vision will fade into oblivion.

By the time I clear my grapefruit carnage, wash my sticky fingers, I've decided not to write this one. Instead, I toss it into the mental soup. I likely won't be able to recall it intact later , but it's in there, like some sort of strange DNA. It will stew there with other bits, waiting for the right sort of spark, then POOF! it combines with other bits and something new emerges.

When it works right, the something new is yes, more than the sum of its parts.

It is Bigger Inside Than Out.

That is, when it works that way. At least some of the time, it does.

We pays our money and we takes our chances.

sun day, wind day, most nearly perfect

2008-05-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon in the park.

We're here to video and photograph Spencer Anderson and the skateboard he converted for 'land sailing.' We find ourselves distracted by our surroundings.

The mountains are a bit hazy still. Possibly left from the fires just on the other side of the range.

This day, this afternoon, is the avatar of tranquility, beauty, nature and civilization.

Elsewhere, (and elsewhen) things are very, very different. This classic icon, this Sunday Afternoon in the Park doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Instead it lives between much sadness and uncertainty, rare and fragile. We take a moment to appreciate it for what it is.

Mimi Ko and I, with our cameras and without our shoes, capture a bit of it to share.

Three amigos--Zoya and Max and

Orion.

Kiril and Orion wait for wind, prepare to run behind Spencer as he sails by. Later the footage will be used to create an animated segment for a Poppet-y video to be shown at VCon.

Spencer explains a bit about the physics and principles of land sailing.

He hopes to get others interested. After seeing him in motion, I'm thinking it might be a matter of getting the word out.

It is an extremely cool concept.

Today's work was a sort of practice run, to get a feel for what we're up against.

I'm seeing we're in for some work, and some fun.

I'll keep you posted.

Oh---and of course, none of this human activity is ever lost on our little watchers.

Have a good Tuesday. Take your shoes off.