It keeps getting better and better

2 days and 500 kilometres further...... The game continues, it seems that Saitama and Chiba prefactures are the perfect locations for my car hunting journeys. Just outside of Tokyo it seems car heaven has emerged (not to be mistaken for drivers heaven becausse it would quallify more for drivers Hell).

We went on a little trip to the ocean and countryside and just kept finding more and more classic cars rusting away. It is funny to see the faces of the owners when I ask them if I can take pictures and then point at the rusted ones. Becausse they are in the trade for so long they only see a pile of rubbish standing in the way and don't understand why I don't take pictures of the newer cars. After I explain to them that the rusted away ones show character and history like the lines in an old person's face they start thinking about it and have to agree. I have met some interesting people so far and had some nice conversations (with the translating help of my wife offcourse).

Tomorrow I will go to an actuall classic car meeting, I am curious to see the local piston heads gather.

Here is a small selection of the easter egg's I found:

More car hunting

I've been driving around for another couple of days, and besides enjoying myself very much, I found out that there is just so much to see/find out here. It looks like it is even easier to find classic cars here then it is over in europe. Even better they are usually located at houses/garages that are in the same state which makes it even better. I even come upon the opposite where the house is in a really wheatered/bad state and they have a brand new spors car in front of it. I might even be able to do something with that on a later day. I have to say I am starting to love Japan more and more.

When I stumbled on to this location an amazing 15 minutes from where I am staying (but if you don't know it's there you will never find it). The whole scene makes me more interested in buying a stock of classic car models and start building some model dioramas (something before now I was looking at in a whole different perspective becausse of one of my hobbies). I have been think/talking about this before but now I really want to do it. Oh time where do you go so fast.

I would also like to add that I have been getting some nice comments by people who have been able to guess the car types, I have to say well done and feel free to comment again if you see something nice hidden in the pictures.

Car hunting in Japan

I have been in Japan for a week now and the car hunting is finaly paying off. By pure coincidence we found an amazing lot just 15 minutes from where we are staying in Satte, Saitama. I thought I would be very lucky to just find one classic car rusting away over here, since the Japanese have a very different car culture. Also the houses don't have as much land around them so not many people have enough space to just keep cars around. I'm pretty sure this piece of land is owned by a local garage to store the cars that are not likely to sell very soon. I will be trying to find out where this garage is so I might be able to find some more stuff.

Instead of the usual pictures, I thought it would be nice to show some pictures of me in action. As my wife was there with me she took some nice shots of me at work.

Fundraiser

Besides doing all the other stuff I have been talking about I have also been working on a fundraising project with my fundraising team (aka team awesome). Our idea was to screenprint canvas bags and try to sell them. We had a couple of designes from our year (Lindsay and Yao-Lung) and picked two. after that we decided to add the show title to give it a little personal touch. Becausse I am the only one in our group who had done screenprinting at this college (and thus the only one who had an induction and was actually allowed to work in the screen print department), it was my task to print all bags. I did have some helping hands especially from Iain who was great to work with.
When we started I was so amazed about how easy it went (after 2 horrible weeks of trying to print A0 size picture prints a line drawing on A4 format almost goes by itself).

Here are some pictures of the printing and the result:

Getting ready

The long days are starting to become a very long week, but finaly it's starting to go well. After exposing my screen for the 4th time I finaly succeeded and was able to get some prints done. While at the same time I was running around to the glass department, the metal workshop and reprographics (that is the prints shop where I am getting 2 of my A0 screenprints scanned in a high resolution so I am able to use them for a billboard size poster print).

After I was sone with all of the above (or basically when all the workshops closed down), I decided to have another go at the Talbot Rice modell. Last night before I went to bed I couldn't get the arches out of my head as I wasn't satisfied with the way they looked. Before I fell asleep I came up with an idea of how to construct them in a better way and I really wanted to try it out. I think I succeeded and am really happy with the result. There is little to do before I can start glueing it togheter with Lindsay and Despina and pass the project on to them to leave for Japan.

Long day

As I posted last night today was going to start early. I wanted to get in in time to book some time on the screen printing beds in the screen printing studio. Luckily that worked out and I was the first person to come in and book some time. After that I re-exposed the images that I tried to print last week. Unfortunately it became clear very soon that again it went wrong. This time after alot of checking and thinking the technician (who helped me to expose them and to make sure nothing went wrong), came to the conclusion that the vacuüm of the exposing table might not do it's work properly because the screen is so big (to expose a screen you have to use a copy of your image printed on a transparent piece of "film" this is then layed under the coated screen which is put on top of a glass table with uv lights underneath. the lights make the coating dry and becausse of the black ink of the image that blocks out the rest of the screen that part doesn't dry and thus can be washed off), the vacuüm doesnt press the whole screen on the table and light will not be perfectly blocked out by the printed image. Tomorrow we will give it another go with this knowledge and see if it will work.

I thought I was having a group crit today but when talking to Gregor about it I found out that it was a sign up one and since I didn't signed up (and being very busy) I was happy with the extra time (there is still lots of work to do before I leave this weekend).

I have also started working on a model for an upcomming group exhibition we will have during our degree show time in the Talbot Rice gallery. The idea is that we all install our own show in the modell and take a picture of it, this picture will then be shown in the space the modell is made from. Since I am quite good with modell making this is another task I have taken /been given upon me (as if being in the PR/Sponsorship group and making the degree show website wasn't enough yet). I do have to mention that I am beeing helped greatly by Lindsay and Despina who for starters have measured and mapped every single inch of the space.

So just to show you some of the stuff I have been talking about/working on, here are some crappy pictures:

The Screenprinting signup board

The Talbot Rice Gallery modell in making

One of last weeks screen prints that has worked out

Last week

It seems that time is running faster and faster every week. It's 5 to midnight so almost a week after my last tutorial. I've just been running around so much since I am almost leaving for Japan and try to get as much done before I go. Last week I had a very positive tutorial with Kenny who I told about my idea's for the degree show. I am planning to make as much as I can so I can then make a selection of what I actually want to show.

Last friday I was asked to help out in a friends projectspace and since I was allowed to put alot of my thought in it and I liked the idea of the whole show I was happy to do so. For the show I did a mudwrestling match with my friend (Phill) and even though we got sooked in clay/mud I thought it was awesome.

I'm sorry for this very short pictureless update but I've just been doing so much at the same time that I didn't have alot of time to document yet. I have made some new screen prints but also had some bad luck with 2 of my screens that got overexposed due to a technical problem at the print studio. It has been crazy busy down in the print making studios, so I am going in super early tomorrow to try and book some space for this comming week and get my failed screens re-done.

Damn.. it's been midnight time for a shower and a quick sleep before the madness starts again.

Where to start

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post and it seems to get more difficult to post something by the day. A lot has happened and just thinking about where to start makes it difficult to do so.
I ran into one of my old roommates today and he made me realize how fast everything has gone by. The fact that the MFA is only a 2 year course makes it go even quicker. I am planning to go on a trip to Japan and I will already leave in 2 weeks so I have been working very hard to get my stuff for the degree show mostly done before I go. I have pretty much decided what I want to show during the degree show but since I've always had many idea's and work on alot of projects on at the same time nothing is exactly sure (except for the billboard that better happen).
I decided (for now) that I will not colour the car on the big billboard poster and that I will show it as is. I think the collour will just make it to obvious while I like the whole setting with all the stuff around the car. I have been affraid of using the same picture for my degree show since I already showed it before but it will be shown in a slightly different way and I just think that this poster works better than most other pictures that I took.
On the smaller ones I have to say I do like the colour. I have been trying out different ways of applying it and I am pretty sure this is going to be the discussion in my oncomming tuttorial this monday.
I made 2 A0 prints which I then coloured in with my airbrush to get more in touch with the print itself. I have always stayed away from using my airbrush in my art work since it is mostly associated whit kitchy/craft work, but doing so now makes me feel very different about this subject. I think that it adds another element of the automotive industrie into my work and that is very important. The way technology is going now we will start to see more and more printed stickers on cars instead of the hand painted pinstripes/airbrush works that dominated the American car culture so long ago. This makes me feel that it is time for me to include this medium into my work.

I wasn't sure wheater I should show the 2 pictures since I feel that I am giving everything away already but these are just prints. For the final show I want to try and screenprint the images and then airbrush the colour onto those.

And just to show you that I have been doing alot I included some new studio pictures aswell.