Pecha Kucha, Game Shows, Butterflies and My Lucky Turtle

Pecha Kucha, Who would have thought the combination of 6.4 minutes and an unpronounceable word would result in the trashing of so much paper and so few hours of sleep.

I have spoken in public quite a few times, and I have lead classes before too, but there is something about having to squeeze your ideas into a 20 second, 20 slides formate that has given me a bad case of butterflies.

One of my friends said I should think of it like being on a game show. That was a good idea at first, then realized that when simply asked for somebody's name, I will blank on all the names of all my closest friends as well as most of my family members.

Remember the game show Family Feud, where two families would compete to win big prizes? There was always one member of the family, Uncle Eugene, who would be doing the deer/headlight thing all the way through the program, then suddenly jump up at the last minute and shout Rutabagas!!! Thus destroying his families dreams of side by side washer and dryer for their communal mobile home back in Arkansas. That's me, everything except the Arkansas thing.

In Alan Alda's book Things I overheard while talking to myself, he says he could whip out a new story for MASH in just a few hours, but if asked to give a 10 minute speech at a graduation ceremony, he would agonize over every word for weeks. So perhaps that is good to know... perhaps not.

I think I'll take my lucky ceramic turtle with me for support.

Submitting to the Urge to Pecha Kucha

I sent in my Power Point to be formated for the up coming Pecha Kucha Dallas event. So that means I am going to be 1 of 11 people asked to present a 6 minute and 40 second presentation (that's 20 slides, 20 seconds each. Check out the links to get the whole idea). Here is a link to show you how to pronounce Pecha Kucha.

This will be the 3rd PKN Dallas 6/24/10. Each event has been held at a small donated venue. This time it will be at the Dallas Center for Architecture. The 150 seats sold out in just a day or two, so I didn't get the chance to notify my friends about it.

Each presenter is free to speaking about any topic as long as it stays within the time limits. With 4 artists, 2 art conservators, an architect, a furniture designer, a comic book writer, and a muralist, I assume the focus will be on art and creativity. But who knows, at the first event, one presenter spoke lovingly about his collection of Puma Sneakers.

I'll be rambling on about small personal epiphanies; moments of insight, clarification, and confirmation.  Rambling being the most accurate description in that last sentence. It has been fun sorting through old photos and memories to put together my 6.40 minutes of fame. It has also been weird seeing these moments organized and prepped for public display.

Hopefully I won't be the last one to be called up on stage.

Adding a New Blog to the Blogville

Turn Turn Turn by Mekhala Bahl

Dear Ada,
If you are writing a letter to a special someone named Ada you might start that letter with "Dear Ada" and then writing about all the wonderful things you have seen, and how much you wish Ada was there to share them with.


Well, this is pretty much what Birdie is doing with the blog Dear Ada, except that there are very few words and lots of photos with links to artwork that Birdie thinks Ada would like. Who is Ada? The author says "Ada was a very important person I grew up with and shared a love for art, nature, design and culture. She was the most positive, curious, interested person I've ever known and this blog is a bit like a series of letters or notes to her."


Birdie has been posting these art notes to Ada on a regular basses since August 2005. The artists represented here tend to be emerging artists from a wide variety of locations across the world. The scope of  the artwork is from abstract to representational. Sculpture, craft, painting, printmaking, weaving... There is a lot of drawing and works on paper which is quite alright with me. The blog also has Book Love which is Birdie's list of recommended books.


I am adding Dear Ada to my Blogville list of blogs I follow. I hope you will visit the site and follow as well.

SculptCAD Rapid Artists exhibit at the RAPID 2010 Conference

Here are a few quick photos of the SCRA exhibit at the RAPID 2010 Conference. Nancy Hairston installed the show and then she and David VanNess gave a presentation about the SCRA project.

Admittedly these aren't the best photos, and the carpit does fight for your attention, but I think you can see that each work of art reflects a different approach to the project.

Bert Scherbarth

Brad Ford Smith

David VanNess

Erica Larkin

Ginger Fox

Heather Gorham

Heather Ezell

Jay Sullivan

Mark Grote

Nancy Hairston

Shane Pennington

Shawn Smith

Tom Luaerman

SculptCAD Rapid Artists Project, After the Flocking

These are two finished rapid prototyped sculptures nestled together. They were created using a 3D computer sculpting program. That file was then sent to a rapid prototype company where they were printed in a clear resin.

Back in the studio, I painted them with black lacquer and then flocked them with black flock (see previous postings). Each sculpture stands 10" X 11" X 9".

This is the view front the top.

And this view demonstrates how the black flocking absorbs the light, causing the sculpture to loose depth and become an abstract flat graphic. I really find this to be intriguing, and will probably explore this in more in other sculptures. You can see more photos on my Flicker site.

Spending Time with the Flocker

As stated in a previous posting, my sculpture for the SculptCAD Rapid Artist project had some issues with the surface clarity. So after considering various options I decided on black flocking. This of course changes the visual impact, but it still retains some of the depth distortion that a clear plastic would have. It also changes it from a feel of blown glass to soft and fleshy. 

I did a small project using flock a few weeks ago, but this is the first time I have done anything this big.  I first tried using the adhesive that Fowl Flocker sent me, which turned out to be a low quality acrylic paint that dried so quickly it was not usable on anything larger than a duck head. So I switched to Don Jer Suede-Tex adhesive. This worked much better.  Thankfully I have 3 sculptures to work with. By the time I got to the last one I was getting pretty good results. I was also covered in flocking.

Curing the Surfaces

I now have three rapid prototype prints of my sculpture for the SculptCAD Rapid Artists Project. Even though they are printed, they are far from finished.

To start with, there are a few issues with the material they are printed with. The surfaces are sticky, and the sculptures which should be hollow, are filled with uncured liquid printing resin. I think the drain holes were not large enough, so the liquid could not run out before it started to congeal. The original design was counter balanced to allow for the extended neck, but since they are now more or less solid I have had to cut into the heads and remove the congealed printing resin and then patch them.

After clearing the surfaces with denatured alcohol, the sculptures spent 24 hours under UV lamps to speed up the curing of the resin inside and out (see photo). Unfortunately this process cause the resin to change color. When combined with the bubbles and patches, I don't think I have any option other than to paint them. I am thinking black flock.

Posted on Brad Ford Smith Blogspot