3 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes

To continue the holiday project sharing...Here's an image of the first felt candy cane mouse I made a couple of weeks ago. I made two more after this one that came out considerably better (and I remembered to give them little red pom poms for noses instead of all black facial features, as you see here), but I haven't had a chance to make more. So you get to see the first one. The first of anything for me is kind of like that first pancake, you know?


I put it on our wacom tablet that also doubles as a mousepad for scale (and irony). They were super easy and fun to make but in hindsight, I'm not sure kids are all that excited to receive them. My niece and nephew were sufficiently interested (they were incorporated into packaging for Christmas books we let them open early) but not all that impressed that I made them myself. Maybe that was assumed. Anyway, I had this idea of making one for all the kids in my social/family circle (20 or so), but I'm not so sure. I might still make a ton of them just to use up the felt and pom poms and candy canes. Put them in the mousetraps at school...Anyway, I think they would have been fun to make with kids but ultimately, I think this kind of stuff is way more fun for adults like myself to make than for kids to receive. There were a few other projects I never got around to, mostly because buying the supplies would have been fairly expensive, not to mention the time I'd need to devote to it and the likelihood that they wouldn't turn out all that well. Maybe next year...

As for my board wrap-up...I showed four projects, including the work leading up to and spinning off of my main endeavor this semester, plus one project that is ongoing that we never really got around to. I'd say about 75% of my projects are still highly unresolved but I think it was agreed that I made some progress on this last project. And even where it was less successful, I feel like I at least did something substantial that I can work from. I was encouraged to check out the work of artists Buzz Spector, David Robbins (particularly his Ice Cream Social series), Janet Cardiff (one of her sound installations is up - for a short while longer - at M.I.T.'s List Visual Arts Center), and Sam Durant (another show I have to see before the end of the week). I was also encouraged to check out the t.v. show "Battlestar Gallactica," and just generally mine the "musty academic" vibe in much of my recent work and continue to explore my use of technology (and the relationship between new technology and nostalgia for old technology) as a metaphor for memory.

Just as soon as I get back from California! If I don't write again before I leave on Sunday, have a delightful holiday, whatever you celebrate. I'll be seeing you in the blogisphere in '07.