The Making of Soul Seasons

05.28.2013

I’m happy to announce that I just finished editing my behind the scenes video for my animation, Soul Seasons, that I created last August, 2012.

It took me all of last summer to create the animation from start to finish. From storyboard to exhibition. This video that I’m releasing here today showcases 3 months of work that went into making the piece, boiled down to 3 minutes. It shows my creative process and a little taste of what it was like to be working inside the Danger studio.

I’m proud to say that Soul Seasons will be exhibited at the Digital Graffiti Festival at Alys Beach, FL on June 7-8th, 2013. It will also be exhibited at the first ever Stamford Art Walk on June 14th-15th in Stamford, CT.

Danger Studio Closing Party

04.18.2013

Hey Everybody! So I’m receiving a lot of emails asking me two big questions surrounding my announcement of the upcoming Danger Studio Closing Party. The first one, as expected, is “Why are you closing your studio?” and the second is “Aren’t you bummed out?”

Sadly I’m closing my doors because the property owner Building and Land Technology has decided to raise the rent to over 60% of the current cost on all the artists currently residing in the Loft Artists building. A number which is too large to afford, which ultimately aimed to kick us out. I’m not totally shocked, as BLT has been slowly been taking over our building for the last year. My eye was raised when they painted over the entire building that used to have a cool mural on the side saying LAA, which now says BBQ advertising the new development of Dinosaur BBQ in our basement.

I’m not sure what they intend to do with the space, but my main concern right now is MOVING!

I have three years worth of accumulated equipment over there that needs a new home. My quick solution is to upgrade my current storage space and put everything in there until I make plans for this next chapter in my life. This is only a minor hiccup in the road, and it actually comes at an interesting time. If you remember my previous posts from earlier this year, you’ll know that my mantra for 2013 is transformation.

This brings me to the second question about being bummed out. Of course I’m bummed. I’ve had such a good time in this space and it couldn’t be any more perfect for me being where I live right now. However, that said, I am ready for a change. I have been for quite some time. There were many things that I loved about this particular building, but I never felt as though I found my particular place in it’s community. I have a full time day job and therefore kept night owl hours at my studio. Walking into the studio at 8PM at night always had an air of loneliness it. I always wished it was bustling with activity, people building and creating, collaborating, music coming out of peoples studios and people to wave hi to as I went to mine. But it was never like that. I was always the only one working late at night, which just kind of lacked the energy I wished I was surrounded by.

So I hope with my next move, wherever it may be, that it suits me and my art a bit better in the long run.

That said, I welcome you and your friends to join me for my last party at the Danger Studio at 845 Canal Street in Stamford CT on Saturday April 27th from 12-6pm. You can RSVP on Facebook here.

All art, Danger tees, posters and jewelry are for sale and will and go towards my future studio. I’ll have some drinks & appetizers on hand, will be projecting some of my videos and will have some giveaways as well. Please stop by, Saturday is your last chance to see the studio. I’m packing it all up and moving it out on the 28th. As a bonus, all the other artists in the building will also have their doors open as well for one last visit – then you can always grab a beer downstairs at Dinosaur BBQ. See you then!

If you’re interested in reading more about the Loft Artists move and BLT, check out these resources:

Article written by The Hour and an article written by the Stamford Advocate

Soul Seasons – 1 week until the launch!

07.27.2012

1 week until the launch of Soul Seasons! I’ve poured a tremendous amount of energy and imagination into this piece and I hope you’ll all come out and watch it with me as it goes up next Thursday. It has been a labor intensive challenge for me to do while also having a full time day job and a life that doesn’t involve being behind a computer 24/7, but it has been worth every second.

I can’t say that I’ve worked on a single piece like this in awhile where it has been 100% all my own. After months of working in my studio and obsessing over every detail I can say that still to this day that no one has seen any part of this video yet. I have not shown a soul. I have only posted a few still shots here and there in the digital world so you can see a snapshot of what is in store.

With only a week to go I’m still not sure if I will show this to anyone yet. I like the idea that it is a direct reflection of what has come out of my creativity in being completely solitary with my thoughts. Creating this piece has been meditation for me, and I hope you will love it as much as I do.

Soul Seasons

07.17.2012

Only two weeks left before the launch of my new project, a stop-motion animation called Soul Seasons.

I’ve been in my studio every day for the past few weeks designing, conceptualizing, and ultimately trying to figure out how to get my idea into an actual video piece. Each day as I play with it, it becomes more real, but I still have a dozen things to do to make it come together. Special thanks to Veronica Vixen and her boyfriend Aaron for modeling their silhouettes for me!

I’ve also wanted to document my process but have found it incredibly tough to do everything all at once. I finally found my little Canon Powershot camera yesterday, so I’ll mount it on a tripod over the next few editing rounds at the studio and try and capture the madness. It has been quite a learning process and worth having documented.

So far I have:

Storyboarded everything and plastered the studio
Shot 90% of my green screen scenes
Taken test shots with light kit & set up studio accordingly
Learned how to use Dragon Frame software
Edited 75% of sequence pre-animation
Done test prints for stopmotion

I still need to:

Figure out what elements go inside & outside of silhouettes
Choose which green screen scenes to use and in what order
~~Print out entire sequence frame by frame, start to finish~~
~~Shoot & animate final frames via Dragon Frame~~
Post work in After Effects
Edit & adjust full sequence & color correct in Final Cut
Figure out how to end the piece (!!!)

Holy $#!! that’s a lot to do in the 16 days remaining. No matter how many hours I work, there always seems to be so much more to do! I’m even more limited now that I’m back at the office 9-5pm every day. Wish me luck!! Looking forward to sharing this with everyone.

Soul Seasons will launch at 1330 Main Street in Bridgeport as part of their City Canvases initiative project, and will be projected in the side of the building each night from August 2nd to August 8th from 9-11pm.

Please come to the launch! LET’S MAKE IT A BIG PARTY!

Bridgeport City Canvases

06.05.2012

Hey folks! I am very excited to announce that I have been selected to create a public video projection piece as part of Bridgeport City Canvases to be revealed on Thursday, August 2nd.

The City Canvases initiative is aimed to enhance urban areas in highly visable exterior locations around Bridgeport with projection based public art by local artists. Connecticut received $1 million in grant funding and will be creating various projects in 7 cities across the state. Twelve artists have been chosen to participate in this project and will exhibit their videos in different locations around the city. Each artist’s work will be revealed each week beginning in July. Visit this page for a full lineup of the exhibiting artists.

I serendipitously found out about the project while I was exhibiting work at the 305K gallery art bazaar earlier this spring. I was told that if I wanted to participate that I had two days to submit my concept proposal for a video surrounding their overarching theme of “Change”.

Sometimes I think that my best ideas are born out of pressure, because I don’t have time to over think them.

Strangely, this date aligned to the two days I had taken off work, to be by my dad’s side as he was going through various rounds of cancer surgery. I wrote my proposal while I was sitting in a hospital, hoping to hear that my dad’s cancer had been removed. (Which I’m thankful to say that it has.) Needless to say, my ideas stemmed from a very raw and emotional place. I chose to work with an idea that came from my gut in dealing with the change that was going on around me at that moment. And I plan on dedicating this piece of work to him.

I’m very excited about this event and am looking forward to bringing it to life and sharing it with the city and all of you. I’ve chosen to create a uniquely styled stop-motion animation that I will be building over the next two months.

Look out for more details coming soon because I plan on incorporating YOU into my project!

Please shoot me an email or leave a comment with your email address below if you have interest in being a part of my video and being projected onto a building in Bridgeport during my exhibition. I will be holding a few shoot days in the near future and will only need 5 minutes of your time to immortalize you in my piece. Shooting will take place at the Danger studio in the Loft Artist building in Stamford which is always fun (and usually involves wine).

Thanks in advance guys!!

“Danger’s Zone” article in The Beat Magazine

04.18.2012

Hey guys! Please be on the look out for The Beat magazine, who have just released their spring issue with a dangerously wonderful article featuring my graphic & performance art. I was first approached by editor and chief Wendy Logan and creative director Andy Liverant when Kodomo and I had performed an audio/visual show together at the Factory Underground last year.

The magazine is dedicated to the food, arts, culture & color of Fairfield County and provides a wide range of articles that profile chefs, restaurants, artists, cultural institutions as well as columns dedicated to wine, dining reviews and music.

I’m very excited to be a featured artist this spring, so please check out the latest issue if you can find it around town, or view it here digitally. Please take the time to “friend” them on Facebook and check out all the great work that they’re doing to bring some flavor into our local area.

Also, please check back here soon for the latest projects that I have in store for spring. This includes a new line of graphic work, some installation video projects, launch of a new hollydanger website and more performances with The Moon. To be continued!

Hope everyone is happy, healthy & enjoying the warm weather.

Happy Spring!

03.28.2012

Warmer weather and sunny days are upon us and I’m getting excited for participating in more craft fairs and events as the weeks roll on. I was reading Etsy for some inspiration this morning and thought it would be fun to answer some questions that were featured when they were portraying one of their artists. So here is a little self-portrait exercise that I decided to put together on life in and out of the studio. Enjoy!

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From Brooklyn to Bridgeport

03.12.2012

After a week of not sleeping in preparation for my back to back shows Friday & Saturday, I can officially say that the weekend was a success and I had a wonderful time with everyone.

If you missed our performance of the Moon at Goodbye Blue Monday we have a video to share with you of our last song, and only duet, True Love Will Find You in the End. Thanks so much to Hoi Chen for coming out & filming the entire show for us. More videos to come.

A few hours of sleep later after the show, Jeff’s alarm went off at 7:30am. Still a little hazy from a few too many Ommegangs, I realized it was time to head to the studio, unpack my video equipment from the night before and load in all my art, jewelry, dress form, 6ft table & table cloth banner, 2 chairs, speaker, mini dvd player, tshirt supply, print rack & prints, and all the display items into my little car. (Tetris skills came in very handy here!) This was only the second time I had ever exhibited my work outside of studio walls and let me tell you – it is a LOT of work setting up your own booth and relocating it out of the studio! Having accumulated this much stuff makes me want to fulfill my dream even more, of having my very own Danger van one day! I’ve always wanted one for housing all my equipment & artwork, taking long road trips, camping and doing drive by projections! Maybe this year I can make this happen..

Thanks to everyone who made it to both Brooklyn & Bridgeport this weekend. It turned into such a super awesome weekend reunion of friends, and it meant a lot to me to reconnect with everybody, as well as meet new folks in the area.

Gallery 305K plans to host these art markets once a month in their space, so you can expect to see me there again for the next one April 14th. For those of you who couldn’t make it to Bridgeport, here are a couple snapshots from the event. Enjoy!

Check back here or sign up for my newsletter for more upcoming shows, art exhibits & updates.

March 2012

03.05.2012

Hey Guys! Happy almost-spring!!! I hope you are all doing well! Before the week gets too crazy for all of us, I wanted to say hello and to tell you about two fun events going on this week that you might be interested in. The Moon at Goodbye Blue Monday & Danger at the Bridgeport Art Bazaar.

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Danger Goods

11.07.2011

New to the Danger Studio as of this weekend, is a really cool collection of handmade Danger pendents!

This is my first attempt at making jewelry out of my designs and I’m really stoked with it’s transformation. I took my Wanderlost collection of graphics and cropped them into 1 inch circles, then obsessively cut out 50 small prints. Each of them is affixed to silver plated pendents, and finished with a glass dome enclosure. The work becomes a magnified orb of bright color, and each is completely unique from the next.

Later this week I’m going to attempt another round using resin as the finishing glaze. I’ve been using resin over the last year on all my wall art, which gives it a glossy glass finish so I’m excited to see if I can bring the same great results to jewelry.

Next up are a batch of rings! All will be available on etsy once I’m happy with the collection. Stay tuned!

Danger Studio

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