philinthecircle.com Blog

So I sat in front of the computer for the last 40 hours putting together files and getting prints/posters made.  It’s a bewildering amount of work to do after the piece is done.  But here is the good news, I saw the proof poster for “A Moment” and it looks awesome.  The detail is perfect, every letter is as distinguishable as in the original.
I have the “As of April 30th 2005″ print together.  I had one printed today and I will pick it up tomorrow.  This is probably the only piece that won’t become a poster and is limited in quantity.  I have my ideas about that piece and I’m limiting it’s out put because I don’t want the piece to end up somewhere I wouldn’t approve of.  So it will only be a fine art print.  And a very large one at that.  But it looks superb, again every name is readable, every little dot of a mistake I made is perfect.  It’s nice to put the time into something and have it come out the way I imagined.

So the up and coming things for me are going to be doing a web advert for KFC and some commissioned portrait work at the hospital.  haha yes I said KFC, they approached me and made an offer, the entire thing is their idea so I have little effort on my end and the money will pay for the next couple projects so I decided to do it.  Just the fact that I can get my supplies paid for is a big deal to me.  And then same thing with the portrait work, it will help pay for a new digital camera for a new project that is in the making.  those two things will be done in July so you may see me doing some portraits on the webcam throughout July.  As well as working on the big white square that is up there at the moment.

Staring in August I may take on something long term and substantially different.  I’m not going to say a lot about it because I’m still trying to figure out the details and deciding if I really want to or not.  Cause it would be a fairly different undertaking and a large one at that.

I’m going to be putting together portfolios over the next couple weeks and be applying to galleries.  I need to get this part of my art life moving.  So progress on new pieces will be slow for a bit.  There is a lot of work to be done behind the webcam.

So, the posters will go out on probably Tuesday of next week.

Well the photographer was here the past couple of days. Which meant a lot of work on my end. I got the circle project all cleaned up and it was photographed in pieces as to get all of the detail. Then he moved to the studio area and shot the Bush piece in detail. I will finally be able to make a print of that piece so every name can be read. Just as a heads up I will not be making a poster of that piece. It will only be a high end fine art print. I have my reasons and it is my preference. I had the Kim Jong Il piece shot as well as the 48 women. The 48 women piece was amazing because we ended up shooting with enough detail that every dot is visible. Just so you know what we were working with, it is a 28 mega pixel camera that just the sensor alone runs for 25k dollars. I had to rent the thing for $500. crazy. crazy. But the detail as you can imagine is amazing.

So after all those photos were taken I have been sitting in front of the computer for the last 7 hours putting together the poster. It is almost ready. I found a shop for printing and I will be able to check the proof on Thursday, then I hope to have the posters on Saturday, at the latest Monday and can ship them out to everyone.

Alright, I gotta go finish the setup of the poster.

p.s. 3am. Just did a sample print and everything will come out as planned.

wow it was sooooo nice to get out for a walk Friday morning.  One thing that never occurred to me was the fact that I wasn’t moving very much either.  So on my walk I had the bizarre sensation of feeling like I was moving really fast.  And then when I was in the car for the first time it felt so strange to be going down the highway.  Can’t even describe it.

Anyway, the piece is done! I’m so happy I finished before the 10 days.  It would have taken many days to recover.  But here are some random tidbits, it took a dozen sharpies, I was in there for 136 hours, about 4-5 hundred people were included, and if you unraveled the piece (because it is a spiral) it would be a straight line about 1,500 feet long (450m).

I am working on the video and I have the photographer coming on Monday/Tuesday so I should be rolling right along next week as planned.  But that will slow down the video production process so it probably won’t be out there for another week or so.

Thanks to everyone that was involved in this process and a very special thanks to those of you that told me how this process impacted you.  It was really interesting to read all of the stories and chat with everyone.

Alright, the final 8 inches may not sound like a lot but it is about 15 percent of the whole picture.  So I would love to get as many more people as possible to call today.  I’m going through e-mails right now, but they are tough because I don’t have a chance to talk with people to help me pick the moment that it all changed.  Tell anyone else that might want to be involved to call ASAP.

This may finish amazingly quick.  The response has been awesome, due mostly to those of you that spread the word and encouraged people to call.  But I still have about 20% left, and in this 20% is a lot of black which means a huge amount of writing (even with a four inch boarder).  But I will likely finish the piece in the next couple days.  So if you haven’t called in or have been thinking about it please do!  There is not a lot of time left!  I must admit I’m rather happy it didn’t push into 10 days, I’m really starting to lose it today.  I keeping tapping into google to make sure I spelled things correctly that I already know how to spell and my vision is starting to deteriorate because I’m either looking 2 feet in front of me at the computer screen or 2 feet in front of me at the canvas.  And my stupid back…. oh well it’s temporary.  So call in if you haven’t, I am trying to get to e-mails when I can and they are all so wonderful and amazing but I fear I may not be able to get through all of them.

Concerning who the image is of, I’m going to let it be whomever you want it to be.

Thank you all much for your support through this.  I think everyone told someone yesterday because word really seemed to get out and I got quite a few calls yesterday.  I will spend all morning going through e-mails and such.

So last night I moved my comp to a different location and apparently forgot to plug it back in.  Which led to it shutting down unexpectedly which caused my webcam program to stop working.  Long story short I repurchased it but ended up with a newer version so I’m hoping it will work a little bit better.  Probably not though, my guess is it will still get bogged down in the evening as more people log in.

Just want to let you all know that if you have called in you are part of something that is delightfully world wide.  I was really surprised by the response from everyone overseas.  Have yet to hear from someone in Africa but there are many countries represented in this piece.

I wanted to share a couple stories

“The day I found out I had a brain tumor”  – This young gal called and told me that.  At first I was shocked, but as she continued to tell her story I was totally inspired.  At 8 years old she started having slight issues walking, with like a little limp.  And then she started not being able to hold things with her right hand as well and eventually began holding her right arm.  Her conditioned remained undiagnosed until she collapsed at school, she was picked up and taken to the hospital where she had a CT scan and sent back to school.  She was called back to the hospital with her family for an MRI, and as she was asked to wait in the hallway while her parents talked to the doctor she knew something was wrong.  That fear was confirmed when she walked in the room and saw the look on her fathers face.  That was when she was told she had a tumor in her brain stem that was rather large.  After surgery and only 8 days in the hospital she was released and is back home.  She talked about her stay in the hospital and how she was never sad and always laughing (except when the pain was bad).  She talked about this being such an experience that she doesn’t take any day for granted and it sounded like many of her relationships had gotten stronger because of this.  She was so happy and excited chatting away I knew I wanted to share her story because it got me through the day.

I think this is a perfect reminder of how many of the things I write on the “canvas” sound so tragic but often times they have led to the person being stronger or finding out something incredible about themselves and friends or family.

“The desire to work in the hospital as a nurse assistant.” is another story I thought was cute and funny.  She decided she wanted to work there while going to school to be a nurse.  After the nurse assistant training the whole group was met my people from the other floors of the hospital who were there to select them to work on their floors.  This tall blond guy walks in and she says “that’s the guy I’m going to marry”  She ended up working on his floor and asking him out, and they are now married.  A minor decision to work at a hospital led to her marriage, crazy awesome.

“A little girl finding comfort in her social difference through my social difference.” This gal, who is a little person, happened to be at a K-12 school and bumped into (not literally) a girl in Kindergarten.  The girl looked at her and said “God made you that way” to which the gal responded “yes” (I think there was a little more conversation after this) but as the girl from kindergarten turned to walk away the gal noticed she only had one hand.

No way!  In the midst of writing this blog I got a call from Botswana!  She is going to e-mail me tonight.  So cool.

Alright, I’m going to work now, huge day.  By the way, this is going faster than I thought it would, and I will likely be done before the ten days, possibly even within a couple days because the response has been so great!

I have been hearing all of these stories from people about things that changed their life, but I just got off the phone with a gent from the UK who’s life had fallen apart in so many ways, relationship and work were the key ones, he ended up at pretty much the bottom looking around and seeing what his life would become.  But he decided for himself that he didn’t want that so he pulled his life back together and is in an even better situation now than before.  It was really inspiring to hear someone take it on themselves when they were used to relying on others for emotional support.

I’ve noticed in e-mails some people are concerned that I will put their name on the picture.  Let me clear up that I won’t put your name or e-mail up there.  In my most recent video blog I mentioned a couple peoples names and my apologies if you thought that I would put names on the canvas.   I am keeping this private.  I won’t mention any more names in video blogs.

To change the subject, I will make a poster of this piece when it is done and have made preordering available (click the link).  If you would like to help support this project it would mean a huge amount to me.  I don’t know exactly what size the poster will be, because I need to make sure everything is readable.  It will be 24×24 inches for certain.  I believe at that size everything will be clear, but it may end up slightly larger.  AND if you order the poster before the 24th I will sign it for you.  Thank you so much for your support and I hope I keep you entertained this week.

Please more people call!  I haven’t received a call for the last 5 min.  I won’t finish at this rate!

I have heard so many stories in the last 24 hours it is amazing. Some of them would seem like small things to some people but are a major point of change for someone else.

Some stories I have been able to connect with and other I can’t even imagine. And then I have the random French guy that calls me and sings. hahahaha.

I’m sure you all have been reading stories, statements, and experiences that were posted here on the blog, but if you post yours on here. Please call as well. It is hard for me to get to the blog, I ended up with not enough time to even post last night.

So please call! xxx-xxx-xxxx

Thank you all so much, this is really moving along. But I need more calls! Don’t be shy!

so now we start the project. “We?” you ask? yes. Here is my phone number xxx-xxx-xxxx. Call me and tell me something that has changed your life, it could be anything from a meal you had where you met someone, a trip around the world, someone passing away, music, anything. When you call I will write your statement on the canvas and through the course of 10 days create the picture. I will be living in the garage 24 hours a day in front of the webcam. You can watch the entire process. Please join in!

So I’m not ready.  But I’m at a point where I can begin but it will just be a crazy first few days. 

I sketched for 4 hours today.  I got a bit done but not nearly what I had hoped.  I guess it doesn’t matter too much because I will be able to sketch while I am in progress.  My guess is the first day will be a struggle because I’m going into this with a lot of unknowns.  So I will get home at midnight (from work) and do a bit more sketching.  Then wake up and do a bit more and prep the garage. 

chat soon