http://www.flickr.com/photos/25624618@N08/sets/72157623991492398/ I have many (300+) hand sculpted mice.

In reply to this comment by ant:
Love your artworks in your Flickr photograph gallery.

Is http://www.flickr.com/photos/25624618@N08/4168888795/ for a sale? I have a friend who is named Mousey and runs AQFL.net for me.

Leave it to the Japanese to make wood sculpting more awesome.

Sometimes My kids watch through some videos with me on the sift.
Now I'm an artist, I've been through art school. I have drawn, painted and sculpted nudes countless times and have no issues with the human form whatsoever. (and yes, I've seen porn...) I am fairly liberal when it comes to nudity.

I have watched rental movies with my kids and some nudity has come up. As a parent, I cringe a little and quietly watch to see the reactions my kids have - Mostly so as not to create a situation out of it and turn it into a non-issue. My son (8) cringes, covers his eyes and asks to let him know when it's over. My daughter (13) has a different reaction, she responds with "Gross", frowns, and continues watching - to which I comment, "no it isn't, get over it", again to try and make it a non-issue. There is a place in story telling and in real life where nudity and sex exists - I say get over it and move on.

If I were to come across content, created for "explicit pleasurable gratification" or "exploitation", I'd probably hit the stop button and mention that it wasn't appropriate for kids. I wouldn't make an issue of it because it doesn't offend me. But I make a decision and off it goes.

As with watching videos on the sift, I don't care about nudity in documentaries, I don't care about nudity as an art form, I don't care about nudity from a doctor's point of view or even as educational. I don't care about scantily clad figures (m or f) being admired or made fun of. We gawk at people in real life for their "assets", so we should be able to here.

But, I don't expect to come across videos that are suggestively inappropriate. Stripping them nude, just so we can gawk at their nakedness for no other reason, just may be inappropriate for this site, (there are already sites for that). Footage such as explicit nude sex scenes from R-rated movies, I can do without here on the Sift. R-rated excerpts from X-rated movies probably also shouldn't make their home here.

At no point here, am I suggesting we, on the sift, are kids, (as in my illustrations above), but I think Dag has a good idea and understanding of what he does and doesn't want this site to become. This site is a filter for good and great video clips, meme, comedy and making fun at things obviously messed up. What it isn't is a place to pile the trash.

-- just some thoughts...

I think there are some people here misinterpreting what she is saying.

Inspiration, or whatever you want to call the peak of the creative mind, is not under conscious control. A person can't just *decide* to write (or paint, or dance, or sculpt) their best piece ever on a particular day. She is saying that artists are going crazy trying to pin down something that cannot be held. However you want to make peace with that fact, with metaphors like external supernatural beings or whatever else may work for you, to continue being a mentally healthy person that peace must be made. This is not to say that the artist should actually believe in faeries or geniuses or muses in the literal sense, merely as a metaphor for the subconscious realm from which inspiration springs. One might even choose to simply address the subconscious mind directly. ("Ok, subconscious, today would be a really great day to write a new song!") The important part is acknowledging that it is not under direct control, and that we shouldn't think of uninspired work as failure. Merely as practice.

The best an artist can do consciously is lay the groundwork for that creative inspiration to appear, and translate from idea to some realized form. What she calls "showing up" is laying that groundwork. Training, introspection, research, anything else that you can *choose* to do in your chosen art will make it easier to act on inspiration. Since nothing can force it to happen, the artist must accept that their only true job is to prepare and encourage creativity, but never expect it or rely on it.

>> ^ridesallyridenc:
Yeah, probably synthol. Roids actually help you build muscle, while synthol is a muscle inflammatory agent that you inject to give instant "results." While used primarily for filling in weak-looking or asymmetrical spots in body builders, some guys take it too far and try to sculpt their form using it. It ends up looking unnatural, out of proportion, and puffy/swollen, not ripped.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Fitness/story?id=3179969&page=1
http://www.granieri.us/GOOGLE36EC95D890D0CF41=/QuerySiteGlobal=updated/1061.htm


I was totally thinking it was massive infections, like that other guy who did roids like a heroin addict. Dirty needles, etc.

Utterly incomprehensible that this guy thinks he looks good.

Yeah, probably synthol. Roids actually help you build muscle, while synthol is a muscle inflammatory agent that you inject to give instant "results." While used primarily for filling in weak-looking or asymmetrical spots in body builders, some guys take it too far and try to sculpt their form using it. It ends up looking unnatural, out of proportion, and puffy/swollen, not ripped.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Fitness/story?id=3179969&page=1
http://www.granieri.us/GOOGLE36EC95D890D0CF41=/QuerySiteGlobal=updated/1061.htm

1. Can dance.
2. Can’t sing.
3. Loves pizza.
4. Hates pasta.
5. Likes the frigid cold.
6. Is missing Montana.
7. Resents Central Tennessee.
8. Has a crush on Canada (Alberta and BC I’m looking at you…)
9. Grew up around boys.
10. Strangers talk to me more often than my family does.
11. Rescues animals.
12. I Have killed animals.
13. I Have killed animals against my will.
14. Doesn’t like pork.
15. Eats turkey bacon.
16. Was almost married at 19 (dodged a bullet).
17. At one point was probably the only person in eastern Montana to have blue hair.
18. Used to play the flute and piccolo.
19. Got my training license at 14 (my real one at 15)
20. Once forgot my own birthday. (My sweet 16)
21. Used to be able to bench my own body weight but now I’m a wimp/heavier.
22. My mother was very artistic (she could draw or sculpt anything from her head). She didn’t do anything productive with her talent. She also has paranoid schizophrenia.
23. My dad worked for the railroad he was bipolar and “went crazy”. Living on the streets until he was ironically mugged, left on the train tracks to die (being ran over by a train).
24. My dad’s father also worked for the railroad…he's my real dad..(not in a biological sense)
25. My redneck neighbors really are that loud.

Cool stuff. Thought provoking.

Not to get sidetracked onto a rant here, but this reminds me of why we need a public option, or ever better: fully socialized medicine. We're severely lacking in poets in this country. If more people who were drawn to the spoken or written word, or to music or sculpting, could get cheap health-care insurance without having to sell their souls to corporate masters in exchange for shitty insurance... I think we might get more poets, artists, and musicians. Art is good.

>> ^TheFreak:
People like this are why I can't stand most artists. For every person who masters a medium and develops incredible skill you have a hundred people who just throw clay at a wall and let serendipity do their art for them.

>> ^MycroftHomlz:
^that's ignorant.


Although my experience is lacking in sculpture, this area of thought flows through many mediums. As a painter, and while at art school, I went through this same thing. I would separate it into three groups. Ones that can, Ones that can and have moved on and those who just can't.

Now I paint very realistically. Some like it and some don't. I've been told by some to just give up and become a photographer if I want that level of realism. I understand the opinion but don't agree. Some people get to a point and master a form and then feel the need to break it down and stray from the realism. It is hard to create good impressionism without first knowing your form.

At the same time, and I've seen up close, first hand. There were many people who were in school with me, who just couldn't draw and had no intent in learning because they just found it too hard. They spent a lot of time drawing stick figures and challenging others as to "what is art" they had the concept but no real talent or craft.

Those who can't master a skill, still enjoy and use the arena. Is it successful if no one buys it? I don't know, I just know what I like.

>> ^Lolthien:You are honestly suggesting talent and skill are unrelated?


No, but unless someone is born with savant-like abilities, talent is a small piece of the equation. Most artists are not born being able to do what they do. They learn like everyone else.

>> ^shponglefan:
>> ^Hive13:
I would love to have that talent.

Skill, not talent. Anything can be learned, it just takes time.


You are honestly suggesting talent and skill are unrelated?

watching him sculpt somehow filled me with calmness, but music was out of place.

>> ^Hive13:
I would love to have that talent.


Skill, not talent. Anything can be learned, it just takes time.

I would love to have that talent. I would sculpt all day long. That guy was great. Even half way through his initial sculpt there was already a great sense of personality in his figure.

Your video, Sculpting Demo by Philippe Faraut, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.