Ellen Marcus

Category: design

  • the latest projects

    Looking DownFor those of you who’ve been wondering: I’m not dead, between projects and other things, I just haven’t had much time to blog. While diving into existential-land and pondering the true meaning of blogging, I’ve run many miles and drank many cups of caffeine.  When I have a revelation about blogging, I’ll be sure to send you all an update.

    For the time being here are some recent productions.  I hope you enjoy them.

    Eye painted in acrylic (left).  This design seems to have become popular with the Tumblr crowd.  Three Blue Cat Groovecheers for Tumblr – may you remain as mysterious as the mind of a 12 year old aspiring computer programmer.

    Illustration (on right) created for the band “Blue Cat Groove”.
    For more info go to
    or click on the illustration.

  • Those Funny-Bunny Comments

    Acrylic on Canvas – 8″ x 6″

    I finally figured out how to incorporate a 3rd party comment section within my blog, and it only took me about 4 hours.  I calculate around 5 minutes to install a comment enabler called “Disqus”, however, it didn’t work quite right.  It took me the other 3 hours and 55 minutes to figure out that deleting and re-applying it to my blog would fix the problem.  *Sheesh!*

    Everything within Disqus worked exactly as I wished.  The only problem being that I had two comment boxes (one from Blogger and one from Disqus) displayed below every post.  One would think that a person in this situation could simply Google things like “two comment boxes” or “double comments” and come up with some fast help to a solution.  This turned out to be something of a false hope.  I reason that I may have made a wrong turn and overlooked the “add this site to Blogger” button, then cut and pasted some Disqus code into a widget I made directly in Blogger.  It is also possible that Blogger’s new interface template messes with the loading of Disqus.  I discovered that when I deleted Disqus and re-loaded it onto Blogger (being sure to use the “add this site to Blogger” button), it reverted my Blogger interface to the older one momentarily.  After all that noise, it worked like a charm (assuming charms really work as magically as they did in the past).  You can now reply to people’s comments on this blog…yay!

    Not that anyone comments on this blog much anyway, but, it’s nice to have a reply button.  Thanks for reading and I hope this bit of info helps some poor soul who continues to see double in the comment section.

    *update* PS: I had a very pleasurable and time-saving experience with the Disqus support team.  Save yourself a headache and don’t hesitate to ask them for help.

  • Fantasy Island

    Last weekend, the time that I wasn’t playing video games was spent creating this much-needed kitchen Island.  That ugly white structure underneath is our dishwasher.
    Back in the day, when the island was nothing more than a simple dream, the only counter space we had (with which to gut and chop our food upon) was the top of the dishwasher.
    The dishwasher housing was constructed with a ridge to prevent stuff from tipping over the back edge.  I initially had to saw it off with a jigsaw.

    Here is another view.  The wood used to make this was very inexpensive.  I could have gone with the more expensive stuff, but, after some “old English” colored wood stain and several coats of high-gloss polyurethane, it was golden.

    That salad there is my breakfast (long story).

    ← Here is the back design.  It was a blind experiment. The only tools I used for this was a drill and a pencil.  With the pencil, I sketched in a rough design of a couple of bunches of grapes, then I drilled a bunch of holes.  It worked out only slightly better than what I initially imagined.

    To your right is a nice view from the “Command Center”.  It’s called the “Command Center” because everything is right there for all of your cooking needs (or so says my Fiancee).  I don’t have a picture of all the cool junk at hand from this vantage point because I anticipated that too many pictures and discussion of this work has great potential to cause extreme boredom.
    Thanks for reading!

  • Public Display

     

    What you are looking at is the corner of a painting in its unfinished stage as it sits on a well-used easel.

    This painting (in its finished form) will soon be on public display for the next two months.  If all goes well, I’ll be hanging them tomorrow at a place called “Earth Bread & Brewery”.

  • Fishing Fish

    I needed blue paint.  So, I got myself some French Ultramarine Blue while thinking, ‘the French know their oil paints, why wouldn’t I need this product?’

    Unfortunately, it wasn’t a vibrant enough blue for my needs.  On the other hand, because I wasn’t relying as much on the vibrancy of the color, it did force me to work a little harder with those highlights and shadows.

    Off the subject, blogger has released “Dynamic Views” for your blogspot.  It has some great advantages and potential for the visual artist.  If you are like me (trying out new templates and still looking for the “Dynamic Views” feedback button) look no further!  A kindly employee from the google team posted this nifty forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=19e461250d0a91c1&hl=en

  • Hippo On A Bicycle

    Hippo on a bike

    Block print with water-based ink on heavy paper
    ~ 5″ x 5″

    Yet another hippo on a bicycle.  At the moment, I’m trying to figure out the new Blogspot framework for creating an entry.  They seem to have re-arranged the entire format.  I think I like it…oh, no, wait, I really like it!  Especially the part where I get to spend more time procrastinating an 8 mile training run that I must do today!

    After publishing this entry, I’m going to run 8 miles…
    Thanks for reading.

  • Turning Your Door Into A Work of Mod-Art

    Door

    This door had at least several coats of white paint on it before I transformed it into what it is today.  It took me about 8 hours to strip the door of all its paint.  Then another 8 hours or so to complete the painting process.

     

  • Normal Foot VS the Abnormal Shoe

    Nike skape

    I’ve heard such great things about this shoe. Then, I tried a pair at the store. The rumors are all true. Nike comes in sizes narrow and extra-narrow. My feet are not that narrow, and word on the street dictates that a lot of people won’t buy these shoes for the same reason: TOO NARROW. There was adequate room in the (poorly designed) toe-compartment, but, it hugged my metatarsal phalangeal joints just a little too much for comfort. Also, the landing surface was too narrow and I could easily imagine a future problem developing just under my exposed arch (not a matter of arch support, but of feeling the uncomfortable edge from where the shoe base ends completely). I understand that the idea of Nike Free is to simulate the barefoot experience. In many instances (such is the case with weaker arches) the entire plantar surface of the foot will touch the ground during mid-stance.
    One final point I’d like to make about the poor design of this shoe is the heel. The heel is raised like most other gym shoes…that’s not natural! If only the Nike company would widen the shoe, create a more realistic-shaped toe-box, provide a full plantar surface, lower that unnaturally high heel, AND make their products in the USA (or verify that overseas manufacturers are not 10 year-old slaves)…*sigh*…if only…
    Case, point and example?…look here: http://politicalleft.blog-city.com/nike_sweat_shops__child_labor.htm
    PS: Off the subject of shoes, my typical blog statement for this entry is to include the words: “I know I haven’t posted in a while, but…” I’ve been away from my oil paints for a week or so and got busy posting an online series called “Good Foot, Bad Shoe“. It’s just another blog of mine that, like this one, began as a collection of something other than what I use it for now. The post you see here is an example from that other blog. If you have interest in seeing it, just contact me and I can give you the link…thanks for reading.