Geeks Unite on May 19th for the second annual Geek Olympathon in Portland Oregon! Last year’s GO was a blast, with geeky challenges and performances that blew my nerd-brain away, and I suspect this year’s GO will be even better.
If you haven’t heard about GO or the PGC3 before, here’s the run down: The Geek Olymapthon is kind of like a giant celebration of our combined geekiness, where we play and challenge each other’s inner (or not so inner) geek. For the Geek Olympathon, you band together your group of geeks to compete in a series of challenges such as video game competitions and geek trivia to best the other teams for a chance to win prizes including tickets and hotel accommodations for five to the world’s premier gaming festival, PAX Prime in Seattle from August 31-September 2. Both weekend and single-day passes to this convention have completely sold out, so you won’t want to miss out on this opportunity! (You can sign up online for your teams here or sign up the day of at Backspace) Backspace will also provide free house coffee and facilities for last-minute team registration. Individual events will run from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and be hosted in a number of locations in Portland. Entry is $25 for teams of up to five people or $5 per individual, and teams can register online at PGC3.org/Olympathon.
After the day’s events are over, participants will face the final competitions and be awarded prizes at the Awardathon, an epic celebration at the Eagles Lodge at 4904 SE Hawthorne from 8 p.m. to close. Here, teams will compete in a special edition of Things From Another World’s Geek Trivia with Cort Webber & Bobby Roberts of “cortandfatboy” before they are awarded prizes for their performance in the Olympathon, as well as bonus awards for overall participation.
In addition to a trip for five to PAX Prime, prizes include two Club-level tickets to a Portland Timbers game, as well as generous donations from Cognition the Robot Uprise, Geek Chic Cosmetics, Guardian Games, PDX YAR, Sock Dreams, Things From Another World, and more (probably including some of my geeky numberism shirts). A full schedule of events and the online form for team registration are available at pgc3.org/Olympathon PGC3 or the Portland Council of Commerce and Culture is a group of geek minded businesses and individuals who banded together in 2010, to support the geek community in the Portland metro area. “We strive to unite and cultivate the Portland geeky community–those people who are enthusiastic and, perhaps, a little obsessive in the pursuit of their passions.” There are over 80 Geek-Portland businesses active in PGC3 today, including Things From Another World, Backspace, PDX Yar, Ground Kontrol, PSU Math, Dark Horse Comics, me and well, about 73 other amazing geeky people.
If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably already seen these, but I thought I’d make a whole blog post about them too.
I’ve been playing around with hand etching glass since the show in Compound Gallery (which is up until June) . Seeing all the glass and wood laser etching prints inspired me to jump into this idea which has been rattling in my head for a while. These tests are on plexi glass. I will be getting a diamond tip tool to etch on glass soon. The next phase for these is real lighting tests, which I’ll post about as soon as I have finished. The lighting fixtures will change, going from side lighting with leds, making each number shine through, then switching to either back or front lighting. The skull will have front lighting, casting the inky shadow behind it.
The etching of the woman is drawn with a chemical formula for Oxytocin, which is released during orgasm. This data is also a test. I will be using it along with other data in an upcoming erotic piece. The reference photo belongs to Angela Mengoa. I am waiting to hear back from her to get rights to reproduce my version of her lovely photograph. If I do not hear from her, there will be no prints made of this piece. Below is her original photograph.
This is the etching tool I am currently using. I found it at Utretcht Art supply. It works nicely but is a bit hard on my hand as it’s steel and requires quite a bit of pressure for the deeper set numbers. I think the diamond tip tool will make this all a whole lot easier.
The Etchings: These are all photos from my phone, so they aren’t the best in the world, but they’ll have to do for now.
On your trip out to Portland’s May First Thursday, stop by Compound Gallery on NW 5th and Couch.I’m excited to say that I will have some artwork up among what I’m sure will be an amazing mixed show of talented artists. Compound has a tendency to exhibit some truly awesome work.
Super excited to be involved with a little of my art too!
There’s some original work of mine up as well as giclee prints and Geeky-Shirts, (to help you get your geek on… yeah, I’m running with that one. It’s just too punny to loose).
May 3rd (This Thursday) arty festivities usually go from about 5 – 9 pm Compound Gallery
107 Northwest 5th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 796-2733 compoundgallery.com
I’ll be there chillin’ with Einstein.
It’s official; we have geek shirts!
The ever talented, Marcus Adams, of ANOVA print has provided us with a bountiful supply of geeky numberism shirts. The line includes pieces from my Math and Science series, including the new Prime Directive TEE. These silkscreens are 100% cotton form-fitting Tees for men and women, sizes S -> XL and have the data printed on the back of the shirt (making them even better as gifts for your geeky friends).
To celebrate, I’m offering FREE SHIPPING on my Etsy store anywhere in the US (pretty cheap for international too). Sale ends on 4/11/12.
How we Get our Geek on:
Geeky Math Data printed on every shirt!
Check out this dapper young lady, sporting her geeky-duds while brushing up on some basics!
Eureka moments are 49% more likely while wearing these geek shirts.* At any moment you could come up with a unified field theory while inadvertently attracting potential geek-mates.
*There is no scientific basis whatsoever for that statement.
I’m setting up to work on an exploding Tardis and am considering using tesseract information for the blue box itself. I picked up some books on the subject from Powell’s yesterday, as well as finally picking up “Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid”, which people have been telling me to read for ages now. ( I managed to spend under $100, which is a first for me. I’m proud that I could show some restraint at Powell’s this time).
“Rotating Tesseract – A 3D projection by Jason Hise of an 8-cell performing a simple rotation about a plane. As seen on Wiki.
As soon as I finish this custom piece I’m working on, I will start on the Tardis. I will probably draw in a matter anti-matter explosion as well. I haven’t decided what size to make this one yet. I’d personally prefer a rather large Tardis, but I’d also love to make shirts of this once I finish (I’d want to wear one), but if I draw it too large, it just won’t translate onto something that small….. I’ve tried drawing large pieces with larger numbers, but I tend to revert to the tiny detail no matter what I do. Perhaps if I use giant markers I’d be forced to draw them bigger. If so, I could manage having the original large and it would still look good small.
Anywho.. I’ll post pictures when I get working on it. Until then, check out this video of Carl Sagan on 4 dimensional objects. It’s rather awesome.
Also, as a reminder to all you lovely hyper intelligent geeks out there, feel free to keep the reference material coming in. This work is all about learning as much as I can about the world around me and there’s so much out there that I’m not aware of. If you have an idea for the science in this one (or anything else for that matter), send it my way. You can send ideas along to me at Sienna.Morris@gmail.com or post them below.
SWAN Day (Support Women Artist Now) has been going strong for five years. They are celebrating local female artists this weekend at the Portland Expo Center. I will be there Sunday from 11am – 5pm with my art and geeky shirts, surrounded by talented female artists, musicians, writers and photographers.
SWAN Day weekend event:
Saturday, March 24th – 11 am – 9pm
Sunday, March 25th – 11 am – 5pm Where:
The Energy Trust Better Living Show
Connector Room, Between D and E Hall
Portland Expo Center
2060 North Marine Drive
All Ages – Free admission
Musical Acts include:
Belinda Underwood — Saturday March 24, 4:00 pm Tara Williamson — Sunday March 25, 1:00 pm
Kelley Shannon — Sunday March 25, 3:00 pm
I am in the middle of working on two large custom pieces, so I am working one week on and one week off each one. This means I’m not drawing much from my own work, but I am still studying for future pieces. This can get a little weird. I am used to completely dedicating myself to one piece at a time and to one field of research. Currently, my study ranges from quantum entanglement to action potentials of muscle cells, plus my own research into the human brain. (It sounds more complicated than it is). I am finding that when I reintroduce myself to a field I haven’t been studying for a while, I have to give myself a refresher. There’s all this information I’ve already read that I seem to have forgotten! And it hasn’t even been that long since I was reading it!
Why is that?
I’ve noticed that any information that I have already incorporated into an art piece, I retain a firm grasp on (at least I think I do), however the data I haven’t used yet seems to be a bit hit or miss as to whether or not I still remember or understand it. A lot of it is still there, but it takes a lot more work to bring it back up to the forefront of my mind. I thought back on any mathy sciency stuff I have studied over the past couple of years and realized that anything I incorporated into a piece of artwork holds a realness today that the other research just doesn’t have. It’s been sustained.
When I noticed this, I immediately wanted to rush back to my school days and tell myself to paint something after or during everything I learned. To capture it in a drawing or a statue. The drawing wouldn’t “mean” what I learned, but it would somehow represent it, or reference it. Whenever I looked at it, I would know that it came from learning about calculating the area of a triangle or turning points in the civil war. No one else would really have any idea of the connection unless I made it obvious, but for me, it would always be there, living in my art. This would mean that remembering all those hours of study wouldn’t be left completely to chance. I would walk out of school with a gallery of my studies. With solid and very real representations of my academic journey. I think I did that to a degree. I doodled constantly and every now and then I’d offer a teacher a painting for extra credit based on the work, but I think you can do more with it.
Kids tend to dig creating. Why not let them? Why not support them creating something in connection with their study? You don’t have to limit this to drawing, you can easily do the same thing with music, film or literature….
For instance, all of the data in the image below is just floating around with nowhere to go. When I finally get to draw it, I really do think it will stick around, if not forever, than a lot longer than if it just lives in this form. My work is a bit more direct with it’s connection to the data, but I don’t think you necessarily need to draw with formulas for this to work.
Just thought I’d mention that. Back to work now.
Happy Pi Day! To celebrate, I am having a sale on my Etsy store for 31% off! (because 3.
14159265358…% off just didn’t seem all that exciting for a sale).
Soon, very soon, I will have a whole new line of geeky silkscreen TShirts. My friend, Marcus of ANOVA prints gave me a tester sample of the shirts, so I decided to put up what I have. For the full 24 hour period of 3/14/2012, you will get 31% off the shirts I have as well as ALL the giclee canvas prints up in my shop.
In the shopping cart, type in the coupon code PIDAY2012 to get the discount.
Sienna’s Numberism work will be featured this weekend at the Sandy High Music Foundation Dinner and Auction Night. We will be donating a full Mirabilis, along with a triptych of the same piece. Auction prices will start at $70, $75 and $120 with all proceeds going to further musical education for Sandy High.
Or if you’re just feeling charitable, donations are also being accepted at the above website via the Donate Now button.
Sandy High Music Foundation Dinner and Auction Night
Saturday, March 10th
Cedar Ridge Middle School Gym
6pm Dinner and Silent Auction
7pm Live Auction
With Entertainment by the Sandy High Stage Band
The Artists Repertory Theatre in downtown Portland is hosting an Artist Reception for my new Numberism installation on Saturday, February 4th preceding a performance of “(I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi”. For this occasion, I specially created 5 limited edition giclee canvas prints larger than I have ever dared print them before. They are each #1 of 4, first run. The center piece is the really special installation. I hand painted it with uv reactive paint (in numbers) which will be activated during the reception. I have also included a collection of unlimited framed giclees.
I highly recommend staying for the performance from this talented group which I am excited to install artwork for.
1515 SW Morrison
Portland, Oregon 97205
Box Office: 503.241.1278
Saturday, February 4th
Reception: 6:30 – 7:30pm Free to attend
Performance: 7:30 – 9:30pm – Tickets start at $20
(You may attend the reception without going to the performance, but you would be missing out)
A little about “(I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi”
Is the desire of love or power the most alluring?
Edgy and visceral, this contemporary adaptation of Webster’s classic Jacobean revenge tragedy is a world-premiere production. In this re-imagined classic, the Duchess of Malfi defies her brother’s chess game of power, manipulation and morality. Laced with violence and shocking wit, this macabre, plot-twisting, back-stabbing saga of murder, sex and betrayal doesn’t come to a pretty end. Written by former Portland playwright, Joseph Fisher, whose Artists Rep credits include adaptations of Chekhov’s The Seagull (2006) and Carlo Goldoni’s The New House (2003).
Sienna Morris created the drawing technique Numberism in the summer of 2008, a term which she coined when she could find no other name for it. She has also worked as a painter and graphics designer. She currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon and can be found every Saturday and Sunday at the Portland Saturday Market.
