The Stuff of Dreams

This week, enter the mind of local artist Ben Gilbert of Crayons and Cardboard, as he shares his latest artistic inspirations and ponderings ...

It's time to return to the basement and see if we can communicate with Molly through the use of the deep dream... I hesitate to go there since who knows how upset she be still even after the many months since the move... But the sacrifice will be worth it..

I have been toying with the Deep Dream computer vision program designed by Google... Darkness, dusk, and dawn are my focus... Layers of glass, mist and reflection... Close up... smaller things... The lighter the light the less intriguing the resulting image:.. Singular well defined entities create the better image...

Shining a red light on black plastic bags with a perfect circle as a hole is creating some intriguing images as well as certain products... Colorful drinks like Gatorade with its rainbow of colors are useful... There seems to be lots of birds lizards and rodents popping up in the creations. I tried a hippo but it didn't warp enough... Bunny and cats did well as well as certain lit humans.. Dark holes and little imperfections in walls and floors make cool images also...

Some staged pieces work better than others... It's hit and miss... I have made some cool cityscapes also... Again at night... ll be making more postcards and magnets in the future... Clearing out most of the stockpile of blank cardboard... I will continue to make things with crayon and can always replenish the cardboard...

This is a time of transformation and movement as well as the dumping of a lot of the crap I have collected over the last 3 years. At least the heat will end soon... Maybe night snow will make some come alive...

Some of the old pieces will survive through careful preparation and luck so I don't regret using the commercial cardboard at all... Just keep watching Antique Roadshow...,

I used Wikipedia to make a Dee painting and a work involving Malden Island... I'll keep using that and a random word generator in the future... I don't know where I will be next year but I'm here in some form until the end I can promise you that

-Ben