[Tomac]

This is different than what others post,

Check out my artworks here

***Background on how they came to existence***

Back in September 2001 just days before 911, my first mac arrived - an iBook 500Mhz.

I was taking OAC art at the time, and everyone was supposed to think up a topic. Whatever topic he/she chose would be used for the entire semester. After just one day of using my iBook, I was blown away. It was the first computer I ever had fun using. It didn't have the bland feel every Dull had. My obsession began.

Apple became my topic.

***9/11***
The day before 9/11, I'd drawn a large outline of the Apple logo on a board, unsure of what I'd do with it. Nothing came to my mind. When 9/11 occurred, I was freaked, but New York clicked with what I had in front of me. NY = BIG APPLE. SO many people have found different symbolism within the work. That is bin Laden in the flame by the way. My favourite piece.

***Steve Jobs forkin' Bill***
I remembered the OS 9 flower power background and "borrowed" that idea for this piece. It does look unfinished. I swiped the caricature of SJ from a site and gave it colour. Yeah yeah, so it's less original than it could be. Windows was not my cup of tea, so I had SJ fork the flag and leave Bill dangling - crying out for mercy! This is one of my least favourites - it looks quite unfinished.

***OS 10.1***
I'd been using 10.1 for a few months and loved it - stable and not a chore to use. Steve was always touting the "digital hub". OS X swirls everything together, through different connections, with little hassle. The only regret I have is the omission of Airport - it would have been a better choice than ethernet.

***Clay iBook***
Quite a challenge because it could've easily cracked or blown up. Building a wooden frame, squishing in the clay and waiting a week for it to dry - big hassle. Only then could I start shaving and detailing the clay. The keyboard was much easier than I thought, although I accidentally added two more keys than a real iBook has. The screen is quite thin - it was the most fragile part of the project. I did this project because I love the iBook design and wanted to test the limits of clay and my amateur abilities. It worked out nice - it survived the kiln.

***Clay Hand***
Gaudy. The hand is hollow and is three times the size of my hand. It has the old school, 6 colour Apple logo stripes on it. Basically it's the old Apple bringing in the new modern Apple to the world that we know today. I'd read about the Cube and did a little tribute for it. It was discontinued, but I knew many still love their Cubes so I had to include it. Even today, Cubes are still kickin' with upgrades which continue their longevity. 1 Ghz. I was too lazy to make a cheap leaf for the apple. By the way, turning the 2-D Apple into 3-D was interesting, but I gave it some attitude. I decided to make the bite a mouth - it telling the world Apple has survived throughout various years of ups and downs. It has new life.

That was a fun semester. I gained the highest mark in the class - 86%. Not too shabby; however, I did borrow A LOT from Apple. I hope I don't get sued for the logo use These are for good intentions only.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy these works. It was pure fun creating them - just like using a Mac.

Tom

 

[ehMax]

I'm not an artist, so I don' t know a cool way to say it... but I love it! Don't think I'd put the hand on my coffee table... but I love all the concepts.

Very cool stuff and fun reading some of your thought process behind it.

 

[Chealion]

Those are very nicely done... How long did each one take on avg?
I wish I had artistic talent, but c'est la vie...

 

[Peter Scharman]

Nice work...liked it all, in particular the clay powerbook. Cool conversation piece

 

[Tomac]

Thanks for the kind responses everyone.

Chealion,

I had a whole semester (4 months) to do all 5 pieces - I REALLY took my time which did lead to a rush at the end. These were mostly done during class time - 70 minutes a day. 9/11 took a month from start to finish - I wanted to get it done correctly. By the way, these are all painted with the cheapest acrylics on the planet - quite a pain when mixing colours. The flower power one was a pain in the ass - I constantly put it aside in favour of the others. I tried to experiment and use acrylic as if it were watercolour - not fun The big X is MASSIVE; it took a month also. I learned to use a toothbrush to flick on mists of paint to make the smooth transitions in the background - great tip from my teacher. The clay iBook and hand were done in a rush; however, they turned out well. It took about 3 1/2 weeks for the iBook - building the wooden frame mold, letting the clay dry for a week, shaving layers off for hours and etching in the ports, keyboard, polishing, etc. After I'd finished that, I had less than ONE week left to complete a fifth project. I hate deadlines! Amazingly, the hand only took me 3 FULL days of complete dedication. I went without any sleep one of those days. The actual hand is basically mine - 3 times fatter - I looked at my left hand using it as the model while I worked the clay with my right. Big time saver - so much better than working from 2-D pictures. The white Apple is completely hollow - would have blown up in the kiln otherwise - very thin walls. I'm really glad I created these works, but kudos to Apple - none of these would exist if they hadn't released Mac OS X and the iBook. I'm now an Apple user for life!

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to post.

Thanks

 

[MacDaddy]

Those are cool! I really like the OS X one, and opposite of ehMax, I would put the hand on my coffee table (I'm such a geek!)