SHORT CIRCUIT

SHORT CIRCUIT,
Thinking green can sometimes be an after thought or in the back of our minds when most of us are just concerned with just making sure to quickly leave the house at a certain time and  then relaxing when we get home. Out of our convenience, we don’t want to be bothered by the way we can change everyday things because to some of us it’s perfect the way it is. “I’m not going out of my way to do something that doesn’t make a difference”. But of course it ultimately does affect us all. Many things on the list are considered a habit and it usually takes a month or three to finally sway away from wasteful habits. Even small changes can make a difference. This project is to get more people to inform themselves. By simply tracing back their day to find small alterations. A big change now as part of redeeming ourselves is purchasing items that have “green association” as much as possible. Even though sometimes clean energy isn’t really clean energy.

As we lean towards a better direction, people will follow and it usually takes like minded people who simply talk to start a wave of support.
This project is my way of having “green”  being more a part of our conversation. You will see me definitely wear this on BART.

This idea of a gas mask ever evolving was a concept I learned from the best in the market today. My goal is to further create an idea that is easily recognizable and collectable. I hope everyone will be as excited as i am to see how each gas mask update evolves throughout the years.

My Clothing Brand is currently under works. The online store will follow.

I hope you guys are as excited as I am when everything finally comes together!!!!!

My graphic tees will be coming soon.

Sicklabz.com

 

 

 

SHOE TREE

Shoe tree,

I’ve for weeks looked constantly out of the car window and as the bus passes through some random areas of neighborhoods. I looked “emo” in the process. I relentlessly looked to find the perfect tree size so when I do hang the shoes I wouldn’t need to climb like a monkey in order to tie them on branches. The branches would have to be strong enough to hold the shoes or me and the branches shouldn’t hide the shoes with its excess leaves. I had no problem with supplying shoes as I just took randomly from the collection me and my brothers had lying around in the house. Worst case scenario I would need a permit to do a photo shoot at some park, a tall ladder to climb it, and a leaf blower or a chain saw to remove excess leaves. Yes, I was willing to do whatever. I even asked friends if they had trees growing specifically in the “backyard” ….not in their attic or basement or next to their computer table. I just had to clarify (LOL). This shoot was a success in the way that I didn’t have any of the issues I was concerned about and it perfectly portrayed my own representation to the classic urban shoe hanging on a power line. I would’ve thrown over some Jordan’s but it looks amazing regardless.

To all the shoe-heads out there who hope to have shoes under their Christmas tree this year. This is for you!

We all know that Santa Clause has a huge carbon footprint. let’s go out and get a real Christmas tree this year and try our best to be environmentally conscious during the time it is hardest to do so.

http://t.co/1VjfrKkm

 

SQUID

I love sushi and any type of ocean food. And I won’t let anything stop me from eating what I love until it’s no longer available. This is and will be the problem for the future sea food lovers. With a lot going on with the oceans like giant floating islands of trash, little things can change or ultimately affect the oceans complex food chain and then your dinner plate. To assure no one species is singled out for consumption or depleted, people have to be more aware which species are in danger due to a variety of reasons like the seasons. Being aware sometimes to pick the alternative or sometimes not to can make a difference whether or not we have our favorite sea food dish in supply for next seasons catch. Even though quotas on websites are set to regulate and easy iPhone and android phone apps now tell you up-to-date information, it rests on the community to ultimately be responsible. This squid represents the Consumers and our choices. “Don’t ink the oceans. keep it sustainable.”Promote healthy oceans and protect fish reserves from overfishing!

This piece was actually really fun to make while I watched the Disney shows on Netflix. I wish I took a picture of how the living room looked like at the time I was working on this project. The area was all occupied and laid out with tools and materials. A little dangerous since I had a lot of pins and needles but I made sure to put them right on top of my white board so it would be plain easy to spot. Working with fabric was still new to me but it was so easy to work with. The hardest part of the project was making the arms as they needed to be of all the right length and stay together with the main body of the squid. I used electrical tape to slowly bend and shape the curve of each arm. I used a folding technique to replicate the shape of the main body of the squid so it would look more realistic. Once everything came together or stayed together, it was done and ready for the photo set. The photo set this time again was in the bathtub.

Here’s a link to help us out.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx

 

SICK AVENUE

I did alot of walking in my life. It was the best way I could gather my thoughts that would run through my mind. As i would go look for props, I make sure I would walk around not just in between shelves in a store but walk the streets to draw inspiration. Have you ever pushed the car seat all the way back and looked straight up out the car window as you lay down? As you pass through the city’s architecture, patterns, lights, signs and colors? If you have you might notice the huge influence of propaganda. This is my way of saying SickLabz is finally here and we want everyone to know.

This edit was a process because I had different versions and it had alot of layers I needed to remove since it was by a park and the street. There were joggers and people in cars bending their necks to see what was going on. We definitely had fans! I finally went with black and white as it not just compliments my model but my shirt that we had actually made ourselves. We used some vinyl, vinyl cutter and a vector program using just the right style of font. The quote was inspired by gay pride weekend.

 

BUSINESS CLASS

BUSINESS CLASS
Things work the way it does  for a reason and that reason is us (the buyers).
We love to buy things cheap  in general to save money, well most of us! But we don’t automatically think when we buy it as to why it is cheap. To keep profits high and retail prices low, there are multiple hidden reasons that some companies and retailers don’t advertise along with the price. Just one of the ways is to the disadvantage of workers as cheap labor that ultimately was outsourced to another country. For the reason that the laws are less strict or protective and therefore are more easily exploited because they will take less than have nothing. Labor in developed countries is expensive for a reason and to give the same privileges to outsourced labor isn’t priority to profit hungry companies. But then we take the blame because we are the reason why it is this way. The idea is to be an advocate for fair trade or prevent exploitation of another’s countries environment and workers. Either we shop at Walmart or Walgreens, being informed about what products come from where and how, prevents economic gain to be one sided. Not just with countries but in social classes as well that there is an economic imbalance.

Here’s to the 99%!

 

THERMO GAS MASK

The sketch was done by a friend. I cropped it out off the sketch book and just photoshopped all its possibilities and this is what I ended with. The image reminds me of a steal factory and workers using heat resistance face shields. Also adding our spin on things and staying with a theme. This will be an reaccuring theme in our future work. I will try my best to reinvent each design and most likely have the masses decide what is to be the next prototype. Enjoy!

 

VOODOO

Voodoo

Being gay and finally owning up to it took a long time. I knew how it can get really dark, alone, and you can’t do anything but suffer in silence. While you want acceptance, a feeling of place, and some understanding of why society hates you. All this in a ball that accompanied the feeling of just ending it all. You can sometimes feel like a puppet, a “voodoo doll” like if someone else was to blame for all the pain caused to you. So you end up blaming yourself thinking there was something wrong with you. Thinking “I was created into this world to take on all the pain and suffering.” The people who made or caused pain to you are the same people  who are unhappy with themselves. They are the same people who are missing something in their lives but eventually grow tired once they know they are the ones lacking. All you can do is hang in there everyday until the needles stops hurting. eventually it always gets better once we all accept ourselves. Because let’s be real everyone, it stops hurting once we all know the voodoo effect doesn’t really work but just make us stronger.

Making a voodoo I knew would be easy as long as you got the proportions right. Then all you have to do is dress it up. something I knew not to overlook was to make sure it would hold together and not fall apart. I used really strong number 2 pencils I broke into 2 to hold up the frame. I borrowed some of the items from my dads watch repair shop. I kept the buttons on with needles. I strapped the batteries around the waist with a stretchy strap. I didn’t worry so much on how it would look at first. I can easily keep all the thread, needles, and pins covered with final pieces of fabric.

I barely did any dramatic changes on editing the image on Photoshop because the photo alone would already make the cut.

To any of my readers who are considering or have thought about suicide. Please call The Trevor Hotline, which is a 24-hour toll-free suicide prevention line aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youths:

1-866-4-U-TREVOR

 

CASSETTE TAPE

Being necessarily cheap as I can be when I need to, I was looking around the house as usual to see what unused material I can salvage to use for my next project. I saw a lot of cassette tapes! I noticed a lot of it was labeled so being considerate as I am, I thought to not probably ruin important recordings and go out and buy my own supply to just mess with. So as I was in the store (Walmart) I wasn’t sure yet what to do with this supply. And when it came to me “Who uses cassette tapes these days anyways?” As I walked pass by some electronics, I asked a worker “Where the hell are the cassette tapes?”, and he pointed down the hall. I only knew one thing and that the only feasible part in the tapes were the film inside of them. As I thought what to spell out, I also found a smart way to hold the film down as I spelled each word out. Pretty cool for a project I had no idea what do with and constantly thought about. The end result was pretty “sick” .

Advertise your taste in music!!!

 

GOO

Sicklabz goo,

I’ve seen a lot of fantastic art work utilizing the mixture of a variety of colors together to make an expressive form. Pulling from my inner Bill Nye the science guy, I was looking forward to getting down and dirty. But planned the project accordingly so I don’t leave a trail of goo everywhere. A good reason was being that I live in a two bedroom apartment with eight other people. The bathtub was a pretty safe bet as it would be contained. I wanted my own expressive and unique view of colors and at the same time reflect my own artistic style.

I used different colored cups to coordinate which dyes was which. Then I separated egg whites into each cup. Food coloring was the added ingredient. I didn’t stir the egg whites but just swished them to get the color through. I had placed letters before hand so that it wouldn’t be floating atop the goo. I made sure to slowly pour in order to keep the letters together. I used the q-tip to clean out excess color that disrupted the visibility of the letters. All was good along with the clean up. A simple hose down with the shower head and everything went down the drain.

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SckLbz

 

MONK

I’m a big fan of the idea of selflessness, a journey in life that takes finding ones self as well, the meaning or having reason through Zen. I wanted to do a project that’s not just appealing but also have sensible meaning. The perfect representation of my outlook to good living is in the mind of a Buddhist monk. I took a few yards of three separate fabrics and taught myself through YouTube to wrap a traditional Buddhist monks robe. I had to imply to my model no coffee, soda, or any type of hyper inducing beverage as to assure the feeling of peace and calm in the moment. I adore the lifestyle so I incorporate the way of thinking in small ways into my crazy and uncertain life. I hope with the rubix cube my vision pulled together the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk and perfectly represent process, time, patience, and enlightenment. I hope it embodies all these things and more.

The robe was a total of three pieces and no he wasn’t commando. The photo was actually taken on top of a bed. I didn’t seem to ask how tall he was at first but good thing the night before I had snapped into realization he was taller than me. The whole time I’ve been using my own measurement thinking we were the same height. So that morning I made a run to the fabric store just to make sure he wasn’t going to be sporting a skirt! I knew it would work either way cause I knew he was going to be sitting down. At the end of it he was a really easy model to work with. Well since the idea was not a lot to process and was straight forward. I was a little nervous because of the shoot was going to be done while the house looked not at its best. I looked like I was up all night also. My model looked great and that’s all that matters!

There should be more than one tutorial video on YouTube that shows how a monk dresses.