Muto's Mini Manuscript

*For the beginning of the new year, I will post one artwork every week. The text will alternate between stories from Hanes Art Center and poems I wrote this fall.*

At the end of my fall semester, I completed a short collection of poems for my creative writing class. The assignment was to publish our own book. I only made one copy, but I intend to post most of the work here. I titled the book "Synonym for Thought" as a joke to myself, because I looked up the word in the thesaurus several times while writing. It also fit nicely on the cover artwork. Here is an image of the book and the opening poem:




Risk: Jungle Gym Symphony No. 5

Sitting on the bar for a whole-note rest.

Caution sings chaotic chords:

The dissonance of injury,
Or the cadence of reward.

Tensions build up to crescendo;
Lean back for release—

Gravity flicks his baton:
Cue octave increase.
Spinning through chromatic scales
Speed: prestissimo
Landing on a leading tone,
Then tonic, balance shows;
Heartbeats bounce through major scales
As tempo, starts, to slow,

Double bar lines end the piece.

It’s now yours to transpose.


© 2010 Gregory Halloran

12:30 am The Coolest Thing I've Ever Found in the Trash

___This collage isn't just the result of the same old artistic process; it has an origin story. It is a result of one of my favorite activities, staying up late in Hanes Art Center, and a great coincidence.
___One evening this fall, I arrived at the art building a little past midnight to work on my photography project. "Greg why would you start an art project after midnight?" you might ask. I will answer this with a rhetorical question. "Don't you love it when every night before a project is due, from 6:00pm to 12:00am , there is a girl in the darkroom dancing around to Disney princess sing-alongs, as she splashes developer all over the floor?" So, I arrived late enough to have the dark room all to myself. I took the stairs up to the third floor, but before I got to work, I had to go to use the men's room.
___I walked down the hall to find the familiar sight of a custodian's cart blocking the door to the bathroom. I have come to the conclusion that the Hanes Art Center is under an evil spell; I call it the curse of the cleaning lady. It is similar to Murphey's law, but much more annoying. If a student is working on an art project after midnight, whatever floor he is on when he needs to use the restroom, will always be the floor on which the janitor is cleaning the bathrooms.
___Hence, I took the stairs back down to first floor, cursing at the curse of the cleaning lady, until I saw something beautiful. Nestled neatly in the middle of a mass of garbage, there in the trash can, were some of the coolest photographs I had ever seen. They had amazing colors and reminded me of my attempts at abstract photography. I didn't know what I could do with them, but I felt that they should not be in the trash. I put them in my locker until I could figure out who made them. I finished my photography project, which I will show you later, and I left the HAC determined to find the artist of the mysterious treasures I had found in the trash.
___A few week's later, I found out that they were most likely the work of a grad student, Lydia McCarthy. When I saw her after a visiting artist lecture, I had to ask her how she did it and if I could use her work in my collage. I don't know if she was flattered or creeped out when I approached her with the stack of her work that I had been keeping in my locker, but she was nice enough to let me use her photographs in my piece. Her pictures make up the background of my piece, reminiscent of the northern lights. I highly recommend you check out her website and read about the ideas behind her artwork. http://www.lydiamccarthy.com/

___My collage is possibly the first thing I have made that has a sense of narrative. The story wrote itself as I sorted through magazines looking for pictures. It is hard to see in the picture, but on the left side, there is an army of cranes and construction workers building a high tech city that is encroaching on the wilderness. The bloody child is escaping the city to venture into an unknown world. It is unsure whether the man in the tree, searching the landscape, will be his friend or foe.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Folded Friend

I recently constructed a mobile of thirty paper cranes that were flying away to escape a charging rhino. Making the thirty paper cranes did take a long time, but not as long as it did to figure out how to make one origami rhino. As a result, I am very attached to my paper creation. I tried to use the instructions on this website http://www.fishgoth.com/origami/anidiag.html, which had the best-looking design I could find, but I got confused near the end and I made the head by myself. I will post pictures of the mobile soon.

Muto's Motto #10

The little things add up.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Mosca

This is the third project I have completed for 2-D design. Were supposed to use color in a symbolic way. I decided to do a semi-realistic painting where I used the McDonald's colors, but made them muddy and displeasing to reflect my opinion of the food. For reference, I used an old photo I shot of a McDonald's cup nestled inside some fiberglass insulation.



As I was documenting my work, I quickly shot this funny image of a real fly on the painting.


© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Dynamic Drawing

This was the second project I did for my 2-D design class this year. We were supposed to make a dynamic composition that showed depth using only circles, lines, triangles, and classical shading.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Minis #13

I found some time to doodle up a couple of tiny new paintings over the weekend and it was a lot of fun. They are the results of complete improvisation on canvas cards with my small set of oil paints. The compositions are probably slightly inspired by the work of Matt Jones whose art I have been admiring recently. I ended up cutting down the color palette and increasing the sense of motion over my first oil painting. What do you think? Tell me if you want one for free. I plan to make more.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Moment #16

Photo courtesy of Marina Martinez

Echoes

When we were saplings
Eager to grow
We soaked up the songs
Of our natural mother

And we learned to sing
Repeat, repeat
Reproducing her sounds
One after the other

And when we saw
The subtle song
Of a single, stable
Tree

We learned it quick
So that it could echo
In our structures
For eternity

©2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Motto #9

The world is more beautiful with eyes closed. Everyone who is peaceful already knows.

I have started to make art for 2-D design and Photography class, but nothing is finished yet. I am so busy working, that I cannot keep up with the blog. I will resume a normal update schedule when I am producing finished works on a regular basis. When my teachers return my work, I will have something to show. Best wishes to all. See you soon.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Moment #15

Examining Experience

What best yields appreciation?
Sweet surprise or anticipation?
Must a taste first be acquired,
Craved, deprived, and then desired?

Or should the first bite shock the tongue
Into a joy that can't be sung?
Does pleasure increase with preparation
Or does ignorance enhance sensation?

Who among us feels the best
The novice or the addict?
Does it matter anyway?
The answer might be tragic.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Outrageous Oils

This is my first oil painting. Testing how colors blend is the first thing I do with every media. I am not completely satisfied, but I think I know the drill now.

I am about to start photography, 2-D design, music theory, Spanish, and poetry, so there should be lots of exciting work to display soon!

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Five Faces

This is a digital version of the image from my first mobile. I created it to serve as the background for my music website This image keeps the blended color theme from the mobile. I like to think the craze of colors joining in the center represents my eclectic personality as well as my music. The five faces show that I embrace all emotions in my music, especially both peace and anger.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Moment #14

Intelligent Dissatisfaction

I think therefore
I am not good enough
I will try until I'm no longer me

I think therefore
I will always need more
I must know what I cannot see

But would there be
Something wrong with me
If I did not care to think?

If I could do anything
I’d trade thoughts for feelings

Would it make me less a man
If I feel therefore I am?
If I chose a pure sensation
Over clear examination?

I would not have intelligence
To interrupt experience
If I could do anything
I’d trade thoughts for feelings

It wouldn’t matter why I’m here
Or if the past is still unclear
I wouldn’t need the evidence
I’d settle for happiness

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Four Photographs

This tetraptych is comprised of four pictures I took at Duke Gardens in the summer of 2009. They were all shot with a Yashica FX-3 35mm SLR camera.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Music #5

This is a jazz/rock jam recorded with my new microphone. It has drums, bass, and guitar.


© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Morbid Babies

I recently got my hands on a sonogram image of myself in my mother's womb and a new x-ray of my spine. I really like the high contrast nature of the images and I thought they would look good spliced together. Here are my creepy creations.



The first one reminds me of Egyptian portraits with front facing bodies and heads in profile. I would like to make the sonogram into and album cover. What do the images make you think of? Which do you like better?

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Minis #12

I had some left over matt board, so I decided to cut it into drippy shapes with a slight sense of gravity. I really focused on the negative space carving into the body of the smaller one. My texture experiments are continued on top of each shape. Next, I want to try one with more relaxing colors. Which one do you like better?

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Moment #13

Girl of My Dreams

I can’t remember how I got here

I only know the future

I can’t remember who she is

But I’m sure I love her

There is no time

There’s no today

Floating we lie

Side by side

Hold me and I’m sure we’ll fly away

Soaring through the flowers

Till we fall into the clouds

I whisper sweet words in your ear

But you don’t need the sounds

Something strong and crystal clear

Lifts us from the ground

You and I were meant to fly

Love is what we’ve found

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Moment # 12

Nonchalant

Come with me
We'll fly away
And wander as the sun is dying

Don't look down
There's nothing wrong
Just stay asleep
And keep on flying

In your dreams
Time moves so slow
It's such a waste
Unless you know

That time is just
A silly thing
To tell you when
To watch TV

Dream away
And keep on flying
Sleep all day
The sun is dying

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Music #4

This is a video of a bunny I recorded earlier this summer along with a tiny song I recorded this morning.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Motto #8

Nothing is Important, Unless it's Something You Can Miss.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Pedagogic Portrait #2

This is another portrait I made in my first drawing class at UNC. It is a profile of my friend and classmate, Laura. We didn't have much time, so I used minimal shading on the face and played with the texture of the hair. I also goofed around with the cord from her headphones.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran

Muto's Moment #11

Two of a Kind

We talk

We sing

We dance

We play

My friend and I, together all day.

We win

We lose

We laugh

We smile

Can you stay another little while?

We climb

We roam

We find

We see

I can go anywhere if my friend's with me.

We tell

We share

We solve

We dream

My friend and I: the perfect team.

© 2010 Gregory Halloran