head in the clouds.

with your
smile 
as you sit at your pew
teeth grinding down
—miscarriages of truth—
prayer warriors holding torches
mirrored light against the night
is a blindfold
faith
is beautiful and worthwhile
reality
—more than what it seems—
what goes on inside church walls
is clearly
supposed to be recognized by you
propaganda is not
an issue here
so we always avoid
brainrot and clickbait news cycles
equipped with
common sense
understanding
the taxpayers are not
rich people
so why do we keep funding
the unhoused and hungry
and forget
they eat your vote
these villains laugh as
they sit around and live off the rest of us
only powerful men—
police—there to protect and serve
the community on your street
laws are only enforced against
criminals
so the public elects
good border agents
there are no
peaceful protestors
no, don’t think about those
rubber bullets
for compliance and submission
tools
priests are
a moral compass and guide
forgiveness and empathy—
steering you away from
temptation and greed
the goal is simple—
love
the Bible is not
read bottom to top
and
line by line
turn these words around
Before the bad thing happens,

A trip through a maze...

True story: I once created a maze with a hundred other people.

In a fully 3D digital world, the maze was a series of rooms or “levels” where the player would often reach one of several different doors/portals/secret passages. These paths all led to other levels. Sometimes they’d take you closer to the end, sometimes they’d take you backward.

I know there was at least one drop from way high in the sky that took you near the beginning. The maze had a hundred different levels. Each level usually contained a theme or challenge. Sometimes you can to successfully jump to the top of a mountain, over a series of platforms. A fall could mean a hot lava bath (or accidentally stumbling upon the next door).

I was just out of college when I started on making this maze. Gradually, I opened it up for people to create their own levels, which were carefully woven into the rest of the maze. Hundreds of people contributed. Some just worked with others. Some decorated. Some spend hours building their own level by themselves.

When I reflect on that time, I think about the artistry involved.

Each of those levels was beautiful, really. The decoration, mood lighting, etc.. It was all there. Most levels were pretty creepy, mysterious (as a maze should be!). Some levels were entirely based on chickens—literally the platforms would only move if a chicken would randomly step on a button or not. There was a giant chicken at the end of that level to reward you and tell you that you are, in fact, worthy.

We had creepy forest levels, dark dungeon—fight the monsters—levels, underwater glass tube levels, steel cage rooms, extremely long hallways filled with empty treasure chests, floating orbs of water in a black void that you had to swim up, a bookcase library maze, an entire level dedicated to Waluigi where you had to ride a train through a giant replica of his nose, a bamboo jungle, a level where you had to solve a mystery of a nuclear reactor in a small town, a level where you had to take a boat off a fully circular waterfall (falling toward the center of the circle), a trivia challenge level, and I know I’m forgetting a lot of it.

I think what made it special was that throughout the maze, there were signs to read. Each sign said something different. Like a poltergeist, trying a bunch of different tactics to get in your head. But the signs had personality. Going through the maze was like having a conversation with this poltergeist, but the poltergeist made you question yourself. Sometimes the signs had jack-o’-lanterns pinned to the tops, as if the pumpkin were the one speaking.

To reach the end, you had to hit the Door Level. Literally, hundreds of doors. Pick the right one, and you’d make it to the final level. The final level was a battle against monsters, of course. There was an automated final boss, too. You had to shoot arrows at particular spots of a giant Pumpkin King Monster, then run through the door to win.

I’m not sure anyone ever legit won. The maze was severely hard and confusing. Even I, the curator, easily got lost in it. The files for the maze were lost for years, but I recently managed to get it working. Still, it’s pretty glitched and non-functional. The code I used to create the portals is dead, for one thing. So, to explore you have to cheat by breaking open the walls. Some of the walls won’t even load at all, leaving empty space.

The artistry behind it. The scope. Some rooms were legit as tall as skyscrapers or as wide as entire cities, some levels CONTAINED entire cities. The people behind it. The hours spent. So many levels, all together. I think it may be one of the best art projects I ever did. I certainly put my passion into it. 

And now the maze is lost, mostly unplayable. Nobody has accessed it in years (except me). I don't have the time to fix it up. I have bigger art projects going on. I teach a creative writing class, and next semester my students will be creating a choose-your-own adventure together, building a maze with levels and rooms, leading all over. So, the maze from long ago still inspires me. I still think about who I became after I reached the end. 

AI Generated Art is Mad

DALL-E is an AI that generates images. I think it's really incredible.

I typed "tarantula made out of trees" and seconds later it generated these:

And these aren't just photos mashed together. It actually generates them. There are YouTube videos that explain it well. So, I'll just say I'm pretty amazed.

"A Monster With Hooks for Hands"

"A Scarecrow Man Turning Into A Flock Of Crows"

"Reality"

Here's a few more random ones I generated. But, I must say, this tech is impressive and terrifying. Either way, it's here, and it's only going to get better.

Automation is a crazy thing, but this art is better than 90% of the stuff you see in your local cafes, and generated within seconds. Why would companies in the future ever pay an artist when they can generate logos/ads through an AI? 

Everything will change. Someday, the AI generated books will be better than the ones that writers write. 

Sun, Moon, Star, Fire

click image for higher res

 Been exploring mixing up digital and traditional mediums lately. I drew a black-and-white version of this by hand, scanned it in, then used a bunch of different design programs to layer colors and textures throughout. 

Relativity

 

I think Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is one of the most mind-boggling concepts. It has really pushed by brain for the fiction concepts I've been working on. 

I'll start this out by saying, I'm no scientist (or mathematician or physicist...), so I might get some things wrong (feel free to point errors out to me). I also have a simplistic concept of relativity stored in my brain, which is warped by the artistic abstractions and imaginative modifications I come up with.... so... This writing isn't about balancing any equations or being spot on. Most of my research comes from a read of A Brief History Of Time and also Google searches.

Concepts I found on the Internet: 1. The basic idea is that instead of being an invisible force that attracts objects to one another, gravity is a curving of space. The more massive an object, the more it warps the space around it.

2. Gravity has an infinite range, although its effects become weaker as objects are set farther away from each other.

The classic example used to break your brain into understanding relativity is playing a game of ping pong on a moving train. 

So, if you're watching the game of ping pong from on the moving train, it will look like it's going the normal speed... but in reality, it's going the normal speed plus the speed that the train is moving. 

If the train were transparent, and you viewed the game from on the ground, you'd see the ping pong ball going 100 mph and not 10 mph. 

I think that's mind boggling in itself. 

But then, to think of gravity as not just an attraction of an object to the ground, but a curving of spacetime itself... That gets my mind going. Also, gravity has unlimited range, but weakens as the objects get farther away. 

Imagine the sci fi of that. What if a machine could trick the laws of physics into making two objects that are far apart be considered by universal law to be close together? What if you could curve space so that two distance spaces touched? I know a million shows have used wormholes and portals, but the concept is really much deeper if you really think about relativity. 

Even the word relativity inspires me creatively. Like, isn't so much of art about relating this and that? Isn't so much of why a character can enchant a reader about the relativity of that character to the universe she/he occupies? 

Break relativity down into an artistic abstract for a minute. Think about the relativity of creating a fictional world, but putting something of significance into it, something that affects the gravity of your world/story. 

Create a home, in your brain. Create a family. Create where the adults work, where the kids sleep and play nearby. Now, create a dangerous object, hidden somewhere. That danger really curves the space, warps the universe of the story. Who will find the dangerous object? Who will use it? Where did it come from?

Think about the relativity of yourself in your real life. How do you bend/shape/warp/curve the family/friends/coworkers/places/gravity around you? 

Teaching myself how to draw a chameleon, then painting one

1

The first attempt. Never really sketched a chameleon before. I studied a few examples of live chameleons. I decided it was important to have spikes on the back and chin, and blank stare-faces.

5

My fifth go was pretty good. I started thinking about the way stripes/colors would work. I added mouth scales. I thought about how many toes they have.

8

My second try at color didn't quite get it, but it was a start. I got the idea to use the eye as ridges for the accent colors. 

9

This one got the color right, but not quite the form. 
 

 I ended up using the form of number 5 and the color scheme of 9 to create this painting. I love how it came out. I gave it to my mom for Christmas. 

Brighter Side

I'm probably not the only person feeling a bit down about the state of the world. 

I was supposed to go to Disney World at the beginning of the month, but I know how minuscule that problem is compared to what the world is going through. Quarantine and social distancing does make me a little batty. I miss people! The idea of Halloween being cancelled is sad. That's like my spirit energy, my happy place. 

Anyway, the brighter side. 

I guess, acknowledging how awful the world is and will continue to be.... acknowledging the revolution the USA is going through because of the murder of George Floyd.... acknowledging that 502,387 globally have died and are continuing to die makes any of my issues potatoes shrunk to singular atoms...

I have been using my free time wisely. I've been making a ton of art. I've been working extremely hard on my writing. I made some major changes to my novel, and it's sooooo good right now. I'm super hyped for it. Man, I never thought I'd have this much free time to focus on art. It has been a deep dive. I've been really trying to avoid timesuck-type things like video games, and instead, immersing myself in art study and practice. That part has been great.

I hope to get more done before my job starts back up in August (I'm a theatrical technical director). Anyway, hope is hereafter (<- a phrase from The Unraveler, meaning hope is the dream of the future)! I am sure that things will get better. I am sure the world will grow stronger because of everything going on.

Stage Cross, a painting

My painting is complete!

One of my goals was to make this a painting that was highly reactive to light. The amount of light and direction you're standing determines how this painting looks. More sharp light or angle, more sharp points. Also, the actual light in the room determines how well you can see the red seats in the background. She's a character from my book.

Painting is a skill I am taking up because I want to be better at it. I'm new, so I've still got a lot to learn. I am happy with this one, though!

Stage Cross

normal light

dark

bright light

face

face 2, bright

Thanks for checking this out. If you enjoyed, why not read my short story about what happened at Azkaban next?

Drawing 1

This one was a failed experiment with color. I don't really like how it turned out, but failure is a learning experience. Tried to use odd colors for shaders.

The messed up thing on this one is that bird legs bend the other way. I still like what I was going for. Still, a color experiment. Eyeturtle. 

I drew this for my mom. She likes giraffes. 


next: drawing 2

The Squid Lady, a painting

So, just as an extra project, I’ve been painting. Here it is, finished:

darker lighting

* * * 

It was an awesome process to create, spent about a month doing it. She's actually a character from my novel, The Unraveler. I created her as a character a LONG time ago, and one of the first renditions of her was in a play I wrote. Her dress is all squid themed.

Being that she's a part of my novel, I also scanned her in and made a logo graphic:

* * *

 The actually finished painting is 3D! I'm all about inserting sculpture into painting. So, her tentacles all pop up and stuff. Her arm is like it's in the process for swinging up, making the viewer wonder who she's aiming at:

 * * *

I also wanted to document my process here, to show what I did.

I made the canvas myself out of scrap wood and cardboard

Painted black for a base

I knew she'd be 3D, so I painted it on hard plastic that'd keep it from breaking

pink base, gold light and blue for shadow

cutting out the parts

I looked at actual squid skin to design the tentacle. Took forever to paint white dots and fill them with black dots

Thanks for coming! Keep up with me in Twitter!

Writing & Art Update, The Classified Show

Man, TONS has happened in my life, artistically. I have had an unusual amount of time to devote to creating lately, and I’ve packed it in with art.

First, a big update about The Unraveler. It’s ready to go. I’ve edited it and edited it, used feedback from a bunch of people, and I’ve edited it some more. I think it’s time to try to sell it to agents, so wish me luck on that front. I’ve been perfecting my query letter.

Second, I’ve been working on the sequel novel, and it’s going to be incredible. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I’ve designed my novels to have huge payoff. The stuff I’m coming up with is, first and foremost, FUN. That’s the goal of my novel writing: to create novels that have a core rooted in FUN.

Also, I’ve been painting. She’s a character in my novel named Rosalyn, one of my favorites. I’m going to do a blog next month about my painting process, but I’ll share this for now:

Rosalyn Eris of The Unraveler

I also took part in another 24/hour new play festival with PRIME. They have an awesome new website. I was a set designer this time around, and so I helped to create the set that is pictured below. It’s supposed to be an apartment for a conspiracy theorist that has been ransacked by an unknown agency. Evidence is littered through the set. Each of the plays was about a conspiracy of sorts, so the set went with each.

Thanks for reading, catch up with me on twitter.

A post shared by David Oxyborb Aye (@oxyborb) on Apr 29, 2017 at 9:02am PDT

Best-of Me Around the Internet (Part 1)

I do a lot of stuff online that isn’t on this blog, so I thought I’d do a best-of sort of post that highlights some of my favorite art/writings/blogs/videos/etc. that I have up around the net. 

oxyborb.tumblr.com

First up is from my tumblr, which is dedicated to all the sketches and drawings I do. I felt inspired to draw a preying mantis one day, and I love the way I positioned its limbs. What do you think? 

http://oxyborb.tumblr.com/post/88209224729

oxyborb.com

Oxyborb is my gamertag, but I also named my nerd-culture blog it. One of the most popular posts I’ve written was about Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U. This mega-sized blog has tons of illustrations done by me!

 

From the Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U Mega Blog

 

So, I think Animal Crossing deserves 3 character slots. I think each could be a unique, non-clone character. I think Tom Nook should have a Red skin. Shovel Knight would be an amazing 3rd party addition. Dillon needs to be upgraded from Assist Trophy. Ridley is not too big, so shut up. Skull Kid would be wicked. Impa could be a heavier Sheik. I want the giant blue pig version of Ganon to be a character, separate from Ganondorf. Petey Piranha is still one of my favorite ideas, using tornadoes and slime as attacks. Nintendo needs to purchase every aspect of Super Mario RPG, and then Geno needs to have a new game made starring him (see pun for details) and a spot on the roster. King K. Rool is more interesting than Dixie.

Continue Reading this SMASHING post!

My music at Soundcloud!

I’m also a songwriter. I wrote an album and two of my buddies helped me perform and record it. One of my favorite songs is here for your listening pleasure.

 

My song, Explicit:

 

 

poetsrevolver.blogspot.com

 A Poet’s Revolver is a blog all about my life and thoughts and other stuff. I post photos and tell stories about events. One of those posts was about the time I and a friend went to Chicago and basically partied and went nuts every night.

 

From the My Wild Random Road Trip to Chicago:

 

We stayed the night at a friend from high school’s place and jammed out with his roommates. We went to a Spy Store, and checked out a bunch of weird spy gear you can buy. The next day we did coffee and then visited an old friend who used to run ITP (my old theatre company). We caught up, did a random hike, and talked with his fantastic girlfriend about dinosaur sign language and compared swords… After that, I met my traveling bud’s college friends at a pub, and we ate lunch (I had brussel sprouts). We then went to a hilarious musical comedy called “Cupid Has A Heart On” and then went out clubbing. We danced until 3am and were brought up to V.I.P.P. status, which was crazy. I don’t even want to write all the crazy things that brought us up there. It was a fantastic night, though. 

Continue reading about this crazy trip!

unravelatlas.blogspot.com

The Unraveler’s Atlas is a monthly creative experiment I do. Each month, I create a new fantastical beast that I might use (or already have used) in my fiction writing. 

 

From Arbuscula:

 

The Arbuscula is a sentient tree creature. It has four spiderlike legs and a great maw of a mouth. Some of the leaves are light-sensitive, which give the arbuscula a sense of sight. Arbuscula come in a variety of appearances and several different tree-breeds have been discovered. Although they are very hostile, they will often sit quietly and wait until their enemies leave. Any small-sized prey, however, will be killed if the risk is low enough. 

Continue reading about this monster!

harrisonaye.com

My first name is David, but my pen name is Harrison Aye (my middle name). My ultimate goal in life is to become a novelist and create worlds for readers to explore. The Unraveler is the novel I’m focusing on, so this blog is themed after it. But I post other writings on it as well. What I’m sharing here is a short story fan fic set in the Harry Potter universe. While that sounds lame, this is a story I was forced to write because the idea I had was so good that it screamed at me to come out. It’s not like other fan fic, but set in the past with characters well before any of the main book series.

 

From The King of Azkaban:

            0

     “So, why don’t you leave, then?” the ruined man asked. He looked a dementor himself, wearing a ratty black cloak over his striped garb and having a face so sunken it barely existed at all.

     “Erik, as I have told you many times before, I have as much left to go to as you do,” Sirius Black responded. “I’m old, hurting.”

     Erik coughed and laughed at the same time. “As much as I had, you have now. Azkaban is my home, my doom.”

     “Is that why the dementors leave you alone?” Sirius asked.

     “No, my friend. They leave me alone for the opposite reason that they ignore you.”      “Because I can transform into a dog?”   “Dogs, like yourself, are innocent, subjects to their upbringing.”

     “If you’re the opposite of innocent, then you’re guilty. You’re not the only one here who is.” Sirius laughed into his hands.

     “No, I’m not, but I hold regret and desire punishment for my crimes, which is the opposite of knowing that you’ve been wrongly accused. I am a ruined man, and I made myself this way. I have no emotions to feed them.”

     “What did you do that was so bad?” Sirius asked.

     Erik raised a bony white arm and pointed out the narrow slit in the stone.      Sirius did not bother to squint and peer through. Erik meant the dementors. What else could be out there? “What about them?”      “It’s quite the tale.”      “I have time, obviously,” Sirius said, stretching his arms and folding them behind his head. “I’m stuck here, the same as you, Erik.”

     “Only I am stuck, and Erik isn’t my name. It’s Ekrizdis, and I’m nearly eight hundred years old.”

     And so Ekrizdis told his story, and Sirius listened.

Continue reading about this story...

Thanks for reading this post! Why not come over and follow me on twitter? 😁

— Harrison Aye (@oxyborb) March 24, 2017

Christmas in the STL

A post shared by David Oxyborb Aye (@oxyborb) on Dec 16, 2016 at 11:08am PST