Ghosts of Projects Past

The blog gets a name change. Again. "Amanda's Projects" wasn't so overall fitting because I lately haven't had time for many projects other than photography for Amkar, and there's already a separate blog for that. So I've renamed to "Pseudofluency", the name once known as my college radio show I hosted for a semester. Not quite fluent, but kind of. I may highlight projects here and there, but mostly I will muse and provide perspective on this and that.

I have clearly had less time for piddly projects, which I do miss. But my busyness with Amkar has been successful busyness, and I feel great about that. I've learned so many new things just within the past 9 months. I can't help being stubborn sometimes to learn new things; if not for my partner in art and technological advancement, I would be 10 times less the professional I am today. I have to remind myself to always embrace new ideas, equipment upgrades, workflow simplification, etc.

However, I still miss the piddly projects. They must dwindle now as things of yesteryear. I was looking through old blogs and remembering weird and pointless things I made just for blog intrigue, like the Buddy Skeleton made of rolled and sculpted paper, various Halloween cakes, the Mobile Doomsday Bunker, conceived costumes never worn anywhere. My mind was (and is) always peaked with activity when an artistic project was happening. I feel happy and excited to construct and to problem solve. It's curious to behold what happens when an artist creates. It's a function of the fantasy in me. I realize there is no fantasy that can become reality, but in art there is a conduit and a manifestation.

Before blogs existed, I had created a load of projects which somehow got destroyed before they could make it to digital fame. I wish I had them still, or at least a photo. Some of them still sit, dusty, on a bookshelf in my parents' basement. Some day I'll go reclaim them and give them their 15 minutes of digital fame. I recreated all sorts of movie props and figures, sculpted of clay, paint and cardboard. My masterpiece circa 1994 was a pretty smart replica of Star Wars character Boba Fett's costume helmet. I remember every detail and exactly how I constructed it. I remember creating the sunstone, moonstone and world stone keys from the pc game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, which in the game were used collectively to open secret doors. The world stone must be in that basement somewhere. It's like a lair of treasures just in itself. I feel motivated to photo-excavate.

I do still have the Neverending Story Auryn, the medalion worn by the main character as a protective amulet during his journeys. The Auryn is hanging from the rearview mirror in my car; two snakes twisting around each other forming a pretzel-like circle. It reminds me of those days when I extracted something from fantasy and brought it to life with my own hands.

Nostalgic. Time to excavate.