J.B. Lowe

Atari iPod dock

2011-12-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
I recently put some tech knowledge to some use by creating an Ipod dock with some unique features to it. I'll take you through some of the steps to how I made it.

Firstly, I had my old Atari from way back. I didn't play it any more and it was really just collecting dust. I knew there was something creative I could do with it, so the time had come to get my hands dirty.

I've found that expression often involves taking some foundation of your development and manipulating it. That's where this beauty came in... Unfortunately, my Atari was in bad shape and so I went to to cleaning it up and gutting the insides to make way for its resurrection.

It was easy enough to get inside and take out the major components and really discover what kind of technology kept me entertained as a kid. I love seeing the internal components of something as definitive as the Atari. I was actually quite surprised at how solidly this thing was built.

Then it was time to start cutting. Of course there was some hesitation and a bit of fear, but as an artist, every work I make is another step at loosing my fear. GO FOR IT!!!

I realized early on that what was actually the back of the Atari would work best as the front of the dock. The angles seemed awkward, but I was determined to make it work.

I would be using the cartridge slot as the dock for the ipod, but I actually wanted the MP3 player to be sitting inside of an old cartridge. Of course, more modification was necessary. I got a ipod cradle with and audio output jack (this was important) from Amazon and with some handy work, set it inside my cartridge of "Breakout".

For the speaker I used an x-Mini (from Amazon, about $15.00). It has great output in a small size.

Then hooked it up with an Apollo Jammer from www.elementalled.com. It's not available yet but I was fortunate enough to get a chance to play with it. It's a color controller for RGB lights that responds to audio signal and was really the inspiration for this whole project.

I don't have the price for it yet, but keep an eye out for it!

Then it all got put inside the Atari case with some fancy color changing lights.

And when it all came together....
Magic!

I hope this little project inspired you.
Thanks for reading.

2010-11-19T18:04:00.000-08:00

Two Of A Kind

I have this two headed beast on showcase at Periscope Cellars for the first annual "Small Works" show going on now till the end of December. Check it out at our winter bazaar on December 11th 2010 11am- 5pm.

Periscope Cellars
1410 62nd Street, Suite B
Emeryville, CA, 94608

2010-11-19T18:01:00.000-08:00

This is a leftover from my "Day Of The Dead" inspired art session. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly to do with him. I kinda like him "as is", but my idle hands wish to give it more life.

Madre Of The Mere

2010-11-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

Here I have a new puppet inspired by the "Day of The Dead" holiday that just passed. Her name is Madre Of The Mere and she is a storyteller.
As I create these puppets, their stories evolve as I paint and stich them together into a fully realized character. It's that robustness of individuality, that give my sculptures a certain personality. This is a part of a series that I hope to show late next year.

Animal Pop

2010-09-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

October 1st at Periscope Cellars is the opening reception for Animal Pop. It's a show I've curated to exhibit animal inspired artwork from some fantastic local artists. Check it out.

Sci-Fi Fantastique!

2010-04-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

It's that time again!
It's the 2nd Annual Science Fiction and Fantasy Art Exhibit at Periscope Cellars.

Date:	Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Time:	6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:	Periscope Cellars
Street:	1410 62nd Street
City/Town:	Emeryville, CA

View Map

Artists:
Barry Barnes
Lacey Bryant
Nicolas Caesar
Blair Clark
Sharon Eisley
Kevin Evans
Jeremy French
Nemo Gould
Sebastian Hyde
Justin Kohn
J.B. Lowe
Lark Pien
Sherwin Viray
Tom Vukmanic

Special Opening Night Musical Guest:
George Ludwig

His latest project is a very personal statement on the past, present and future. Using guitars and real time looping software, he weaves deep tapestries of sound that simultaneously relax and energize the innermost parts of the subconscious. He is currently performing select pieces from his new album “Rise Time”, as well as new work based on sounds conceived on the Moog Guitar.

Jonas and the Tree

2010-03-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the several month absence (makes the heart grow fonder... right?). While I've been away...

New Home: I'm very excited about my new working space. Photos to come.
New Puppets: Some ideas have been a little too ambitious, but you can't learn without a little failure.
Demonstrations: I've been out and about showing young minds how to do what I do.
Website Redeux: You can view a few changes I've already made, but more are on the way with a formal "Hey look at my Website!" announcement.

So as you can see, I haven't exactly been watching the grass grow while neglecting my blog. Fortunately, I'm back today to write about a triptych i did back in October called Jonas and the Tree.

My intention was to further explore my love of Science Fiction and robots and combine it into a brief storyline contained in just a few panels. This narrative is based on a short story I wrote about six years ago and just left in a notebook to sit, but I couldn't shake it from my head. I had to get it out there and share it. I didn't want to tell the whole story, but instead i wanted to engage to viewer more generally so that they might fill in the blanks with their own creativity.

The details of the story were too lengthy to flush out in a few panels so i focused on the ending where our boy hero ,Jonas, has emerged from his adventures as a half machine in the first panel titled The Young.

There was a fair amount of symbolism I attached to the paintings by including animals. The Young depicts Jonas cradling a monkey. Although monkey's bring lot of symbolic luggage with them (tricksters and playfulness) I went with evolutionary symbolism. As the tale goes, monkeys grew taller, lost their hair, grew a larger brain, and became human. But it won't stop there because, according to the image, mechanical bodies seem to be in store for some evolved primates. As the monkey seems to clutch Jonas' mechanical finger these evolutionary soldiers are acknowledging each other without fear or dominion.

Inevitable time has passed for Jonas in The Old. With his face wrinkled and diminishing power indicator on his chest, he holds a serpent known to shed it's skin as Jonas has shed his body. Remaining in the same spot for years at a time draws from many religious tales of meditation as a means to contemplate the universe. In this case, the tree's growth has started to consume Jonas' robot legs.

And here the tale comes to an end. The mechanical body has ceased it's function and Jonas has passed, but encased in a perennial sarcophagus. Birds have made a home for themselves in his remains and in this way, Jonas will be remembered as a safe place rather than the boy who got in over his head.

Thanks for reading.

The Digital Realm

2009-09-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

"Let's Do This!"

"Let's Do This!" is the beginning of digitally coloring some of my drawings. Digital coloring has been something I have avoided for quite some time for no other reason than I just didn't understand the possibilities. It has taken a little bit of practice and learning all new tricks with Photoshop, but it has been a great "learn by doing" experience. I'm looking forward to doing some more of this in the future. If you're interesting in having your own print of "Let's Do This", check out my Etsy page. (www.jblowe.etsy.com)

In other news, I am anticipating the release of a new movie about science fiction writing called Gentleman Broncos. Although it is a comedy, I think they may get more to the heart of writing science fiction than a documentary. As a part of their marketing for the film's October release, they have put together a fun and amazing animation to accompany the movie's literary subject matter. Have a look and enjoy.

Showcase and info Update

2009-09-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you trying to get to www.jblowe.com you might find it is not there or "under construction". This is due to the irresponsible dirt-bag who hosted my site. I'm frantically trying to get things in order, but thanks for your patience.

In the mean time, i thought I'd post up some images here with some back story to them.

"Our Lady Of The Sea"

This is my take on the very popular image of "Our Lady of Guadalupe" with obvious embellishments. The model is my good friend, Zarah, who has many amazing and beautiful tattoos that helped inspire the work. I had to incorporate my growing love of sea life to add that extra element of "one of these things does not belong".

This has been an essential thought when I work on a new piece because it lends so much to deciphering what an image is about. Keep in mind, the squid is not present "just to be weird". I wanted to re-establish elemental meaning of what some might quickly read as gross or some kind of threat. In this setting, the squid is now a character embraced by the woman and can no longer be discarded as a lowly creature. Even the woman is not in the appearance of the unattainable "saintly virtue", but an actual person who you might see on the streets of a metropolitan city.

I've been talking about redefining the imagery to suit my needs, but in the end they are presented in an image of worship. I don't want to over explain this painting, but i want to consider the possibilities of the not so everyday life.

Wake Up! from J.B. Lowe on Vimeo.

"Wake Up" was made over the course of a weekend with a rented Canon 5D and a cool new animation program i was trying out called Dragon Stop Motion. I had made a new puppet design and was dying to use it in something , so the result was a loose stream of conscious story line that i story boarded out ahead of time and elaborated on during filming. I really have no idea how (or even if) I'm going to finish it, but I'm definitely happy with how the new puppet performed (despite its little problems). I apologize for the cliffhanger, but I'm actually pretty content with leaving it off there. Maybe Roan will live on in our hearts.

While sculpting the head of Roan (the main character) I posted pics of the head online while it was in progress and asked people what they thought his story should be.. This is something i would never normally do, but it seemed like a fun thing to do and all I had was a head (no i didn't sketch him out ahead of time... Shame on me!). I got some great story ideas from friends

Ruth: a ancient guy that grows younger for every year.. magic... smigel... sees paralell universes......

Rachel: Five of diamonds? Spider?

Christoph: Deep Sea Troll with gills and fins

Emily: He is definitely a troll or gnome of some type, lives in the darkest of places, but is the humblest of fellows, he likes his afternoon tea and enjoys collecting odds n ends around his dark realm...

Next week Roan will be on display in the 2009 faculty/alumni show at the San Francisco campus of the California College of the Arts (and Crafts).

Opening Night

2009-09-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

"IT WAS ALL IN MY HEAD"

OPENING NIGHT!!!

From Friday 9/11/2009

It was a great night for an opening show at Periscope Cellars. Lots of people came by and they all had a lot of nice things to say to me about my work.

(Photos By Anita Gay)

As always at Periscope Cellars, there was wine tasting offered by the glass. As i am also the artist behind the wine labels, it was a great chance to celebrate my new work with the wine.

Delicious Burritos were made available by local chef Chris Dixon.
Chris and friend working on a new batch of burritos.

All in all, it was a good time. This is about my 3rd or 4th solo show and it still gives me some anxiety to get it together, especially when i'm working on stuff up until the week of the show. In the end it's really rewarding to see the fruits of your labor on the wall and out of your studio. The show is up until the end of september so head over to Periscope Cellars and check it out.

www.periscopecellars.com

Thanks again to everyone for coming.

Introduction and Show Announcement

2009-09-07T13:28:00.001-07:00

Hi There!
I just started this new Blog to talk about my artwork and promote myself and others struggling in the art world. If you catch this in time, I'm having a show this Friday at Periscope Cellars.
I hope to see you there and i hope to see you in later posts.

“It Was All In My Head”
New Works by J.B. Lowe
September 11 - 30
Opening Reception:
Friday, September 11th 6-9pm

(click to view larger)