Still Life Through the Years

How it is now?
At a quarter past three
difficult ,lovely,painful and good

The moon on the lake is especially nice
in middle age or otherwise.
Those kind of intervals meeting at once.
Those in music,those in time,
Those come across and meld in mind.

Coming together,
Staying apart ,
Lost in diversion
and Dancing starts.

From “Interval” by Rod McKuen

- It starts to raining outside, an irregular spring day in new york city with unexpected coldness which gives me sudden nostalgic feeling and would like to put out my lesser known photography series from college inspired by Rod Mckuen’s “Interval”.

Still Life through the years _ Htet T San 01

Still Life through the years _ Htet T San 02

Still Life through the years _ Htet T San 03

Still Life through the years _ Htet T San 04

All the photographs were taken with F3 nikon film camera and developed on RC paper, reminded me of the days I print my photographs in the darkroom with my own hands.

One of the photographs from this series ended up being a part of my first personal project ESCAPE at the end of the semester which you can see in the link.

Htet T San

http://www.htettsan.com

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Thank you Mom

Tears of Joy_Mom_ Htet T San

For all the pain, all the courage, all the dedication, all the love, you raised me and my two brothers up. Thank you Mom.

I will take it as my greatest achievement that I could be responsible for this gratitude though it can’t be anything compared to your life long dedication upon us.

Happy Mother’s Day. We should appreciate it everyday.

Creation of the Damned – Installation Project

Last Sunday was my birthday. Actually, I was thinking of posting this on that day but with my laziness and excuses for celebrations,it was postponed till now.

Here’s some information about my recent project “Creation of the Damned”.

I have always been interested in light sculptures and interactive stuffs so since last year, I was constantly looking up for a chance to learn and get involved with it.  Finally, I got a chance to attend a workshop named Mappathon last month. We learned some techniques for light mapping in a 3-day-weekend and every artist involved had to come up with a project in the end.

It’s always been in my mind that I would like to make something about the “Creation of Man Concept” as our existence is one of my constant wonderment.Plus, I am also a big fan of  Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam” in many ways.

So, there I am, given 3 days limited period, struggling with above concept and other 2 or 3 ideas in my head , plus with learning, goofing around and typical wasting time as always, stuck on Saturday night with nothing in my hand completed. We had to put that project up on Sunday for public view.

Once, Calvin and Hobbes reminded me that last minute panic is the greatest resources of inspiration and it’s always been right for me! I finally made up my mind to get started with what I have, to do what I always wanted, myself and Chaos, in a hysterical version.

This is how it started: by taking pictures of myself in so many different poses depicting the concept of  ”Chaos” by looking like a complete retard, one of those things you can always do when you are alone in your room :D

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After nearly 2 hours of being as crazy as I can, finally  I selected a bunch of poses and cut separately on photoshop. Here are the outlines of the poses I made. Yeah, all are self-portraits.

sillohouette _creation of the damned_clones_htettsan

Then, with the help of Modul8, I was able to add some animation on my Chaos side of Creation of the Damned. Here’s how it came out. I do not know why the video I uploaded on Vimeo is so magenta-rized.. still have to figure out. If any of you knows why, let me know too.

Since my concept is to connect those chaos above with the creation part, I also made some animation on creator’s side.

Here’s how it ended up. I picked up the most awkward sunglasses I could ever find for this to complement my chaos. :D

Creation of the Damned Part 1a

This is the final video record of my installation project on view. Sorry for not-good-enough video quality. I was using only my compact camera for this.

It might not be very artistic but as always, every personal creative project I do is for liberty and pleasure. It was massive lots of fun . I enjoyed the whole process and  just would like to share with to whom may come by.

That’s it. An end of a week finally arrived and TGIF. I hope you guys have a great weekend before Monday kicks us all back in.

Here’s my tribute to our ever rolling state of life.

Creation of the Damned_Htet T San part 1b

Also, Special Thanks to ChiKA from Imagima, Mappathon, Bruno Kruse for helping  my “Creation of the Damned” happened.

Htet T San

http://www.htettsan.com

ART Appreciation.

ART

As Universe,

As Garbage Can,

As Headband,

As Mirror,

As Story,

As Hunter,

As Victim,

As Food,

As Drugs,

As Dream,

As Road,

As Cemetery,

As Deep Forest,

As Blade,

As Lover,

As Partner of Crime,

As Vomitus,

As Magic,

As Song,

As Handcuffs,

As Liberation,

Just happen to think of my history of relationship with Art. I appreciate and make a hand-shake today.  It’s my soul mate, the best description I could think.I practically live with it 24/7 on my daily basis.

Thursday Night Nostalgia

I started photography in 2007. By means of personal escape, I found it.

Once, I wrote in one of my old blogs that discovering it made me feel like my feet were standing on the top of the world and my heart got a place to scream…scream out loud and clear.

Trust me. Against all odds and along the journey, I still feel the same. It’s still my ultimate soul mate though I hardly ever mention nowadays.

Nostalgia_Htet T San

I took this photo above in 2007. It was a rainy day. Suddenly,  flashbacks of a decade just fall in front of my mind without asking my permission.

I do not like it when everything, every single details of my life from the past suddenly feel like just yesterday. Give me a break. It’s been ups and downs. I fell, yelled and started my life from scratch again, I was happy, sad, lonely, miserable, in pain, inspired, determined, tried hard, marched, lost, found, fell again, lost and found again ..about everything, every moments of my life …why should everything have to be altogether compiled like ” just yesterday” ? Some of the things should always feel like million years away and should always leave a distance, space, black hole or a thick solid universe.

If possible, I would like to feel the nostalgia in random take out ways if you know what I mean.

Random Finds: Introducing Muffler Family

A while ago, I got contacted by a gallery in Brooklyn , giving me a chance to have my very first solo exhibition in new york city. So, last weekend, I went out to check the cozy and peaceful gallery  space. Finally, I got a reason to push myself to create new works out of my thick black solid laziness. The date is set in October and I will announce here when its drawing near.

But, it’s not the reason I am writing this post. Why I am writing now is to introduce you what I saw in the street on that last weekend visit. I was walking around in Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn and something on the other side of the street catches my attention from the corner of my eyes. And, there, standing vividly in sunlight, Muffler Family.

Muffler Family _Htet T San 01

So, as usual, with my curiosity, I crossed the street, looked closer to the sculptures and took some snaps when I met the kind employee from the place named Steve.

Steve said they have been making Muffler Families  with the guidance of their boss and took me inside the office and showed me around.  Here are some inside looks.

Muffler Family _Htet T San 02

Muffler Family Relatives

Muffler Family _Htet T San 03

Mother and Son

Muffler Family _Htet T San 04

Little Muffler Son

Muffler Family _Htet T San 05

Inside Looks

Muffler Family _Htet T San 07

The garbage piles of unused parts that they used to create Muffler Families. How nice !!

Muffler Family _Htet T San 06

Met the owner of the place, Frank and he is kind enough to let me take some snaps of him.

Muffler Family _Htet T San 09

My favorite: Devil of the Family :D

Muffler Family _Htet T San 08

Inside view for car care customers.

Muffler Family _Htet T San 10

Before I left, finally a picture of Frank with Muffler Family.

If you are curious about the place, it’s Meineke car care center, http://www.meineke.com/

The location I went in is located at Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn. Really nice people there. It’s not a usual and common circumstance when someone took time to explain things when you are just wandering around the street taking some snaps . So,  I just would like to tribute with this post.