 For my 63rd Christmas birthday, I scored an Oculus Quest 2. The price drop to $299.00 on the 128 MB Virtual Reality headset unit clinched the deal. The unit was actually in my hands before Christmas, because YAY - sorry kids, we adults can do that.
Have YOU had a VR headset experience yet? Those who were involved in bringing this VR experience to us (along with the people behind the technical applications) are a testament to creative engineering. Human ingenuity begins with a thought. Bringing those concepts to life is a form of artistry in itself. Anyway, I've been watching the VR market for years because not only do I find technology super interesting, I love the idea of the 360-degree immersive concept. Initially, I wanted a VR headset because it would be a cool form of downtime gaming entertainment, little did I know that it's actually WAAAY more than that. Since the pandemic, my activity levels have dropped. Creating art didn’t help that situation since it primarily utilizes brain power and doesn't require much in regard to the range of motion. Not a good time to sign up for a gym membership, which isn't conveniently located for me anyway. Along with pandemic stress, self-motivation became an issue. I love the flow of creative movement but, I couldn’t even regularly motivate myself to dance (as I had done regularly), everything turned into a discombobulated hit-and-miss situation. Knowing how important movement is, I had to do something. I needed something new. Time to enter the world of Virtual Reality. Once I received the headset, I purchased a few games that required movement and looked fun. Immediately my two faves were The Thrill of The Fight! and Audio Trip. The Thrill of The Fight! is a boxing app that is great for cardio. Yes, it’s annoying they have no female fighters there to pick from, but it’s still a decent workout. Audio Trip is a blast and is a great workout, too. It’s my current favorite of the 2. In Audio Trip you’re listening to music and you’re hitting target objects to the beat that are coming at you, along with some squatting and dipping side to side. Beginner levels all the way up to cardio levels, it’s a fab workout. It’s tricky at first to get the hang of it, but once you do, that is when the fun begins. I could certainly feel the workout I got from these two apps. Enter the New Year. I’m starting 2022 with a free trial followed by a subscription to Supernatural and I’m dead serious, I could NOT be happier with this and I’m just starting. OMFG! This thing will KICK YOUR FREAKIN’ ASS! I’ve already done two workouts today and I want to do more but I know that if I did, I may not be able to work out tomorrow. This fitness app is incredible. The scenery is amazing and the addition of coaches that teach you the moves with proper form is sweet. The coaches also provide motivation as you work out. I’ve never worked with a trainer before but now I can understand how it helps. I’ve only had my headset for nearly a month before starting Supernatural and I feel stronger already, I can only imagine how I may feel a year from now when it’s time to renew my subscription, provided I stick with the program. Can’t see why I wouldn't stick with a program that offers a big library of workouts, an assortment of coaches, a variety of intensities, and new workouts are added regularly. I simply cannot imagine a gym membership outside of my home would be as much fun as this is. Nope. This is addictive. And, if you've ever been a gamer - this gets you off your ass and makes you feel like you're inside and part of the video game. Why is an artist writing excitedly about VR and fitness? The top reason is that health and self-care are important. When I'm not feeling great or I'm stressed out it's very difficult to be creatively motivated to make art. Exercise is a stress buster and frees me up to make MORE art. And, self-care is a good thing. Creative and art-related apps I have for the Oculus Quest 2 are as follows: SculptrVR, Tilt Brush, Gravity Sketch, and Kingspray Graffiti Exciting creative tools, even though I've only touched the surface. Up to now, I’ve played with Tilt Brush the most. Drawing and writing in the air all around you is so much fun! No doubt the apps I already have will provide loads of artsy entertainment in the future. It’s a great tool for working out - yet these creative applications surprised me. I’ve been out of the gaming arena for a good decade now. The last gaming adventure I played regularly was Resistance Fall Of Man and prior to that, it was the Zelda series. Those games were a giant leap from the PONG game I started with. So, I’ve pretty much witnessed the progression that’s been made from the beginning. Virtual Reality is a giant leap in gaming and entertainment tech. What I love the most about this entire VR thing is that I can pick it up whenever I want and immerse myself in another world immediately. One of the first apps I played around with had me sitting on the couch and fishing. The 360-degree view blew me away. Seeing videos of these VR worlds on YouTube or elsewhere is a far cry from putting on the headset and experiencing it for yourself. I am very excited to see where this technology goes. So there is another good reason to keep it up because I want to stay alive for the next amazing iteration of VR technical advances that are surely coming. My inner geek is anticipating the headset units themselves will get smaller and lighter, and many more advanced applications will be developed. There is power in having fun, letting things go, and playing hard… no matter your age!
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 This pyrography art of Jimi Hendrix is a personal piece created by the artist. It will never be sold and prints will not be available due to copyright laws. Pyrography (pyrogravure) - or wood burning (sometimes spelled woodburning) was also known as “pokerwork” and was particularly popular in Victorian times. The early “pokerwork” was accomplished by heating a metal object and using the hot poker to make a burn mark on the wood, much like branding. It can also be accomplished using the sun and a magnifying glass to burn the wood.
After messing around with the magnifying glass method as a kid, I then played around with my Dad’s soldering iron. No variable heat control. Super fat handle and a really chunky nib. Not ideal, but it was faster than the magnifying glass method and I didn’t have to wait for a really sunny day to use it. Of course once my Dad caught me using it without permission I heard, “what the hell do you think you are doing!?” Well… it was quite obvious what I was doing and it wasn’t long after that I had my very own super fat handle, chunky nib tool without heat control. Modern day pyro tools are a huge step up from where I began. A variable heat control power supply coupled with an assortment of specialized nibs (or tips) gives the user much more latitude in achieving a wide variety of tonal values. Going in “low and slow” to obtain desired effects works very well. By that I mean start with a low temperature and scorch slowly with the tool and build up from there. The tendency for a novice to burn too hot and burn gouge marks into the wood is real. Novices sometimes don’t realize that this is not an art that can be accomplished with great speed and you need patience. When I make pyro art with modern tools, seeing smoke emanating from burning the wood is certainly not the norm. While I learned pyrography on my own through trial and error, with access to the internet you now have a plethora of options. Whether you are a complete beginner or an experienced pyrography artist, information and instruction exists so you can learn, share and advance your skill set. Books, tutorials, and YouTube are all good resources. Plus, if you’re on Facebook - search for “pyrography” there and you will find many groups you can join. The groups really are a great place to see art created as well as instruction and tips for beginners. And, you could make some cool like-minded friends along the way as I have. One question that is always asked by pyrographers starting out is, what equipment should I buy? What equipment is the best? To that, I say… the “best” starting equipment is something that actually gets used. Starting out, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a feel for handcrafting pyrography. While I wouldn’t recommend starting with a soldering iron like I did, there are some inexpensive options out there. Although I’m not recommending specific brands here, the one thing I would recommend if you decide you want to stick with it and upgrade your equipment is to get one with polished tips/nibs. Polished metal glides over the surface of the wood much easier than unpolished, and they don’t accumulate carbon residue. If you’re even the least bit interested in pyrography, give it a go! Don’t worry how “perfect” it is. Don’t compare yourself to others. Allow yourself room to bloom. Stop the negative thought stream, that creative killing bullshit that says I can’t, I’m not good enough, etc. Instead, engage the creative child that resides within you and just PLAY! Remember how much play taught you as a child. Let go and have fun by tapping into that hidden superpower you’ve got. It doesn’t matter how old you are today, the importance of play and having fun cannot be underestimated. Oh, and that negative phrase, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” It’s total bullshit. Hmmmm. About me. Shit. Where in the hell do I even begin? OK, for starters writing this makes me about as uncomfortable as I was when I first began showing my art online. Facebook mostly. Starting on my non-public personal page. The first time venturing out of my personal page, I joined some fb groups and posted some art there. THAT was really hard for me. Over time it has become easier. Going intentionally outside of the comfort zone is exactly what is necessary to grow. Over the last several years I’ve grown my creative skills taking on art projects much in the same way. So here I go again, in that weirdly uncomfortable but familiar place. Pushing and knowing that I’ll grow - which, I suppose, makes this right here a virtual expression of my growing pains. As long as I can remember I have always been creating something. As a child I drew on everything I could find - WITH anything I could find. I drew on paper, cardboard, wood, walls, inside books on the pages, and, much to my parent’s disappointment, once on the parquet floor of my room. I remember drawing on the bathroom mirror with Mom’s lipstick, too. Sorry Mom! Essentially, anything I could make a mark with, I wanted. From a young age, my intense curiosity always left me wanting to know more. In fact, I drove the adults in my life nuts by constantly asking questions. Especially my Mom. It got to the point where I was asking WHY so much that the answer became, BECAUSE. And then I would ask… BECAUSE WHY? Enter my matriarchal grandmother, she indulged me in my never ending quest for answers. Much time was spent at the library because of it. At her house, she would often feed my curiosity. For example, she had this big oak tree in her backyard. We would sit and sometimes sleep on the screened-in back porch in good weather. Often breezy by the bay, you could hear the leaves rustling and sometimes you could faintly hear the waves nearby crashing on the beach. One afternoon we were sitting there and she asked, “how do you think that tree feels?” I immediately answered, “happy” to which she replied, “no… I want you to describe to me how it feels when you touch it, without going out and touching it.” Then, she asked me if I could see the spots of light on it, and notice how the light changes the colors in certain areas. Just look at the light. And then, the darkness. The shadows. Could I see them by themselves? I truly don’t remember a single reply I gave her. I wish I did. What I do remember is on THAT very afternoon over 50 years ago, my grandmother taught me how to see as an artist. My grandmother Verna was an artist in her own right. She was a fabulous seamstress. I remember lying atop taped together newspapers while she traced around my body to make patterns to sew clothing for me. She drew pencil and pen sketches. She made dolls. She made tiny chairs out of cans. She was also a ceramicist and had a big kiln in a small spare room of her house. I loved it when she would throw a large lump of wet clay onto her enameled metal kitchen table and she and I would make things that would be fired in the kiln. I especially loved watching the firing cones bend in the kiln. A few months after I turned 13, my grandmother succumbed to cancer. I still think of her and miss her to this day. While I do wish I had some physical art she and I made together, what she left me with has been incredibly valuable. For a short time in the 70’s, my teenage self consigned some freehand pyrography art, mostly castles and wizards, at a stoner fortune teller's shop through friends. BUT, this website is truly the first time I’m putting my art and myself out there publicly. And, I can't stop snickering about it today. WHY? Because there’s something rather hilarious about an emerging artist who is in her 60’s. Imagine that. It’s quite fucking funny. And, yes. She cusses, too. Quite often. Surprisingly, she also knows how to behave in public. Most of the time. UPDATED see ABOUT THE WORK regarding my public exhibitions I don’t have an art degree. I spent two years in vocational school learning Graphic Art. After graduation, I worked in the printing industry running production and maintaining offset presses. A few years later, I accepted a municipal government position running the graphic department. There, I worked on a wide array of projects (as well as print production) from aerial photo interpretation for land use planning for the State to water quality sampling for the EPA; website development, publication design, logo design, drafting maps, and more. After my wife and I got together in 2004, we became entrepreneurs. We formed a Corporation selling Men’s Vintage Clothing, specializing in unworn 1970’s fashion. Thanks to the Internet Archive, you can see the original e-commerce website I built here. There are a few glitches with the way the Wayback Machine site renders but, you'll get a general idea. We prefer that original site over the one we have now, but it is what it is. It had to be changed because the original HTML site wasn’t mobile responsive. Once people began using devices like phones to shop and surf the web over tablets and desktops, sites had to render differently depending on what device they were on. You can see the current site here: DressThatMan.com We have supplied clothing to film, print, and theater productions as well as celebrities, musicians, and regular guys around the world. It’s been a real trip. After sharing my art on my personal Facebook page over the last few years, I've had friends, family, and strangers encouraging me to put my art out there. While I honestly prefer working behind the scenes, here I am throwing myself into the fray… - Shelly  The only remaining picture I have of myself with my Grandma. I still miss her.  My wife and I on a weekend getaway with Mr. Doogie Bowser! I'm the blonde on the right...  Check out those cat ears on the dog! :) |
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