excerpts from kafka's diary

A few quotes from the diary of Franz Kafka (Translated by Joseph Kresh):

16 March. (1912) Saturday. Again encouragement. Again I catch hold of myself, as one catches hold of a ball in it's fall. Tomorrow, today, I'll begin an extensive work which, without being forced, will shape itself according to my abilities. I will not give up as long as I can hold out at all. Rather be sleepless than live on in this way.

15 September. (1912)...The hollow which the work of genius has burned into our surroundings is a good place into which to put one's little light. Therefore the inspiration that emanates from genius, the universal inspiration that doesn't only drive one to imitation...

11 February. (1913)...because the story came out of me like a real birth, covered with filth and slime, and only I have the hand that can reach to the body itself and the strength of desire to do so...

21 June. (1913)...The tremulous world I have in my head. But how to free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. And a thousand times rather be torn to pieces than retain it in me or bury it. That, indeed, is why I am here, that is quite clear to me.

3 July. (1913)...When I say something it finally and immediately loses it's importance, when I write it down, it loses it too, but sometimes gains a new one...

a mad chemist's dissection of the elements

This is the second work in a series of darker themed pieces that I will be concentrating on for a bit. The first completed piece drew loosely from the works of E. A. Poe. A future piece, in the designing phase, is based on Kafka's 'Metamorphosis'.

The inspiration for this piece comes mostly from the various 'noir' movements in film, including stop motion animation. I attempted to make the piece work on more than one scale. The feature photo was shot so that at first glance the pendant could be the size of a large animal cage sitting in the middle of a rain soaked road. This piece continues with experimenting with natural decay as a primary element of design. The idea is to present somewhat ordinary items well along on the continuum of what they were, to what they are becoming. There is a conscience effort to not have any given element overpower the overall 'mundane feel' of the completed project. I wrote in detail about that process here. The piece can appear dismal to some. Hopeless. It was not designed as a nihilistic statement, but rather a tangible manifestation of an emotion that we can hold in our hand. The sound of blues music that you can feel between the fingers.

I have quite a few sketches of addition pieces with the same influence and 'feel', but I have got some major tech/mechanical issues to solve. Once I overcome the technical issues, I plan to add some mixed media elements into this style. This is one of the primary directions we plan to take with our future work.