michaelmathewsart.com

WHO DECIDES OUR NAMES?

Hi, my name is Ben and I am an artist with a background in psychology; here you can find some of my: articles, comics, animations, portraits etc. for free. If you have suggestions or want to publish or commission something, please send me an email.
email: the.opaque@gmail.com

23/06/2008 The Placebo, Zeitgeist and We are the strange

I've uploaded a new video for you to laugh at! Please check it out on youtube and leave a few comments! It is titled the placebo and it documents an 'ancient' quest and real yet mystical powers- it was created from a couple of sections from the lord of the rings movie redubbed and with some new footage thrown in. The dubbing was recorded with my dictaphone... Enjoy!

On other matters I came across 2 feature length movies available for free online: Zeitgeist (which can be found on google video) and We are the strange (which can be found on Youtube). Zeitgeist is a documentary about power, control, religion, and politics; it presents you with information that may call into question your current view of the world and reality in general; I found this film quite interesting. We are the strange is an animated film with amazing visuals that goes against the norm of film in many ways. The author, MdotStrange, also has many interesting videos uploaded about the making of process and other videos created to help those with an interest in making independent film.

As far as news with myself and my film is concerned, I created a storyboard- a fairly elaborate one at that, and I will have hopefully completed an animatic before the week is out. The soundtrack had been put on hold, but I will be trying to get that sorted soon. I had tried to upload the storyboard last week but my hosting wasnt having any of it, it's not friendly with large files... all the better though- the film will be more of a mystery when it's done- though if all goes well I might consider uploading a scene of the animatic onto youtube at a later date. On another matter however, the Trinity Undergraduate Placebo Research Group was interviewed after a debate, and you can find a video of us here under the raw reaction section on the science gallery page. That's everything for now! Lots still to come in the near future- There has been talk of start about starting a collaboration with a new but very simple animated short film soon- with the early stages of a draft down, lots more articles yet to be uploaded, placebo related stuff, and lots of stuff from my current animated short film project; but for now I will leave you with some more stills from the placebo video.

01/06/2008 Music, human rights, exams, and animation

Ha, this is such a blog... D: Exams are still in progress but I have some time and material to make an update. Firstly, after an exam on monday, I recorded a song while trying to figure out some of the audio software were using for the animation sound and soundtrack, you can download the song here . Although the song may sound depressing... I'm fairly sure the exam went fine... :p

As for human rights, I realized that there was something I mentioned of great importance on my deviantart journal that I forgot to mention here, and that is that the UN is no longer protecting the right to freedom of expression, rather it is policing it's "abuse". This comes after a vote passing a new amendment to the function of the Special Rapporteur, a majority vote came via the collective strength of several governments; apparently these governments do not value expression quite as much as their own religious and political beliefs, in fact this change simply means that people within these countries will not be able to voice their concern about them. I have not named these countries as I do not want my site blocked in them, which is a serious possibility. See an article written about the human rights issue here .

Nothing much to report as far as my psychology exams are concerned, only one more to go, after which I will be recording the soundtrack of the film with a friend.

As far as the film is concerned however, I have been trying to work on making a storyboard and animatic- and even been adding a new initial scene to start it off on a good note. Some experimental ideas are also being tested out as far as the main character, Atsushi's voice is concerned- I have recordings of two actors for him and I am trying to merge them in such a way that it creates one voice that reflects his divided personality. Although more time is needed before I can upload an animatic or storyboard, I will end this entry with some of the images I have drawn up for the current story board.

11/05/2008 an update

Well... It's been awhile since I have posted here. Since my last post several things have happened: Two magazines which I contributed to have been published: Goldfish, and the ultimate comment; We finished recording the Audio for my animated film "division"; we finished recording the live action scene and did a photo shoot for the artwork for the film; myself and the rest of the Trinity Undergraduate Placebo Research Group handed in our report and gave our presentation- the report was some 200 pages long and scored 77%, the presentation included a short and humorous video, and received 73%, both of these scores are amazingly high given the the marking system here- 72% was the highest mark achieved by the group projects in the year previous.
Most of the progress above is not ready to be put online however, but the updates that can be found here include: The article for Goldfish magazine, the article is titled "the bunny delusion" has been uploaded to the wisdom section; Several old fragmented style pictures and photographs of the pianist Paul Smyth have also been added to the other worlds section.
I'm currently studying for exams but you can expect updates soon enough. Right after the exams are finished I will start editing: the placebo report, the presentation video, the sound for the animation "division", the art work for the animation, and I will be composing the soundtrack for division with the help of a more talented friend. I may even upload the screenplay with some of the prototype animations and concept art after my exams. After all of this is done, then it will be onto the animating :D... This project is a huge leap for me, I bought some great equipment, spent a lot of time on preproduction and script, and we had some great actors, so who knows how it will turn out or what the next step will be. Got to get through these exams first though.
Finished exams June 5th, talk to you soon.
b

24/03/2008 Animated film prototype preview images

This project started of as what was by far my biggest project yet, an impossibly large manga. Now after almost a year of revisions to the script it has become a very nice short animated film script. Finally I have made enough progress to show you some demo prototype images from a few of my current prototype animations for it. I am soon to be auditioning for voice actors, so watch this spot or email me to ask for a copy of the script/screenplay. the.opaque@gmail.com
Go to the videos section for more pics and information. This section maybe updated from time to time.

09/03/2008 I'm now 21, but there are no goldfish in lobbies yet. Despite the lack of goldfish, the new comic is here!

click here to go to the comic section The editor has informed me that Goldfish has been delayed. However, I like to think that many people grow impatient, murderous; they want to see some new work by me NOW!! This comic should help keep these imaginary but violent people quiet until goldfish is distributed and my new article along with it.
On another note, I have received my new software and I have been messing around with some of it- animating some scenes similar to what you can expect in my first short animated film, and in the next week I'm going to try and make a rough version. The video on my group project study of the past, present and future of the placebo effect is not going smoothly presently. Filmmakers will be having another film screening in the last week of april- so they have to be ready by then.

24/o2/20o8 Exploring embodiment and extreme states of mind

If your wondering where I have been, I have been watching a case study, of a schizophrenic young woman, on loop. I had linked to the case study, but I have removed it because I didn't want you to get depressed :D.
Instead I bring you things to make you smile! A new essay about embodiment (click to go to WISDOM section).
On the topic of embodiment, it was pointed out to me that I look exactly like this individual. Anyone willing to help me recreate this photograph let me know.
More to come on the slow progress... goldfish will be printed and distributed with my new article and comic in the next two weeks, and I may make a new section about my plans for this film in progress. Also a small documentary type film on the placebo effect is on the way. Not very consistent some may think, posting bizarre art and preaching about mental health... but I am not sane, I have just seen so much insanity in "sanity" to believe I am beyond it.

01/o2/20o8 slow progress

Ok, so I am working on a few new things Including a new animated film that I am looking for a writer to help me with at this early stage (if your interested in co-authoring or another aspect of this project contact me at the.opaque@gmail.com). Also I have 4 serious articles written and ready to be uploaded; In the works I also have a new one page "funny" comic for the new magazine Goldfish; I'm rewriting "the santa delusion" and calling it "the bunny delusion" putting a more humorous slant on it for the same comedy magazine; I'm going to be working on amazingly long comic Division and MANY more psychology essays.

On another note I have 999 page views on www.michaelmathews.deviantART.com, and have uploaded the work in progress of my comic for goldfish there.

For now I have uploaded here is an article on the ceasation of international adoptions in Guatemala and my thoughts on how adoptions proceed during this difficult transistion. Click here to go to the articles section and I have uploaded some of my old portraits click here to go to the art section. What is going on in guatemala and why is it important? Essentially international adoptions are stopping because there was no regulation and the biological families were given money after the adoptions. This is an issue for some as it can be seen to be buying the children. It is however important that these children are taken out of these harsh environments which are not adequate for development- leaving them there will worsen the situation and developmental problems that cannot be fixed will develop. A long term solution is needed whereby the country can support its children and these children are not left to develop cognitive, physical and attachment disorders.

18/o1/2o08 monthly update

New illustration for an old article. I think I might rewrite this and publish it. 3 new articles, originally written for college courses, soon to be posted here. I am also working on the final draft of the forth page of my comic and I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I will post the first 3 scenes (10 pages) here when they are done... So the next update is looking to be pretty huge. But for now, you can check out my deviantART page if you want more new stuff. click Here to go to my DA gallery .

19/12/2007 Christmas update

It always seems that it is not enough simply to give you pointless art to entertain but instead I must address some larger issue. And on that note I have just uploaded two articles, one to get you thinking about some of the functions the easter bunny and father christmas serve the church and the other is a positive mental attitude article. see them at the articles section here. For this reason I have not posted my latest comics in progress, I want to wait till they address the issues a little better before I start to upload them here. There will be new articles on the way in the new year sometime around mid january too, so keep an eye out! For now though, enjoy the articles and have a very merry christmas!

01/11/2007 To wish you a belated deadly halloween

Last night (halloween) I made two class mates into zombies.

click here to see more of my work from last night.

27/10/2007 What happened to the homepage! and where is the new art?

AWESOME NEWS FIRST! The comic is coming along, though it is going to be a slow process. Right now I'm just thumbing the first few pages, probably draw the first two and then I'll do some more character designs... then I have to draw up enough pages to make it economical to scan professionally- then I will start digitally painting it. New equipment has been bought recently too so it is now physically possible to work on paper large enough to add detail to the comic. Hopefully it will be the start of the journey towards some pretty cool stuff. I have put more time into this piece than I have put into any previous project, and it looks like this is only the tip of the ice berg... College and trying to be active student-to-student is slowing me down too... Never-the-less be patient. It is coming, and it's potential is awesome.

New advertisements of mine are all over the place and published- and I promised that I would put these up- BUT, the graphic design page is overcrowded already. Right now I don't have the time to create a way of adding new work to it... perhaps later I will add more pages, or a new way of browsing through the images on the page. For those of you who want to see the ads themselves you can always look above the trinity term schedule for trinity college and the posters for S2S in the psychology building (if you dont have access to a trinity student journal or the psychology building, and you would like to see the ads, just let me know and I'll show you).

I changed the colours of the homepage from that psychotic red with black to a more grounded brown, yellow and white.

let me know what you think of the new colours.
contact me: the.opaque@gmail.com

13/10/2007 New articles, graphic design, anti-fanart and fanart of me!!

So much is happening that I thought it was best to post this before it mounts up further. Ok so I have just loaded up two new sections articles and graphic design. There is a bit on them now and I have two new advertisements of mine, just published, and an article of mine, just about to be published; I'll put them up too as soon as possible. In the articles section I have a new anti-fanart image and article entitled "dragonball z kicks Naruto's ass". Because lets face it, any author that can get away with putting an innuendo in the title and pitch of a cartoon for teenagers can get away with anything. Click here

Also, not only have I made anti-fanart of naruto, I now have "fanart" of my own. Thats right! someone made a pic of me! :D. Well actually just a present from a random person. I reminded them that they are doing much better than me on Deviantart and they made me this picture. Present for Mr.Michael Mathews by ~leoslittlebride on deviant ART

09/09/2007 Don't Kill Yourself yet! There is more entertainment coming

If you have been considering ending your existance due to boredom, keep your hopes up! Someday you may be entertained ON THIS VERY WEBSITE. I'm working on some projects at the moment including a comic which is now about 30 pages long (writing the screenplay at the moment). I also did another illustration for a magazine over these last few days...
click on the picture to see

but much better things to come!!
Onto the bad news now though
The illustration is boring as hell as usual, I have been slow to add any of my old material to this page, and if any of you attempted to refresh the page over and over again to increase the number on my webcounter- it probably didnt work :(. I just remembered I set the home page up so it wouldnt count refreshed pages until an hour of the original visit- so I could properly gauge how many/few people were visiting this dumb ass page.
On to the good news
The Fanny pack video is now up on metacafe and doing reasonably well for the short peroid of time that it's been there. Someone from the website asked me to put it up, and seems to have actually watched it, excellent! Shame about the crappy sound quality of the original recording though... I have been mentioning the fact that I want to get the comic im currently working on published, and I may have found somewhere for it to be published. More on that later though.

18/08/07 Fanny Pack: crazy bunny

Click to see The music video is now complete- and the screening of the film took place last night. I will not hype it, just order you to watch it... over and over again... Also, on that note, Leave comments... in fact you better sign up to youtube just to leave comments on this music video! Let us know you exist!

Also! over a hundred page views to the home page! Satan only knows how many to all the other pages. YOU WILL RELOAD THIS PAGE SEVERAL TIMES AND HELP ME REACH 500 PAGE VIEWS. Also, spread the word of our holy bunny bible (an alternative version of crazy bunny was also recorded- as was the blasphemous shouting that ensued... I may put that up eventually too.

10/08/07 recounting backward consecutive number day

Click to see An animation I made for the magazine "the ultimate comment". WARNING: It contains mild, yet natural violence- a strange reversal of nature, and utter nonsense. Last night, on backward consecutive number day (09/08/07) we shot some of the scenes for the fanny pack music video. This involved getting kicked out of the ilac shopping centre in under one minute... then we went to henry street where we did our show there... its was quite odd, and we got alot of people laughing, talking about their penis size, some looking in discust, others shock and others bitter envy... I just hope we have enough of it on film!

On other news the page is now partially active, hopefully. Before it was just one stupid intro page with none of the links working... now it should be several, with roughly a third of the links working... hopefully.

This is my first news update, and I'll start by saying that I'm quite busy at the moment doing some of my most exciting projects yet. These projects include a music video with a band called "fanny pack". I have the story board done and some footage shot, but its been delayed by their busy schedule and because one of the three girls is sick. I'm also working on some articles on: the placebo effect and expectations; climate change; and the easter bunny, santa and brainwashing. These articles along with illustrations are for some magazines in ireland.

For now though, enjoy the video I have put online- and the old comics etc that I have put up. These will be updated daily until all material anywhere near worth putting up is up.

I must leave you now, but remember: It is right to give him thanks and praise (just as long as you don't forget the donations).
michael mathews