Michelle Schwartz

This year I will be participating in the Underwear Affair in honor of my friend Kelley Penneycook. As a fund raising tool, I offered to sculpt custom Lucky Cats for anyone who donated. They were allowed to request any kind of cat they fancied.

I sculpted the cats using Super Sculpey over aluminum foil and wire armatures, painted them with acrylics and sealed them with glossy varnish. I shot the photos with a Canon Rebel and a 50mm lens. The Cupcake Cat was made for my friend Corinne Cupcake. My partner, Stark, made the shrunken head. The Borg Cat, known alternately as Ernest Borg Nine and Borgulus, was made for my friend Tricia, as per her request for a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” cat.

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As part of my ongoing Shoot the Freak documentary project, I have begun painting the backgrounds for my planned cut out animation. I completed the main backdrop, which is the boardwalk at Coney Island. The Wonder Wheel, including the swinging cars, will be fully operational when animated. You can read more about the creation of this painting in the Production Diaries on my blog.

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Inspired by the work of my friend Corinne Cupcake, I have ventured into the world of Polymer Clay. My first effort was a sculpture of Kodos and Kang consuming Santa and his reindeer. I based my sculpture on a scene from one of The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. I then used the sculpture as the basis for the year’s holiday card.

I sculpted Kodos and Kang using Super Sculpey over aluminum foil and wire armatures, painted them with acrylics and sealed them with glossy varnish. I shot the photo with a Canon Rebel and a 50mm lens.

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While a Freshman at New York University, I was given the opportunity to design and execute a mural for the 12th floor at Brittany Hall, a dormitory where I resided. I based my design on the logo for the movie 12 Monkeys. I sketched it out on graph paper than blew it up to stencil size. There was a stencil for the main section and then individual monkey stencils. I and another student painted the main section, then each of the other residents of the floor was allowed to use a monkey stencil to add to the chain of monkeys running down the hall along with their names. I recently found some very old digital photos of the project, of which I am still quite proud.

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As the Online Resource Coordinator for the Learning and Teaching Office at Ryerson University, I am responsible for producing monthly issues of “The LTO Best Practices Series,” an education newsletter aimed at the faculty and teaching staff of Ryerson University. I designed the layout and graphics and research and write the material contained in each issue. January 2010 marked our inaugural issue.

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These two photos were submitted to the Wired Photo Contest: Blue. Unfortunately, they didn’t win, but I love them anyway. The first was taken in the middle of a summer night in Crescent City, California. The second was taken in the middle of a cold winter day in Quebec City.

All photos were shot in RAW with a Canon Digital Rebel XT and processed using Photoshop.

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When I first began designing my website, I decided to build the look and structure of the website around one image, aiming to keep the pages uniform and simple. I also wanted an image that would be visually pleasing and reflect my interest in photography and design.

After going back through my image archives, I settled on a photo I had taken of my Kodak Brownie camera shortly after I had acquired it. I added my own text and used it to make an image map for my site’s splash page. I removed all the text and simplified the lines and colors in Photoshop, using the resized image as a template for the buttons on the site’s menus. I added a rollover effect on the buttons to create the impression of a shutter snapping.

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I spent the summer of 2007 on a road trip from New York to Vancouver with my friend, Gen. I had borrowed a telephoto lens and was excited to try it out. While we stopped for a few days in Jersey, I discovered the joys of using it to capture candid images of people.

Photos taken with a Digital Rebel XT.

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Toronto is a city of ravines and valleys. Often, I will be walking along a major street and notice a dirt path obscured by some bushes. I’ll walk down a hill and find myself standing on a beautiful nature trail in the woods, as if five seconds earlier I wasn’t standing in the middle of a major downtown area. These photos were taken when I discovered the Don Valley Brick Works for the first time. For this set, I was really focused on texture.

Photos taken with a Digital Rebel XT.

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One day, while Stark and I were walking back to the apartment, we cut through an alley that is the dumping ground for all the discarded furniture, old bathroom fixtures, and rejected home furnishings from the many surrounding bulidings. Placed right on top of a pile of broken dresser drawers was a pair of old electric typewriters. They were missing the plastic shells that should have been covering their inner workings, and Stark and I found ourselves engrossed by the tiny gears and springs. We took some photos and then absonded with the golf ball type elements.

Photos taken with a Digital Rebel XT.

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