Relationship cups?

I've been looking into what it is I really want to convey and realized I'm not sure myself. So I've been trying to clarify things. I've been writing stream of consciousness. I've been thinking about social comfort. What we do when we get up in the morning. What we do to ourselves to make us ready to face the world. I know for me, being a young woman, I think about what I want to wear and make my face up in a certain way so I feel comfortable enough to go outside. I think it is common for many. I came across this website I found to be really interesting. Basically it is a company that helps to transform people into more proper/politically correct beings. http://www.socialimage.net/services.html
They have services that help people with make-up, dancing, personal fitness, wardrobe and personal shopping, etiquett, speech and diction ect... The company claims to help promote individuality. Although I do find this social stuff interesting, I'm starting to feel like I'm forcing this concept and its not happening. I have been working on this drawing for my printmaking class about relationships. It is of 2 cups. It is of a mug lying on a shelf pouring down into a cracked smaller, feminine cup that is pouring out all the contents that it has received. I'm wondering if I can do more with this idea since I already have it flowing. I feel like this cup drawing is directly related to something personal to me. I feel like the social concept I had previously is loosing its flame. This is where I'm currently at in my lagging process.

Equipment issues

I'm going to do this project this weekend. I've been not giving it enough attention and feel guilty and feel the need to write this because I want to be honest about it. Ahh there its out! I've been giving this project more thought than action. I emailed my teacher who has a digital camera that is small. Unfortunately I can't borrow it because a grad student is currently using it. :( I went to AV yesterday hoping they would have something like it but no luck. I'm going to try and see if SIM has one, but I'm pretty sure we can't take equipment out after we graduate from the program. Not sure how the digital camera is going to pan out yet. haha get it? PAN out. bad bad joke.

Inspiration from family

This picture is unrelated to my art at this time but makes me happy and inspires me so I thought I'd put it up anyway. My niece Maya Avery :)

Process

So I decided I'm going to make 2 different set ups. One shelf will be modern looking. It will have 3 blue nalgene type looking water bottles on it. I bought clear sticky labels which I will print specific words on. I'm thinking of painting the shelf red so it stands out. I was thinking red is also appropriate since it is the color of emergency/medical survival so hopefully it works for social as well.
The older looking shelf will be a bit rickety looking. It will have small medicine bottles on it with similar if not the same labels as the water bottles had. When these are displayed, I will be looking for what age group is responsive to it. I'm wondering if an older generation will lean more towards the old aesthetic. More importantly, I'm looking for people's general responses. The purpose of this project is to comment on the inner strength humans have and take with them every day. I'm turning these things into portable objects.
Potential labels I'm thinking of writing:
confidence
self respect
public flatulent suppressant
tear stopper....

Process moving forward

With the help of friends and good conversation, I have been able to fine tune how this project will happen. The idea of a social survival package is definately something I could turn into some sort of sales performance, however I don't feel this would be complimentary to my personality. I do think that observing people reacting to this object would be appropriate and natural for me to do. I'm leaning towards the idea of using medicine type bottles on a wooden shelf mounted near a bus stop. I can't seem to escape the thought of using antique looking glass bottles on an old shelf. I can't seem to accept using age appropriate objects. Now that I think of it, old aesthetic does work with the idea since having inner strength is definatly no new concept. If the aesthetic is old in a public setting, it should also catch observer's eyes. A friend of mine suggested that the bottles remain empty. She said it raises the question, "Did the observer consume the contents of the bottle already?" I really liked that notion. I need to fine tune the exact labels that will be on the bottles and I was thinking video-ing people's reactions as documentation of this public installation would be appropriate.

Nathaniel Stern

I recently came across this multi media Artist who I thought was pretty interesting. His name is Nathaniel Stern. He does video art, printmaking, and installation. He creates these per formative prints where he uses a custom-made scanner and battery pack along with his laptop. He scans imagery in various lakes, and other landscapes. The per formative aspect of it comes in when he does things like, tie the scanner around his neck and swing over flowers, or do pogo-like gestures over bricks. When I read this on his website, it made me laugh because its just such a playful thing to do. It's refreshing when Artists show a carefree/childlike side to their work/process. After he has the image's, he crops them and uses more traditional processes like hand coloring, lithography, engraving along with others.

Process

This always seems to happen. I fear getting started. Going into projects, I get caught up in the success of it. I get worried that I may not maintain my inspiration with it since I tend to drift with whatever I'm doing at the time. I guess that's all the more reason to actually go through with it, getting over the initial hump. I was thinking about an idea I sort of neglected last semester. I think I'm going to bring it back in addition to this "social survival" one.
With this past idea, I was thinking about was about relationships. It was about how persistent people can be with trying to make things work even when they really know in the back of their mind, it probably won't work out. I started the idea with making a cup out of clay with a big split down the middle. I found a mug to be appropriate since a relationship is so related to consumption. Also, I associate coffee mug's with "down time"/ comfort, and conversation, which are also present in relationships. I ended up making charcoal drawings of mugs with these cracks but they didn't satisfy me. I think I'm going to make prints of them since I've been into this contemporary printmaking class.