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Caveman Tape Machine

Body: 

— October 12, 2022

I am deciding whether I should paint these 16 mm squares more like typewriter keys with more rounded corners.

Painting into the vertex, and not outside of it, requires a lot of focus and determination.

Tape Machine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3D-printed machine fabricated for 16 mm grid and 1/32" Chartpak tape.

Also, each square requires that it be painted twice, at least — sometimes once, sometimes more than twice — for proper coverage and color saturation. The intensity of reflected light and the paint film must be substantial, like heavy paper. Peaks inevitably form inside the corners, however. Perhaps they can be sanded down later for the dried paint film to be significantly flattened.

At times, the edges are more challenging and concerning than the color, which is a lot simpler and easier to work with. In some areas, the application of painting a square may require more than two layers in order to making corrections.

Corrections are often required because the latex dries at a darker color, sometimes the hue changes on drying. This color change depends on the pigments used, the amount of white (TiO2) in the formulation, and the amount of water. I am becoming accostomed to these changes intuitively, I believe.

After completing the grid, I plan a latter phase of error correction, which may take additional months.

Photography helps me a lot with this painting technique: I see things in a photograph of a painting that isn’t seen in real life, and vice versa. I make adjustments accordingly. Maybe these corrections will make little difference. I try not to ask myself this question.

Epilogue

It is difficult for me to cope with the grid. The grid is superior to me. I imagine that most people fail to understand the implications and the reality of the grid.

The grid is very disturbing to me. Why? Is it because the grid was discovered, and not created?

The grid is a ghost in the machine of life, the monolith on the Moon, unknown and otherworldly, staring back at us.

It's not you. It's not me. It's the grid.

— Signed, 10-12-2022

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