I’m in a Curriculum and Methods class for becoming a certified teacher. this video is a reflection of on of the Missouri Standards for Teacher Education Programs, specifically it is a reflection on long-term planning as outlined in MoSTEP 4. The soundtrack is from Daft Punk: Tron Legacy. I do not own the rights to either the songs used, or the images or text. This was created purely for educational purposes and without permission by the parties mentioned or featured.

• The 3rd Dimension at the Foundry Art Centre with this piece as well as 2 others.
• A redesign contest for the phrase ‘Designed in USA’ with this piece.
• An Information is Beautiful contest in the category of data visualization with this piece

Now I wait…

This time in red!

Greetings, and welcome reader, as we sit down with dpstudiolab to discuss a mysterious character that has appeared in the artist’s works and sketches.

Interviewer: Good evening dpstudiolab, and thank you for coming along

Dpstudiolab: Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Interviewer: So to begin with, we’re here to ask about what some may see as a rather creepy and even scary character in your drawings. Does this creature have a name?

Dpstudiolab: Nope.

Interviewer: I see. It does not have a name?

Dpstudiolab: Nope.

Interviewer: So it does have a name?

Dpstudiolab: Nope.

Interviewer: Mr. Lab, I understand your need for eccentricity and elusiveness, but this is down right frustrating. Tell us, in more than one word, does this creature of yours have a name?

Dpstudiolab: Sorry, I’ve always Wanted to do that. Yes, the character has a name; Nope.

Interviewer: Thank you for clarifying. How did the creature come by this name?

Dpstudiolab: It just sort of happened. The name came to me, literally, as I struck other names off the list. I found myself saying ‘nope’ a lot on that list, and that became the character’s name.

Interviewer: interesting. Sort of a process of elimination, then?

Dpstudiolab: You could say that.

Interviewer: Any meaning beyond that?

Dpstudiolab: I suppose. I haven’t thought about it that much, but I guess it does denote a sense of negativity beyond just the name. ‘Nope’ is a negative term, but knowing the story of eliminating other names and finally settling the negative term that turned those names down, I guess it is pretty bad. Bad as in negative, I think the idea of the creature is good.

Interviewer: I’ll ask about that in a little bit, but first: what is Nope.

Dpstudiolab: Nope is a random creation, and not really consistant at that. It’s a pen drawing’ composed of obsevely drawn shapes and lines that is somewhat reminiscent of a skeleton.

He's always in a sketchbook at least once

Interviewer: Yes, that’s what we see, but what is it?

Dpstudiolab: It’s a symbol of negativity, and that goes back to his name as well. His name is Nope because that’s all the creature says.

Interviewer: In your sketches, however, next to the creature is often written the phrase, ‘No Sure for Cure!’ so ‘Nope’ can’t be all it says.

Dpstudiolab: Good point, that is next to the character a lot. It’s a little negative dyslexia on my part. Maybe it’s obvious, but it’s a flip of the phrase, ‘No Cure for Sure.’ which is a negative or uncertain phrase about basically any serious disease like AIDS or even cancer. So it’s not very very positive.

Interviewer: You mentioned earlier that the idea of the creature is good, why?

Dpstudiolab: Good as in I like it and it has merit. As mentioned before, it turns up in my sketches, so I rarely intentionally draw it. Although I did do two versions on purpose once.

Interviewer: I see. What were those two for?

Dpstudiolab: They were nightmares.

Interviewer: Really? Nightmares you’ve had?

Dpstudiolab: Not in any literal sense. I didn’t dream of these things while I was asleep. I had an opportunity to share these with the art world in the form of postcards for a show. The postcards had to symbolize nightmares in some way, and I decided Nope was a scary looking figure you wouldn’t want to meet in an alley or in your dreams.

Interviewer: It was a random drawing of negativity, you thought it was scary, and when the chance presented itself, you illustrated it as nightmarish. Sounds like the idea ‘gelled’ at that point.

Dpstudiolab: I guess it did.

Interviewer: Another common thread I’ve noticed, especially in this conversation, is that the creature doesn’t really have a gender. I’ve refrained from giving it one out of uncertainty , but you’ve seemed to intentionally avoided it.

Dpstudiolab: You’re right. It doesn’t have a gender. That, like it’s name, wasn’t really on purpose, but it became a key factor. If I had to give it a gender, I’d only go so far as to say its masculine in nature, but not go so far as to say its definitely male.

Interviewer: Could that also be why it sometimes has tread-like tracks instead of legs?

Dpstudiolab: I don’t think so. The treads appeared randomly one day and I think serve to as further ambiguity to the gender. They also lend themselves further the nightmarish nature.

Interviewer: In all these things we’ve talked about; negativity, nightmares, ambiguity, etc., there is a definite ‘dark’ streak here. Is that pretty typical of your work?

Dpstudiolab: I can be ‘dark’ if I want to, but I don’t consider negativity or ambiguity necessary to being sinister. I like ambiguity, but I think it can be scary when surrounded by other elements that serve to give ambiguity attitude. Ambiguity itself is uncertain, but when you place attributes around it, positive or negative, ambiguity seems to take on a direction at least.

Interviewer: I think we’ll wrap this up, if that’s alright. We’ve talked a great deal about a single, almost causal creation of yours, but knowing more about it and its evolution; it seems less casual than when it first started out.

Dpstudiolab: Well thank you for asking about it, and I agree. While the simplistic drawing remains relatively unchanged, the attitude of the creature has really been fleshed out.

Interviewer: dpstudiolab, thank you very much for your time.

Dpstudiolab: Not at all.

* This interview is entirely fake and probably conducted between my artist self, and a delusional version of me. I did, however, think a lot about Nope and its persistant presence in my drawings,; I think this really codifies my thoughts on the drawing.