Please don't be a double post!

August 28, 2003 8:18 PM

Ladies & Gentlemen, George Vlosich, the world's greatest etch-a-sketch artist. I'm nervous that I've seen this on Mefi before, but search came up blank...
posted by jonson (15 comments total)

Let's just hope he's not on the West coast when the next big one hits...
posted by KnitWit at 8:26 PM on August 28, 2003

Took me a second to figure that out KnitWit - quite funny.

And it gets to the root of my question: How does he preserve his extraordinary work? Is there some way he has of fixing the particles after an image has been completed?

Whatever the case, this is extraordinary. Thanks for the great link!
posted by aladfar at 8:29 PM on August 28, 2003

I like the art, but, YIKES, the site design. Hello there, flash navigation and entire-pages-that-are-one-mondo-image.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:36 PM on August 28, 2003

He seems to have some "perma fixative" to hold them in place. The most productive thing I ever did with 'em was hammer a hole in the casing to get to the magical pixie dust inside.
posted by jonson at 8:37 PM on August 28, 2003

apparently he takes the back off of the etch a sketch and takes out all the junk thats in it to preserve what hes drawn. I dont know how it works, but I imagine it has to do with the shaking.
posted by outsider at 8:50 PM on August 28, 2003

How an Etch-a-sketch works. The insides are fine aluminum dust, and when you shake it, it recoats the inside screen by static cling (you knew there was a practical application somewhere). The drawing is done with a really nifty pulley system inside. It's well worth the $6 to take one apart.
posted by whatzit at 8:53 PM on August 28, 2003

Good stuff - thanks jonson.
posted by plep at 11:49 PM on August 28, 2003

Mention of George's stuff is found in the first reply to this post (found searching "etch-a-sketch").
posted by jpburns at 4:14 AM on August 29, 2003

while his skill with the etch-a-sketch is uncanny, his drawings kind of suck, don't they?
posted by signal at 9:35 AM on August 29, 2003

signal, I don't think you can separate the one from the other. The limitations of the medium are spectacular, so being able to do anything remotely "artistic" within them is a sizable artistic achievement. What, he should also be Chuck Close or something on top of it?
posted by soyjoy at 9:58 AM on August 29, 2003

Very cool, although the site design IS awful. And yikes, so many spelling errors.
posted by agregoli at 10:50 AM on August 29, 2003

soyjoy: my point is that though his technique (and perseverance) is amazing, what he does with it is mundane and boring.
In guitar-geek terms, more of an Yngwie Malmsteem than a Joe Satriani.
posted by signal at 11:58 AM on August 29, 2003

I get you, signal, I'm just sayin', if a guy only had his teeth and toes to play guitar with, and he could get recognizable chords outa the thing, would you say, "well, he's no Joe Satriani"?
posted by soyjoy at 1:03 PM on August 29, 2003 [1 favorite]

Signal: That analogy is spot on, and I'd nominate Neil Young as the opposite counterpart (artistic merit, high, technical merit, well, not.)
posted by eriko at 1:34 PM on August 29, 2003

Holy moly on a bike.
posted by carter at 1:58 PM on August 29, 2003