Prometheus to the Cave Man and Now Igniting Ingenuity

At the beginning of the Disney movie Ratatouille, the main character, a small rat, says there is something interesting about humans:  “they don’t just survive; they discover; they create.”  The young child, cave woman, adult, professional, pirate, educator and artist in me held on to this observation by Remy, the rat, as the cornerstone that supports art and art making.  When asked to articulate a low-tech metal casting process to a high-tech computer crowd, I felt compelled to investigate a new angle. 

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Murder on the Avatar Express

I bought my first computer in April of 93 after my typewriter broke. A trip to the local electronics store and two thousand dollars later, I walked out with a Compaq 386 windows 3.1 jam packed with 2 megs of ram. I could have gotten 4 megs but as the salesman noted, "Nobody will ever need that much memory."

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PhotoVoice

It is well established that if you give someone a fish, they’ll have dinner for one night. Teach someone to fish and they’ll have dinner for the rest of their life.

In 1998, Edinburgh University Social Anthropology students Tiffany Fairey and Anna Blackman established two projects which sought to integrate participatory photography into their MA dissertations. These projects, the Rose Class project in Nepal and the Street Vision project in Vietnam, encouraged and inspired refugees from these areas to capture their everyday lives on film, with cameras supplied by the two projects. »»

Sebastiao Salgado: Eye Contact

It’s something about the eyes.

In times of conflict, war, rebellion, or natural disaster, it is so often the civilian who suffers, and it is the children who suffer most for they had supposed themselves to have the longest future yet to come. It is not the terrible shock of seeing homes destroyed or parents or siblings killed.  It is not just the hunger that eats at the body or the tiredness in that same body; it is the loss of innocence that changes the eyes. »»

Invite Beauty To Remind Us Of Hope

Ah, my last outdoor show — last weekend, in Peoria, IL –and it was actually quite good, considering…
and I had to do a lot of grounding to keep myself from panicking — one of the things
I did was write this piece –

Hope and Beauty

“it is an ethical obligation to search for hope.”  Tony Kurshner »»

Photofunia.com

November 4, 2008 by Lesli Jason  
Filed under Art Commentary, Digital Lifestyles, Media, Photography, Top

It never fails.

Just as I get rolling on something I need to finish, someone emails me something which completely catches my attention and takes me away from whatever it was that I was doing.
(what was I doing?)
 
Distraction du jour: Photofunia.com.
There are several online tools which allow you to have fun with images, Dumpr and Gooifier are two free sites that I’ve used in the past, but Photofunia, also free, offers a more sophisticated selection and I like their interface better. Using face detection technology and offering 50 different templates which allow you to apply funny, creative or artistic effects on your images with just a few clicks, Photofunia can help you transform your everyday photography to something you can have fun with and even frame and give as a gift. The results are that good. There is no need to have any deep knowledge of photo editing. No program download or registration is required. Just upload your picture or graphic, select your desired effect from the comprehensive assortment of image thumbnails, and viola! Then, just click and save.
 
I had such a good time with this program that I sent my kids all the funny and cool photos I made of them on Photofunia. After about the seventh or eighth photo, I received an email back from my 19 yr old son who is away at university. That, in and of itself was a miracle.
 
"Dear mom, Get a hobby. Love you. =)"
 
"Dear Bobby, I found a hobby. Have you found a job?"
 
I haven’t heard back…

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inspiration via email

Photojojo can set your creativity free

November 3, 2008 by Britt Stokes  
Filed under Digital Lifestyles, Media, Photography, The Not-So-Daily Edition, Top

No kitsch here. Photojojo.com is an original, exciting breath of fresh air. The slightly irreverent tenor and decidedly different ideas and photo projects make this site required reading for photographers and other artists in general.

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Review: Young At Heart

October 27, 2008 by Lesli Jason  
Filed under Digital Lifestyles, Media, The Write Stuff, Top

While preparing dinner at my kitchen counter the other day, I saw a commercial for an Eagles concert at the local Hard Rock indian casino. I immediately conjured a visual of what they looked like back in the seventies, when I was in high school and listened to their music. (which I still do, and which my kids grew up listening to on my car radio set to classic rock and NPR.) I glanced up from my chopping block fully expecting to see long hair and an attitude, and there on the TV screen was a group of old men. My age-peers.
 
Do I look like that? I grinned as I usually do when the old rock bands from the 60’s, and 70’s come into town and play at either the racetrack or the indian casino. My husband and I always opine that you know you’re considered "Classic" when you no longer play the stadiums but rather at the racetracks and the casinos. Still, the music is gold, as are the memories they ignite. »»

San Diego Comic-Con 2008: Part 2

October 24, 2008 by Aikido Al  
Filed under Commerce, Digital Lifestyles, Media, Panels & Gutters & Zip Ribbons, Sequential Art, Top

My professional agenda for Comic-Con was fairly simple: Soak in the visuals, get a general feel for the industry and do some basic networking.  With this in mind, here are some useful tips I learned along the way on how to take advantage of the convention:

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Comic Book Artist

Profile: Jim8ball

October 24, 2008 by madBADcat  
Filed under Panels & Gutters & Zip Ribbons, Profiles, Sequential Art, Top

Jim8Ball is such a prolific author we couldn’t decide which of his work we liked best. Don’t miss the slideshow after the  questionaire- it has a story preview for his "Samurai Cat" series and covers to many of his other books.

 

::: Artist(s) Name:::
Jim8ball

::: Title of Work(s):::
Samurai Cat

::: Publisher::: (self-published?)
I self publish as Eight Ball Graphics

::: Website:::
http://www.jim8ball.blogspot.com/

::: Q ::: Tell us about yourself.

Jim8ball aka Jim Coon was raised in the dark mines of evil dwarves living in Poland. He was fed only oatmeal and licorice. On Thursdays he was given the task of entertaining the dwarves by reenacting scenes from Fred Astaire movies. Do you know how hard it is to dance like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at the same time? At the age of 15 he was able to escape the mines and book passage on a small freighter headed for "parts unknown". Those parts turned out to be an island full of dinosaurs and a large gorilla. After a short stint on the island (the natives loved the Fred Astaire routine ) Jim found himself on the docks of the greatest city in the world! New York City. It was in New York that Jim discovered he really didn’t like people so he moved to Cortland NY where he now resides. Okay, that’s not how things really happened, but it’s way more interesting than the truth. »»

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