Check this out from our friends at 20x200.
I literally gasped looking at this.
I also love their tagline: "Live with art. It's good for you". On this blog, we'll talk more about how art is good for you.
More Later
KCD
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Don't Say It!
Yes, I know it's a new year. 2012. I get it. The year that the Mayan Calendar runs out, which some have taken to mean the end of the world as we know it. But didn't we just have that last year? And yes, we get to do the thing where we vote for President of the United States again, and since this is an art blog, I'm only going to say this: the current slate of candidates is uninspiring at best. Meanwhile, the current President is going to have to make a case for himself if he wants to stay on another 4 years. He started doing that last fall, and again on Tuesday with his annual State of the Union address. Let the games begin. Do I have an opinion? You bet your horse's patoot I do. But this is a blog about art, not politics. I'd rather talk about things like what viewing art does to your brain, or tell you why it's a good idea to have art in your home, or why, even if you don't make art professionally, it's a good idea to make art. I'd rather tell you about those things, than give you my two cents on a horse race for a job that, once you're in it, all the guns are trained on you no matter what you do. I'll leave the prognostications to others.
Meanwhile, here in the world of art that we inhabit, there are things of note to mention. One is that my companion blog, The Work Of Art will be getting new work uploaded to it soon, and the landing page at www.theworkofart.net is due for a facelift. For those of you living in Central, MA, there's going to be more visibility of the art we're doing. Why? To increase sales, of course, and to increase our connection. So those are my resolutions for this year. And I haven't yet said what everybody has already said and I've come late to.
I also intend to make a case for art in the culture, to educate people about why art is important, and what happens to society when we take it for granted or worse, downgrade its importance in our lives. So, enjoy the ride. It's 2012, and far from the end of the world as we know it, we may see a shift in the overall mindset. There are some signs of that happening already. I mean to do my part to help that along.
More Later
KCD
P.S. Oh and by the way,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Meanwhile, here in the world of art that we inhabit, there are things of note to mention. One is that my companion blog, The Work Of Art will be getting new work uploaded to it soon, and the landing page at www.theworkofart.net is due for a facelift. For those of you living in Central, MA, there's going to be more visibility of the art we're doing. Why? To increase sales, of course, and to increase our connection. So those are my resolutions for this year. And I haven't yet said what everybody has already said and I've come late to.
I also intend to make a case for art in the culture, to educate people about why art is important, and what happens to society when we take it for granted or worse, downgrade its importance in our lives. So, enjoy the ride. It's 2012, and far from the end of the world as we know it, we may see a shift in the overall mindset. There are some signs of that happening already. I mean to do my part to help that along.
More Later
KCD
P.S. Oh and by the way,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
I. LOVE. THIS.
Mentos commercial.
Check it out here
I bet you'll never think the same way about "eeny meeny miney mo" ever again.
More Later
KCD
Check it out here
I bet you'll never think the same way about "eeny meeny miney mo" ever again.
More Later
KCD
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Missed It
This may come as, well, belated news. But the end of the world was supposed to happen (again) yesterday. Harold Camping had proclaimed that back on May 21st, the Rapture was going to occur, with all the requisite bells, whistles, trumpets, etc. After that cataclysmic event (rivaled only by the flooding in Joplin, MO and the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan), five months later there was going be the complete destruction of the planet. Supposedly that started yesterday.
Apparently, I and a whole lot of other folks, missed it.
I am most remiss, since I should've stayed on top of this developing non-story.
My bad.
On the other hand, you can hardly blame me. May 21st came and went, and I'm sorry to inform you that your good Christian neighbors are still here to endure the "travail" of this life along with the rest of us.
Maybe they weren't the right kind of true believers. But that's another discussion entirely.
But then, Camping himself was surprised that his dates and math hadn't held up yet again. He's been at this for some while now.
You'd think one of these days he'd get it right.
Meanwhile, he's got a whole lot of people pissed at him after spending $100 million dollars advertising the end of all things. This past June, he suffered a stroke.
Can lawsuits be far behind? Maybe $100 million doesn't seem like much on Wall Street, but it's a lot of cake to the rest of us. Just seems fitting that some disgruntled folks might be politely asking for it back.
Good thing I didn't bet on that horse.
More Later.
KCD
Apparently, I and a whole lot of other folks, missed it.
I am most remiss, since I should've stayed on top of this developing non-story.
My bad.
On the other hand, you can hardly blame me. May 21st came and went, and I'm sorry to inform you that your good Christian neighbors are still here to endure the "travail" of this life along with the rest of us.
Maybe they weren't the right kind of true believers. But that's another discussion entirely.
But then, Camping himself was surprised that his dates and math hadn't held up yet again. He's been at this for some while now.
You'd think one of these days he'd get it right.
Meanwhile, he's got a whole lot of people pissed at him after spending $100 million dollars advertising the end of all things. This past June, he suffered a stroke.
Can lawsuits be far behind? Maybe $100 million doesn't seem like much on Wall Street, but it's a lot of cake to the rest of us. Just seems fitting that some disgruntled folks might be politely asking for it back.
Good thing I didn't bet on that horse.
More Later.
KCD
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Where To Begin
Quick news:
A nearly 3-week old organic movement called Occupy Wall Street has now caught the attention of the mainstream mass media, which can only mean one thing: the concerns and voices of the "99 per cent" are not going away any time soon. I first found out about this on the yes magazine site. But the coolest thing about this (to me, at least) was the advertising. Check this out.
The power of art to move people on is full display here. Don't even think about having a civil society without it, and without the thing that drives and inspires it: creativity and innovation. My heart swells when I see things like this.
Speaking of innovators, on a truly sad note, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, and inventor of the MacIntosh computer (which I'm writing this on right now), the IMac, IPhone, IPod, and IPad, has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 56 years old. As a graphic designer who uses his invention, I am in shock. The man was many things, complex, driven, singularly focused, impatient with anything less than realizing his complete vision. I don't think that I will be alone in recognizing him as a giant of innovation and creativity. A true visionary. I just heard someone on MSNBC mention that the important question before us here in the US is do we still have the ability and the will to create, to invent, to innovate. Can we regain that? I think we just all got a huge reminder of the impact of creative genius.
And we all have it, if we'll just listen.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled psychotic rantings about art, culture, etc.
More Later
KCD
A nearly 3-week old organic movement called Occupy Wall Street has now caught the attention of the mainstream mass media, which can only mean one thing: the concerns and voices of the "99 per cent" are not going away any time soon. I first found out about this on the yes magazine site. But the coolest thing about this (to me, at least) was the advertising. Check this out.
The power of art to move people on is full display here. Don't even think about having a civil society without it, and without the thing that drives and inspires it: creativity and innovation. My heart swells when I see things like this.
Speaking of innovators, on a truly sad note, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, and inventor of the MacIntosh computer (which I'm writing this on right now), the IMac, IPhone, IPod, and IPad, has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 56 years old. As a graphic designer who uses his invention, I am in shock. The man was many things, complex, driven, singularly focused, impatient with anything less than realizing his complete vision. I don't think that I will be alone in recognizing him as a giant of innovation and creativity. A true visionary. I just heard someone on MSNBC mention that the important question before us here in the US is do we still have the ability and the will to create, to invent, to innovate. Can we regain that? I think we just all got a huge reminder of the impact of creative genius.
And we all have it, if we'll just listen.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled psychotic rantings about art, culture, etc.
More Later
KCD
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Making My Point For Me
I am listening to a talk on TED by a British fellow named Malcom McLaren who is talking about the difference between authentic and what he calls "karaoke culture." He rather eloquently sums up my entire premise, and it's worth reviewing here. Just on first blush, the talk does get a bit windy. I'll have more to say about it, as well as my review of why art matters, particularly today. And I mean by that, not only the product, but the facility of creativity, which is art, which is invention, which is a new way to see the world.
Malcom McLaren died on April 8th, 2010 in Switzerland. Turns out the talk he gives here is the last one before he passed.
More Later
KCD
Malcom McLaren died on April 8th, 2010 in Switzerland. Turns out the talk he gives here is the last one before he passed.
More Later
KCD
Friday, September 16, 2011
Speaking Yet More About Re-boots
Andy Fish over at Fishwrap wrote quite eloquently about the fate of the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. As famous and iconic as their creation became, they never saw a dime of residual income for years. It finally took legal action to get anything resembling a pension, leave aside royalties which would have made the two men wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.
Now, as the current owners of Superman, the corporate heads at DC have decided to re-boot the character, along with the entire DC cast of characters. As anyone who has followed this knows, when it comes to signature characters like Superman, re-boots don't always take and it's sometimes best to leave well enough alone. In fact, as a matter of history, changes have been made to the character with varying degrees of success. The last attempt to change Superman's costume was met with howls of outrage.
The moral of the story? Sometimes re-boots for the sake of re-boots are just a bad idea. But DC is attempting a wholesale re-invention of its entire line-up, including Superman, and this is after various revisions, history changes and so on in order to keep it all fresh (and to boost sales, lest we forget). It's hard to imagine Siegel and Shuster disagreeing with the need for an update from time to time. They certainly re-booted. Superman started off as a bad guy. Then they tweaked the character till they got it right. In this case, Jim Lee and his mates are playing for all the marbles, exercising the artist's prerogative to rip out the page and start all over again. It's always a bold move, and not an ill-considered one. When you get to the point that you have to do that, it's a recognition that the current course is not getting you where you want to go, and it's time for a do over. It'll be interesting to watch.
More Later
KCD
Now, as the current owners of Superman, the corporate heads at DC have decided to re-boot the character, along with the entire DC cast of characters. As anyone who has followed this knows, when it comes to signature characters like Superman, re-boots don't always take and it's sometimes best to leave well enough alone. In fact, as a matter of history, changes have been made to the character with varying degrees of success. The last attempt to change Superman's costume was met with howls of outrage.
The moral of the story? Sometimes re-boots for the sake of re-boots are just a bad idea. But DC is attempting a wholesale re-invention of its entire line-up, including Superman, and this is after various revisions, history changes and so on in order to keep it all fresh (and to boost sales, lest we forget). It's hard to imagine Siegel and Shuster disagreeing with the need for an update from time to time. They certainly re-booted. Superman started off as a bad guy. Then they tweaked the character till they got it right. In this case, Jim Lee and his mates are playing for all the marbles, exercising the artist's prerogative to rip out the page and start all over again. It's always a bold move, and not an ill-considered one. When you get to the point that you have to do that, it's a recognition that the current course is not getting you where you want to go, and it's time for a do over. It'll be interesting to watch.
More Later
KCD
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