My Scarlett O'Hara Moment(s)

Some of you might remember this image:

 

I didn't use it in my post (The Desire to Make Art), but Stephanie used it in her post about the same thing (Photo Art Collaboration with Sarah Anderson).

Now this image has also appeared in a zine and an online magazine Certain Circuits. The picture was also printed on the cake for the opening of Certain Circuits: Collaborate Collaborator (pic coming soon). As well as an upcoming print ad for the Vertin Gallery.

I never thought an image of me wearing half a bed-sheet and a curtain (from K-mart's Martha Stewart collection no less) would get so much mileage. My mother must be so proud.

Sometimes I really want to work in advertising

While many of my friends decry television and commercials as being desperately bourgeois or blue-collar (whichever sect of income level represents the "Them" in their personal "Us & Them" delineation), I realize that the challenges of creating promotional materials, and the rules and boundaries that accompany them often produce the most creative works of art. I am constantly hearing from successful artists that creativity needs structure, and the advertising world provides structure and money, so it is shouldn't really come as a surprise that some of the most creative works are ads.

Often when I watch ads, I think about what makes the ones I like good, and what I would do differently with the ones I hate. I also like to think of analog methods to do the same thing a lot of advertisers are using computer graphics to do, I find myself constantly asking "What would this add looked like 30 years ago?" Sometimes I find I don't understand why they felt they needed computer graphics (such as a tin of soda spilling over) and sometimes there truly is no way to reproduce what they have done without the use of computer animation.

Cake for Breakfast!

One of the perks of working at the gallery is that after a show opening, I get all the left over cake a body could want. One of the perks of being an adult is that I can eat cake whenever I want.

Do you know what you can do when you have cake for breakfast every day?

Neither do I. The resulting sugar highs make my memory of this weekend a little hazy.

All I know is I woke up in my living room covered in frosting and surrounded by art. Adulthood is awesome.

Trying to do this in 20 Minutes before the NyQuil kicks in Friday!

I have not been in the peak of health recently, and have taken NyQuil to counter-act many of the unpleasant physical symptoms of having a cold. Some of you know exactly what that means. Some of you may be about to find out. This week's Friday post is a race against my digestive system to get something coherent written before the medicine kicks in.

The Bechdel Test is a test for media and the depiction of women in it. There are three rules:

1. There are at least two women...

2. Who have at least one conversation...

3. About something other than a man or men.

Mostly this is used as a rough measure of feminism for film critiques.

Recently I have also discovered it is a good measure to see if I'm going to enjoy something or not. I realized today that probably 99% of my favorite movies and TV shows pass this test (Star Wars does not...even though I get Princess Leia rescuing the dashing rogue Han Solo from the vile Jabba the Hut).

I've also found I loose interest in TV shows when they stop passing the Bechdel Test (I'm talking about you, Castle, House and Royal Pains. Shame on you. Stop pairing off all of your female characters).

I think this has more to do with the nature of the writers who manage this rather than feminism though. Writers who use their female characters as more than accessories to their male characters tend to also be more interested in telling new and/or unique stories and writing interesting and witty dialogue. They tend to want to explore all the imperfections and humanity of characters (and all the idiosyncrasies that go with it) rather than rely on established labels and stereotypes to compose a character.

Media that passes the Bechdel Test is more often character driven over plot driven, which is my preferred form of storytelling.

Links!
http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwriters-not-to-pass-the-bechdel-test/

New Artist Crush Monday: Darrell K Sweet

Cover Art for Guards! Guards! by Darrell K Sweet

Anyone who has known me long enough knows that I am a pretty big fan of Terry Pratchett. I've recently (over the last 3 years or so) been slowly collecting his work. While I love the content of the books, I have been disappointed by Ben Perrini's cover art for Harper Collins editions of the Discworld series.

To my great delight, one of my friends was pairing down his book collection and was getting rid of a whole slew of old ROC editions of Pratchett's work featuring the cover art of Darrell K Sweet. I was stoked to a) be getting a large chunk of my Pratchett collection completed for free and b) that it would be featuring the work of Sweet. The Sweet books (pun totally intended) have made it onto my list of 10 things to grab if I have time should my house be burning down.

Link!
http://www.sweetartwork.com/

New Artist Crush Mondays: Candy Chang

Image from "It's Good To Be Here" by Candy Chang

Candy Chang is a public installation artist. I love her work because I find that her art is on a level ready for the every-day person's consumption. One of my big beefs with public art is it requires a study of art, art history and art movements to understand why a pile of metal scrap in the middle of town is a significant statement.

By contrast, the meaning of Chang's work is immediately apparent and serves to enrich the environments in which it is installed. Much of it is also interactive, allowing the people who actually use and live in the space to influence the space as well. Rather than having an outsider come in and tell the residents what they need, Chang gives them a platform for their own voice.

Link!
http://candychang.com/

Random Word Generated Fridays

Random Word: Processing

CLS
phrase$ = "Hello World!"
LOCATE 13,40
PRINT phrase$
END

...yeah...


This is officially the nerdiest blog post on the internet.