I’ve been working on a couple paintings. I’m still experimenting with my monster illustrations and using different mediums. I’m not completely happy with this one, but enough to call it finished. I have lots of things I want to try.
Non-Corporeal Creatures, acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 24″, 2009
A porcine theme emerged early in the week and we strayed little from the pen.
by StephG
by MarkB
a bunch more after the jump! Read more »
I only realize now that the Betty Boop character was based on a D’arteboard author. Listen carefully to her giggling and exotic New Jersey accent. Catch Cab Calloway singing a brilliant cameo.
Morph Thing is a fun site where you can combine two faces into one–not unlike those science museum contraptions where you and a friend sit on either side of a screen and adjust a knob to see what your children would look like. You can upload your own photos or chose from a selection of celebrity photos. Yeah so if Ms. Tiller and I ever decide to procreate we’ll all know what to expect.
-Steph
Secure
oil on canvas
with nails and twine
24 x 19 inches
I’m so tired I could…………………………………………… n’t do much of anything really. So don’t expect much from this post, ok? Good. Being up front about things is the way to go, don’t you think? Me, too. In fact, I like to theorize about how much improved life would be if humanity would implement a strict “All Honesty, All The Time” policy (provided the adjustment period friction didn’t ignite into a massive, unstopable blaze). But like I say, I’m tired, so I don’t currently have much to say on the subject. Suffice it to say I like to know where I stand–to be properly oriented.
Wanna see some details of the above painting? Good. I’ll show you some. Just follow the jump. Read more »
Winsor Mccay was an early animation pioneer and he was apparently experimenting with horse tranquilizers here.
Here’s one of my favorite little animated clips ever. If you haven’t seen it before you’re in for a real treat!
My entry into the show: “Dorothy Bergmann”, shot with Nikon D300 and Tokina 11-16mm lens.
I figured that I would post what I was exhibiting for those of you who will not be able to attend the opening. This shot is of my grandmother, whose endearing presence culminates my best memories of living in St. Louis as a child. She taught me how to read, and, since both of my parents worked full-time, I spent most days with her, stealing chocolate from her candy dishes, until I was almost 6 years old. For this photograph, I wanted to capture as much of my grandmother’s personality as possible, so I shot this with a wide lens to include all of her regular environment (if you look closely, you can see the reflection of a graphite portrait that I did of my grandmother when I was about 16) and also to show the space left by my grandfather’s passing, who I unfortunately learned photography too late to capture. My grandfather was my true childhood hero, and he was the true inspiration for me wanting to capture this shot of my grandmother. Old photos of my grandfather and more info on the exhibition after the jump…
With a belly full of beer, I clambered out onto my roof a few nights ago and shot this photo looking back at my studio. I had my Nikon D300 with Tokina 11-16mm lens mounted to a tripod, and used a ten second shutter delay to initiate the exposure (this eliminated any vibration that manually tripping the shutter would cause). I used a narrow aperture, something like f/18, and slow shutter speed of, I believe, 25-30 seconds. My ISO was set to 200 to reduce noise (I don’t particularly like the effect of the in camera noise reduction feature, so I keep it turned off), and my focal length was 11mm. I used two LED flashlights to light the exterior walls of my studio, giving it an eerie luminance. Why am I explaining all of this? I don’t know; I figured that it might be helpful to someone looking to take their own camera out into the night. Read more »
CNN tells me that the hip new thing is to use a portrait of yourself as your facebook icon instead of an actual photo.
Sounds simple enough, right? But CNN decided to uncharacteristically overthink the concept, talking to all sorts of stupid “experts” on the subject. Perhaps the most nauseating line in the article is this gem:
All of these efforts underscore the fact that tiny images, often no bigger than a postage stamp, have become stand-ins for peoples’ identities online.
Seriously? The photo is a stand in for my entire identity? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read today. But if it’s true, I suddenly feel an overwhelming pressure to make sure I choose the right picture to represent myself.
After careful deliberation, I’m going with this:
Yes, the green stuff is cat poo. I hope this is a good identity for me.
Which image best represents YOUR identity?
-JD
An unfinished oil on board, a nude that’s something of a cross between a landscape and a rabbit. I haven’t decided which way I want to see it: as a horizontal or vertical.
I’m revisiting the series of figure narratives I started a year and a half ago. I was getting tired and logy while I was in the dungeon working on this, the turpentine so heavy in the air you could taste it down the street. I think the current formula for manufacturing gum turpentine is very different from just a few years ago. This stuff almost makes me want to pass out. Or start hallucinating I’m living on the left bank addicted to Absinthe. That’s not so bad now that I think of it.
Tom Bennett
Sleepwalking 35, monotype, 14 x 18
Last weeks request for penises (thanks for nothing people) got me thinking about images of men in general, and it kind of gave me a much needed little creative boost. I don’t have time at the moment to do anything about it so I am going into the archives to find a launch point for where I hope to go next.
“Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed,” per wikipedia. A form of it, microcredit, was responsible for the Muhammad Yunus winning the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
The concept is simple: give the poor who have no access to traditional financing services the ability to solicit small scale investments or loans to give them new opportunitires. For instance, give a 200$ loan to a group of women in Africa to buy enough livestock to start a small business. As the theory goes, this is more effective than standard forms of charity because it empowers the communities you are trying to help. “Teach a man to fish,” as the parable goes.
There are critiques of the system- if you give the money out indiscriminantly, you are basically giving a credit card to those least able to afford it. As we’ve seen in the economic melt-down recently, credit is as dangerous as it is necessary. Without serious efforts to ensure the responsibility of lenders and borrowers, mictofinance can do as much harm as good. The mob has made a good living off its own form of microfinance over the years.
However, just as Craigslist and eBay create both new opportunities for trade and fraud, the benefits of microfinance are worth the risks, once fully mature.
So it is the New York Times reviews a new website, kickstarter.com, which they describe as “a start-up based in Brooklyn that uses the Web to match aspiring da Vincis and Spielbergs with mini-Medicis who are willing to chip in a few dollars toward their projects/” The company describes itself as, “a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers… ” and promotes opportunities to fund projects, test concepts or sell wares (I assume in a different manner than etsy).
The Times article interviews the creators and fills out the picture more, but I think its a worthy idea, even if I’m not sure I have anything to ask from it at this point. I don’t think its open to everybody yet, but as I mentioned above it’s going to be vital for the site to focus on the integrity of its participants. With that, this could be a great resource in opening up artistic opportunbities for any mind that may come up with an idea.
-JD
Last one for the day. I just can’t seem to get rid of my circle addiction. They are a useful and versatile form, so I suppose I shouldn’t be self conscious about it. Anyways, recognizable motifs are key to establishing an identity in the art world. Or so says my paperback “How to be an Artist” book that I found in on the curb one day, soaked in dog urine.
Anyhoo…
-JD
If anybody can come up with a worthwhile name for this, I’m game. It’s creation was a bit of an accident. I tried to cut the dominant painting in it into the shapes of the lesser pieces in here but the paint was too thick and dry for the machine, so I only got a handful before I had to give up. Rather than throw the rest away, I plugged the hole with other pinwheely shuriken type shapes. Ta-Da!
-JD
I apologize. Yes it is easy, but also predictable, which makes it good for seeing how other aspects of a piece that I’m experimenting with turn out. In this case I was seeing how well I could match up and center the patterns on the circles with the pattern on the background.
(I’ll be posting a few more pieces throughout the day, BTW)
I’m supposed to give this to fellow d’Arte Boardist Steph in exchange for a plate of cookies she sent me forever ago. But I am bad at getting my crap together.
After the jump is a copy of a letter I wrote to accompany it. Get a glimpse into the internal dialogue of the creators of this site!
The art dolls I had planned on posting today still aren’t finished, next week for sure. Instead here is a little experiment combining digital collage and a monster drawing.
I’m not sure if this works that well; it kind of feels like the illustration is just slapped on top off the collage. I need to work on integrating the two more. It is still fun and i really do like the background though.
=Daniel
p.s. a mom blogger is hosting a giveaway of a set of 3 custom monster finger puppets until 9/7/09. Go enter!
Agora Gallery - the proud sponsor of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, which offers contemporary artists the opportunity to show their original art at one the most acclaimed juried art shows in Chelsea, New York’s art galleries district.
darteboard
jdhastings
ssstephg
Tom Bennett
Toni Tiller
Jason Gray
probrucer
laelia e. mitchell
