So while I was working on Bird on a Wire an whole series of ideas came into my head. TweetDeck is one of them. It took several days from inkling in the old brain housing group to finished canvas. I hope you like it.
The series is the result of my immersion in social media lately (and probably for some time to come). I have a FaceBook fan page started (and only started). It is going to take me a while to figure out how to really use that tool properly. And there is all the linkage between FaceBook, Twitter, my blog and to a lesser extent, MySpace and LinkedIn. MySpace seems to be yesterday’s news. LinkedIn seems more business minded. But I think the whole thing can work. In theory TwitterFeed is feeding this blog or the RSS feed to several locations.
In furtherance of my education, I participated in a kind of FaceBook for Dummies class this week. I didn’t learn too much except how to stop being hammered with all the games. Yes, I know, its easy, but I have not had the time to sit around and play with this stuff a lot. Learning how to get rid of FarmVille Spam was pretty cool. Also learning what information is being shared and how to control it to some extent was also important. The class actually did not suggest any recommendations in this regard, which I found to be an interesting omission.
It was a hands on class, so the moment I logged on, all my FaceBook friends could see I was there and engage in chat. That was a new experience for me. I spent a bit of time chatting with several people including my nephew who seems to think Apple/Macintosh is the be-all-end-all-here and can’t understand why I am still using a clunky HP laptop or why I think my next phone is going to be a Blackberry.
Anyway, so my mind is chewing on this stuff and out comes this series of ideas with canaries and binary. I enjoyed painting my little tweetie bird commune so much another one is underway. Anyway, without futher ado, TweetDeck.
TweetDeck, painting by Jake Beckman. Five canaries perch on a wire.
Its a little abstract in concept, but also kind of literal too. The ASCII binary reads “TweetDeck” from Left to Right, and Top to bottom. In addition to the binary I have attempted to imply a golden spiral in the arrangement of the birds and the wire and to a lesser extent the tonal variation of the colors in the background. Mostly I think this series is going to be about whimsy. What do you think?
Alternatively, got any FaceBook Fan page or other social media tips? Love to hear from you.
Details about TweetDeck, size etc., can be found on its art page at AKAJake.com
Jake
Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!
The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.
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Tried to figure out a way to reply to my own blog but couldn’t, so to all my commentators, thanks for all the social media applause. 
I really appreciate you stopping by. – Jake
Very cool art. Love it. =)
Nice Painting. Reminds me a litlle of the Pixar short movie Birds.
Jake, wow..!! it is really about our tweet talk talk talk just that ours is wireless…. well, almost
congrats.. it is a very, “on/in time”, work…. very representative, symbolic but also literal as you said.. It is simple and complex… wow.. i like it.. thank you for send it.
Looks a great composition, the word tha comes to mind is …
– retweet -
Already working on that one. I had a whole bunch of similarly themed ideas come to mind and Retweet will be the next one. Thanks for stopping by.
Love the Painting! The bird on the right is obviously doing the tweeting, and sounds like he is coming on a bit strong too:)
You are the second artist/writer I have seen/read this morning. Check out the blog of Mary Carroll Moore; she is an outstanding writer and pastel artist.
very creative.thanks for sharing.
Jake,
I really like your TweetDeck painting with the mixture of nature and technical. However, I am curious about one thing. Why is one canary a different color than the other four canaries? As I think about it, I am glad one canary is different from the others. If everything was the same, it would be a very boring world. Thanks!
Brad
Initially I did have them all as yellow canaries and it was a good composition, but a little bit boring. By changing the color of that one bird, I think it made it better. But in general I leave interpretation to the viewer, and I ask you, “Why do you think its a different color?”
Jake,
The one bird is a different color to remind us that we are not all the same, that we can have a different opinion, whether on Twitter or any other communication medium, and that despite the differences, we can indeed all get along together even on one wire where we must work together to stay on that wire.
Brad
lovely painting. I like the different color of one bird. Reminds me of tabs, apparently that is the bird that is active, haha. The binary code, very cool. We live in a new world. I like to see the interpretation of this new world in the creativity of artists. I am a photographer and i’m always looking for interesting things. Thanks for the post, I enjoyed it.
Literal and lateral.
Barmy and binary.
Liking and loving!
Love it! What medium did you use?
Howdy Katie
It is acrylic on 140 pound cold press water color paper. I gesso the paper on both sides before starting to paint. Whether I am painting on canvas, paper or some other substrate I like the substrate to show through – in the case of canvas or paper that means not having heavy layers of over-painting everywhere – it keeps the painting bright and luminous.