Insane Imaginings, Random Reveries & Other Creative Cogitation

The painting made its public debut last night at the Scottdale Festival Artwalk.  It was a chilly night to be out and about. My free coffee and Reeses were very popular.  Anyway, meant to post this blog yesterday, but I didn’t get a roundtoit.

In this painting I explore the darker side of the internet, one which has been in the news lately, PleaseRobMe.com.  PleaseRobMe.com works off an application FourSquare.com, (or any geotagging software such as Google Buzz or Bright Kite etc.) which allows people to track their friends via twitter.com to presumably to make it easier to connect in the big blue box.  PleaseRobMe.com basically notes when people using this application tweet things like “I am going away for the weekend,” or “Going to the gym now, be back in a few hours” or “I am at the mall now.” etc.  The folks at PleaseRobMe.com say they are basically re-listing these tweets to make people more aware of the dangers of telling people where you are and where you are not.  Essentially their service is a dressed up Twitter search. It generally does not take too many tries to find a person, who is listed on PleaseRobMe.com, and whose home address is also listed on the internet.  The owners of PleaseRobMe.com do say it is not their intention to have anyone’s house burgled, but clearly show this is one possible nefarious use of this public information.

"2nd Story Job" by Jake Beckman. A crow with burglary on its mind listens to geotagged tweets looking for an empty home to rob.

In this painting the binary code on the wires all read,

• “I’m leaving” (the color binary),
• “FourSquare.com” (up (b or d) and down (p or q) binary),
• “RobMyHouse.com” (right (b/p) or left (d/q) facing binary).

I chose a crow as they are one species of bird known for thievery.  Besides I like crows, ravens, and the other clever members of the family corvidae.  The symbol on the nose of the crow is a distorted version of the FourSquare.com logo – I think the round thing in the logo is supposed to be a dodge ball, or is it a trackball? I dunno. But I have translated it into the eye of the crow that is listening to the buzz of the wires.  Also I have chosen a different color pallet of red,  greenish black with shadings of green and purple.  I hope you like this latest in the Social Media Birds series (I really need a better name – help?)

I am noticing my high resolution photos are really not doing justice to the color gamut of my backgrounds-I don’t think there is much I can do about that, except maybe get a new camera, which I can’t afford right now.

Any comments? Do you like it, hate it, think its too dark, think its funny…”

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.

This weekend, now nearly over is the big annual downtown Phoenix Art Show called Art Detour now in its 22 year.  The event kicks off with First Fridays, which has become the tail wagging the dog so to speak.  Although Art Detour was the big event for many years, the monthly party called First Friday receives a lot more attendance on the whole these days. I had planned to go to First Friday but just couldn’t make myself join the madhouse that event has become. It really doesn’t seem to be about art, but more about the party, which is fine – but not necessarily something I automatically think is a great idea on any given day.  But I still felt like I had to make it downtown at least once to see the people who routinely support me at the local art shows I do.  So I force myself to be a social animal and kicked myself out of my studio.

It was good to intersect with several people I had not seen in a while, but while the studios were open I think many artists/owners were absent & recuperating from the night before.  It was a quiet day to be about, but it was a clear-blue-sky bragging weather day in Phoenix AZ.   Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.  So, I didn’t just go to the studios but did a general walkabout in the downtown Phoenix area to investigate how the Convention Center remodel went, to see how the new ASU downtown campus came together and the overall progress of gentrification.  It appears gentrification was well underway but the recession has definitely halted things for now.  As for the art studios, some that were open before are closed now, some have changed hands, some have moved, and maybe there are a few new kids on the block as well.  The Art Detour Head Quarters was listed at the Phoenix Center for the Arts so I was expecting a pretty decent display there; in the old days it had a sample of art from all the participating galleries. Unfortunately this year it was literally a trolley stop with a few brochures – no art that I could see.  My overall impression of Art Detour on Saturday was underwhelmed. Anyway I took lots of pictures and edited them when I got home so you can check them out here if you like.

In the last few minutes I have receive a couple of tweets regarding this final day of Art Detour 22 1) Bring an Umbrella and 2) Greg Esser is promoting his new venture at Westwind Studios, 16th Street and Cypress. I didn’t make it over to Westwind yesterday; I wish Greg all the best.

So onto new art. While I was working on 2nd Story Job, which will be posted next, I did not have a second painting to parallel process in mind.  I got a piece of water color paper out, gesso-ed it on both sides then thoughtfully dripped, drooled and spattered paint on it while I waited for layers of paint to dry on 2nd Story Job.

As 2nd Story Job neared completion the abstract auxiliary work looked like this.

Born of Fire underpainting (by Jake Beckman)

The color gamut of this picture appears a little skewed toward the blue, and the range of the photo does not do the under-painting/background justice, but I think you can get an idea of how it looked.

I have been on a major bird kick for years and I often default to something related to that – in this case a bird-like dragon.  It took me a few minutes to sketch the critter out on to my canvas.    I did a glaze of manganese blue to fill in the bird-like dragon’s body for no other reason than I had a big glob of it on my wet pallet left over from previous Social Media Bird paintings and I intended to make the dragon dark.   I did not anticipate I would love the effect of the under-painting showing through, but I did.   I very carefully applied glazes of black to the serpent to define its structure while retaining as much of the transparency as was possible.

Detail of Born of Fire by Jake Beckman showing the underpainting revealed through the glaze

Born of Fire, by Jake Beckman, A dragon gazes skyward, oblivious to the fiery inferno that surrounds it.

So this results from me not having a plan when I start painting. What do you think?

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.

So a few days ago someone contacts me expressing interest in one of my new paintings, “Retweet.”  It’s not out of left field, when I showed it  a few weeks ago there was some interest in it.  This person says they want to buy it.

So I thank her for her interest in my art, I give them my usual spiel about how easy it is to buy using the PayPal button, give her a link, and then advise her that the shipping price quoted is for FedEx Home Delivery in the continental US.  If she needs it shipped elsewhere then the shipping rates could change, and that customs fees etc are her responsibility. I also tell her I will remove it from the stretcher bars and ship it in a tube if she likes (which can save a bunch on dimensional shipping weight charges), but that she will have to find and pay somebody on her end to re-stretch it.

She writes back saying she would like to proceed with the purchase for the original work (framed).  Also she would my address, phone number and name so she can pay me by certified check. She wants to use a local cartage company to ship the work from the US to South Africa.

Umm – she should have my name and phone number already. Its right there in my reply.  So already I am expecting that a scammer’s bot responded to me.

I do advise her the work is unframed as it is a gallery wrapped canvas painted on the edges so that it can be hung without a frame.

There are some people out there who do not realize the prevalence of check fraud including bogus certified checks (and I have done business with them) & who like to have information spoon fed to them. On the off chance a real art aficionado is on the other end of this communication, I respond with my next bit about check fraud, holding periods, finding a bank to write the check with affiliates local to the Phoenix Metro area (so I can complete the transaction at the bank the check is written on) and suggest if that all makes her uncomfortable that I am willing to work with a reputable escrow service or bank escrow service.  I thank her again for her interest in my art.

Because the second contact had all the usual elements of a common art & check fraud scam: The cartage company & a cover story as to why all of this had to be executed in the manner proposed i.e. husband’s company suddenly displaced them from their home in the US to someplace abroad-usually in Africa,  I really do not expect to hear back from her, and of course I haven’t.

The next stage of this scam would have involved me depositing her check at my own bank – the check probably would have been written for too much money and she would have wanted me to refund the excess to the guy who shows up for the painting.  Later on the bogus check would bounce and I would be out the money and the painting.

I’ve had to go find a painting and repossess it after a person purchased one with rubber check drawn on a local bank-it took 14 days for the check to bounce-she put a stop payment on it.  I don’t even want to think about how long it would take an international check to bounce.   So when one of the fraudsters makes me waste even 5 minutes of my time, I get a little aggravated.

Have you been approached by someone attempting an art or check fraud scam, are you the victim of one?  Do tell.  I am sure others would like to learn more about variations on this theme so they are better educated on what to look out for.

Yours in art,

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.

A friend recently twittered me, “Has technology progressed to the point that I can live out the remainder of my life without face to face contact?” I told him he still needed to get his car emissions tested in person.    But is does raise the question, are we heading for Isaac Asimov’s dystopia, Solaria?

I dunno, but I recently learned a new slang term, e-lationship.  It’s a cyber relationship, where friends, lovers and other strangers never meet face-to-face, they just carry on virtually, be it via FaceBook, Twitter, IM-ing, chat or what have you.  For years people have known that cyber cutie might be a three-hundred pound guy, an 84-year-old grandma, or a teenie bopper looking for a thrill.  But there is the whole other level I had not considered and that is people who really do not want to meet in person, but who feel fulfilled with a harem of cyber-mates.  e-lation, it’s a great punny in my opinion.

e-lation by Jake Beckman. Two cyber-canaries stare dreamily into each others eyes.

e-lation was a natural follow-on piece for the social media birds.  I have place two canaries staring dreamily into each others’ eyes-that alone should give pause for thought-after all you really can’t see the person on the other end of the wire.  The background is mottled, suggesting an insubstantial venue.  The birds are perched on a swirly, green, heart-shaped contour.  One half of the outline is overlaid with ASCII binary which reads e-lation.

I had a great deal of fun letting the acrylic flow in the background of this painting.  There was quite a bit of splattering, dripping, flowing and all sorts of uncontrolled activity, which contrasted strongly with painting binary on the heart outline (that took me three tries to find a good layout).  I hope you like it.

What do you think of the painting, or cyber relationships, or …?

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.

In this fifth installment of the Social Media Birds series, I explore binary with birds. As people have talked about the preceding paintings I have been asked, “What do the ones and zeros mean?” Yes, I did write a code in ASCII binary, and, yes, it does mean something, and I have no problem with telling the viewer what the binary means. But… Like all art, it’s in the eye of the beholder who is free to apply whatever interpretation they want to the painting including the code. I could have put the actual words in the painting, but I chose to put representations of words instead. That is one reason for the binary, being literal without being literal. That there is this abstraction of language is sufficient. I would like the viewer to explore meaning a little more deeply than the face value. What are those birds talking about? Why is one bird orange? Are canaries a valid way to represent “Social Media?” Is cyber-communication real, or just a facsimile of real? Feel free to come up with your own, questions, answers, interpretations and “code;” after all, how many people can actually read ASCII binary just to look at it? Your story could be better than mine.

ASCII Bird, by Jake Beckman. 80 birds are encoded with the binary messages.

In this painting I took off on a tangent, representing the binary code with a code. Each bird represents three distinct possibilities and therefore three distinct binary states. The bird can be perched or flying, the bird can be black or white and the bird can face left or right. This allowed me to layer three different “messages” in the binary coded by the states of the birds. You don’t need ones and zeros, you just need something that can be distinctly one thing or another.

Beyond that I broke with using bright colors and also laid the birds out in a grid pattern to re-enforce the “code.” I think it has a vaguely Egyptian feel. If you want to know what the binary means, you can check it the ASCII Bird page on my website, where I have decoded the messages.

What do you think? Which one do you like best so far?

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.

In this fourth installment of the Social Media Birds (working title), I have broken down the rigid lineal structure of the binary and turned it into a kind of ribbon shape. The canary flares for a landing carrying the bit of news; it fills the small canvas so much that it overflows it to some extent. I am also playing with the colors a bit, breaking away from the blue and yellow of the preceding works.

"RSS Feed" by Jake Beckman, an orange canary flares for a landing carrying a ribbon of binary; it appears to be singing as it lands.

The ASCII binary reads “RSS Feed” from Lower Left to Upper Right, and Top to Bottom. In this version I explicitly included a spiral in the background as a line of confluence for other things in the painting. What do you think? Which one do you like best so far?

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.

As I previously stated while I was working on Bird on a Wire a whole series of paintings came to me.  This series is a result of my recent immersion into social media.  I am a noob (a neophyte) to things like FaceBook and Twitter, but I hope to get better.  I even took a class for FaceBook, just before they completely redid the layout.  ARGH!

I am still looking for FaceBook fan page tips.  My RSS feed is double posting and since they redid the layout I can’t find where the RSS Feed link is at on the fan page anymore.

Anyway, when I posted TweetDeck, one of my commentators said that Retweet came to mind.  Of course I was already working on it as it was such an obvious follow-on.  And now it is done-enjoy.

Retweet by Jake Beckman. An orange canary sings to four other yellow ones who seem to be listening. The binary in the background reads "Retweet."

Its a little abstract in concept, but also kind of literal too.  The ASCII binary reads “Retweet” from Left to Right, and Top to bottom.  In this version I explicitly included a spiral as a place for my canaries to perch.  I opted to fill the entire background with binary so the upper most bird would have something to stand on, otherwise it would have been hanging upside down like an orangutan.   What do you think?

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.

So I came back from the 2009 Florence Biennale, rolling into to Sky Harbor shortly after midnight December 16 sicker ‘n a dog.  I spent the holidays watching Christmas shows, box of tissue in hand, my IQ hovering between PB&J and potted plant.  Needless to say working on putting my pictures together in a photo album on line with a travelogue was the furthest thing from my mind.  The holidays ended officially for me on January 9 when my last house guest left.  I had a lot to catch up on, but I have been working steadily on crunching down those pictures, putting on captions and otherwise making them suitable for a website etc.  Early this morning I posted the last of the pictures and went “live.”

Jake Beckman at entrance to Florence Biennale featuring Marina Abromovic photo

The link to the Florence Biennale Experience is:  http://akajake.com/florence-biennial-experience.htm

Working on the pictures brought back many fond memories for me and had me doing things like seeing how many people (that I befriended at the biennale) I could find on facebook.  I realized as I was going through the pictures that I didn’t get pictures of many people I talked to and I didn’t get pictures of their art – guess I was too busy being at the Biennale instead of documenting it. I was in several group photos but I didn’t force the camera off onto the randomly drafted photographer often enough either. So I do have a request… If you were a participant in the Florence Biennale and have other pictures you would like to add to this conversation, please post them.

So far early comments have been positive.  I hope you will enjoy it too,  Anyway, let me know what you think.  I would love to hear from you.

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.

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.

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.

—-

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

Working on the Social Media thing.  Started a FaceBook fan page, AKAJake if you are interested.  Become a fan!

I have no idea what to do with this fan page yet.  Tomorrow evening I am supposed to have an “Intro to FaceBook” class – I am hoping to walk out of there a bit more clued in.

For example I really would like to have a snippet of my blogs appear in other places with a link, but I have no idea how to set that up.  I did find my RSS feed address so at least I can link that.

Of course I have my “real job” to do and I am finding it had to make a balance and still move forward with intention.  Still I must endeavor.  2010 will be the “Year of Marketing” for me because I have put it off too long and really need to figure it all out. Art is a real job too.

Anyway, I have about a million projects.  OK it is actually less than that, but I stoop to hyperbole because sometimes it feels like that.  Definitely got a few gators nibbling on my butt and the bosses just called down that the swamp draining project is on hold.    One of those alligators is “the establish a distinctive style and / or thematic reference to make myself recognizable as an artist”-gator. Once I have this consistent style I will build a body of work based on that… and market it of course.

That is the battle plan.What is it they say about battle plans? Oh yeah, the don’t tend to survive first contact with the enemy.

Toward that end I painted something last Friday; I already have a bunch of variations on the theme in my head.  I like it of course, but then again I tend to like all of my art more or less, but somebody else liked it too.  It has already flown away to live in Wisconsin.

Bird on a Wire, representational abstract by Jake

The ASCII Binary reads Twitter.com tweet. You can tell where my head is at. What do you think?

Alternatively, got any FaceBook Fan page or other social media tips? Love to hear from you.

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.