Both paintings had me in the night mode.  I am nocturnal.  I love the night, the stars, the moon, and the general quietude.  I am married to a morning person, so from about 8 PM to whenever I decide to rest, I get a big block of uninterrupted time; such a thing is precious to all artists-it allows you to get deep into your zone.

Mother Night's Embrace, by Jake Beckman. An abstract dragon unfurls its starry wings, embracing the moon. The negative space of the night sky forms the watchful eye of Mother Night.

I have been working in a square format for the last couple of paintings.  The NYC art show is coming up and the maximum dimensions of the works allowed are 25 x 25 inches, or other variant, so long as they do not occupy more than 50 x 25 inches.  25 x 25 is an odd size, but 24-inch square canvases are easy enough to come by. I don’t usually work in  a square format; I prefer rectangular canvases which lend themselves better to applying the golden section. So I embarked on a new version of Mother Night working in this alien square format.  After creating several sketches using my Wacom tablet in Photoshop, the image of the dragon creating negative space in the sky suggestive of an eye started to emerge.  Once I had that idea, everything sort of fell into place.

I think it is a such a cool idea I may have to explore it further. I love the images of the night, the moon and stars.  I also have an affinity for dragons and other flying critters as well.  And the idea of using negative space in this way also intrigues me some.

Mother Night’s Embrace clearly has nothing to do with the Binary Birds, but belongs to another series Abstract Concepts, so I have gone off the reservation for this one painting, and I hope you like it.

If you would like to purchase Mother Night’s Embrace, please see its page on my website; you can purchase it using Paypal.  Thanks for stopping by.

If you are in the New York City area between September 16 and September 30, 2010 – you can see Mother Night’s Embrace and a work from the Binary Birds series, hootsuite, at the Broadway Gallery, 473 Broadway in SOHO.  The Gallery is open Mon-Fri 10 AM-6 PM. The artists’ reception is from 3-6 PM Saturday September 25, 2010.  Looking forward to seeing you there. 

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.

Social Networking! by Jake Beckman. Four brightly-colored canaries socially network form their own squares. The ASCII Binary background reads, "Social Networking!."

Call to action: Buy Social Networking.  Mama needs new canvases. 

I looked over some of Andy Warhol’s work, letting the vibe flow through me, analyzing it in an abstract way. The iconic Andy Warhol image was the Marylin Monroe repetition, therefore I opted to embrace some part of this concept and do a four square Binary Birds painting.  Andy Warhol appears to have loved the color red (so do I), so I decided there would be  a lot of red in the painting. Finally I adopted the outrageous color variation that appeared in those images.  Initially I entertained the notion of repeating my own icon, the canary, in the boxes, but there the my analogy and Andy’s analogy parted ways.

My tweeties represent ordinary people, not famous people who would be recognizable at a glance.  My canaries had to be individuals. I departed from absolute repetition.

From there the concept moved into the sketch phase.  Warning, some quasi-technical stuff ahead.

 Having already completed many Binary Birds paintings with canaries, I just rounded up 4 of my favorite canary sketches, which had been scanned and saved to my computer.  I required an angel-winged flying one of course.  I liked the one where the bird is hanging off a vertical wall.  For whatever reason I like the one I call the “sideways singer,” as it looks like an Egyptian glyph to me.  Finally I settled on a perched canary with a long flowing tail for the fourth bird-I kind of like the idea of having its tail invade the next square.

I moved these into a new Photoshop document and began messing around with the colors. If you have several elements you need to play around with Photoshop is great for that.  Its also superb for color layout as well, which is primarily how I used it in this instance.  At first I thought I would have four solid boxes, but that turned out to be boring.  I recalled Andy Warhol did a repetition with a panda bear toy that had little frames around the image so I tried that.  So the frames are shades of red: Pink, Brick Red and Cadmium Red.  I opted for red, light blue, yellow and light green as the colors for my variations.  The canary in a given square picks up the color of the background in the square counter-clockwise from it, and the eyes, feet and beak pick up the color of the square kitty-corner to it.  I don’t know how Andy Picked is color variations, but the idea of using a pattern appealed to me-I like to create patterns, it is just the way my brain is wired. In my mind all four images are linked in a closed loop with one another via color.

Moving on to the binary…

The phrase “Social Networking” has 17 characters and 17 is a prime number.  There is no way to break it down into anything other than one and seventeen.  I wanted an edge to edge binary pattern in the background.  It occurred to me if I added punctuation I would have 18 characters times 8 bits per ASCII binary character, or 144 characters, which  would form a perfect 12 x12 square of ones and zeros.  Social Networking became Social Networking!

This painting is part of the 100 Paintings thing, but I am dropping 100 Days part as it was no where near a realistic goal.  Today is Day 52 and I have completed 18 paintings.  I accept that life happens and it has been happening to me a lot lately.  At my current rate of production it is going to take at least 300 days to do 100 paintings.  That’s not to say I can’t crank out a painting a day, I just do not seem to have the time to.  Also one thing I did not factor in is all the post production work that has to happen.  This weekend I spent an entire day photographing, resizing, labeling and uploading 7 newly finished works.  This morning I have spend the entire time on just one piece.  This exercise is teaching me a great deal about how much time a single smallish painting really takes-for me it is a minimum of three days: Sketch day, paint day, post-production day.  Of course that does NOT take into account any time spent on marketing the thing.  Thank goodness I quit using oil, I’d never finish anything.

So those are the real life artist thoughts behind Social Networking! If you would like more information about the painting or perhaps would like to buy it, see its page on my website.  Thanks for stopping by. 

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.

I did get most of the tax class website up, all but 3 pages-but they are for part 3 which is not even going to be taught until October.  I have spend 82 hours on it so far.  I also did my preparations for the part of the class I teach too, which is a separate time investment.

I purchased an AC floor unit from Costco for 1/10 the cheapest  bid for a new heat pump.  After it arrived I had to wait 24 hours as they delivered it upside down; so much for the this-end-up markings.  The manufacturer recommend it be sitting upright for 24 hours before firing it up. Anyway, after 24 hours I finally got to turn it on.  It was not quite as simple as plug and play.  The exhaust hose that came with the unit was very short and not insulated either.  The power cord was also short.   The net result is I got the thing parked with great difficulty.  It’s up on cinder blocks to help the hose reach the window, and several feet from where I really wanted it (to improve air flow in the area) owing to the short power cord.  I also had to insulate the exhaust pipe & the window where the exhaust exits through as both were heating up the room, right next to the AC. Now that all that is done it works fairly well, keeping the air dry and in between 85 (in my studio) and 90 (in my office).  I’d like it to be a little cooler, but it is better than working in the rain forest by far.

Still no frames, still no travel plans for NYC.  I feel the need to start obsessing about that.  Fall show season is looming. I put in an application for the October Sunnyslope Artwalk already. Several people made noises about joining me on the NYC trip, but as the time draws closer, they have other plans.  It looks like I will be traveling solo.

the web, by Jake Beckman. A canary sings in tree branches connected with gossamer webs.

Yesterday I finally got back to painting and 7 of the 9 paintings I started 3 weeks ago got finished: six, seven, eight, nine, Hash, Splat! and the web.  Today I photographed them, did a bunch of Photoshop work, uploaded the result to my website, and scheduled posts on Daily Painters of Arizona. I realized today that I have about 20 paintings to register with Fine Art Registry, but that is not a priority at the moment.  Anyway completing six of these paintings allowed me to finally complete the cell phone composite.

Cell Phone Keypad Composit of 15 individual paintings by Jake Beckman

Tomorrow is another workweek with my day job.  I have to focus at least some time on getting ready for New York.  Toward that end I purchased several 24″ x 24″ gallery wrapped canvases and I have some ideas already.

It feels good to finally be painting again.  I was getting pretty crabby without it.

Anyway if you would like to find out more about the newly completed work, or would like to buy something, please check out their pages at my website: six, seven, eight, nine, Hash, Splat! and the web.

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.

Hang Up by Jake Beckman. A Yellow Canary purchase atop the telephone icon of an "end call" cell phone button. The ASCII Binary arching over the top reads "Hang Up"

So it is day 23 of 100 paintings in 100 days.  I have completed 9 paintings and I have 9 others in various stages of completion.  With a good days work I probably can complete all of them, but my life is a continuous juggling act and I don’t know when I am going to get a moment to paint again in the next several days.

I came back from my trip to Oak Creek on Day 16.  I painted all day, then packed it in and drove back to Phoenix.  I decided I’d rather start off my short workweek refreshed in the relative cool of the Phoenix AZ morning rather than fried from driving back down the hill in the heat.  It was an uneventful trip home.  The usual stuff, my day job and all, awaited me.

In the last week I finished Vuvuzela’s, five, zero, Call Me, Hang Up & Do It!, photographed them and got the images up on my website.  I still need to register them with my provenance service.  I also blogged about Vuvuzela’s separately since it was directly related to the 2010 Soccer World Cup, which wrapped up last week too.

Do It! by Jake Beckman, a yellow canary angle flies before the "do it" button of a cell phone. The ASCII Binary reads, "Do It!"

I have found time to start 6 new pieces in addition to the three 11×14-inch paintings I started in Oak Creek.  The three inspired by my last visit to Oak Creek are tentatively named www (or web or net I am not sure yet), MySpace and My World.  The 6 new paintings are all 6×8 inch ones that will finish out my key pad: six, seven, eight, nine, Hash and Splat! I need to finish painting the Tweeties in 7 of these and overlay the binary.  My World and MySpace are somewhat less developed at this point.

As you can see, I am falling behind-I should have 23 completed and only 9 done with 9 more in the works-well short of my goal. And I still have a tax class website to prepare, tax class to teach, an artshow in NYC, a mess of art to frame, etc.  I haven’t even purchased the frames, nor have I solidified my travel plans for NYC.  OMG I am so far behind!

Breathe.

This weekend I am going back to Oak Creek canyon.  A fellow artist JChristi wanted to camp out and I suggested Oak Creek as it simplifies “camping” a little bit.  But unlike my last trip, this is more or less JChristi’s show, which means I am going to have to work around her schedule.  We are supposed to leave Friday morning.  Since it is a little after midnight Thursday has just started and I have many things to do before I can leave for Sedona.  I am looking forward to going back though; it is really hot here in Phoenix (112 at the airport today, 116 in some parts of the valley) and it will be cooler up there.  Also being unplugged does get my creative juices flowing.   JChristi told me to “bring my paints” so I am going to, but I am unsure how much painting I will actually get done.

DH is demuring about going with again, so our cats will have one of their people around.

Back to the subject at hand. Maybe 100 paintings in 100 days is not a realistic goal given all the other things I have going on in my life – after all I have missed my mark by 61% at this point-not counting the partially finished pieces.  Embrace the reality.  Maybe it will be 100 paintings by the end of the year (at this rate-even that is pushing it).  I don’t know, but I am going to keep at this.

In the meantime you can certainly check out the paintings I have completed on this project, and of course if you’d like to buy one that would be lovely as well.  Enjoy.    two, three, four, five, zero, Vuvuzelas, Call Me, Do It!, Hang Up

Also the cell phone keypad is approaching completion and I really think it needs a place to be displayed-in fact I have already laid out the pieces and had a look-see for myself. It’s definitely coming along.  So if you know of any place that might be interested in displaying it and perhaps selling it, please let me know.  I’ll post the entire work somewhere when its done.

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.

Photo of Oak Creek taken by Jake Beckman on or about July4, 2010. Isn't it beautiful?

I think I last blogged Day 5-6 of 100 paintings in 100 days.  In theory we are now at Day 13. So in theory I have had 7 more days to work and I confess I have not.  Sunday started with the best of intensions, but I didn’t finish anything.  Monday was back to work day and I carried out affairs of my other business.  Sometime this week DH interrupted me with a computer repair that sucked up a day & ½.  Wednesday I did some bookkeeping and delivered it Thursday.  This week I also dealt with getting my AC fixed-so painting, which I did do, was squeezed in 30-minute chunks of time waiting for this or that to happen.  Another advantage of working small-you can actually *do* something with a 30-minute chunk of time. 

Traditionally my friend Mayna, who retired after 20 years in the Marine Corps, and DH would join me on this 4^th of July vacation break; we usually stay a week or more.  Some friends and family have a dumpy trailer in Oak Creek canyon, with a lovely little deck hidden in the trees next to the creek-when I say dumpy I mean it an affectionate way. It is better than “literally” camping out as there is a gas grill, a gas stove, restroom facilities and even a shower.  It also is stocked with things like sleeping bags, air mattresses, lights and lawn chairs.  Basically you need to bring your entertainment, food, drink, clothing, and shower supplies. There’s a country store within walking distance-their prices are high, but you pay for the convenience of being able to get ice in the wilderness. Otherwise Sedona is a short drive away; it has all the usual accoutrements of a town.  

I usually take a bunch of pictures, we build a dam to make a swimming hole, hike about and I really enjoy being in a place where there is no cell phone service what so ever. 

So this year Mayna is sticking to home as she is out of work and trying to conserve funds.  DH, I dunno-we did discuss coming up here-I cleared it with the friends and family, purchased supplies, the plan was coming together. Then he did the heel-dragging thing all day Friday rather than flat out saying he didn’t want to come. I ultimately decided I needed to get out of town, even if it was by myself, but owing to DH’s procrastination, I showed up here sometime after 9 PM, well after sunset.  

Fortunately for me some of those friends were already up here; they fired up the electricity and water for the trailer so I didn’t have to find those things in the dark. I really appreciated them doing that; they are in a different trailer so they didn’t have to do that, but they did because they knew I would be coming. I also remembered to bring some precooked chow so when I finally did get situated I would have something easy to make and eat. 

Last night I slept under the stars.  When the moon rose some idiot bird started singing waking me up, but I drifted back to sleep until sunrise when a squirrel demolish a pine cone began throwing its orts at me.  The umbrella is up now so that won’t happen anymore.

This is where I slept and painted. A "Deck in the Trees."

 I did notice when I turned my laptop detected 4 wireless networks including an unsecured one. One I recognize as belonging to a person who lives up here year round.  I bet if I asked nicely he’d let me use it.  But I don’t want to.  Mostly I do come up here to “unplug” but it is getting harder and harder to do.  You probably can find an unsecure network on the top Machu Pichu these days.  Anyway, I am ignoring those networks as if they do not exist-hey the signals are “low,” they might cut out on me in the middle of something.   Currently this blog is in a word document to be cut and pasted later.

I brought the computer up so I could work on a Special Enrollment Exam Class I am supposed to teach in August.  I am responsible for updating a website full of material on all three parts and I teach the sections on depreciation and basis.  So I turned the box on, dragged out the part one materials, and find I have absolutely no desire to do it. Instead, I spent a leisurely morning unwinding-made breakfast, drank tea and read half a book, The Tomb of Hercules, by Andy McDermott, which is exactly the delightful escapist trash it sounds like.  Finally I am thinking of doing something constructive.  I am here in all this reeking fresh air and stinking nature complete with the full complement of bugs and other wildfire so I guess I should get my creative juices flowing.  Instead of working on the tax class website, I decided to blog.  And now to paint-maybe. 

A bit later.  I wandered down to the creek, Blackberry and Lumix in hand. There is this one tree creekside which reminds me of a tree ent ala JRR Tolkien. Don’t know how I can turn that into a binary bird.  But three other images did come to me-in the morning as the squirrel was throwing pine cone at me, I noted an abstract pattern in the branches of the trees overhead.  It was almost black and white (and blurry because I was not wearing my glasses).  The second image came to me as I watched a sucker swimming in a relatively still part of the creek.  The third image came later as the shadows started crossing from the West leaving a shaft of light weaving through the thicket of trees to illuminate a single stone.  When I finish them at least one will be posted here.  I don’t know what the ultimate version of these images will be as they are barely drafted at the moment. 

Enjoying the peace of the canyon, being unplugged, and having a moment to read for the joy of reading. I wish Mayna and DH were here to enjoy it with me.  The weather is gorgeous.

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.

On the upside I started five, zero and a painting called Vuvuzelas in honor of all that soccer stuff I keep hearing about; I don’t have the sports gene so I was nit watching the matches. What that means is that I am still on track with respect to a painting a day for the first week, assuming I finish them by tomorrow  You should hear me right now… I am chucking at the unrealistic deadline I just set myself. In addition to this blog I want to write a bit about the other two paintings I uploaded so I can do some deep linking to them too.

I am finding social media is taking a lot of time.  I am trying to work in some more Linkedin and today I hit a bunch of new Facebook friends with a request to become a fan of my Fanpage.  While I was at it I uploaded the 8 new paintings to the photo album on my fan page and changed my avatars on my fanpage and Facebook page all the while chatting away via TweetDeck.  Oh my. 

I keep hearing that I need to automate newsletter sign up.  I have a newsletter – it tends to go out when I am have a show, but right now it’s too hot locally so no email newsletter, so I wonder what am I going to put in a newsletter.  Then there is affiliate marketing, monetizing the site, etc. etc. - those are just words to me right now – I don’t know what they mean.  Anyway while I was blogging I figured out how to put links to Twitter, my Facebook fanpage, Linkedin and MySpace etc at the top of my art blog.  When I set up the blog that idea never occured to me, now of course it’s, “Like Duh…”

By the time this post gets done I will have five and zero done, but will they be uploaded to my website, I am making heavy sighing noises even as I think about it. 

five, by Jake Beckman. Five yellow canaries cavort about an orange number 5. The background is an abstract of warm purple bubbles. The binary reads "five" and "5".

So this is five, finally posted in this blog, and zero is below.  Vuvuzelas got its own blog on the eve of the World Cup final.  I had to post it before the end.  It was coincidentally painted in the colors of the winning countries flag-red vuvuzelas and a bright yellow canary (excuse me, gold canary) .

zero, by Jake Beckman. An outline of a canary, representing the canary null set, flies before a gilt number 0.

OK I guess by now you know what 6, 7, 8 and 9 will look like.  But zero was a puzzle for me until I came up with my “null set” canary.   I am enjoying the miniature abstract backgrounds more too.  As much as I love painting my big ones, some of my effects take a long time and a long time to dry.  Working on this scale definitely speeds things up. 

As I write this blog on day five (pictures to be inserted later) I realize time-management is definitely and issue for me.  Got any tips? 

Also all this art is for sale.  Mama needs some more canvases.  Want to buy some? Check out five and zero‘s pages on my website.  Thanks for stopping by. 

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.

But no more.  Since June 27, 2010 was a total washout on painting I endeavored to “catch up” on my blogging, and my website maintenance among other things. I cranked out quite a few so I can post them later. It’s now later for this blog, enjoy.

Bridge is a spin off on iPod Tweety and iPod ads in general, but it is also a contrast as well. Once I did iPod Tweety, one of the first things that came to mind was a person who conducts an imaginary orchestra while listening to a recording of some kind. The cockatoo became the obvious bird because of the crest. I dunno but I think of conductors as having shocks of unruly hair sticking up.  Conductors usually wear dark suits so the bird in silhouette also tracked in my mind. 

But unlike the music behind Rock Me! classical music has layers, movements, changes in melody, key and other such devices that generally imply a more complex arrangement; besides most classical works are much longer than your average pop radio tune.  With this in mind I set out to make my abstract background conveying this complexity and passage of time.  I chose green.  The background is a very dark green, which is overlaid with bright green and then light sea green. I did several waves of color sweeping from the top of the canvas to the bottom around the conductor bird as a melody.  I placed a series of thick bright spires behind the cockatoo opposite these waves, I think of them as a deep throbbing baseline.  Finally I painted some thin verticals that were much lighter in color to convey a sprinkling of high notes.  The top of the painting is lighter in color and the bottom is still bright green but much darker, the waves and vertical lines “bridge” the two zones. I also have some textural elements in the waves and the thick bright spires. Of course while I was painting it I was not in this literal “this means that mode,” I was feeling the music. 

Bridge, by Jake Beckman. A crested cockatoo conducts and imaginary symphony while listening to its iPod. The green background is an abstract representation of classical music.

That was the thought behind Bridge.  I hope you like this different take on Binary Birds, iPods and music.  Any comments?  If you would like more details about Bridge or would like to buy it, please see its page at AKAJake.com.

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.

Update: I must have been channeling same vibe as Paul, the Octopus from Oberhausen Germany, when I made this painting, chosing red vuvuzelas and opting for a yellow tweety. The octopus apparently was predicting winners of the various soccer matches and ultimately selected Spain in the world cup. Me, I just started a painting in red and yellow about 3 weeks ago. Anyway, Spain won in OT or something like that.

This Binary Bird painting is because of you.  For weeks Vuvuzela was listed as one of the top 10 trend words on places like Twitter.com, all because the annoying little horns were omnipresent at the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa-or so I have been told. Vuvuzela has been suplanted by LaBron James and assorted Harry Potter characters, but by now you’d have to be living in a cave not to know a) the Soccer Championships are going on b) what a vuvuzela is because of a).

Naturally I followed the United States team (or at least DH did)  until they fell out of contention.  Today, when I went to pick up my lamp from fellow artist, JA Jure, she told me all about some Spanish guy with a lot of hair (Carles Puyol?) making a spectacular play against the German’s yesterday to advance Spain to the final.  Me I don’t watch so I can’t say for sure. I do not have the sports gene.  However, I do love pop culture and right now Soccer is pop and therefore Binary Birds fair game. 

Back to Vuvuzelas-since it was the word of the day for so long, I, like the rest of the connected world had to find out what the heck that was, given that a do not actually watch soccer, and of course why everyone was talking about vuvuzelas. Immediately a Binary Bird image sprang to mind. I have finally finished painting it before the World Cup tournament ends, so without further ado, I reveal Vuvuzelas.

Vuvuzelas, by Jake Beckman. A yellow canary Soccer fan rolls a football against a backdrop of red vuvuzela horns.

The painting features my trademark yellow tweetie, with a football, and a background of red vuvuzelas.  The binary across the bottom translates as “Vuvuzelas.”   Initially I though about making the horns assorted colors (like red, white and blue ) but it made for a very busy picture. I chose red because I like the color and for no other reason.  The fact that Spain’s jerseys are that color is purely coincidental.  I am sure several other teams sport that color as well.  As for the tweetie I think he is conveying, “Hell Yeah!” just fine. 

If you would like to find out more about Vuvuzelas or perhaps buy it, check it out on its page on this website.  I hope you like my Football inspired Binary Bird. 

  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.

One thing I decided to do starting with Rock Me! was to create a series of smaller more affordable paintings.  I have heard person wanting to start collecting me might want to start small and work up to a larger piece.  There is an advantage in these smaller works in addition to affordability to my collectors; to some extent they do go together faster, my investment in materials is a little less, and they take up less space in my studio while being stored.  The downside is, I am not used to working this small, to some extent working in the smaller scale with smaller brushes takes as much time as working with larger brushes on a larger scale and doing abstract backgrounds on this scale is limiting. It feels odd to create non representational flow of color on something so tiny.  But I am endeavoring to do this very thing.

I love the idea behind Rock Me! It’s a spin off the idea behind of iPod Tweety and iPod print ads in general.  My first sketches had the full body of umbrella crested cockatoo including the spread wings.  As I fooled around with the sketch in photoshop I realzed what enamored me most about this idea was the full head of back lit feathers.  I really felt like it conveyed Rock & Roll’s energy.  The suggestion of the open beak completes the image of the rock afficianado howling and grinding to his or her favorite song. I decided not to zoom in any futher as it would have been too much black.  DH thinks I went too far… 

Red also seemed appropriate.  I love the energy of blood red.  And black is a very powerful color too.  As for the background I just wanted it to appear splattered with sound, volumn, energy.  As I do my abstract backgrounds I realize I think they not only represent emotion, but are accompanied by music as well.

Rock Me! by Jake Beckman. An umbrella crested cockatoo rocks out to iPod tunes.

I think I resemble this animal, I am pretty much a rocker babe. I hope you like this latest Binary Bird as much as I do.  Rock on!

If you would like to find out more about Rock Me! or buy it, check out it’s page on my website. Feel free to comment-like it, hate it? 

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.

I have been hearing about the end of time (according to the Mayan Calender) since I was a teenager.  My mom is a go to source for all things fringy.  I love my mom, but she did expose me to everything from Nostrodamus, to theories of Atlantis so I have known about fringe element theories for quite some time.  I am sure the modern day Mayans (yes they are still around) are sick of hearing about the end of the 13th b’aktun as they know the 14th b’aktun starts the next day. To them I am sure its just a flipping of the calendar like January 1, 2000.  If you want to find out more about the Mayan Calendar, read my post discussing the wheel of time that appears in the paintings below.

Anyway, from what I have read, it seems the Mayans would view the flipping over of their calendar as an auspicious event, a time for celebration.  “Hey folks, we made it another 400 years.  Lets Party!”  Of course you really don’t need an excuse to party, “Happy Wednesday!” Anyone?  But flipping a 400-year calendar seems to be a good a reason as any.

So when I was contemplating my Binary Birds painting on the subject and figuring out how I was going to depict the the long count calendar, I decided the paintings would reflect this more joyous take on the end of the 13 b’aktun.  I decided to use a red-crested parrot as the bird in the paintings as this distinctive bird is a native of Mexico; after all it is their celebration… no? 

But a something happened when I went to paint.  I could not decide how many birds to put in the painting so I came up with two versions.  The first simply entitled 12/20/2012 has a happy parrot dancing on the outer most cog of my wheel of time; the painting is dominated by the entire calendar.   By the way anyone else notice the end of the 13th b’aktun as number is kind of the same forward and backward? See how easy it is to point out spurious coincidence and build some fringe theory around it? Of course true to Binary Birds theme there is ASCII binary which reads right to left & top to bottom 12/20/2012. 

12/20/2012 by Jake Beckman. A red crested parrot dance in Jake;s conception of Mayan Long Count Calendar.

The second painting I think expresses the celbration aspect a bit better.  The wheel is still pretty large, but my partying parrots are definitely more compelling.  The title is Party like its CJJHJ!  Which is of course a take on Party like is 1999! reflecting on the parties that occured at the end of the last century (of course some like to point out that the new century didn’t begin until 2001, but I am going with the majority on this one-even if they are not technically correct).  The binary reads Party like its CJJHJ from left to right & top to bottom. By the way, is it just me or do parrots have ugly feet? If you are wondering about CJJHJ, read more about my representation of the Mayan long-count calendar in my blog post on the subject. 

Party Like its CJJHJ, by Jake Beckman. Three red-crested parrots celebrate the end of the 13th b'aktun of the Mayan long-count calendar.

So thats the story of my paintings on the subject of 2012 as relates to Binary Birds & social media.  I hope you like them.  If you want to find out more about these paintings or buy one or both check out their pages on my website: 12/20/2012 and Party like its CJJHJ

By the way I have confirmed my participation in the End of the World Facebook party on 12/20/2012.  Have you?

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

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