Insane Imaginings, Random Reveries & Other Creative Cogitation

On June 22 I decide to attempt 100 paintings in 100 days. I don’t know if I can even do this.  Its a daunting task to contemplate, but I am going to give it a try.  Why? I watched Julia & Julia and it gave me this ridiculous idea.  Sure I have heard about it before as a method to develop a distinctive style. The theory is when you have to crank it out, your style will happen. 

There are periods of time when my productivity goes through the roof, but there are lulls, sometimes long ones where I let my life get in the way of my passion.  I also intend to blog about it.  Short blogs probably, but blogging about it is going to be part of this exercise.  I have a hard time talking about my art, it just doesn’t flow easily.  I also want to write better blogs and there is no substitute for, well, just doing it.  I am probably going to be experimenting with the plug-ins and what not as I attempt to get more advice on presenting the blog, so this will involve a lot of blogging too. Jeepers. 

Day 1.  I finished up 2 paintings that had been laying around.  One was very nearly done.  The second I thought was finished, but when I went to photograph it I hated it and had to edit it substantially.  So the editing job became the the first painting in 100 paintings in 100 days. I finished two for day 1 and I started a second and a third painting.  I had originally painted one and decided to paint two without really knowing where I was going with this idea. 

two by jake beckman, two canaries perched with the number 2, and ASCII binary of two & 2

As usual, the binary code has everything to do with the painting, spelling out two and 2 in ASCII binary. 

Day 2.  three and four were barely started yesterday, I had got beyond a sketch, but not by much, however they are finished today. Of course I have to photograph them etc now.  Since these are all 6×8 inch paintings I have decided they are going to be arranged like a phone keypad and be grouped that way; I have to do 5,6,7,8,9,0 #, *, and maybe answer, hangup and do it button too.  So I have the idea for the next 8-11 paintings, which will give me time to contemplate what comes after the cell phone number pad. 

I don’t know what you all think about this idea, but Julia’s mother’s comment about, “Why,” especially when I am so busy with other things does come to mind.  So if any of you all have ever undertaken a self-commited program for only reasons you can understand I’d like whatever advice you might chip in or what ever general comments come to mind as I embrace this insanity. 

If you’d like to find out more about one and two or perhaps buy them please check out their pages at AKAJake.com, one and two. 

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.

Part of my thinking about Social Media revolves around the fringe element.  I think we all are fringy at times. Here’s a fringe theory from me. Please explain otherwise why kittens are a perrienial favorite posting in all forms of social media? I think it’s their secret power – I’d reach for for my tin foil hat but my cat is sending rays to me bending me to her will… I… must… pet my cat.  Just joking – but I think you get the drift. 

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!

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 June 23:  I came to realize I had a strong urge to cheat on my plan using my mobile (Blackberry) . I found myself reaching for it everytime I saw the red light flashing.  It was unintentional/automatic.  I have had to deliberately not touch it.  So right now it is sitting face down so I can’t see the red light flashing, although I know it is…  The experiment continues.  I think checking my communications 2 times a day should be enough. I have just read in a blog  by Lisa Baron ethat I may want to put off the morning check in until after I get some stuff done as part of a time management strategy.  OK… Maybe I’ll give that a whirl or not.

The first couple of days were bad.  I was definitely going through withdrawal.  I didn’t get anything done-I just sort of laid around and felt my way through it.  Like the urge to respond to the Blackberry, it felt odd not to enter my office even as the laptop beaconed and to limit the amount of time I spent doing the communications thing.  I mean there is stuff going on… you know?  But the world did not explode because I did not find out about this or that immediately; I confess, I love twitter-I find out about so much faster than the eye-witness newclones can relate it to me on the idiot box.

So yesterday I actually got some work done.  And my mind is now thinking in terms of priorities instead of letting this machine move me around my day.  I will be launching the project I started this weekend 100 paintings in 100 days soon.  But first I need to get some other stuff taken care of. 

(is the internet slow today or what?) Waiting for a page to load so I can copy stuff from it…

Cindy Lou Who, constant companion in my office, who knows she can always get random attention from me in here.

Anyway, you got any time management tips that can be assimilated by the artistic heart?  Have you made peace with your electronic communication junky monkey?  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 I am in the middle of a learning all sorts of marketing stuff, and one thing this one person keeps going on about is artists who show their art on a black background because it makes their art pop.  This particular marketer hates it.  She points out that galleries don’t display art on dark walls…  Her basic premise is black is a powerful color that can easily overwhelm art.  Black distracts from the art even as it draws you in.  I dunno about that but I will entertain the notion.

This marketer also says reverse type (white type on a black background) is harder to read than the converse, especially on the web.  That argument won me over.  I don’t want my visitors straining their eyes trying to read something. 

The problem for me is that I had designed both my prints area and my original art areas with backgrounds that were nearly black-they were at least 80-90% neutral gray.  I chose the dark color as I did intend to use reverse type, and reverse type becomes more visible the more contrast you give it from the background.  On the other hand I didn’t want to go absolute black with my original design, so the nearly black was my compromise. 

Fast forward to last week.  I did design my site with style sheets which meant I could easily make big color changes.  It turns out I set the font color as a page property so I had to find that line of code in all my pages and change it.  Fortunately software also allows a find and replace option for all pages in the web so that turned out to be pretty easy too.  The biggest hassle was with my images.  I have a lot of them set up as a swap image.  Swap images have to be the same dimensions, so I have filled out my images with background matching the website background; that meant I had to edit all those images.  But its all done I think; I didn’t check each page to make sure, but I did make sure all the images were updated. 

Demo of the old verses new website style

So instead of have 80-90% black its now 10-20%% gray backgrounds instead, nearly white-I just can’t bring myself to do pure white-its so boring.  All the type is black san serif (serifs are all those embellishments in certain kinds of type like Times New Roman and also make web type harder to read) arial/helvetica family. 

So what do you think?  I have changed over the art and print sections in their entirety.  Is Black type and colorful pictures on white better than White type and colorful pictures on black? Was all that dark gray detracting from my work.  This inquiring mind wants to know what her patrons think of the change.

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 …?

Update: Details about e-lation, 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.

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?

Update: Details about ASCII Bird, 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.

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?

Update: Details about RSS Feed, 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.

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?

Update: Details about Retweet, 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.