The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Twenty-four - You are not the viewpoint

It’s the simple things we remember to forget, and we should not. Of course, there are times when we simply don’t realize that there are simple things to know that precede all other forms, we’re usually in such a rush to know the cream, that we ignore the fundamentals that resolve all things.

Read more

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Twenty-one - Never throw your work away

It’s tempting to toss ideas that don’t seem to have any merit away. But they did have merit at one point in time. Our failures are the best place to learn and they have additional value, this short article is about recognizing that value.

Read more

M. Duchamp and His Toilet

It was shortly after the turn of the 20th century. The world seemed renewed, ending the Industrial age and moving into the age of autos, flight, and major art movements; the like of which had not been seen. People were changing, society was changing, social standards were changing. It was a time flapper girls, organized crime, and art activism. Read more

Creativity and conflict

Ah, remember the days when the summers were carefree, MTv was still cool, and whatever was on the news really didn’t matter? Well, those days are over. Oh, not just for you and me, for your kids, for their kids, for their grandkids. And it’s been over longer than you think… Read more

Integrating Sculpture Materials in Drawing

Artists, dating back to the time of the cave drawings at Lascaux, have consistently looked for new materials to work with and to produce art with. Today is no different. Artists are always (or should be) looking for new media to work with or a new way to use that media and implement other media with it. It has certainly become an age of Mixed Media. It’s part of why Picasso is considered, by some, the most influential artist in history. Read more

The Myth of Progress: Finding a Treasure

My great grandfather Greacen Black was a “collector” around the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

His collection seemed to have no rhyme or reason; he just collected anything that took his fancy. Many of the artifacts later went to the Gisborne, Napier and Christchurch Museums but his book collection stayed in our family. Read more

The Generosity of Artists has always astounded…

The generosity of artists has always astounded me, though there are exceptions in every art, just as there are in the world; we are, after all, human beings, and some are just a bit more human than others, which means, in my cognizance that they exemplify the best that humanity has to offer. Before I present an example of such generosity, I should make it very clear that I do not support the American war effort in Iraq. I have followed this war as closely as anybody can in the media and I am certain that America’s position is wrong now, and was wrong in the beginning.

The war is about the oil, and it is not a war about democracy, which can never be created at the point of a gun by another nation, but must arise from within. But there is a human cost, that this fine artist, Hancock, has elected to honor and remember with her work to honor those who have fallen. And it is good work, I hope it succors those who have lost their loved ones, and reminds generations to come of what is lost.

There and back again - World Building for Storytellers - The Fargoth World Building Project

Through the miracle of modern technology today, it is now possible for a story to be realized and constructed as a virtual world and this has changed the nature of the marketplace and opened up tremendous opportunities for those writers who embrace the idea of not just telling a story, but realizing entire worlds, multiple cultures and races.

Tolkien captured it best when he wrote the immortal lines of “There and back again” for they capture beautifully and simply what is at the the heart of the reader experience when they fall in love with or become immersed in a story; the desire to go somewhere other than this world, and experience what it would be like to be someone else, live in any time, any place, and under conditions far removed from the real world in which we all live. Time travel? Read more

Quality & Compromise

We live in a world where mediocrity has become the overall condition of our world. Where “good enough” is too often the highest goal of an increasingly indiscriminate and careless culture who are too willing to accept too little. What happened to Quality? Do any of us today really know what this word means, and its effect on our lives?

Read more