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I recently had the opportunity to curate some virtual spaces. These walls, art, lighting and furniture don't exist on a material dimension, but visually they do exist on my monitor. There is an increasing number of venues for this sort of "house playing" game (The Sims, Second Life, vSide, imvu, etc). It's been around for years now and is growing in popularity so it's not a new concept. What is new for me, however, is that I actually painted something in real-life with the sole purpose of hanging in a virtual home. You can place any art into virtual frames, so of course MY paintings are "hung" in my virtual dwelling. This picture shows my character (or avitar), Epiphany, sitting in front of Jessi Miller's art:
A good friend of mine who lives in the UK needed to decorate the apartment that lives in his computer. I planned for his space and created one horizontal painting, an abstract with a visible horizon of sorts. I then took a photo of it, brought it into photoshop and cut it into four squares. These four new digital paintings were brought into his virtual apartment and placed into large frames. What started out as one 24" x 8" painting ended up to be four pieces together equivalent to maybe 12' wide by 3' tall, or thereabouts. Here wer are hanging it, and there I am with it all together:
I shipped the real painting (titled "Virtuality" for virtual and reality) off to the UK and now it lives on my friend's real and virtual walls, simultaneously, in two different forms. Below is the original:
Whew! I can't wait to see where the next 10 years take us and how differently art will be expressed. Kind of opens the mind a little wider and turns it at an angle, doesn't it?
I'm virtually everywhere. Almost everywhere, virtually. Social networking comes naturally to me, it runs through my veins along with everything else that feeds my body and soul.
Before the internet brought us to this point of connectivity, I was already the person who you could find other people through because I kept in touch, the person who values relationships like water or air and makes a giant extended family of the world. I was also already obsessed with documenting life, it's what artists do - we write, photograph, paint, sing, film, play, enact - it's all part of an innate need to hold onto everything as it happens. Every moment is so poignant, it must be worth documenting, and someone must want to know about it, right?
So, yes, social networking works well for me. I'm excited to be in touch with so many more people than I normally would, I have great business contacts, I have met new people and learned new things, thereby closing in the global distance immeasurably. I love it.
There are a couple of side effects from micro-blogging that I've noticed, though. With the advent of sites like Twitter, text messaging and status updates on every other communication and messaging program out there, I have fallen behind on the longer blogs. That and I'm starting to think in status updates!
Jessi loves dancing in the kitchen. Jessi is invoicing. Jessi thinks the lyrics to this particular song fit some situation perfectly. Jessi is thinking of the next painting she'd rather be working on instead of a newsletter. Jessi is making coffee at 3:45 in the afternoon. Jessi misses someone. Jessi wants a new laptop.
Jessi has a lot to say that probably never needs to be published. LOL LMAO hahaha.
We're all doing our part (hopefully) to save the world by being a little greener every day. What are you doing right this very second? Do you know how much energy it takes to light a white screen? Neither do I, but it's more than it takes to power a black screen. Enter Blackle.
Check it out: www.blackle.com – it runs Google's search engine, but it's, well, black. It's like a sleeping screen that is awake. How much difference does it make? Right now it says: 930,703.497 Watt hours saved. If nothing else, each time you look at that screen, you will be reminded that every move you make has an impact and maybe you'll reconsider something for the better. Maybe. It can't hurt, start to use it and see what you think.
Besides, black is cool (says the artist/graphic designer).
Oh and yeah, I realize this blog is mostly white. Should I change it?
"Art is documentation of life, colored by emotion."
~ me
The latest 24/7 was on election day. [For those not already familiar with project 24/7, you can find it along with the latest postings on its Facebook group page.]
I walked out to my car with my children at 6:45am that still-dark Tuesday morning, only to see that my Obama lawn sign had been stolen. Until then I had remained unviolated by the Obama lawn sign thief(s) who had roamed Ocala over the past few months. I promptly retrieved another from my car and put it up. Hmf!Later that morning I went to vote. Most people I knew had early-voted to avoid the long lines, but I enjoy the whole experience of election day so I braved it. There were no lines at all! Easy-peasy. Unfortunately I was not allowed to photograph inside. I get not taking pictures of people while they vote, that's private, but the people who check you in? Shouldn't that all be transparent, public knowledge? Oh well. There was tons of anti-Obama crazy, hommade propaganda about to keep me clicking. I will write another blog just on propaganda and show more of them soon.
After voting I went down to Florida's Blood Centers where my awesome friend Debbie Roth works, and I gave blood. Lots of blood. I hooked up to a new machine that takes twice as many red blood cells - but replaces saline and other stuff - so it takes a really long time but you walk away feeling better than the traditional method. I almost fainted. It was worth it, though, because I was getting a tattoo that week and won't be able to donate again for a year.
Later that evening I attended the Marion County Democrats "Victory Celebration." I had designed the flyers, invites and tickets for the event. Premature to say "Victory" before the election? Doesn't seem like it now, over a week later. It was a very exciting night for Democrats, especially in Florida.Visit the 24/7 Facebook page for more photos of this historic day.
As we embark on Election Day, November 4th, 2008, I am compelled to speak for a moment on the "art of what matters."
What does it matter if you vote or not?
This country has been through hell and back – again and again. From its very inception, blood has been spilt and drastic compromises have been made by real, live men and women in order to insure that we can live a life based on the noble concepts laid out in our Declaration of Independence. Read it if you haven't lately.
I say "real, live men and women" because it is easy to think of them as fictional characters in a book or movie, they are so far removed from our daily life today. Progress and technology has put us in a figurative science fiction flick compared to the grim and gritty reality our forefathers were trudging through. What do you think it mattered to them if they could vote or not? What were they consumed with every day? Do you think they were worried about how much holiday shopping they could do at Wal-Mart? Are you ready to die for your right to shop at Wal-Mart?
We have soldiers overseas right now who are doing just that. Maybe on the surface it seems they are just fighting so that Dick Cheney can fill his pockets full of dollars whose value is based on you borrowing money to buy a bigger house, but on the inside each soldier is fighting for our freedom. They are killing and dying - real lives are being lost - so you can afford video games and have the time to play them. They are blowing up people - men, women, children - so you can buy a bigger car and drive it wherever you want whenever you want. You can bet your ass the soldiers are voting from wherever they are.
As you go about your day, swimming in an ocean of convenient abundance, take note of that urges you get to complain and the tinges of fear that you feel. Why is gas so expensive? If only I could afford the medicine, I would feel better. I am so tired of working this schedule at a job I don't like but can't afford to quit. What if I can't scrape together another mortgage payment in time? Why does so much of the world hate us? Will my children have plenty of clean water? What the hell happened to health insurance anyway? Where are my taxes going? Are these student loans ever going away? How am I supposed to support myself when I'm too old and tired to work?
You might think it doesn't matter, you might think you don't care or that you can't make a difference, but listen to yourself and your concerns and complaints. You do care. Rest easy, you don't have to kill anyone to make a difference like our forefathers or present day soldiers. Just go vote.
PS – if you need a reminder about all of the REAL people (past and present) who have suffered, persevered, fought, died, invented, stood strong, loved and moved people to change life for the better – go check out a movie. How about: PT 109, Amazing Grace, Rendition, John Adams, Apollo 13, Good Night and Good Luck, The Last of the Mohecans, Hotel Rwanda, Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther, To Kill a King, Amistad.............oh there are hundreds, name a few I've missed. Then, GO VOTE.
At the beginning and end of the day, my goal in life is world peace. Saving the world might sound lofty, but basically as long as whatever I do has that motivation behind it, I am doing the best thing at any given moment. With that in mind (as always) I have embarked on my new series, "One Leg at a Time."
It is based on the phrase, "He puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else." A certain amount of inspirational credit goes out to Christopher Walken for his use of it in the "More Cowbell" skit on SNL, and to fellow AdFedder Steffanie Yacques for her idea to pose as a stripper. If I can get someone to relate to a stripper in the same way they would relate to a business man or anyone else on earth, than I will be successful.
If we can all relate to each other, realizing that through our differences we all are spirits going through a human experience on earth and we all put our pants (or underwear, shorts, hoes, etc) on one leg at a time, then we might treat one another with more compassion and respect.
Here is the beginning of "One Leg at a Time - I" ... finished product and other pieces in the series to come!
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