A Look at Art & Design

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What type of articles, posts, news would you like to see here on ArtLOOK?  Send me some feedback and I'll do my best to find or provide those pieces that most interest you.

FilmLoop For Mac...YAY!

Guy Kawasaki posts on April 26th, that a new version of FilmLoop Looplets is now available for Mac. While I haven't downloaded the new version, I certainly will do that this weekend and put it through a review which I will post here in the next day or two as part of my series "Playing with Looplets."

Meanwhile...I'm off today to do some yardwork and enjoy this beautiful day.

Send Large Files with YouSendIt

Came across this in my recent edition of Communication Arts. YouSendIt is a website that lets you send those large files to clients, friends and associates. YouSendIt is web based so it doesn't backup your mailbox or require your clients to learn FTP for transferring those big images, graphics etc. Simply visit their website, sign up for free and post the file to their server while sending an email notice to the receiving party alerting them they have stuff waiting for them.

File sizes range from 100mg to 2GB.

Accountability In Design

Well this got me fired up! It's a subject so near and dear to my heart I don't even know where to begin.  It all started when I read today’s post, "Branding Tragedy" from Eric Karjaluoto on ideasonideas. It's absolutely 100% a great article and thank god someone is finally addressing this and addressing it in an intelligent and thoughtful way.

I am a news junkie. My mother was a news junkie. She read 3 newspapers front to back everyday and watched the evening news at 6:00 and 11:00. She taught me that to get a true idea of a story or situation one had to read from many sources. She stressed Editorials. Both pro and con; democratic and republican. As a woman of 2006, I have found that this advice still holds true. I read the newspaper and several online news subscriptions (from a variety of countries), and I find that today it is harder than ever to get at the actual FACTS. Reporting FACTS…wasn’t this once the mission of the news media?  No opinions, no hype. Just the facts.

Karjaluoto writes, “…I now simply accept it as a weak and tacky fashion of advertising; yet, my peers and I are generally quite critical and aware of such trickery–I question whether the entire population is as on-guard regarding the legitimacy of claims made in such a forum.”

Today I watch news media on TV where people are yelling and screaming at each other their “opinions”. They call this debate. I watch for the 100th time fodder about Paris Hilton, and Brad and Angelina’s new baby and I wonder…isn’t there anything else more important going on in the world today? Surely there must be…why aren’t they talking about it? What’s happening in Amsterdam, Brazil, Finland or Tokyo? Why is it all just hype and glitz? I plead to my TV….Someone please just tell me the facts so I can make up my own mind. Leave Brad and Angelina to Entertainment Tonight but when I watch NEWS…give me news!

Ideasonideas takes this a step further. Eric Karjaluoto writes about the state of the media today and how as designers we are partly responsible for the glitz and hype and how we can thoughtfully and responsibly correct it. Let’s also consider this “shift in the web” called 2.0 and as we discuss ideas about web standards and accessibility why not also give thought to accountability in the visual graphics we create. Let us not gloss over the “experience” and shine light only on the “sensational”, but consider in design and advertising what is true.

Yes YES Eric…let’s do it. You and me and supporters and friends…let’s start a campaign called “Operation Accountability”. And let’s make a logo for it but without the metallic forms, lens flares and definitely not rotating. Surely as creatives we can do this!

Two Interesting Reads Today - Museum Blogs and Promoting Your Blog

Today's blog reading took me to two great posts.  The first one at Ideum where Jim Spadaccini and company did a survey on museum blogs. The intial survery was posted on March 6, 2006 but has had several followups since then.  Results were interesting in that they only found 26 sites when they first conducted the survery.  By March 13th they had quite a bit of feedback and have since updated the list.  Regardless, the survery and the authors point out that museum blogs seem to be "one in a million."  A real shame considering the potential here that museums can use present day technology to send updated information and news to its members, and other like minded and interested parties.  Ideum also provides a nicely presented PDF of its survey.

The second great read was from Guy Kawasaki, a blog I read everyday.  Today's post is on "How to Evangelize A Blog".  Great tips and advice on writing and promoting your blog.

Amazing Digital Imaging by Kathy Huestis

Last night I attended The Brick Gallery "Third Thursday" event. It's a pretty nice event held on...well...the 3rd Thursday of every month.  Visitors get to view new art and mingle with the 60 or 70 artists who display at the Gallery.

I have to tell you about meeting Kathy Huestis. At these types of events there is usually one artist who stands out in my mind and last night Kathy was that artist.  I'm compelled to write about her work.

Kathy is a New London, Connecticut artist working in the digital imaging field. On display at The Brick were some of her digital photographs. The photos were compositions of flowers, bird nests etc that she acquired from her garden.  All were high resolution, highly saturated with color, with the most beautiful lighting and composition displayed on a pure black background. I remarked to Kathy that her work was amazing...absolutely sensual is a better description...and then she told me that they were all done on a flatbed scanner!  "Ehhh? Say what? How'd ya do that?"

Kathy started using objects from her garden to test new equipment and software as digital imaging technology advanced and simply "experimented".  Her collection has grown to over 60 pieces and she has shown at the Mystic Art Association, Hygienic Art, Inc, and of course at The Brick Gallery in Essex, CT (on display until the end of July 2006).

Unbelievable! I highly recommend that you visit Kathy's website but believe me when I say viewing these pristine images online does not compare to seeing them in person.

Shown here:

Red Rose
White Iris

Blogging on Art – How Blogging Can Help Your Art Career

There is a lot of buzz about Web2.0 and Design2.0 and all the talk gets me to wondering “What does this mean for visual designers? And what does it mean for artists who look to promote themselves online?” The thoughts on visual design will be discussed in a future post.

ArtLOOK is a bit different because the focus is on both art and design. There are many blogs and websites which focus on art. There are many which focus on design. But there are not many blogs or websites that focus on both. Because my business specializes in creating websites and graphic design for artists, blogging about designing for the arts feels very comfortable to me. It’s certainly a niche and it’s one I am passionate about.

The notion of Web2.0 is very exciting and reminds me of back in the old days when the Internet was new. Back then it was all about community and sharing information…it wasn’t always about ecommerce you know? Blogging and its accompanying outcrop of support sites such as Del.icio.us, Flickr, Technorati, Filmloop and others is also very much centered around community and sharing of information.

So let’s talk a little bit about how this shift in the web, and blogging in particular, can benefit artists and galleries.

1. Blogs provide the ability to announce what you want to say and get it out into the Blogosphere almost immediately. It uses the same technology that the news media uses to push its “breaking news” out to the world. Blogging is incredibly interactive and no longer do you have to wait for someone to find your website in the list of thousands at Google and silently visit your site. (But...for the record, posting regularly in your blog will also bring additional traffic to your website if you have the two linked.) Blogs and the accompanying feeds give artists the ability to “push” their information out to people who are most interested in it. Syndication allows for more timely information delivery to your target audience. Therefore, if you have a show coming up, you can post it on your blog and those who have subscribed to your blog can be updated whenever you post something new.
2. Blogging allows for greater networking among those who are interested in the same things you are interested in. So as an artist who might be looking to promote herself, you can reach out to collectors or gallery managers and have actual online conversations with these people. Blogs make people accessible and there are some truly wonderful people and resources out there that I would have never found outside of blogging! Talk with other artists about technique, and application; see what other painters are doing, find tips on the best art supply houses, gallery shows. It’s pretty much an ongoing interactive online art party out there. The potential for new contacts and associates across the world is now more possible than ever.
3. A feed reader, such as Bloglines, will keep you up to date on many items, shows and events happening in the art world. You don’t have to go in search for weekend events in the newspaper because your feed reader will deliver the new content right to your desktop every day.
4. Linking is the backbone of the Blogosphere and can track conversations as it posts from one blog to the next. This is how you develop community.
5. Comments, and trackbacks are fantastic for discovering what others are saying about your target interests…maybe even in discovering what is being said about YOU.
6. Support services such as Technorati, Del.icio.us, Flickr, Flimloop allow you to post your tags (keywords that interest you) or your images in a shared community. Sites such as these track the interconnections of users and highlight the most popular content for your reading or viewing pleasure. This sharing environment allows your work to be seen (pushed) by a huge audience and bookmarked. Updates are again immediate. So change an image on Filmloop and those people who have become members of your loop will be notified as soon as the imagery has been updated.
7. Collaboration is key. In order to be a member of a community you have to take an active participation in that community. Read other peoples blogs, send the author an email, write a comment, get a feed reader, sign up at Technorati, Del.icio.us, Flickr. Post a blogroll or even begin a team blog. Just starting the blog and not reaching out to others is no different than that website that sits idly by waiting for traffic.

Send me some feedback on this one. Your stories, comments and experiences are welcome.

CSS Remix: CSS-Based Website Gallery

CSS Remix displays some of the best in CSS web design.  There is some absolutely beautiful stuff here that shows what the web can become.

"CSS Remix was created to present the latest techniques in visual presentation, user experience, and site coding to the web design community in a simple and effective manner. We keep the focus on what you actually want - web sites and how they’re made. Our site showcase is comprised of only the best sites from all over the globe, and in our designer spotlight we dissect certain sites and pick the brains of their designers to answer such questions as 'How’d they do that?'”

Let me know your thoughts on these designs or Web 2.0 in general.

Link: CSS Remix: CSS Based Website Gallery

Brick Gallery Show - Glynnis Sorrentino

The work of Glynnis Sorrentino will be on display at the Brick Gallery in Essex, CT.  Join us on Thursday, April 20th for an Artist's Reception from 6:00-9:00 at The Brick, 10 Main Street, Essex. CT.

Coming soon:  Glynnis' new website, designed by Dragonfly Blu Design

Blooms I Oil On Canvas

Good Reading for the Weekend

Taschen books, one of my favorite art book publishers, has several new releases out. New Media Art, looks at art in age of digital communication. Artists have always been early adopters of emerging media technologies, from Albrecht Dürer and his use of the printing press in the 16th century to Nam June Paik’s experiments with video in the 1960s. In 1994, the advent of the Internet as a popular medium catalyzed a global art movement that began to explore the cultural, social, and aesthetic possibilities of such new communication technologies as the Web, video surveillance cameras, wireless phones, hand-held computers, and GPS devices. This book addresses New Media art as a specific art historical movement, focusing not only on technologies and forms but also on thematic content and conceptual strategies.

Igor Polyakov's Nordic Design Blog, posted the release of the new Phaidon Design Classics Book.
Phaidon Design Classics features the 999 ultimate design classics
- Meticulously researched and selected after wide consultation with designers and design-world insiders
- Incomparable, a resource without parallel, the final word
- 3-volume set, more than 3,000 images and 500 drawings

‘An extraordinarily absorbing, enticingly packaged and comprehensive collection of design classics that will, ironically, become a design classic itself.’ Jeremy Langmead, Editor-in-Chief, Wallpaper*

‘…makes good design accessible to all — and is sure to provoke many a “substance versus style” dinner party debate!’ James Dyson, Designer

‘The battle of design is almost won, but a good book like Phaidon Design Classics can help to finish the war.’ Philippe Starck

You can read more about the book at the special feature website.