I'm almost willing to put up with this just to be published. Ah hell, what am I saying - I'd almost be willing to pay to put up with this just to be published. Maybe I can look forward to that in the future, but until then, enjoy.
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Originally linked from Joel Kimmel's Twitter feed
I'm very happy to announce that the new painting, which I've decided to title, Abandonment, is up on my portfolio website! The painting is the result of two years of being off and on worked on - unfortunately more "off" than "on". What can I say, I've had other things to do!
But gratifyingly it is done now, and I'm planning on finding a location to display it as soon as next month if possible. Although I'd love to hang it up somewhere right now, the paint is still drying, and probably won't be fully dry for a few months (oil painting is a slow art).
Later this month I'll be trying to draft up a "Behind the Front Lines" post to discuss what went into this painting's preparation and inspiration. A lot of my traditional fine art stuff like this tends to be built pretty heavily on top of structure and meaning, and I hope that anyone really curious about this painting will find the rant interesting.
So, for right now you can view it at my portfolio website. Be sure to let me know what you think!
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Updated 1/31/10 - Click Here!
A very cool idea is running in Beta right now, and it's an idea that will help keep your cell phone minute usage down.
For people like me who only have a cell phone, the necessity of calling customer service lines and being kept on hold is doubly painful for the fact that 1) You're wasting minutes of your life away just listening to hold music and 2) You're wasting valuable minutes doing it.
Of course, the option to call during off peak hours and weekends usually means I'll simply call any time except normal business hours, but sometimes that isn't an option. Now, it doesn't even need to be an option because of LucyPhone.
So check it out - you input the 800 number using LucyPhone's website, then you'll get called by Lucy which runs in the background as you go through the prompts for whatever company you'd usually waste your time with. When you get put on hold, dial "*, *" and then Lucy takes over. You hang up, and Lucy calls you back when they decide to talk to you.
Sweet.
One of the cool things I like on their site is that they've followed any Twitter post that says the words, "On Hold With" to show how many people are always on hold. With any luck, that'll never be you or me!
The site is currently in invite-only Beta, which means you sign up your name and then an email invite will hopefully find it's way to your in box. I received mine the next day, but no guarantees on how popular this may get - my advice is sign up for your invite now.
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I just emailed LucyPhone about the security of things like Pin numbers and Account Numbers that are dialed in when using LucyPhone - I'll update the post with their answer!
Update 1/31/2010
Here's the transcript from my quick question to LucyPhone:
Q - I'm curious about the security of user information while being patched through by LucyPhone; is there anything that may make my dialed in Pin numbers or Account ID's less secure by using LucyPhone for things like banks?So there you go. VOIP has security vulnerabilities and there is a possibility that your information can be intercepted by a skilled hacker trying to get it. Making calls to banks and other financial services you use could be a bit more riskier, as are any calls were you use your Social Security Number's last four digits as identification.
A - That's a perfectly reasonable question. We take your privacy very seriously. The call audio is transmitted over ip (VOIP) just like VOIP phone services like Vonage. It passes through our secured data centers located in the US and Canada where we patch the calls, but we do not intercept any call information.
"Artists Wanted is a collaborative project between several New York City artists and creative organizations working to build new lasting opportunities for emerging talent. We have experienced first hand the difficulties in breaking into the professional art world and it is our mission to make this process more welcoming, dynamic and open-ended."
This year Artist Wanted is looking for self portraiture, and the grand prize is international exposure, a feature in 3rd Ward Magazine, and your choice of $7007 or six months free rent in New York City. The cost for submitting entries is $10 an image, which isn't too much.
My entry is a handful of images I've created over the past few years, including this Twins! photo I hashed together for a fake MySpace profile a long time ago (long story). I didn't really think of it as self portraiture until I decided to enter the contest and was looking for something to submit, but looking at it I figured it was novel enough to garnish some attention.
Anyhow, you can take a look at my entry here: www.artistswanted.org/enbasic
If you would be so kind as to rate my portfolio, and tell anyone you know who's interested to rate it as well, I may be able to win the People's Choice Award and a cool $1000 for your trouble (assuming you rate it high of course - but don't let that stop you from looking at it!).
And by all means submit to the contest too! For $10 and a chance to show off your artwork to the big wig judges you can't go wrong. The contest closes January 21st.
Should I win I promise to think about you all as I blow the seven grand on my student loans and a new art scanner.
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Let it be said that around the country, nay, the world, cries of challenge are rising up to defend and take sides with the zaniest and quite frankly most hilarious entertainer we have the honor of watching.
Conan won't do the Tonight Show after Leno
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say it was BS to have Leno come on before the Tonight Show any way - the drop in ratings prove it. But to assume that the prime time slot was only the reason Leno's show was tanking, and as the lead in, taking the Tonight Show down with it, is preposterous. More importantly, NBC needed to respect the legacy of the Tonight Show and it really needed to throw some respect Conan's way.
But now...NBC wants to move the Tonight Show back to 1230? They really need to pull their heads out of Leno's chin. The time shift stinks. Conan knows it, and he's doing the right thing.
Take a good look at your ratings NOW NBC - because those numbers aren't going up when you say goodbye to Conan. It doesn't matter what you put in his place, because Conan O'Brien's fans are going to have no hesitation telling you,
"I'M WITH COCO."
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Thanks to Mike Mitchell for allowing blogs and fan sites to use the "I'm With COCO" painting! We need shirts Mike!
The Third & The Seventh is beyond remarkable for what it is - a completely CG film. While I have placed it here for anyone to view quickly, I strongly suggest you go directly to the Vimeo website so you can watch it in full screen hi-definition. It is a truly breathtaking experience, and I have no doubt that you'll completely doubt whether what I just told you about it being completely CG is true.
Watch and be amazed.
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Originally featured on the fantastic website FreshArrival. Thanks!
The image to the right should be familiar to those of you who commissioned artwork from me in 2009. But, the image you see here isn't the image most people got.
You see, this guy was my earlier version, and for all intents and purposes was supposed to be the final version.
But a keen eyed co-worker of mine seemed to immediately spot a critical oversight for this year's Christmas card, which now that I think about it was rather lucky for me (Thanks Tim!) At any rate the, "Uh, Ian....?" conversation that followed after I handed him his card began a long night of re-edits, re-printing, and regret over the fact that I gave away so many cards with the original design.
Let me explain the problem.
What I Intended
This little guy is warming his hands against the glow of the yellow light.
This little guy is happily making shadow puppets by the light cast from the blue.
What You Probably See
I'm not going to deny that part of me hoped that no one else would notice. But the truth is that once you see the cartoons pointing guns at each other, it's kind of hard to make yourself see anything less...violent. And what was I supposed to do, send second follow up cards telling people that the guy is actually making shadow puppets?
So I redid it, and the cards were sent out sans gun fight. I guess if there is any lesson to take from it all is that you should always have someone go over your work before submitting it. I've known this for a while now, but I always seem to forget it when I'm in a rush, which isn't really an excuse - especially for a holiday card that I send to clients!
For those who did get the card, I now consider them to be special editions - mistake prints if you will. Perhaps just like coins, stamps and comic books they will be worth more just because they slipped through the cracks of editing and into your lucky hands...only time will tell! (At least that way I can feel better about sending people Christmas cards showing children shooting each other.)
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years, and thanks as always for continuing with en•blog for yet another year!
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Maybe the giant holiday lights drove Harry to the edge?
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