auspiciousmotion

this is about creative writing

One of my projects at my new job (old place of work: ATLAS, new title: Assistant Director of Communications) is to come up with a Holiday Card for about 200-250 recipients, ranging from Board Members to TAM alums.

Initially, I was thinking winter imagery that had to be non-denominational. I was thinking, “The weather outside is frightful…” Lumps of snow decorating the ATLAS Building came to mind.

Then it hit me: snow globes are sweet!

This is what I came up with, after the requisite numerous iterations, and plenty of design help (and critique) from colleagues (and the client). Fun stuff:

[click for larger]

Evan and Tony are having a joint exhibition, opening this First Friday at Sliding Door Gallery.

You may remember their entry into Rethought, Reworked and Repainted. Well, they sold the fruit of their collaboration at that show, a painting/collage of “Cars in Yard,” and even got a writeup at a local art site by the buyer.

Sliding Door Gallery was pretty enthusiastic about Tony’s and Evan’s work, so they asked them to do another show this month. This time, they are taking large found pieces o’ wood, windows, and even a canvas or two, and I think we can safely say that all the pieces are a joint effort. You have to see it to know what their collaborative style is all about. It’s exciting.

Join us from 6 to 9 this Friday evening, November 2nd. Sliding Door is located between 5th and 6th on Santa Fe in Denver.

In honor of The Simpsons Movie…

(click to see the bigger version)

1. I don’t think perfection even means happiness.

2. If you don’t take a chance with the nice guy, your existential crisis might get a lot worse.

3. Do you know gmail chat? It’s pretty sweet, but like most chat applications it’s not as fulfilling as a conversation where you can hear the other person’s voice. So we’ve decided that in this case, “chat” is singular and “chat” is still the plural, because it’s not worthy of being called “chats.” Chats imply something cozy, involving hot beverages and plenty of time.

I’ve been working on this video for what seems like a month. It’s something that I would like to project on a wall, maybe at a party or a bar, or even somewhere more highbrow like a gallery. I’d love to get your critiques and feedback about it, so hollerrr with a comment.

I recommend watching this with your current favorite song as a soundtrack, as I left it intentionally mute. Also, because the video has been compressed to view on the web, it’s not the best quality nor the largest resolution. The whole thing is 3:33, so you won’t need to spend much time on it. That’s a palindrome and you know it’s a palindrome. Click the screenshot below to watch (requires Quicktime/plugin, I think)…

While sitting by the Boulder Creek at nearly peak flow, I shot the original miniDV video for this project. Then, using Luma Keying in Final Cut Pro, I got rid of everything but the rushing, white water. A very similar effect can be achieved by upping the contrast in iMovie HD and appying the effect “black and white.” Having isolated the white splashes, I edited the footage using only the effects fast/slow/reverse in iMovie. Well, ok, I used a few transitions as well. Ultimately, I wanted to give the surreal experience of watching water flow a rhythm and meaning.

Since it’s kind of teeny, I’ll link a larger downloadable file here, for those of you who wish to see it bigger and better. (To download, click the link above and select “save link as” or some similar terminology.)

Furthermore, I am interested in any and all remixes that people can come up with, and in the interest of creating open-source artwork, I urge you to use the large file to mess up, modify, and re-make your own aqua poetics.

Evan has some of his latest work in a show, opening this coming “First Friday” August 3rd. It’s going to be at Sliding Door Gallery, which is on the southern reaches of Denver’s Santa Fe Art District.

The show, “Rethought, Reworked, and Re-Painted,” is all about taking old, cast-off, ugly specimens of art Americana, and remixing them to make something new and hopefully more desirable. To see some examples of what this has looked like in other galleries, check out what they had over at The Wurst.

I first found out about Etsy.com, a web site to “buy & sell all things handmade” from Lisa Smith, a talented ceramics artist. She’s currently selling her porcelain jewelry at lisa smith designs on Etsy.com.

What’s really great about the Etsy service is that they can set you up right away, it’s got a user-friendly and good-looking layout, and they give you a decent address reminiscent of blogger accounts (as in lisa’s case: lisasmithdesigns.etsy.com). The set-up is affordable and easy, and Etsy takes care of all of those shopping cart and secure financial info technicalities.

For the user, Etsy is a delightful time sink. I personally would like to own this fuzzy cat hat. Clara says:

First you will say to yourself, “My there’s a lot of crap.” Then you will find something you will like and you will say “wow! This is so amazing, and so inexpensive, and handmade!” Then you will click on that person’s “favorites” and you may say, “This person has excellent taste in addition to making intriguing artifacts.”

My friend Carey (leaving traces) found obsessiveconsumption through Etsy.com. It’s a sweet site where consumption is turned into art.

What have you seen on Etsy that you like?

I love eating lemons and wish I had made this video. Enjoy its virtues, despite its non-jennifer authorship.