"Kiss me," "There She Goes," "Breathe Your Name."  If you've seen a chick-flick in the last 10 years then you've heard them.  And these songs are all well and good, but if you haven't dug deeper into Sixpence's albums, you're really missing out.  So if you're up for it, here's 2 challenges for the day.  They're both free and don't take very long, so don't be lazy and go for it.  You'll thank me..

1) Download the My Dear Machine EP:   Go to noisetrade.com and click on the album cover in the bottom row with the yellowish background and hot air balloon.  Then follow the instructions to download it for free.  It's got 4 killer songs with enough vibe and tasty tones to satisfy your ears for days.  And when you're finally ready for something else, you should..

2) Listen to their new Christmas record: Go to http://www.imeem.com/sixpencenonethericher where you can preview the The Dawn of Grace in its entirety.  If you like Christmas music, good songs, and good tone, then this is definitely worth a listen.  I will be buying it very soon.  They've got a great version of classics such as "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Carol of the Bells" and quite a few new tunes too.  Complete with Matt Slocum's glassy ethereal melody lines and Leigh Nash's smooth vocals.  Even Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay makes an appearance.

Speaking of Christmas songs, I'll selfishly take this time to plug some versions of Christmas tunes that I've been a part of in the past few years:

The first is "Angels We Have Heard on High" sung by Daniel Renstrom and Shelly Moore and played by Shelly Moore, Mike Passaro, Joel Cameron and myself.  We recorded this last winter.  You can also download it here if you like.
[audio http://www.sunicro.com/blog/angles.mp3]

And then there's my own lo-fi version of "Carol of the Bells" as an '06 Christmas present to my then girlfriend (now wife).  It can be your gift too if you want to download it.  It was recorded back in college in a dorm room by plugging my guitar straight into my PC, so don't judge too harshly :)
[audio http://www.sunicro.com/blog/bells.mp3]

Merry Early Christmas!  Does anyone have a favorite new or old Christmas record that we should check out in the next few months?

With my portfolio finished, and my business card and postcard complete I was ready for Dragon Con, or so I thought. My grand plan for Dragon Con 2008 was to show my work to industry insiders, and then get them to give me work.

That is not what happened at all.

Instead I ended up meeting with a number of skilled illustrators and comic book artists who took the time to review my portfolio. Many of them spent 30 minutes or more with me! I received some great critiques and some excellent advice on how to make it as an artist and an illustrator.

Over the next several posts I will discuss my time with each of these artists and their comments about me work.

Designers are a funny bunch. 

They think and think and think on your behalf, are dripping in ideas and think sideways. They execute with passion and understanding and quality. They are artists. They are worth every penny, and worth twice as much as you think they are worth. They really are hard to pin down. Good designers don't need steering, they don't need you to do their thinking for them - infact, every sentence you utter to steer them, loses the value you can get out of them. Think about that. Every single sentence you speak to guide them in your direction, steers their thoughts away from their design and your success. Physically, mentally and financially. 

When you see a design, you see it with fresh eyes. A designer cannot present the 'thought' that comes with the physical look that you may debate. You get it cold. Effectively, you won't understand it. Its like a new language interpretation of what you have already known, either in your product, service, website or field of delivery. This sudden 'jarring' of the brain, when you view something 'cold' is the same reaction when experiencing modern art for the first time. It creates a reaction, and that reaction lodges inside your brain to become unforgettable. Anything that creates a strong positive or negative emotion becomes memorable. And that, essentially is what you want from a designer - to be memorable. To make people 'know' who you are, what you offer and to be able to recall your product or service as soon as the sector you are involved in, is mentioned. 

But designers are artists, and all artists struggle to be understood by the masses, they have to fight for their designs, they have to dig their heels in and try try try to explain why 'this' works, why it will work for you and why you should use it. Very often, they will not do a good job of justifying their actions, they will fail to convince you, and you will see that struggle of justification and offer your own thoughts in trying to make clear their thoughts... and then it happens - you open your mouth, words fall out, and the design is compromised.

The designer implodes, and you have instantly lost money. 

Some times, some people, some companies trust their designers - they won't understand them, they won't necessarily agree with them, but they will value the person they employ so much that they will believe in their thoughts... and, just, go with it.

This is how things like http://flickr.com/explore/panda happen. And isn't it beautiful? isn't it challenging? isn't it memorable? You are looking at the value of trusting a good designer. And it is worth many many times more than you're prepared to pay them - even if its not immediately clear why.

Everyone that views the panda, will love it... they will wish that it was theirs, doing for their company what it is already doing for the competition. You will get your panda too, however it probably won't look anything like a panda, except through the eyes of a good designer.

You may now forward this post to your boss on the day you quit.

The Womens Center of Jacksonville is presenting a really neat looking show called "Out of the Box" ( very catchy name) on 10-16.  By looking at the artists listed its gonna be a really good show featuring some of Jacksonvilles top, female, emerging artists and some that are all ready prety well established. Should be a great show and a great showcase of Jacksonvilles emerging artists. For more info visit womenscenterofjax.org. Here is the artists listed for the show!

Linda Broadfoot, Louise Freshman Brown, Megan Cosby, Nofa Dixon, Emily Arthur Douglas, Annelies Dykgraaf, Shannon Estlund, Candace Fasano, Sarah Crooks Flaire, Marsha Hatcher, Jenny Henlye, Hillary Hogue, Ali Isabelle, Karen Kurycki, Christina Long, Sydney McKenna, Hope McMath, Nicole Middleton, Argie Mitra, Joanelle Mulrain, Madeleine Peck, Dana Chapman Tupa, Sharla Valeski, Courtney Vickery, and Brittni Wood.

So basically I've been holding off another post because I've been building and building up all this. . .STUFF I want to post, like cool links and videos and subjects and thoughts I've been having and questions I want answered and things I want to do on here but SINCE I have so much I want to do with my blog I can't bring myself to do it until I feel I have sufficient time to do so and I have not had said time yet, and really especially don't right now. I am crazy, yes. PS I dyed my hair blonde.

SEGUE, the trasitiony word not the thing Gob from Arrested Development(and random people in saint Aug) ride, lols, INTO the ARt I want to show today, I was browsing my old CDs and I realized how much I really like a lot of the CD booky/cover/jacket/sleeve WHATEVER art in a lot of my CDS and Mae's The Everglow stuck out and I wanted to see who did it, and lowwhoho and behold the God behind it (and apparently many many awesome CD/band/poster/ etc, art as I just discovered) is a "Three-time grammy nominated brotherly design duo of Don and Ryan Clark" aka INVISIBLE CREATURE, IMHO their work and aesthetic are modern, eccentric, hip, and completely original as well as incredibly varied making them a new personal role model. CHECK THEM OUT(yes that is demandin all-capsism):

INVISIBLE CREATURE: DON AND RYAN CLARK

(heading name of artists are always site links) and HERE's THe Blog--both all kinds of worth checking out.
EDITT//Their Blog is super super aweome, love their taste and what they post-badass badass badass officially love them, did I mention theyve done tons for  musicians and albums that I love and are in the band Demon Hunter, umm hello awesom people alert much. goodness!(literally)

Now for the cover of the album full of the art that intrigued me enough to research the artsit that lead me to this wonderful people.

(makes me wanna do do some watercolors! [&btw if you just thought of Old Greg then ilu.])

There's so much other good stuff from them I'm trusting you to check out the sites for yourself cause I really gotta get to sleep, a quick bit of mine first of course:

Something Of Mine

omg I'm insane if you only knew
Quick personalish update:

• like i said I'm blonde (maybe pics soon)
• I saw Crime in Stereo(missed them QQ) International Superheros of Hardcore, Four Years Srtong and New Found Glory, they are amazing- dont hate you music snobs you don't know what your'e sticking your nose up and away from-hrpmh-pop punk is not dead
• have shows and movies to discuss next time
• tattoo concepts to ponder
• philosophies and theologies and al that agood stuff to also ponder
• additionally Horror, Free Will, Magazine Development, Politics?, Video games, Homer Simpson, Brandon Boyd, crazy tattoos, and much more

on the next episode of my blog entitled Yay I'm finally REALLY UPDATING airing WHEN I GET THE FREAKING TIME

okdead

Okay I just finished this one today. When I started it I had a very specific plan but as the work progressed the plan simply wouldn’t work. I ended up cutting the background out and just keeping what you see as a portrait. So now I have to think of a title for it. Anyone have any ideas? I’m totally open to suggestions!

Here's a closeup of the eyes-

I found out that the other writer who was picked for the project had to bow out. I was looking forward to working with her.  I am confident with all of the creative minds in this group we will be well-served with material.

Writing is a solitary art and yet this is multi-disciplined collaboration so I am integrating myself with the (5) musicians (12) actors and the director/dramaturge, and the other project principals.

I’m actually very tired but I needed to get out of bed to work on the project. I needed to process the ideas that were in my head, and put them on paper. I was actually too restless to sleep because I could feel the aura or energy of these characters urging me to address them. Next week the characters will change. Some will stay the same.  I am beginning to "see" them and see the connective narratives and through lines. What emerges will be pulled into the piece and worked out.

The process is: Respect the Process and integrate with your project mates. Fulfill your role. So that is what I am doing.

Later, Alligator.

This reminds me of a radio program I heard that discussed singers in Christian churches who aren't Christians. The concept that a person could sing wonderful songs to God and yet not believe in him at its core is a mix of ignorance and blasphemy. It's like someone singing "Amazing Grace" who doesn't believe in grace or a rock star who promotes debauchery and yet praises God at the awards shows (I guess they're probably referencing that they started singing in church). What is also sad is there are probably a good number of people in Christian bands that probably don't believe in God or aren't living for him too.

Somewhere in the past the arts separated from Christianity, which is terribly ironic (The danger of course is to worship the art rather than the Creator). God gives humans the ability to create beautiful things and yet many people deny his existence and refuse to worship him with their art. The strange thing about it is that God's beauty and truth can emerge from the artwork of people who are anti-Christian. It's strange because the art is like a branch cut off from a tree. It's not connected to anything, but you still know it came from a tree.

Christians often talk about "taking back the arts" because non-Christians have monopolized many aspects of art. There are Christians who seem to believe that art can glorify God even when he's not explicitly in the artwork itself. Everyone has their opinions and I don't think you should dictate to people how they do their art. Rather we should realize that the whole earth is God's and his creative ability is the source of our ability to knit, cook, draw, paint, sing, write and make art, regardless of whether the activity itself is considered spiritual (every activity in life is spiritual, people just tend to compartmentalize). Not every piece of art has to be explicitly about God. However, if we believe everything we do is unto the glory of God and if he is the center of our existence, then God's Spirit will have no choice but to escape into the things we create.

http://down.clubbox.co.kr/cashewmania/ljjbm1

Thanks a bunch, tam! :D

Pam writes, "This is a protest piece finished for The War Against Peace show. I chose to work this piece in a folk-art style, because it is so often the “child” within us that reacts most instinctively to the atrocities around us. The image depicts a Peace Angel howling in anguish over the current state of Man and Earth. Alphabet Millefiori spell out her howls."

I have already asked if I could write about Pam as part of my Artist Series, so her bio is coming... I eagerly await. She's a thoroughly interesting woman - I have always loved her mosaics (and will secretly say that I was a little nervous when I first met her back in April; kinda like "bow down to the masta", lol). She certainly has a presence.

I must say I have always been enamoured with Protest Art, for want of a better word/description. I know many artists who won't touch it with a 40 foot pole and then I've seen some Protest Art that just doesn't do anything for me. It's all ringing bells for me right now. I do not understand the apathy. The Peoples' silence is deafening...

"In contribution there is no 'better'."

(photo @spasmicallyperfect)

http://down.clubbox.co.kr/cashewmania/2m8bm1

Thanks a bunch, Joyce! :D

http://down.clubbox.co.kr/cashewmania/3m8bm1

Thanks a bunch, Joyce! :D

Sounds super-cool doesn't it?

Play. Music. Heal.
Acting Up (in Acadiana) will host open development sessions for its new work titled Play. Music. Heal. 6:15-7:45 p.m. each Monday beginning Oct. 6 and continuing to Dec. 8 at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, 101 W. Vermilion St., Lafayette.

The sessions will give the public a chance to get behind the scenes and experience how the collaboration process of new work is developed. The work will develop a multi-disciplined theatrical piece where actors, musicians and writers will delve into the potential for music to heal across socio-economic and cultural lines.

Artists involved in the collaboration include musicians Henry Gray, Bernard Pierce, Chris Courville, Carol Fran and Chris Stafford. Writer: Clare L. Martin . Johanna Divine will document the sessions as a videographer/filmmaker. Actors include members of Acting Up (in Acadiana). Andy Cornett will work as lead musician and Amy Waguespack will serve as director and dramaturge.

All sessions are free.

For more information call (337) 309-4964 or (337) 739-4273.

I attended Art London last week at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.  The fair is set up in a giant white tent hidden behind stately 17th century red brick hospital buildings.  An exhibition of Lynne Chadwick sculptures lines the walkway to the entrance of the fair, setting up guests for the modern and contemporary art that lies within.

My favorite booths included Albemarle Gallery, The Fine Art Partnership, Envie d'Art, Stephanie Hoppen, James Kinmont Fine Art, Beaux Arts Bath, and Praxis International.  There was also a very interesting special exhibition highlighting the life and work of British modernist painter Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham.

“BIRDS (left) was filmed in the ruins of the former outdoor disco club 'Amnesia' on the island Corsica. The disco, owned by American investors, got bombed in 2001”. With these rather factual sentences Niklas Goldbach introduces us to his film “Birds (left)”. Not accidentally, the film was inspired by the real occurrence of chaos and rebellion against an homogenised world, in this way perfectly miming Goldbach´s own artistic mission.
Birds (Left) shows a mesmerizing group of people all alike, seating or standing as if in an amphitheatre and doing nothing except (apparently) staring back at us. As the film evolves, we realize that these figures slowly move, minimally repeating the same gestures at times. The whole scene achieves a nightmarish and completely fictional state for we do not know what to make out of these “horrifying gracious and calm creatures”, as someone already described them, nor are we able to attribute a narrative to the film.

Through digital means and diligent post-production work, Niklas Goldbach builds here a post-apocalyptical homogenised vision in which human beings are to be seen but in which, strangely enough, the “Human Being” is excluded from. Devoid of free will, these figures are not real people for they project nothing but their own emptiness their solitary minimal gestures as if one last residue of humanity before its complete dissolution. This fleeting quality is also mirrored in the birds which quickly move through the scene just before flying away. In this horrifying scenario the individual has lost its sovereignty, reduced in its weakness to a decorative role amidst a chaotic landscape of haunting loneliness.

“Birds (left)” explores some of Goldbach´s typical questions; how an (apparently) real image slowly changes into a ghostly and a rather disturbing one as a way to inquire how utopia always seems to unnoticed give place to dystopia. And how our subjective experience in this process is characterized by feelings of disorientation, melancholy and increasing a-sociality.

In the end we are left with the uncomfortable question: how far can we trust ourselves and our reasons? What will become of the individual in a world which we seem to have sentenced to dystopia? And which role do we play as individuals in this marching state of things?

Niklas Goldbach was born 1973 in Witten, Germany. He studied photography at the University of Bielefeld and 'Experimental Media Arts' at the University of the Arts Berlin where he graduated with honours in 2004. In 2005 he majored in the MFA program 'Integrated Media Arts' at Hunter College, City University of New York and postgraduated with a "Meisterschüler" degree of the University of the Arts Berlin.
Since 2001 his work has been exhibited throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. From November 2007 until June 2008 Niklas Goldbach was artist in residency at "Palais de Tokyo" and "Cité Internationale des Arts", Paris.

So. I MUST say. Been listening to some artists from the area lately. Mainly because the main joint put me on. Haha. There have been a few that are worth listening to, but not many (my opinion). One of the best so far I'd have to say is Nando. He's really nice. You should listen. Seriously.
http://profile.myspace.com/nandodmv
Check his blog too:
http://nikenando.wordpress.com/
Let us know what you think.

Any who. I need to go shopping. ;P

Text: “The neo-imperialist function of public art is to clear a path for aggressive economic expansion.”

RATATAT мешат рок с автомати в 21-ви век.

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