Funny business names
Previously I've entertained my loves of text and bad marketing ideas on this blog, so I thought I'd add a couple of Leeton business names that have recently amused me.Sadly I missed sharing the ad for "The Hairy Corner's opening" that appeared in the local paper last year.
I've been childishly giggling at the name ever since and considered making a prank call to see if they can offer me a hairy corner sometime. It wouldn't need to be big, in fact smaller is often better.
Kaka Pie is another business name that would've benefited from market research using even a small focus group.
In Greek the word 'caca' (which uses the hard c sound, like a k) means poo, so it was with some trepidation that I tried a kaka pie. It's basically a large flat-ish dumpling and tasty enough.
Cultured
When we moved in this was all grass.
Reminds me how disappointed I was settling into a lecture on culture at uni and they started talking about agriculture.
It's settling into one location that makes the investments in agriculture and culture both worthwhile.
You can see the chilli, pumpkin and beans but not the home studio in this pic.
Artshole
Can't remember which Facebook friend posted this pic. I've been thinking about writing a blog post on art for most of the year.The definition of art varies from 'works produced with skill and imagination' through to very subjective statements about recognising it when one sees it.
For a while I've been saying it's an outcome that engages with the expectations of the audience, because I think really good art anticipates your perspective and exceeds it. But then again, this is a subjective statement.
Scott McCloud has an idea that art is any activity that goes beyond what is necessary and provides a kind of additional ornamental 'look at me' sorta outcome. So that flushing the toilet with flourish could be considered art, I guess if I want to really trivialise it.
Anyway, this week I received payment for a video I made to promote my music. There are many music videos that I consider works of art, and they're a genre that fits nicely with McCloud's view of art, but it kinda illustrates for me that one person's marketing is another person's art. Reminding me of the classic debate about the distinction between commercial material and artistic works, which was something I first started thinking seriously about when reading Maxx Barry's book Syrup:
It reminds me of when I was writing about music and realised there is no distinction between mainstream and underground acts. They both produce musical noises, on record and live on stage, promoting the former with the latter and film clips, etc.
So once you deconstruct this distinction between art and commercial activity, all art starts to look like products and artists' expressions are acts of public relations and marketing. Or the artist might be the product, whatever.
Which leads me to conclude that the only art worth investing in are those works which inspire the community to make their own art and find fulfillment through realising an individual perspective on their environment and experiences. The rest of it props up egos and basically says your activities are only valuable if they produce a financial outcome.
One weekend activity
Previously I've mentioned how my daughter has started a sketchbook diary.This is her pic from the weekend, when she played Mario Kart on our new Wii.
The Wii was bought secondhand as I'm keen to play Skyward Sword and I think I unlocked a new level of geek (or maybe achieved a merit) when I spent Sunday updating the various hacks on the console so it would work.
Thankfully the internet has a record of the detective work undertaken by people smarter than myself in this area.
Headline doesn't match story
This story is very different to the headline.While sub-editing is increasingly sloppy on news websites, I'm suspicious since News Ltd's newspapers have been promoting the Coalition for many years.
Leeton Art Deco Festival 2013
Nice to see the 2013 Leeton Art Deco Festival using my design for their colouring-in competition, along with a couple of other ideas. One of the highlights in 2011 was seeing the Roxy's windows full of entries, especially the messier ones that hide the speed at which I put the design together.
Still unsure
Wagga's Daily Advertiser had this story on their site criticising the local council, complete with a quote from a former mayor (and former manager of the group who publish the paper) and a link to a popular online survey tool.
It was kinda bizarre and I'm still not sure if it was an April Fools joke or a suggestion to survey ratepayers about the decision to build a sporting facility rather than a convention centre.
PS -- Seems it's not an April Fool, here's a more recent piece.
Sketchbook diary: next generation
More around my suburb
I've posted a recording of this fence previously.
Methinks, it should have been impossible
Not to love all things in a World like this,
Where e'en the Breezes of the simple Air
Possess the power and Spirit of Melody
-- Samuel Coleridge
Vintage Canberra
One from the family home movie archives, a Super 8mm film shot by my parents in the early 1970s -- who both feature, along with my uncle Andy and his car, which was used by Queen Elizabeth II during her tour in 1954.
It takes a community
My despair for the future of human society started last year when I read comments from people intolerant of children on airplane flights. Yeah, I know kids can be a nuisance but it's not hard to block out their noise -- easier than blocking out the noise of the plane for me.
At the time I thought about how all these whinging adults were children once but probably don't have kids of their own. Then I started thinking how in some cultures the community takes responsibility for raising kids and realised people were assuming the future generation was in fact someone else's responsibility.
I was thinking about this again on the weekend when I took my kids to the playground in the centre of town. Some people, youths most likely, had tied knots in the cable that hangs the seat from the flying fox. I guessed it helped them use the flying fox but I use it fine without tying a knot in it and it was kinda tricky to get it back to the state where my kids could use it again without assistance.
Soon other parents were at the playground with their kids and we shared the flying fox for a while until the kids wandered onto other equipment. Then I heard a mum saying the kids would need to put their shoes back on because of the broken glass.
And then I saw all the empty bottles that had been all over the ground all along. They came into focus and I joined other parents in collecting the remains of Friday night teenage binge-drinking, which seemed obvious based on the sugary alcoholic drinks that had been consumed.
Broken glass in playgrounds is a regular hazard because the teens like to drink in these locations and, since they're probably already breaking the law, they don't seem to think much about littering.
It seems to me that teenage binge-drinking and the resulting vandalism, assaults, council levies used for cleaning, etc. are all part of the problem of people deciding that introducing their children to drinking responsibly is not their responsibility. These older children aren't quite adult enough to drink properly and so they consume crap and make a mess.
Since it wouldn't be interesting for most kids to drink at home with their parents, I think this is an area where a responsible adult could provide guidance. Which led me to think about the idea of using role models and then to realise that it takes a community to tackle social problems caused by alcohol since the law is ineffective or not policed.
Ideally I think the drinking age needs to raised, mostly because studies show the brain continues to develop into our third decade, but also because it's become a woeful rite of passage for many. While raising the age at which one can buy alcohol, I'd like to see encouragement for parents to introduce their older teens to alcohol in appropriate supervised social settings, like offering half a standard drink with dinner occasionally, as a way of establishing safe drinking practices and appreciation for how this social lubricant can be used responsibly.
At the time I thought about how all these whinging adults were children once but probably don't have kids of their own. Then I started thinking how in some cultures the community takes responsibility for raising kids and realised people were assuming the future generation was in fact someone else's responsibility.
I was thinking about this again on the weekend when I took my kids to the playground in the centre of town. Some people, youths most likely, had tied knots in the cable that hangs the seat from the flying fox. I guessed it helped them use the flying fox but I use it fine without tying a knot in it and it was kinda tricky to get it back to the state where my kids could use it again without assistance.
Soon other parents were at the playground with their kids and we shared the flying fox for a while until the kids wandered onto other equipment. Then I heard a mum saying the kids would need to put their shoes back on because of the broken glass.
And then I saw all the empty bottles that had been all over the ground all along. They came into focus and I joined other parents in collecting the remains of Friday night teenage binge-drinking, which seemed obvious based on the sugary alcoholic drinks that had been consumed.
Broken glass in playgrounds is a regular hazard because the teens like to drink in these locations and, since they're probably already breaking the law, they don't seem to think much about littering.
It seems to me that teenage binge-drinking and the resulting vandalism, assaults, council levies used for cleaning, etc. are all part of the problem of people deciding that introducing their children to drinking responsibly is not their responsibility. These older children aren't quite adult enough to drink properly and so they consume crap and make a mess.
Since it wouldn't be interesting for most kids to drink at home with their parents, I think this is an area where a responsible adult could provide guidance. Which led me to think about the idea of using role models and then to realise that it takes a community to tackle social problems caused by alcohol since the law is ineffective or not policed.
Ideally I think the drinking age needs to raised, mostly because studies show the brain continues to develop into our third decade, but also because it's become a woeful rite of passage for many. While raising the age at which one can buy alcohol, I'd like to see encouragement for parents to introduce their older teens to alcohol in appropriate supervised social settings, like offering half a standard drink with dinner occasionally, as a way of establishing safe drinking practices and appreciation for how this social lubricant can be used responsibly.
Elephant hiding in jungle from lava
Ink on canvas
Top Shelf crossover
BoingBoing put me on to Top Shelf, a publisher of excellent graphic novels who hold an annual sale I patronise. Last year a stack of kids titles appeared and my son was very impressed, enough that he started seeking other titles by artists like James Kochalka -- whose Sketchbook Diaries are great.
The other day my son said he'd spotted James in the Pirate Penguin Ninja Chicken book he's read every day since it arrived six months ago.
Here's a picture from Kochalka's work
And I like Kochalka's sketches of other artists
But the other thing that got me excited was seeing Rich Koslowski's King in the pic at the top too. Here's The King, which is a great read and I like the music focus in all of the Koslowski I've read
The other day my son said he'd spotted James in the Pirate Penguin Ninja Chicken book he's read every day since it arrived six months ago.
Here's a picture from Kochalka's work
And I like Kochalka's sketches of other artists
But the other thing that got me excited was seeing Rich Koslowski's King in the pic at the top too. Here's The King, which is a great read and I like the music focus in all of the Koslowski I've read
March around my suburb
In previous Marchs I've featured my other blogs and some of my published writing and photography, this year I'm going to focus on the suburb of Willimbong.
One thing I like are the trees which grow under the power lines.
The power lines are a feature in themselves but the bonsai-like trees which have been shaped over years have a lot of character.
I also like how the sounds of the former swamp can be heard after rain.
One thing I like are the trees which grow under the power lines.The power lines are a feature in themselves but the bonsai-like trees which have been shaped over years have a lot of character.
I also like how the sounds of the former swamp can be heard after rain.
More Misadventure
Now the Art Misadventure #3 exhibition curated by Sarah McEwan of The CAD Factory has finished, I thought I'd show works by the other artists. (My work was discussed in this earlier post and the apple video I made is here.)
The premise of the exhibition was that by giving an artist an object to inspire the creation of a new work within three days, their processes would be revealed. I think the short timeframe meant the work was delivered without time to fully analyse the response and therefore didn't allow time for too much self-censorship.
My partner Jo Roberts was given a jar of antique buttons as her object and responded in collage to phrases she'd heard from older generations like "button that lip".
And also the phrase "what am I going to do with you? Cut off your head and sew on a button?"
While working on these collages she spoke about thinking of how women returned to domestic duties after WWII, when they'd assisted in the war effort by taking on the roles vacated by men fighting overseas.
Greg Pritchard, who's just finished his role as Western Riverina Arts Development Officer, was given a tablecloth with Babushka dolls as his object. This was cut-up and displayed on the walls and also used in an animation projected within his allocated space.
This video featured a Russian folk music soundtrack and was quite comical.
Narrandera Argus photographer Trent Light was given a box of sticks as his object and I recall a 'WTF?' look on his face when he first opened it.
He explained to me that he'd quickly settled on the idea of suspending the sticks and used a boy his mum babysat as a model for this image. The look on the kid's face was his reaction when he saw this installation in the studio and I think it works to put the viewer into the position of this child and share their sense of wonder.
Elizabeth Gay Campbell says in the exhibition catalogue that she danced with her object, a piece of 1970's aqua fabric, and settled on expressing this desire.
Emma Piltz received a tub of red house paint and wrote that with:
Isobel Maccallum picked the biggest object on the table and found the box was full of sawdust.
She describes the "delicious hit of forest" which led her to play with texture and form, creating "tiny frozen landscapes".
Julie Thompson-Briggs received an object I was relieved not to get, a book on ballet dancing.
Her three poems each had different tones, one quite brutal but the last is shown below and it was a lighter note to end on.
Kerri Weymouth was a bit dismissive of her work when I met her, saying she thought she'd invested little effort by working with materials she had at hand.
Her object was a champagne coloured map, which complemented an antique dress and became a skirt on a mannequin surrounded by other items of a similar era.
I didn't get to ask her about how she acquired these but Jo told me she noticed that older people walking past the window in which this was displayed would see these and their faces would soften, as if entering a reverie of memories. So it was a great drawcard for encouraging people into the gallery.
The Art Misadventure exhibition was a great experience. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my work but also for being able to meet other local artists. The response was really good too.
The premise of the exhibition was that by giving an artist an object to inspire the creation of a new work within three days, their processes would be revealed. I think the short timeframe meant the work was delivered without time to fully analyse the response and therefore didn't allow time for too much self-censorship.
My partner Jo Roberts was given a jar of antique buttons as her object and responded in collage to phrases she'd heard from older generations like "button that lip".
And also the phrase "what am I going to do with you? Cut off your head and sew on a button?"
While working on these collages she spoke about thinking of how women returned to domestic duties after WWII, when they'd assisted in the war effort by taking on the roles vacated by men fighting overseas.
Greg Pritchard, who's just finished his role as Western Riverina Arts Development Officer, was given a tablecloth with Babushka dolls as his object. This was cut-up and displayed on the walls and also used in an animation projected within his allocated space.
This video featured a Russian folk music soundtrack and was quite comical.
Narrandera Argus photographer Trent Light was given a box of sticks as his object and I recall a 'WTF?' look on his face when he first opened it.
He explained to me that he'd quickly settled on the idea of suspending the sticks and used a boy his mum babysat as a model for this image. The look on the kid's face was his reaction when he saw this installation in the studio and I think it works to put the viewer into the position of this child and share their sense of wonder.
Elizabeth Gay Campbell says in the exhibition catalogue that she danced with her object, a piece of 1970's aqua fabric, and settled on expressing this desire.
"Any who have been imprisoned in any way, be it spiritual, physical, addiction, depression or mental illness will have experienced that emotion as the bars have been taken away and chains released."
Emma Piltz received a tub of red house paint and wrote that with:
"So much beauty all around us, we don't always need to purchase it from a store, nature's gifts are everywhere..."
Isobel Maccallum picked the biggest object on the table and found the box was full of sawdust.
She describes the "delicious hit of forest" which led her to play with texture and form, creating "tiny frozen landscapes".
Julie Thompson-Briggs received an object I was relieved not to get, a book on ballet dancing.
Her three poems each had different tones, one quite brutal but the last is shown below and it was a lighter note to end on.
Kerri Weymouth was a bit dismissive of her work when I met her, saying she thought she'd invested little effort by working with materials she had at hand.
Her object was a champagne coloured map, which complemented an antique dress and became a skirt on a mannequin surrounded by other items of a similar era.
I didn't get to ask her about how she acquired these but Jo told me she noticed that older people walking past the window in which this was displayed would see these and their faces would soften, as if entering a reverie of memories. So it was a great drawcard for encouraging people into the gallery.
The Art Misadventure exhibition was a great experience. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my work but also for being able to meet other local artists. The response was really good too.
The war on consciousness
This talk seems to have been taken offline. There's some discussion of why and possibly the video here.
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