viDeo

Been working with video. it's a creative endeavor also. This is one of my first experiments with "green screen" I ripped the hottie from the Ulead demo and the paintings are mine. The most difficult part was getting the motion synchronised. But it works. The next project is a tour through a virtual gallery led by the painter. Ulead software was used.

2DAY

2day was a good day. I was unable to paint only a few absent-minded drawings. Most of my day was spent working on transferring old VHS tapes to MPEG in route to DVD. Once upon a time I shot a lot of tape of kids and family and things. After going to the Dr. for annual pulmonary check-up we visited the Halsey gallery at the College of Charleston. There was a showing of John Hull, a CofC faculty members work. To the right is representative of that show: Moonlight 03

Hull is quite a storyteller in paint. This particular show had as it's subject junkyards. Discarded cars and machinery provides a backdrop for the figures which tell the story. The artist invites the viewer to speculate on what is going on in the piece. Although Hull's work is very painterly the figures tell the story in gesture and placement. You ask yourself the questions. Why is the man carrying the gun? Who is the corpse? What is happening after dark illuminated by flashlight? Hull also included working drawings of works in progress the small studies of circus life were loosely rendered but exciting to view. It was a good show. Google the artist for more info.
Later we saw the new George Clooney movie:"Michael Claayton". it was a good movie. I'm no Clooney fan but this film showed traces of acting ability. One can only wonder what Russell Crowe would have done with the title role.

no image 2day

No image today, only words. Will we ever replace words? Or when information bypasses the usual senses and goes directly to the neurons of the brain will words be obsolete? Some people are word people and some are picture people. Is a picture really worth a thousand words. But are their places where pictures are not usable. For example you cannot give unit of measure in images. Or can you. measurements are made in visual units. Think about the height of a telephone pole. how tall is it in feet? Do you visualize a giant ruler measuring it? Perhaps like me you visualize an object of which you know the length is used to compare the telephone pole. Is not measurement a contrived or invented system? Yet it was possible to measure before the methods were invented. And so on......

Just another day

When in Chicago you gotta visit the Art Institute. According to my sketchbooks I was first there in 1966. It is such a good thing to emerse yourself in the art of the ages. Here I stand next to a Jackson Polluck and I didn't realize that I had on matching colors. Seeing a photograph of a Polluck is hardly like seeing the real thing. First there is the scale. Some big paintings lose their grandness when reproduced in a smaller size. It's like seeing the opening scene of "Patton" with George Scott in front of the flag on a small television--you miss the impact. And then there is texture. Since they were painted (?) horizontal there is a tremendous build-up of paint. Indeed it is almost sculptural.I like his paintings and liked the movie. It was tragic the way he lost control of his bicycle and broke the bottles of beer.

A-r-r-r-gh!

It has been difficult. I'm reacquainting myself with Google notebook in hopes of making it a useful tool. Things just haven't been going that technologically. First of all I have been having trouble logging on to this blog. Sometimes the log-in box appears and sometimes it doesn't Go figure. I've been having video problems as well. I have some hardware/software to convert VHS to DVD. But after considerable time in editing ,etc., I burn a disk and it won't play in my DVD player. however, a disk burned with the same software by a friend plays good. I must have the format wrong or something because I can play the disk on the computer.