Two very cool, quick books

3. Astonishing X-Men: Volume 3 “Torn” #13-18 by writer: Joss Whedon; Artist: John Cassaday (5/5)
So great! My favorite yet of these volumes. I'm officially a fan of Kitty Pryde.

You should start with volume 1 "Gifted," but seeing as I've read each volume in one sitting, it won't take you long to catch up. I saw the first two X-Men movies which helped with a bit of background and character familiarity, but otherwise I'm completely new to the comic. Please note, these books are *much* better than the movies.

The wit and deft storytelling of Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and more) coupled with John Cassaday's truly gorgeous art (seriously, I wish I could draw like he does. Well, I could I suppose, but it would take me so so very long to do 1 comparable image let alone a whole comic book).

Go on, see if your library has it. That's where I'm getting these to read.


4. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through The Gates and Beyond by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan (4.5/5)

A great little volume. In essence, it's a picture book for adults though younger people could read it too.

It describes the development of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's art project The Gates which was set up for 16 days in Central Park in 2005.

The book also gives an overview of their backgrounds: born on the same day in 1935 in different European countries, both affected by World War II. Fascinating how they met and how their lives as married co-artists evolved.

What's really intriguing to me is that the immense, ephemeral public installations they created (so very cool! Click the "some artworks" tab for artist renderings and photographs) over the years were completely self-funded. They didn't take sponsorships for any of them. We're talking millions of dollars for some of these installations. Of course, they were able to do that by selling smaller indoor works.

When you take money out of the equation, all that is left is the art. That's kind of awesome. Well art and all the permit hoops necessary. Many of their projects take decades to complete because it takes that long to get governments and/or institutions to agree to them. Christo and Jeanne-Claude considered that process part of the art.

Anyway, at the very least, check out their website to see some amazing scale drawings and their ensuing creations.

I'm hoping my library has some of the authors' other books on artists. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through The Gates and Beyond is very cool.


Two years ago on TTaT: Ever more skeptical of old-timers

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Life of Art SitRep #51 (or 3 x 17)

Every week, I work towards creating a life of art for myself. This is the zigzag filled journey.

Play along in the comments with your own pursuits if you'd like. (That's where I'll cheer you on.)

*******

So what I've been thinking about lately is how these endeavors I list off each week fall into 3 main categories: Creation, Education, and Promotion. Maintenance could probably be a fourth significant category. I'm not sure how knowing this is helpful, except possibly for arranging these posts, but I am aware that the majority of my time goes towards promotion and maintenance. Sigh.

It is teaching me to ease up on my perfectionism a bit though as there are bigger, more useful fish to fry most of the time.

This week, I

Shot 126 photographs of snow scenes while hanging out windows.

FB'd, tweeted 25% off sale:

25% OFF Necklaces (Monogrammed keepsake pendants and more) and T-Shirts in my shop until January 29, 2011 at 11:59 PM PT.

Use code: LOVEKEEPSAKE
(Ah, Valentine's Day, here you come again...)

Prepped Melting Snow photograph, wrote description, and created product line. Melting Snow is now available in my shop on a variety of customizable gift items: prints/posters, cards, postcard, iPad and iPhone cases, mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, magnets, buttons, stickers, keychain, mouse pad, ornaments, return address label, necklace, and stamps:

Melting Snow iPad case by RocklawnArts
Browse other iphone 3 cases

Melting Snow by RocklawnArts
Make a Magnet at zazzle

Melting Snow – Medium stamp by RocklawnArts
custom stamps usps made on zazzle.com

Tweeted, FB'd, zblogged Melting Snow link.

Uploaded cropped, revamped Footprints in Snow and created a new product line for it to replace the old one.

Footprints in Snow by RocklawnArts
Shop for a card with zazzle.com

In this case, there was a piece of snowbank in the original image that increasingly drove me crazy every time I saw it in my store. There were also some contrast adjustments I wanted to make in Photoshop. This is why I'm now trying to take a day before uploading images so that I can look at them again with fresh eyes. Even a dinner break is helpful to gain a little perspective.

Made old Footprints in Snow products direct only and moved them, deleted old Footprints in Snow folder.

Zblogged revised Footprints in Snow.

Re-tweeted Binder sale:

Get $9 Off Customizable Avery Binders through January 31, 2011 at 11:59 PM PT.

Use code: BINDERS4SALE

Added Downtown Kansas City, Construction Crane, Circle with Fire Escape, Sandstone Fins, Double Arch, Adobe Passageway, Flowering Rhubarb Stalks, and Epimedium Flowers to Rocklawn Arts on RedBubble.

Edited the introduction and descriptions of all previously uploaded photographs on my Rocklawn Arts RedBubble site to include corresponding links to Rocklawn Arts on Zazzle. Also alphabetized product list file.

Updated Rocklawn Arts bubblesite introduction to include link to my zazzle gallery. Reordered new photos. Created two subsets: black and white, desert.

Tweeted redbubble update.

Made a link file for my zazzle products to make image linking easier. Still need to fill in a bunch but a great base formed. Done through Crane & Counterweight. (Already finding it useful. Anything that saves me from copying links into code over and over is goodza!)

Revised Desert Silhouette, Desert Wave, Double Arch product descriptions with related product image.

Made Digital vertical iPad case template.

Added holiday card tag to Snow-covered Branches card.

Added links/products to 14 lenses. Put list of my lenses on 1 post for further promotion/link adding.

Added Petrified Forest Desert to my American Southwest Scenes lens.

Made sidebar additions to couple of lenses, and other small tweaks. Gave American Southwest Scenes a lens boost on 1/22. Worked a bit on a lens quest.

Tweaked metadata templates in Adobe Bridge.

Came up with a DM for new twitter followers inviting them to check out Rocklawn Arts. Sent 6 thus far.

Read "Crowd Conversion: Transforming your business through social currency" Facebook Marketing Strategy/Case Study of Rage Against the Machine campaign to top Christmas music chart.

*******

How are your pursuits going?


A year ago on TTaT: Whoa

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Care for a picnic?

So this is what it's been like here lately. (It's hard to tell at this size, but it was in fact snowing when I took this photo.) Beautiful, sure, but also bitterly cold.

I was so stoked to actually see a bit of blue sky briefly today.


A year ago on TTaT: Who The Devil Made It

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Life of Art SitRep #50 the big five-oh

Every week, I work towards creating a life of art for myself. This is the zigzag filled journey.

Play along in the comments with your own pursuits if you'd like. (That's where I'll cheer you on.)

*******

This week, I

Shot 374 photographs, a variety indoors and out.

Prepped the panoramic photograph Petrified Forest Desert, wrote its product description, and made it available in my Rocklawn Arts shop on prints, posters, cards, postcards, iPhone cases, t-shirts, stamps, mugs, and bumper stickers:

Petrified Forest Desert by RocklawnArts
Poster printing from zazzle

Petrified Forest Desert – Large stamp by RocklawnArts
See other Desert Postage

Petrified Forest Desert iPhone 4 case by RocklawnArts
Browse more cases for the iphone

I took this photo about 3 weeks into what would become a 7 month long cross country road trip. When I was looking for something to do between Moriarty, New Mexico and Las Vegas, Nevada; my brother suggested Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona. The park was absolutely amazing. I would love to go back and spend more time there.

Made Blue Bokeh, Bokeh in Spring monogram necklaces.

Blue Bokeh by RocklawnArts
Design a custom necklace

Finished in progress Footprints in Snow bumper sticker.

Re-tweeted Binder sale:

Get $9 Off Customizable Avery Binders through January 31, 2011 at 11:59 PM PT.

Use code: BINDERS4SALE

Tweeted, FB'd, zblogged Petrified Forest Desert link.

Tweeted iPhone 4 Blue Bokeh case, Desert Wave card, Construction Crane mug.

Revised Circle With Fire Escape, Construction Crane, Crane and Counterweight descriptions with image links.

Added product and store links to 5 lenses.

Created a cool, creepy strum stick with hands composite photo in Photoshop for my new music lens, One Person Bands, on Squidoo. Stop by to take a look.

Updated online sales file.

Watched "Replacing Cloudy Skies - Part 2", "Color Correcting Using Curves" Photoshop tutorials. Both quite helpful. (Available for free on iTunes under the "Photoshop for Digital Photographers" podcast.)

Watched "Slide Guitar Technique" tutorial. Really helpful actually.

*******

How are your pursuits going?


A year ago on TTaT: Kinetic sculpture: winter, night

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An unexpected insight

Setting: dinner at a Chinese buffet

Mom said, "Steely Dan's coming this summer."

Dad looked bewildered and I rolled my eyes. He slowly said, "Steel-y ...., did you say, 'Dan'?"

"Steely Dan," Mom repeated. "Yes." She joked, "Musta been all that opium. The 70s were a total haze for him it seems."

Dad was still lost but got up to get another plate.

"Y'know, I know the name, but I couldn't name any of their songs offhand," I said. "I'd probably recognize 'em if I heard 'em."

Mom agreed, "Yeah, in the 70s instead of keeping up with bands, I was busy chasing around two little kids."

With a smile, I said, "Oh, I'm sure I was no trouble at all. ... Well, except for not wanting to go to pre-school." An anti-socialite from the beginning, I thought to myself. "Anyway, you threw us outside all the time, so it couldn't have been too bad."

"No, I didn't."

Dad returned and sat down.

"Uh, yeah ya did," I said, "I'm sure I just misunderstood your prosody back then, but there were times you made it clear that we had to stay outside."

"I just wanted you to get outside and get some exercise."

"No, it was much stronger than that. You said we couldn't come back in."

"What? When did I ever do that?"

"I remember one day when Billy and Jason came over."

Mom interrupted, "Who's Jason?"

"Jason -------. Anyway, I remember because Billy fell off the zipline--you remember the thing we had in the back?" I mimed the motion of two hands hanging on and swinging forward.

Mom nodded and said, "Yeah, but that was the big house."

"So? Why does that matter?"

"You were little."

"Does that make my story invalid? You never specified an age limit to..." I considered the rabbit hole I was diving down and said, "Just let me finish."

"OK."

"Anyway, like he always did back then, Billy got a bloody nose, but you'd made it so clear that we couldn't go inside that I had to sneak in to get him some Kleenex."

"I never meant that."

"I know, I just took you literally. That's how I perceived it."

She looked at me for a moment and then said, "You know, knowing you now, I see that you probably took everything personally back then. I didn't think that at all. It never even occurred to me."

*Irony alert* She thinks I take everything personally now, that's not true. I resisted the urge to rebut the implied criticism with I took things literally, not personally, and just said, "I know."

"How did we get on this topic?" Dad asked.


A year ago on TTaT: Back in anger

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Snow spirals

About 20" accumulation the other day. Doesn't usually pile up on the spiral trees like that.


Two years ago on TTaT: You can take your farewell and shove it

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Life of Art SitRep #49 Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch

Every week, I work towards creating a life of art for myself. This is the zigzag filled journey.

Play along in the comments with your own pursuits if you'd like. (That's where I'll cheer you on.)

*******

This week, I

Shot 412 photos of snow scenes starting with some exposure tests. Need to overexpose about 1 1/2 stops to bring snow up to white, sometimes more with the camera I'm using. (It's not really overexposing, it's compensating for the camera's reflective meter which gives a reading to produce neutral grey (AKA 18% grey) rather than white.)

The day of the blizzard I only lasted outside for 15 minutes. Need to find a much warmer glove solution that still lets me fiddle with camera controls.

Shot 2 videos.

Made horizontal and vertical necklace templates.

Made Adobe Corridor, Sandstone Fins Close Up, Two Chairs Buried in Snow, and Downtown Kansas City premium keychains to take advantage of square format. All previously made keychains offer premium keychain option, so I don't have to redo them.

Downtown Kansas City, Kansas City, MO by RocklawnArts
Design your own custom keychain with zazzle

Adobe Corridor by RocklawnArts
Make your own promotional keychain online

Changed sale info on intro store page for Rocklawn Arts on Zazzle to binder sale for rest of January:

Get $9 Off Custom Avery Binders through January 31, 2011 at 11:59 PM PT.

Use code: BINDERS4SALE

Two Oriental Poppies by RocklawnArts
Browse more Red flowers Binders

Tweeted, Zblogged binder sale.

Made customizable Burning Brush Valentine's Day ornament:

Burning Brush by RocklawnArts
Design personalized Christmas tree ornaments

Revised Adobe Corridor, Adobe Passageway, Blue Bokeh, and Bokeh in Spring descriptions with image links. Ridiculously time consuming because I kept making small tweaks. Have settled on a revised format though and figured out how to greatly simplify my life later with a little more effort now.

Moved ornaments to back of store folders unless they were hearts.

Added "Adobe Corridor" to tags for its products. Including title seems to help with google search results. I want my zazzle store pages to show up more readily than my zazzle blog, y'know?

Submitted links to 4 forum leads and added 1 for my American Southwest Scenes lens.

Added signature to squidU forum profile. Left some comments on lenses to people who welcomed me on forum.

Updated online sales file.

Updated copyright notice on blog. Noticed I had 2 in sidebar, deleted one. Saved backup of template.

Read January 2011 Popular Photography.

Watched "HDR Efex Pro" and "Portrait Retouching in Camera Raw" tutorials.

Watched "Camera Raw 6 - Noise Reduction" and "Expanding The Edges Of An Image" Photoshop tutorials.

Watched "Intro to the Barre" guitar tutorial.

Tweeted Friday 4 hour sale, 50% off calendars.

*******

How are your pursuits going?


A year ago on TTaT: Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America

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All right

"I'm doing all right."

I wrote it without really considering the question. Well, all I considered was typing "fine" versus "all right." That done, the sentence typed, I realized it wasn't true. I was distracted and unable to focus, generally unsettled most of the day: a bit down.

I should change it, I thought to myself, but his was just a quick email, the sort you get from a smartphone. A "how are you?" from someone I miss tremendously but only correspond with once every couple of months isn't looking for a day-by-day response.

And so, big picture: "I'm doing all right."

I can only hope his "i am well" means just that.


5 years ago on TTaT: Fuzzy puppy

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I'll say this for 2010...

I shot over 9500 photographs. You'd think I'd have managed to post more of them, eh? Well, here's the very last photograph I took in 2010:

For comparison's sake, I only shot about 1100 pictures in 2009. So that's something.


3 years ago on TTaT: Oh Jerusalem

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Life of Art SitRep #48 Anew

Every week, I work towards creating a life of art for myself. This is the zigzag filled journey.

Play along in the comments with your own pursuits if you'd like. (That's where I'll cheer you on.)

*******

And so the year begins anew. Here's to 2011, yeah?

This week, I

Made a composite of the photographs Adobe Passageway and Light at the End of the Tunnel called Adobe Corridor. I wrote a new product description for it with a new tagging approach in mind and created an Adobe Corridor product line of many cool customizable products:

Adobe Corridor by RocklawnArts
Large format posters printing from zazzle

Adobe Corridor by RocklawnArts
Make Travel mugs online with Zazzle

Adobe Corridor by RocklawnArts
Browse other Adobe Bags

Tweeted, FB'd, zblogged Adobe Corridor links.

Added links &/or submitted product to 3 lenses/sites on forum.

Added About the Author module to my Squidoo lenses.

Left message on SquidU forum. Got some more traffic for saying hello there.

Unlocked 1st lens boost on squidoo.

Revised post quick create adjustment list (some wording and cross promotion links) and started adding those messages to heads of descriptions rather than tails.

Got some tax information from Zazzle support.

Worked on my sales spreadsheet: made 3 new 2011 tabs, worked on formulas for year end totals.

Finally implemented an offsite computer backup. (Yes, that's huge enough to warrant bold.) Now just to keep up with it every week.

Finished reading Popular Photography June 2010.

Watched "Using Camera Profiles in Camera Raw" and "The Secrets Of Creating A Simple Collage" Photoshop tutorials.

Entered Scott Bourne contest to win Canon 5D mkII with 4 GB flash card and designer photo album

Changed 1 of the "Top Picks" on my main Zazzle page from a birthday card to After Hockney - black & white iPhone 4 case.

Tweeted, FB'd, zblogged 20.11% off New Year sale.

*******

How are your pursuits going?


3 years ago on TTaT: Season 8, Volume I

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