Idea Books Presentation

Once again I was asked to make a presentation at the Jefferson Art Guild May meeting. This time I talked about my "Idea Books." They are sketchbooks in which I paint, draw and paste into during a calendar year. Sometimes I do more than one depending on the number of artifacts I accumulate. When finished I have everything in one place. My "Idea Books" are great resources me.

To see pages from my "Idea Books" go to my blog aha pages. They are mixed in with sketches from my sketchbook.

Experimental Techniques in Acrylic Demonstration

On June 24th I demonstrated experimental techniques using acrylic paints at a West Bank Art Guild meeting. I filled the room with some large works that I painted between 1985 and 1988 as well as a couple from 1993. Before demonstrating, I passed around some of how-to books for my fellow artists to browse. Then came the messy part. I dripped and imprinted a variety of methods jumping from canvas to canvas. Several of the artists present expressed interest in a future workshop.

Collage Presentation

At tonight’s Jefferson Art Guild meeting I gave a presentation on my collage work from the last ten years. I brought my collage sketchbooks, three finished works and my how-to books to share with my fellow artists. While I talked I passed around the books. Many of the artists told me how much they enjoyed seeing my work and looking at the how-to books.

AIM Profiles Converted to Bebo Profiles

A while back AOL bought Bebo. At the end of February AOL began switching AIM Profiles to the Bebo format. So, basically I had to recreate my profiles. Here is a shot of my new Bebo profile for the same screen name I use on Blogger, dotartdude.

First Show for New Orleans Fiber Artists

Saturday night there was a reception at the Dutch Alley Artist's Co-Op as part the French Quarter art galleries celebration of "Dirty Linen Night." A week ago the Julia Street art galleries had "White Linen Night." A group of artists known as the New Orleans Fiber Artists (NOFA) coordinated their first show at the co-op. The co-0p artists graciously provided space for the exhibition and invited the NOFA to participate in the "Dirty Linen Night" celebration. Due to space limitations most of NOFA participants, including myself, only hung one piece. I've posted photos of the show, the reception and Dutch Alley on my blog pic journal.

The collage I entered was created prior to Hurricane Katrina. In March of '05, I attended the National Art Education Association Convention in Boston. At a presentation on collage artist Hannah Höch, I was given a cellophane bag containing fancy papers, crepe papers and magazine images plus some foil die cuts depicting Noah's Ark and animals. The presenter then instructed us to go back home and each of us make a collage. She also requested that each of us e-mail her a jpeg of our final pieces.

Below is the collage I made. The words "we see" were part of an ad included in the bag of stuff. So, that made for a natural title, "We See." The show is only up through August 22.


collage, 17.5" x 24"

AIM Pages

In light of some new innovations by AOL’s AIM Pages, I have revamped my seven pages. Because there is no way to simply switch from three columns to two columns, I had to reset the page settings. That means that I had to rebuild my pages from scratch beginning with the beginner page layout. I then modified the layouts in Advanced Mode. There are always new modules being created for AIM Pages. So I will be adding more as I go. In the meantime, here are the newest versions of my AIM Pages:

Chez Collage

Dance Floor

Dot Spot

Eye Play

Mo's Studio

Rest and Motion

Splatter Studio

Chez Collage

Tonight I’ve added an AIM page devoted to my collage art. The default format is two columns instead of three. The page has many of the same items as the other ones.


Chez Collage

Two More AIM Pages!

The blurb about my AIM Page, Splatter Studio, brought a lot of traffic to my page. Well, I decided to create two more AIM pages for my other types of art. Already my blogs have experienced more traffic.

Dance Floor

Rest and Motion


I also revamped one of my earlier AIM Pages. There is no need to have two devoted to my “dot art” when I do create other types of art.

Mo's Studio

Featured AIM Page

AIM Pages is featuring one of my pages today:

Splatters of Art
Weird. Wild. View the fantastic art of Throwsomepaint. He will try anything to make a beautiful painting come alive.

Social Networking

There has been so much buzz about “social networking sites,” I decided I had to see what all the fuss was about. I tinkered with two different sites and the results of my efforts are linked below. One is from MySpace and the other is from AOL’s AIM.

MySpace
Mo

AIM Pages
Dot Spot

For all the hype about MySpace, I’m amused that people have to work around the interface to do anything creative. The site is not built for easy customization. I did a search for “how to’s.” Then I tried to change things on my page. By using code I lost some page formatting I liked. I would prefer controls that would just modify the colors that are already there. Argh.

AIM Pages is still in the testing stages, but I like the module concept. There are basic modules that come with a page. Then there are those that individuals create for the group. Some of the modules are generic enough that other people can do what they want in the module. Now if I can just think of a poll to add to mine.