Category: art & photography

many people think of art (visual and literature) as attempting to recreate life and reality. in a way this is true, but it’s an impossible goal which ends up leaching the meaning of art altogether. it is utterly futile, impractical, and impossible to fully represent the detail and complexities of the world around us–there’s just too much; a never-ending chain of minutiae that has to be truncated at some point. art is about the simplification of reality. it is stripping the sights, shapes, colours, ideas, emotions, events, etc. down to the most common recognisable denominator. i and many, many others often lose sight of this. it’s a skill, really, and requires quite a bit of practice to master; to be able to let go.

running to stand still:

such an obvious comparison, to think of my life and relationships around me as a similarity to my routine of running with the treadmill; especially one spinning at a speed greater than my legs are conditioned to maintain. lately though, it feels as if i’m not even able to reach the treadmill; as if it were being trolled about on the flatbed of a truck, and i’m running to first catch the truck, before i can hop onto the tread and try to keep up with its pace. others’ priorities have a way of driving that truck right out of my grasp, and unfortunately, aside from politely asking the drivers to slow the hell down, there is little one person can do to affect the trajectory and velocity of someone else and their vehicle. i have lost so much ground with people, if this were a racetrack, i would expect them all to ‘lap’ me pretty soon. amazingly, television has proven a more influential force in peoples’ lives than their connection to me. interesting that reruns of a sitcom or a sports game is the more attractive opportunity cost to those around me than the life and friendship we share. sure we’re all ‘busy’, but you can tell how important you are to someone by how much time they are willing to make for you. take parents for example: they have so many things going on in life, and no matter how high the stack of responsibilities get, they can always make room for their child. or take three peers as example: one in college, one in graduate school, and one grad student out of state. the first two have plenty to do with school and work, but yet find enough time to spend going out with friends, and have some relaxation time here and there, despite their different educational rankings. now take the third, who on top of everything the first two deal with, has distance against them; yet they find a way to not only overcome it all, but also repair a relationship and even take on an engagement. humans are very capable beings indeed, and it is true that it’s just a matter of will and determination with how much accomplishment one can achieve versus how much they’re capable.

another fantastic meeting this morning! very exciting business i tell you.

two quotes of the day:

“to make a long story short, don’t tell it”
“i think there’s a fine artist inside you just itching to get out”

in fact, i have been working on some larger scale drawings in pastel. one of which is just personal, the other is a gift for one of my friends. a bit risqu?, but turning out mostly well. i have let my pastel skills recede a bit as of late, and it’s such a fascinating medium, i just had to return to it. funny how at first i treat each stick like a pencil, lightly causing thin, slight lines; the wrong strokes to apply to such a large canvas. pastel sticks are thick for a reason. the more i work with them, the more fluid and free the strokes become, being more impressionist as i go along.

i’m sure someone else has done or tried it before, but i stumbled upon it completely under my own discovery a few years back and just loved it; mixing pastel with wet media, such as gouache and water-colour. pastel pigment becomes incredibly vibrant and opaque when water and brush are applied. black becomes a truly solid, matte finish. charcoal is another interesting category to toss in the mix. i suppose in a simplistic manner, adding water to pastel isn’t far off from what real paint is. the nice thing about pastel is the powder particles are very fine and much more lucid in their aqueous solution, and like water can spread to fill and settle into each groove, the pastel is just the same, making the coverage nice and even.

had don pablo’s the other night for the first time since independence day. man, that craving was so wonderful to satisfy. seems once or twice a week i have the urge to eat there, but something usually deters or diverts me. wow….the fresh chips and salsa are something this man cannot live without..heh.

on another note, i’m looking for a method to identify the IP addresses used by a specific client on a specific domain, namely roadrunner’s minneapolis business class service. this information is to be used for updating my apache server to “ban” and reject users from those ip addresses. if you have information on such a methodology, please contact me!

well back to it. thanks for reading! i have a few poems lying around from the past month, but haven’t had the desire to polish or post them. stay tuned, and we’ll see if i get to it. heh.

listening to:
Out of the Vein
Third Eye Blind