A Work Progressing

Well, not perfect. That’s a long ways off. Practice makes things better is remarkably true. My professional life did not make use of color, or at least rarely. Much of the design that I produced had to by printed in-house, and in those days it wasn’t in four color process, or even two color spor. It was B&W, and tones. Unless I was willing to run the color and clean the press afterwards. Needless to say, my work experience did not improve my color skills.

Of course I still taught the principles of color, not only ambient but projected. My photography classes were filled with color practice and information. It’s just that sitting down and making a reasonable working palette was not something that I normally did, day in and day out. I felt unknowing.

So I few years ago I start a project of colorizing black and whit photographs. Instead of just using random screen shots from the web, I picked Hollywood headshots of the stars from 1920-1960s. It didn’t really matter so long as they were high res, and with a great gray-scale factor.

The benefit it that the photos were generally people that I know, so my end product should look like them. And the real big plus is that the photographers knew what they were doing. Unfortunately they were often hired by the studios and no credit was given to them.

I worked about three months on a little more than 100 photos. I learned a lot, and it was progressive, so I got better. My technique was to use filters that I made in PhotoShop to produce color shifts that were pleasing but somewhat surprising. I never knew how much green and blue are undertones in skin.

Eventually I found some free apps that had filters that did about 80% of what I wanted. I manually entered a layer for the other 20%. Filters almost always harms details, so I entered other layers for hair, eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and even color foundation.

By the end of the project I felt somewhat knowing. With other projects the knowing became more complex, so now I feel that I might want to go back and re-do those first images. That that any were gross, well, a few were.

In the end, I just found more headshots, and for the last month or so I’ve been making a bunch of color. This is my new Hollywood Headshots.

Anita Page

Searching for old videos of classic songs will also bring forth other possibilities. The second time that Metropolis came by, I stopped to look for a few minutes. The 1927 masterpiece by Fritz Lang was a treasure and I had forgotten most of the scenes. What I remembered most was the epic movie poster.

Maybe it was time to watch it again and snap some screen shots.

(A guest post from my brother Ed)

I watch America struggle with her social issues. I see the political and economic failures, the corruption and injustices, I see the deception, the confusion, the oppression and victimization of the middle class, and I keep up fairly well with global current events.

But, as I continue to watch my Smart TV, tablet, and IPhone, I can only take so much before I need a Gunsmoke break, — to catch up with Marshall Dillon, Kitty, Festus, and Doc.  Other times I might catch an episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

Now, we need to understand that the TV Dodge City, and Mayberry RFD, were towns full up with sinners — there was no shortage of sinners, both in front of, and behind the camera — sinners who all made a living entertaining a nation brimming with sinning viewers. Why were the shows so popular?

Unlike our culture today, back then, we knew down deep that we were sinners!, We knew we had our personal moral failures! — but, even so, back in those days, we wanted to watch shows where strong moral messages won the day.

Gunsmoke had a 17 year run of over 500 episodes. Dillon shot hundreds of bad people in cases of justified self defense.  Just like other 50’s and 60’s family sitcoms, the Gunsmoke plots had moral final messages, which were backed up by Marshall Dillion’s fists, or his Colt .44’s.  Dillon was a righteous-like figure who everyone in Dodge, and at home knew would deliver justice in the end

Sheriff Andy Taylor didn’t need a gun, as he, Barney, and Opie, brought us weekly adventures of Mayberry life, and Aunt Bee made sure the Taylor family behaved themselves!  In reality, we viewers oftentimes failed as we struggled with our deadly serious real life problems, but, we were always happy to see the Mayberry, RFD residents solve their problems with happy and moral endings.

So, what happened? What in the world is the difference between now, and back then??  I think maybe it’s that back then, we had a respect for morality that we’ve somehow lost today!  

I think we had a sincere respect for moral behavior, even when we behaved immorally. 

Thank you Marshall Dillon, and Sheriff Taylor! 

In the middle of this, I fell in love again with the lyrics so they had to be there… absolutely no reason to make stuff, other than joy!

I suppose that also means I’m half-awake? In any case, I had this idea to watch YouTube videos of original artists singing the songs I love… then I would randomly take screen shots, play with the images to make… well, I dunno.

I’m trying to find out more about some people in my father-in-law’s archive. From what I have so far is that they are a family related to my wife’s grandmother, basically her sister who never made it out of Lithuania. Most of them were murdered in September of !941.

I have a family photograph that they took in April of 1941, although the rest of the information is possibly Yiddish written in Hebrew. I have to find someone to help me read the information.

I also have this same photograph, but it had been torn to pieces, then carefully pasted back together on card. I don’t know the relationship, but it could have been dramatic.

In Poetry’s Embrace

In poetry’s embrace, I find delight,

In the spaces it weaves, imagination takes flight.

Beyond vivid scenes with wild descriptions,

Lie subtext messages, subtle revelations.

Yet, equally enchanting are the gaps in the tale,

Where the reader’s mind wanders, setting sail.

A joint endeavor, poet and reader entwine,

As context meets interpretation, in harmony they align.

The poet offers phrases, like seeds to sow,

While the reader nurtures the unsaid words to grow.

In this union of art, a true gestalt appears,

The poem transcends its parts, amid emotions it steers.

Yesterday in 1890, an artist ceased work, and his death has been grieved for more than a hundred years. I’ve been doing combination of scans and color pencil images, in my attempt to make “connection”

From the work showing at the MET in NYC

I recently watch a video about the Webb telescope looking back in time to the very beginning.

I’m trying to define existence with terms that are generally agreed upon, with my own additions.

At first there were two kingdoms, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. Carl Linnaeus in 1735 created the non-living kingdom of minerals.

In 1866, Ernst Haeckel created a third living kingdom called Protista, or primitive forms.

In 1938, Herbert Copeland created a fourth living kingdom called Monera, basically bacteria.

In 1969, Robert Whitaker proposed a fifth living kingdom of fungi.

Since then the Kingdom of Monera has been split creating six living kingdoms, and another kingdom created called Chromista. Then everything changed again.

Because biology is only interested in living things the kingdom of minerals has disappeared.

Now the top classification is Domain, where there are three categories, 1) Archaea, 2) Bacteria, and 3) Eukarya. Archaea domain has one living kingdom (archaea), Bacteria has one living kingdom (bacteria), but Eukarya has four living kingdoms (plant, animal, fungi, protista)

Except for the virus, which is neither living or dead. It could be the fourth domain of Zombi, with the seventh kingdom of Zombi. They have some characteristics of living, and some characteristics of the dead.

I’m adding back the kingdom of minerals, which probably should be the fifth domain with a kingdom of earth minerals, then a kingdom on non-earth minerals (dark matter, plasma?, black holes). Possibly a domain of Vacuum? Kingdom of Nothing?

I think that covers it. Six domains, ten kingdoms.

Not sure where alien, “non-human biologics” fits in.

“I know you, everybody knows you, mostly the cops. That’s my table, and I’m going to have it!”

It was a dimly lit room, filled with the noise of clattering dishes, and shuffling busboys. Tables filled with leftover pasta and garlic bread crumbs. The only table available had just been taken by two men in grey slouch hats and rumpled trenchcoats, but it was now in dispute.

The man pointed a gloved finger at the table, and continued, “I know you, everybody knows you. You take what is not yours. But I’m going to stop you. The table is mine, and you can go down the block to Smokey Joe’s, and eat his chili beans, cause there is nothing for you to eat at my table.”

There was a brief moment, when hands went to pockets, something hard was gripped, but then let go. The men in the trenchcoats slid out of their chairs, their hats never left their heads, and they headed to the door. The gloved finger balled into a fist as they passed him by.

He had done it, his table was ready to receive him, if only in his thoughts. The room was still full of busy diners and the sound of clattering dishes. His table still had a couple pondering the menus. He was still standing, waiting for someone to finish, but his mind was still caught up in a 1930s dialogue.

Later that day, while riding BART home, he spotted a corpulent man in a double breasted striped suit, taking up two seats on the crowded train.

The gloved finger pointed, “I know you, Everybody knows you, even the judges know you. Everywhere you go you spread yourself like peanut butter. That’s my seat, and I’m going to take it.”

Just then the car slowed and the platform came into view. The man in the striped suit got up and moved to the exit. The gloved finger balled into a fist as he passed him. His seat was his, and he had it.

I sometimes imagine myself in a bad film noir, filled with bad actors who confront me in tedious actions. They never win. It is possibly because I wear gloves.

Sometimes in a body of work, their are multiple pieces of the same composition. I have tried to blend them into one piece.