Monday, December 29, 2008
A Year in Review
Don’t miss the Big Picture’s 3 part series: A year in Review. (Scroll down until you get to it). These are incredible pictures capturing art, politics, nature, war and everything in between. (Re)Viewing these affected me very deeply, which is pretty rare. Above is a picture from a lightening storm, a perfect symbol for all the drama of 2008.
posted by cjagers at 12:28pm 1 comment
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Gift From NY Public Library
Via Random Culture, The New York Public Library has posted an incredible Flickr photo stream of their collections. Above is a military portrait from their Civil War set. Other sets include Early Modern Dance, Early New York, Early Cinema and more.
My wish for the new year is for all major art institutions to make their collections available online. Not necessarily Flickr, but something. They gain massive exposure, they loose nothing and the rest of the world benefits greatly.
posted by cjagers at 07:54pm 1 comment
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Technology and Tradition
As a fan of technology, innovation and tradition, I must confess I have an obsession with fine time pieces. I like how precision goes into every part of the process, and mostly on things unseen. Above are images from Mont Blanc’s new line of watches, (TimeWalker and Villeret line). I posted these because I like their style and like how they have invested in their website (video, 3D interactive graphics, etc) … very impressive. Some of the music overlay is a little cheesy, and loading times frustrating … but worth it if you are into watches. (Just skip the intros).
The prices of these watches (many thousands of dollars) got me thinking about what artists/galleries often charge for small paintings/drawings (thousands of dollars). I think young artists often ask for too high a price. These watches are hand assembled, and therefore in short supply … they are miracles of invention that can serve as a family heirloom for generations. This humbles me as an artist and raises the stakes for achievement.
posted by cjagers at 07:46pm Add comment
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Guest Blogging
I am a guest blogger for Americans for the Arts, and I have just posted Part I of an interview with Jay Sullivan about Public Art. The second part of this interview is located here.
History of Portfolio Submission
This is a guest post on the MyArtSpace blog about the history of practices in regard to portfolio submission and review.
posted by cjagers at 10:51pm Add comment
Friday, November 28, 2008
Mapping the Brain
Above are two images from Emily Singer’s article in MIT Technology Review (a better link here). They represent an innovative new way of mapping diffusion patterns within the brain. The interconnectedness is not only beautiful, but the method of discovering these patters is really clever:
“Neural fibers in the brain are too tiny to image directly, so scientists map them by measuring the diffusion of water molecules along their length. The scientists first break the MRI image into “voxels,” or three-dimensional pixels, and calculate the speed at which water is moving through each voxel in every direction. The researchers can infer the most likely path of the various nerve fibers (red and blue lines) passing through that spot. The result is a detailed diagram like that of the brain stem”
There is something about Mapping patters (particularly something as mysterious as the brain) that directly relates to my interest in drawing. The key is to find something outside of myself that I can follow, that will lead me places I could not anticipate. I have been trapped by my own habits lately, and this article has me itching to draw.
posted by cjagers at 04:16pm 5 comments
