I made this painting based on a photo that I assumed was Ruby, Georgia W. Tush's iconic Boston terrier and the inspiration for the logo to her great new Roller Derby shop Neon Skates (in the back of Local 23, at 23 Bernard, Montreal). I found the image on the store's website, so jumped to conclusions about the model - painted this little guy and clandestinely tacked the painting onto the wall of the shop. It turns out, it's a customer's dog - so I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and do one of Ruby to make up for this grave error. Man, you can't even make assumptions about dogs.
Simbad has dainty knuckles, 2008 9X12" oil on canvas.
As a painter, but perhaps more so as a student of "Fine Arts", I feel a certain pressure to focus my attention and creative abilities towards the "deeply symbolic". I do like to tell stories in paintings, often using dream imagery to bring together disparate elements in a seemingly sensical way, as only dreams can. These stories often leave a lot up to interpretation, which is what I feel good art should do. These are my more "serious" works, when they happen - which hasn't been often of late.
When I'm not in a rhythm of painting, which is most of the time, I like to start up with simple sketches and frequently this means portraiture - the bread an butter of painters for centuries. I get a guilty pleasure for capturing someone's likeness in a mess of thick and unrealistically colored brush strokes. It's hardly cutting-edge, but it's fun and challenging, and often bring a smile to someone's face upon completion. For the last couple years, after having brought a dog in my life, this has also meant pet portraits. I love painting dogs and I'm not too sure why this feels like the equivalent to admitting a taste for Lady Gaga - but it does. Painting pets isn't deep, but it's fun.
Pretty Penny, 2010. oil on canvas board.
When my dog Simbad was sent back to Mira for training as a guide dog, I did nothing but paint him (from pictures) for about three months. It was my way of coping with his massive absence in my life. I loved finding the blues and mauves in his black fur, as well as finding ways to capture his gentle nature in simple lines and shades. As I've recently started painting again, I've again come back to my love of dogs and have again come up against this guilty sense of pleasure in producing these images. I figure I might as well share them as they come along. They are quick and dirty - as they often take less than 3 hours to complete and are mostly done on tiny and cheap canvas board.
O'Reilly mentions that the "why are men portrayed as morons, while women are portrayed as brilliant?" question in one of the most common posed to him as an ad expert. In the radio piece on this topic, he suggests that as women are the main consumer decision-makers in most households, depicting the women as the "comic foil" in an advertisement meant to sell products would constitute "biting the hand that feeds you." Further, as this remains a Man's World, it's simply funnier to see men as the butt of the joke, whereas it's not generally understood as funny to kick a (wo)man when s/he's down. Advertisers, in their creepily intense understanding of human psychology, get this and suggest that guys should just grow a pair and learn to deal with this mostly silly form of advertisement.
Comments on Terry's page with regards to his explanation behind this kind of "reverse" sexism, are still called "lame" by an astute/anonymous poster (who naturally provides no additional understanding of the topic). One thing not addressed in the piece, which I think is also important to point out, is how these ads in being humorous or silly, are in no way suggesting that men should start acting like morons - or that there would be some kind of advantage to this sort of moronic behavior. It acknowledges the power dynamic in the home by directing the advertisement to the women and makes a simple joke at the man in the advertisement's expense. While it may imply that men are morons, it's not suggesting that this is a good thing to be. This is in contrast with the kind of sexism generally directed towards women in advertisement, which tends to far more persuasive if not subtle and is often meant to encourage behavior change in women. Purchasing in this case comes from repeatedly pointing out supposed shortcomings in the target population and suggesting that the product in question can help one overcome these shortcomings. And it's this very point that this little bit of sketch comedy seems to really get.
We are so married to the systems that currently deliver energy to us - be it hydro, petrol, or coal. Big systems run by big companies for big profit are needed to extract, make usable, and deliver these forms of energy to us. They cost a lot in terms of money and tend to have negative environmental impacts. But energy is everywhere around us - and within us - and we waste it for a lack of creative ways to capture it. But this is changing.
Developed by Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman, and Hemali Thakkar (recent Harvard engineering grads - note: all ladies), the sOccket is a product that takes what energy is readily available in many developing nations - namely many children with a love of soccer - and converts kicks into a usable source of electricity. This is not old school child labour - but a portable generator that encourages play! Apparently, 15 minutes played on sOccket 1.0, could store enough energy to illuminate a small LED light for three hours! The new prototype sOccket 2.0, can power the same LED for the same amount of time with just 10 minutes of play. Imagine how much wood or kerosene this can save a family.
Or how about a night club dance floor that captures the energy of the dancing upon it? There is so much energy wasted at night clubs - not least of which is the energy being expended by all the people writhing about (mostly) to the beat. This kind of thinking, which recognizes the power of movement, can easily be applied to so many places where people move - train station turn styles, for instance, or slightly more exciting/creepy - in the chest cavity - where we breathe with some regularity.
Generally speaking, these tools are not meant to replace all the energy used to power our lives, but rather supplement them - for the time being. In combination with proper energy saving measures, they could eventually become a more important source of energy for all of us. Further, these products help to remind us of the multitude of opportunities for those who think creatively about issues such as energy sourcing and uses - and points to a future where more democratic energy sources abound.
Like a lot of visual learners, I have to write everything down in order to remember them - I write words, pictures and anything that might help me commit certain kinds of ideas to memory. I began studying for the GRE recently and am thereby forcing myself to revisit the high school math that, despite it's purported importance at the time, seems to have been underutilized in my academic and professional life. I forget most of it completely, while the echoes of some rules of logic seem to be trapped in the folds of my grey-matter and tease me continually by their inaccessible presence. So I take notes. I draw pictures. I procrastinate.
While looking for an excuse not to start an algebra review, it occurred to me I might be better able to use the scrap paper I had been using for notes. So I got out my cutting board and hacked a substantial stack of old lecture notes in two.
I then used the three-hole punch to make a few holes on one side. I found an old pasta box in the recycling and cut that to make a front and back to the book, and I bound all the stuff together with a few hinged metal book rings. I'd advise the use of some heavier cardboard stock, but otherwise it's functional, mostly recycled and took no time at all. Sure beats buying a recycled paper "eco-notebook" with a plastic cover in the stores.
If you walk around Montreal with any regularity, you may have noticed the recent rise of an artistically rich and linguistically complex graffiti tag known as "Cobra Cock". Clearly a deep thinker with much on the mind, this street artist has shared his floral and richly original understanding of mankind by tagging many homes, businesses and alleyway fences with this overtly naïve approach to street art.
A particularly nuanced version of the ubiquitous Cobra Cock tag.
Well, it's happened, as it was bound to. There is a new alliterated snake/genital tag in town. Behold: Viper Vag.
Viper Vag stamped threateningly above a rather limp Cobra Cock.
I have no idea who did this - but you have my respect sir or madame - well played. As many Montreal property owners surely do, I look forward to the ensuing alleyway battles for space and supremacy.
