So I’ve been wanting to start this for a while and I decided today’s the day. I’m going to be making one drawing a day, everyday, for the next 365 days. Some of them might suck, some of them might be kinda crappy, but I’m still going to do it and I’m going to post each one on here…

What can you say about Ed Emberly, he’s just all round awesome. I used to have his big orange drawing book (I had the green one too but I’ve always liked drawing monsters and skeletons more), I loved that book so much. I could spend hours drawing giant haunted mansions and covering the page with little yellow eyed bats. He not only taught me how to draw, he helped me fabricate my own world populated with weird and creepy characters. You can see more of his work at edemberley.com, allot of it is more digital now but most of his old hand drawn books are still in print and available online.

© Ed Emberly, 2010

Cyan horticulture’s new website invitation. Really happy with how this one turned out, it took me a while to come up with it the opening copy (money dies grow on trees), the photo was just a sunny day fluke. See a more detailed view here.

It’s been a while since I’ve checked out Jeremy’s site and it’s looking good. I have one of his shirts from years ago, it got a little trashed during a 3am incident at a denny’s after some flying pancakes hit an unidentified heavy set white male, but that’s a whole other story.

Jeremy’s new work is divided into 3 groups, Ghosts of the Barbary Coast 12/01/2008 , Pants vs. Trousers 09/01/2008, Seasons Of Change 06/01/2008. The Images I’ve posted are from his ‘Ghosts of the Barbary Coast’,

excerpt: ‘San Francisco in the Barbary Coast days of the 1850s was a crazy place. The once sleepy town’s population exploded almost overnight as it was flooded with all kinds, here to make their fortunes in whatever way they could. Prospectors, prostitutes, sailors, businessmen, criminals, hatchet men, preachers, and entertainers all had their stories to tell and their reasons for being there.’

Jeremy currently lives and works in San Francisco, check out the rest of his work at sillypinkbunnies.com

© Jeremy Fish, 2010

So it’s about 4pm on a gorgeous saturday afternoon, the olympic tourists have left and I have the city back to myself. I just picked up Miranda July’s book ‘No one belongs here more than you’ and I can’t wait to read it. For anyone unfamiliar with Miranda’s work she is in a class all to herself. Artist, filmaker, actress and author she wears many hat’s and with a childlike warmth and exuberance few posses. I first fell in love with Miss July after seeing ‘Me and you and everyone we know‘ (one of my all time favorite films), there’s an indefinable quality underling all her work that’s hard to pin down, a sort of childlike innocence mixed with the traveled wisdom of old age.

I haven’t started reading the book yet but at 201 pages I should be done in about 2 weeks or so (I’m a bit of a slow reader). I’ll keep you all posted, but after reading the first chapter I think it’s going to be pretty dam good.

Short story: My friend Alison went to her book signing for ‘Learning to love you more’ a booked based off a web collaboration with another artist. It was a series of challenges that anyone could do and submit to the site; make a constellation out of freckles on your body and take a picture, spend a day with someone who is dying and write about it, make and a child’s outfit in an adult size and take a picture of you wearing it in public. The best were later compiled into the book. Anyway so Alison goes up to get her book signed, and with a smile Miranda crosses out the you and writes Alison. Very cute, but so is Alison (also one of my favorite people).

one of my favorite scenes from ‘Me and you and everyone we know’, amazing… ))<>((

© Miranda July, 2010

Stunning B/W graphite art from David Jien. David recently graduated from the art center college of design and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Most of his drawings are about certain cultures and rituals that take place in a parallel world, David describes this as “my metaverse”. Check out his work online at davidjien.com and see some of his inspiration and current work at his blog.

© David Jein, 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything from Tim Biskup but he’s been busy. Having just completed two shows in 2008, The Artist In You in New York and then O/S (Operating Systems) in Paris. Both were very different from his early work but in my opinion great shows (these images are from ‘The Artist In You’). If happened to catch last months issue of Juxtapoz (featured with Josh Keyes) he went into detail about his idea’s on the artworld, his own explorations as an artist and the development of his work over time. I’ve been a big fan of Tim’s for a while now, if you haven’t seen his work check it out at tim-biskup.blogspot.com (his website timbiskup.com is still being updated).

© Tim Biskup, 2010

Comic creator, artist and animator Mike Mhyre is one of Vancouver’s finest. Currently working at Studio B as a storyboard artist Mike has worked on a number of award winning productions in addition to creating his own comics (just a few pictured above). You can buy his work at RX Comics (2418 Main St. near Broadway) and follow him online at Space Jet.

© Mike Myhre, 2010

So you may not think this is important but you should…

“An Italian court has convicted three Google executives in a trial over a video showing an autistic teenager being bullied. The Google employees were accused of “privacy violations” in allowing the video to be posted online.” – BBC News

Matt Sucherman at the Google blog says the company will appeal what it describes as an “astonishing decision”.
“In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question.”

The firm also says it “attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built”:
“Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming.”

Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine agrees with the search giant, saying the ruling could “kill the internet”:
“By holding Google liable for the actions of a user, the Italian court is in essence requiring Google and every other web site to review and vet everything anyone puts online. The practical implication of that, of course, is that no one will let anyone put anything online because the risk is too great. I wouldn’t let you post anything here. My ISP wouldn’t let me post anything on its servers. Google wouldn’t let me post anything on its services. And that kills the internet.”

You kind find the full article at bbc.co.uk. It’s pretty unbelievable. The last quote from the article really gets me though:
“Google can’t continue to turn a blind eye to its social responsibilities. It has to face them or it will be forced to face them. If media companies such as newspapers have to shoulder social responsibilities then Google, and other Internet companies, need to do the same. ‘Do no evil’ is passive. ‘Do some good’ is what Google needs to do.” – Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher

I don’t think Google is by any means always looking out for the greater good but neither is Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Blogspot, ect, ect. They all have alterier motives, they’re all business too, they don’t care if you get to share your pictures from your weekend in SF or the “Paul loves his new haircut!” facebook status update.
They are not just a media company though, none of them are. You, me or your grama can’t get a spot on the morning news or an article in the New Yorker, but we can say how we feel, what we think and communicate in our own voice over the internet, even if it’s just about Boner from Growing Pains dying or some article you read on the BBC news site.

Even if only a few hundred people read it, it still matters. What it all comes down to is control, control of what we think, and I for one think that is important. It’s scary to think that because of this trail google or any other online service that hosts content could be liable for what users post. It’s could completely change the internet if lawsuits like this keep coming up.

So this isn’t one of my usual posts, i don’t usually put things up about minimalist abstract painters, but Mark Rothko isn’t your usual artists. You’ve probably seen his work before but if not it might just seem like quickly made rough color blocking.
His work is something that you need to be in front of, it’s not something you can fully appreciate online.

I do think though that this biography does a good job at telling his story. For anyone who’s struggled as an artist or tried to express something deeper than just a pretty picture I think you’ll enjoy this.

(Oh and this series ‘The Power of Art’, kind of amazing)

© Mark Rothko, 2010