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Tacoma at dusk
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This is a good overview of the problem as experienced by users of the web. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone examine what happens inside of organizations and what drives the inclusion of terrible trackers and other garbage.
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Steven Forder is a painter who teaches at the Long Island Academy of Fine Art. He works both in traditional and digital media. His images have a cinematic quality to them.
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Art @ Abouthalf.com
Today I launched a new portfolio mini-site for my artwork.
I wanted something I could put my own spin on, but I didn’t want something as bloated as Squarespace (or as expensive).
I set up a small static site using the Metalsmith static site generator. I modeled my portfolio sort of like a blog. Each artwork gets a “post” with the title, date, some tags to categorize the medium, a picture, and perhaps a short blurb.
The home page for the site simply lists all the works in reverse chronological order. I added some links which will allow one to see one category at a time.
To keep the site fast on mobile I use the Blazy lazy-loader for images. Blazy is small and minimal but still has an API so I can call it on demand when filtering on the home page.
I used simple CSS columns for the layout - this lets me fill the screen on a large monitor without having some complex layout algorithm.
On the whole I’m pretty happy with the result. It’s small, simple, and fast. It came together over a couple of days with only a minimum of cursing at Metalsmith’s lack of documentation.
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Megagram for August 10
The piece above was uploaded to Instagram as 27 separate images which create a large tapestry on my profile. My source photography came from an early Wednesday morning at the train platform in Tacoma. The sun was coming up; it was already hot.
When I’m painting I tend to favaor very minimalist composition, but for these I think it’s a good opportunity to explore composition and design. So here I experimented with some pattern and abstraction right on top of a source photo. I like the direction and I want to continue it.
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Working on a new stand-alone portfolio site…
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These photos are eerie. Some remind me of melting old shacks in North Carolina. Some seem like perfectly composed sets for a science fiction film.
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Kenichi Hoshine’s paintings reminde me of traditional woodblock prints and color-field abstraction all at the same time.
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Seattle street art
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Never do the math
I am changing jobs. One of my primary motivators for the change was my commute. I did the math (never do the math) and over two years I have spent nearly a month and a half commuting by train to Seattle. And this was only working in the office 3-4 days a week. I know people do that south sound commute every day for years but don’t understand how people can put up with it.
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I’m working on rebuilding my painting portfolio as a stand-alone microsite and I realized I never posted my eggs.
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Here is a great resource - The Badass Lady Creatives project is no longer updating, but that directory is full of inspiring work.
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This collaboration between Janine Rewell and Minna Parikka is stunning.
The patterns are rendered on the models with body paint - but I could imagine these as futuristic full-body lycra suits for alien superheroes.
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Deanne Cheuk is an amazing design polymath.
Her work ranges from graphic design and art direction to textiles
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Shiny and new
I created a custom style sheet for my micro.blog and pointed my domain name, abouthalf.com, here as well.
My custom stylesheet is a reset over the default Micro.blog theme. I removed some decoration and refined the typography - using “Libre Franklin” for body copy and “Antica Slab” for headlines. I set a baseline grid based upon 16px type and gave everything a bit more air.
I chose to customize the default theme as it had the least invasive styles and didn’t include a web-font already. I would love for Micro.Blog to provide a “naked” theme with no default styles at all. That would be ideal for a tinkerer like me. I don’t care to have full theme control, but full layout control would be nice.
I added a logo to the footer by uploading a file (without making a blog post) using the browser-based tool Quill - when you create a new post, you can upload an image (and retrieve the uploaded URL) without having to create a post. This allowed me to set that as a background image for my footer.
I’ve been a happy Squarespace customer for a while. It’s a great service. But I realize I just want a simple site where I can post things. Squarespace is overkill for my needs, and actually gets in the way of my writing regularly.
I still need to add a few bits and bobs to make this “complete” but I’m very happy with the result. Shutting down Squarespace makes me feel light as a feather.
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Only
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I’m very close to sun-downing my Squarespace site in favor of Micro.blog. Squarespace is a great product, but it’s just not right for me.
I love that Micro.blog is a frictionless way to write more often and more freely. Blogging on Squarespace is many-step process. And while there’s some great features, like schedule posts, and the ability to visually layout and design posts and pages, it’s locked into it’s own tight little ecosystem. Nothing talks to Squarespace but Squarespace. They don’t offer a public API, they don’t support any open web protocols or conventions. It’s just a tiny island.
I had been waffling a bit on this decision, as I wanted a place where I could host a portfolio. I realized, though, that I make web sites all the time, and I can just make a portfolio site and host it at Github or wherever and use Micro.blog as my primary web presence.
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Web sites
I make “Internet Art” in the form of web sites with a single idea or image enhanced with a little bit of animation or interactivity.
If this art is freely available on the public internet, then these pieces are digital murals. I like to project them on the wall.
Foggy Mirror
Foggy Mirror recreates the experience of a fogged bathroom mirror using your device’s front-facing camera. Draw with the mouse (or your finger on touch devices) to remove the fog
Do you have a pool?
“Do you have a pool?” is a web painting of an infinite Motel 6 in the summertime. Read more about the project here.
Little Overripe
“Little Overripe” is a web painting of breathing, undulating, avocados. Read about the making of it here.
Guacamole Tips
“Guacamole Tips” is a web painting about waking up in a strange room in a strange place. And some tips about making guacamole.
Read about the making of the site here or read about the original painting that inspired this painting here.
Shtacks
Shtacks.com is a piece of net art that lets you type a painting. Your text is immediately saved in the URL so you can share your creation, or you can download the painting as an image file.
Read about the making of here.
Majid.coffee
Majid likes alpacas. Majid likes coffee. Majid likes alpacas who like coffee.
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Don’t worry. I’ll send my thoughts and prayers.
The NRA Says It’s in Deep Financial Trouble, May Be ‘Unable to Exist’ - Rolling Stone
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I photographed some of my recent printer-paintings for an upcoming art-walk here in Tacoma. I'm still taking baby steps to getting work out in the real world and I'm still not totally sure if I want to even go down the road of making real things in the real world (instead retreating to my soft, warm internets).
But I'm happy with the photos. I used my new iPhone to take the photos. The new "telephoto" lens is great for this. I mount the phone in a Glif tripod mount, and attach that to my wobbly tripod. I shoot directly down on the artwork, which is placed on an old black bedsheet. I shoot outdoors, usually in the shadow of my building, and rely on natural light to do the hard work. Sunlight is cheap.
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Speaking of… Jessica Svendsen’s web site is a really excellent example of a portfolio / CV.
It’s simple, responsive design emphasizes typography over images, three faces at three sizes each with one job to do.
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