Pizza & Paint were the order of the day, at downtown San Diego's Basic, the happening venue. A gaggle of freinds in tow, and one other-whose work some of you might be familar with-'the Heart of Darkness' themed evening was shared by a coiterie of the most excellent urban artists. Amongst them, Sean Dietrich, Tou Vue,Tasso and a Mohawk coiffed Alex Julian, whose in your face artoonery, I reccomend most highly.

The evening was a splendid success, and I was hugely appreciative of the friends and fans who made a special effort to make it over there, particularly as this was a Tuesday-never the most ideal evening for galavanting.

Posted here,are a selection of pics from the evening. A huge thank you to my fellow artists,all attendees, and a special nod to Johnny Tran-who helped organise the event.

pics:

1&2-preparing for the show,(Tou's work in view) 3-With events organiser Johnny Tran, 4-sharing a beer and a moment with artist Tou Vue, 5-putting on the 'tude with artist Alex Julian and Tasso, 6-Lani and bff Shawna Fredenburg catch up on the gossip, 7-Group shot with friends-Loki, Elyssia, Tony, Earl Storm, Moi & Andy. 8-lost in the crowd with buddies Tina and Greg.

I became aware of this potentially devestating legislation against creative ownership,when it was first mooted a few years back-never believing for an instant it would become a possibility.
A passage from the following article reads thus...

'An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.'

Read more...

Interview with Mark Simon

Topics of disccussion through Illustrators partnership

Of course, with the greed of the current administration continuing to push for legislations, backed solely by business interests, this bill would have dire consequences for not only the rights of artists copyright, but also for anyone wanting to share a simple photograph.

I would encourage everyone-not just artists to read this, and act against this despicable legislation-this is not only a contravention of your basic human right-that which allows you to express freely, but also an imprisonment of all cultural forms-the results of which are too terrifying to comprehend.

Taking some downtime from all the usual frenzied activity in our household, we've been enjoying the fruits of our Netflix list. Three movies particularly, have grabbed my interest, in the way that they all have something of a common thread running through them, dealing as they do with a hollywood perception of art and artistic stereotypes, the first of which I'll review below.

Art School Confidential

Based around the original comic strip, the movie tells the story of an ambitious student with delusions to be the greatest artist of the 21st century,Jerome-played with wonderfully misanthropic gloom by Max Minghella-attends Strathmore Art institutel, where he navigates critique by a retinue of students with pretentious bonheme,a cynically weathered teacher-ever brilliantly portrayed by Malkovich-an unrequited love for his muse, bohemian nude model (a ravishing Sophia Myles), and a rather ridiculous serial killer sub-plot.

Anyone who has been an art student themself, will delight in the familiarity of characters (or charicatures)-from the self absorbed abstractionist-boring blowhard-Eno, who excuses himself from an assignment because his direction has nothing to do with light, form or composition, to the bitter failed artist and professor Sandiford, who soberly relates to Jerome,how it took him years to develop and evolve to point where he was painting triangles.

Dismissing the whole, art, ritual, murder subtext- an awkward metaphore for the arc of the story-the picture deals with casualties of the art world, and the notion that fame and success, comes as a trade off for jaded superficiality, and pretentious shlockk, is greater currency to any legacy and longgevity than real talent.