Potential Reasons I May Burn in Hell

I found this warning reprinted on a website called Dangerous Minds and I found it thought provoking if not a little disturbing. Several of the items on this list I have participated in with great joy (reading Lord Of The Rings or the Harry Potter books), or to improve my life (yoga and vegetarianism), only to discover now that I may have sealed my fate as a sinner.

You are probably asking what does this have to do with design? I will tell you - it is about arbitrary rules, that you must follow, no matter how little sense they make, or you will burn in design hell. This list is ridiculous and so are some of the lists that designers make to determine what work is worthy of greatness.

DESIGN RULES ( and who decided that?)

1)  Go for the trendy solution - hmmm - use the clever solution not the trendy solution of the moment and maybe your work will remain relevant.

2)  Less is more. Really? Sometimes more is more. Controlled chaos springing from a a lack of white space can be visually interesting.

3) Forget what you have succeeded with in the past and start every project like it is the first one. Do that and you will spend hours of your time designing incredibly innovative solutions only to have them rejected by your client and then they will insist you design something like the "so-and-so project." Save the innovation for your down time and if you never have any down time then the stuff you already know must be working pretty well.

4) The font (fill in the blank) is the freshest look of the moment and you must use it in all of your projects. Follow this rule and you will virtually guarantee that your work will disappear into oblivion along with all the other designers that used Papyrus or Lithos ad nauseum.

5) The design needs to have (multimedia, animation, fill in the trend of the moment) because everybody is doing it. Watch out. Usually the client has no idea what that means and they just think it makes them look smart.

 I think the little list I started this post with looks like the seeds of an interesting life and an interesting life can lead to an interesting design!

Redesigning my Design Career

Every year I hit a point where I know, unequivocally, that I need to reinvent my image. In the process of change there are some challenges - such as what to keep from my past work and what to relegate to the files.

WHAT DO I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP?

I am always in the process of growing, if not growing up. I hope I never loose my sense of curiosity and playfulness with regard to my work.  In the spirit of recreation here are some on my favorite designers that have survived brilliantly in a capricious industry that craves change as much as maintaining a certain status quo. As my personal redesign progresses I will be hold the brilliance of the following people as a standard to emulate.

Fleur Cowles
Founder and Editor of Flair Magazine (famous for their die-cut cover designs)

Tibor Kalman
M&Co
Editor-in-chief of Colors magazine

Andy Warhol
Interview Magazine and everything he ever painted, filmed or said

Diana Vreeland
Vogue Editor, visionary, and mentor to many brilliant designers and artists

David Carson
Ground breaking typographer, designer and creator of my favorite "lost" magazine, RayGun

Finally no list of this nature would be complete without mentioning the brilliant,
Saul Bass
Film posters for Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese

This list is short and many names that should be here are not here. These are the influences of the moment not a definitive list of designers.

Art and Taxes

 

A friend of mine posted the above statement on her Facebook page and it has been twisting and turning in my brain ever since I first read it. It was posted in an effort to make the act of making art more accessible - more commonplace. But is it? Is life art? 

My answer came when I filed my taxes today. I make art for a living. I have made art my entire life and I can honestly say that when I was filing my taxes I was not using the part of my brain, or my soul, or my spirit or anything else that I use to make art. Taxes were definitely not art for me! This thought gave way to the poster above and I started to think, why do we want to reduce the miracle of talent and creativity to a commonplace activity? It is true that art is a part of life - it lends beauty, it creates controversy and it incites passion BUT art it not life. 

I know the statement above says that Life is Art and I said, Art is not Life. Life is so much more than art and art is so much more than life. Bits of life are contained in art but the work that is created transcends it's source. Art is magical when it is done right. The statement above reduces living a life gracefully to making art. Any artist knows that your aesthetics will flow into all areas of your life simply because you are living art. However I know plenty of artists that save all of their energy for the work and their lives are neither well decorated nor do they have distinct personalities. 

I suppose on one level the fact that someone would post this statement belittles what I consider to be so important. It says that making art, thinking about art and considering art in and of itself is not that special. If you can be artistic in how you make a grocery list is this really saying anything? To make it mean something wouldn't you have to put that grocery list in context with something else?

Art asks the hard questions - it leaves room for interpretation - it messes things up so you see things differently. Art is a process and a dynamic way of processing information that requires talent and skill. 

I have decided to reword the statement above to show how I feel as an artist to have my profession and my training reduced to a statement that infers anybody can do it...

i think everything in life is brain surgery.

what you do. how you dress.

the way you love someone,

and how you talk. your smile 

and your personality. what you 

believe in, and all your dreams.

how you drink your tea.

how you decorate your home,

or party. your grocery list. the food

you make. how your writing looks.

and the way you feel.

life is brain surgery.

You can see how ridiculous this looks when applied to brain surgery. The same set of standards when applied to art are equally baseless and ridiculous. But somehow we accept making art as a profession that everyone can do a little of - it is a cultural prejudice that we don't want to be a nation of factory workers. We are all striving for individual expression and art allows us that. So when I look back on my reaction to this poster I suppose I should be flattered that so many want to feel artistic in their daily lives and hope that it creates a greater appreciation of the art that so many of us strive to make.

Milton Glaser

An iconic designer speaking about design...

Milton Glaser from Rui Amaral on Vimeo.

Bonne Année!

 

New Year's Day in the city of lights! This photo was taken from one of the windows in the Louvre by Napaleon's Apartments. The timeless elegance of this city is astounding. Even with the I.M Pei pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre you can still catch glimpses of a time gone by. 

This city inspires reverence for the old and beautiful while still infusing it with the energy of the new and experimental. Somehow it all stands side-by-side and remains simply - Paris!

Reduction and Seduction

Stretch by Taylor Barnes© 2011

This latest painting was an interesting journey into the land of simplification. I started out with a very complex line drawing and had perfectly painted every aspect of every jar and shelf ridge when I stopped and asked myself, "was that really what people should focus on in this painting?" The answer was "no" and the process of reduction and "seduction" began.

By "reduction and seduction" I mean taking away the details, leaving shape and some line. Then making that shape sumptuous using color, light and texture - seducing the viewer's eye. Working in guache makes this process go very quickly because the paint is so dry is sets up immediately and you can't change things too easily. I trained in oils and miss the time I had to push the paint around the canvas but working this way has made me much more decisive.

I can draw a correlation to this act of simplification and decisiveness to creating digital art. When I am teaching I often will tell my students that since I learned design in a pre-digital era I am much more organized and decisive about my ideas. Without a computer, making changes were costly and very time consuming. In the end I believe I am a better designer because I don't fall back on computer tricks - I absolutely know what will work. I feel painting in guache is giving me the same experience. When I return to painting large oils canvases I will know what works for me there as well.

Painting presents a new challenge with every piece but the process is liberating because the knowledge gained, opens the door to technical confidence and we don't have to travel that path again.

To Paint is to Love Again!

 Rebecca by Taylor Barnes © 2011

The title of this blog is taken from a book by Henry Miller. I don't know if it is even in print anymore but it seems appropriate for this place in my life. Henry Miller was an author who later in life found his way to painting and wrote about that journey in this book. I had no idea that after all these years I would stumble back into painting again and find the truth in that book title.

My 'awakening' began with a solo trip to LACMA for a quiet couple of hours contemplating and drawing in the French Impressionist painting gallery. I walked away with a spark that steadily grew inside of me. About a week later I woke up with an idea that was burning a hole inside of me. I realized that many of the painters, whose work I admired that afternoon had simply painted their environment. After years of living in Venice Beach, I wanted to chronicle the people of my community.

So I broke out the paints and dove right in. I love painting the people I come into contact with on a daily basis. Many of them are manning the espresso machine of my local coffee shop or cooking up my favorite Mexican food and they have no idea how much their gracious attitudes and friendly conversations contribute to my sense of community.

For artists a sense of community is a very important thing. Venice has always provided this for me. We often work in isolation, fueled by our desire to create. So when we venture out it is good to see a friendly face.

I wondered away from painting many years ago and I thought I would never find my way back but here I am. The wonderful things is that at this stage of my life I am a more evolved painter. I get it. I have something to say and it is just pouring out of me!

My mantra at this time is DON'T OVERTHINK! As a teacher I tend to lean towards over-intellectualizing the art-making process. Not this time - this time I am focused on the simplicity of the idea and preserving that. I am having fun with my technique.

In the spirit of connecting with my community I am posting my paintings on a separate blog - beyondtheboardwalk.blogspot.com - where I show the work and tell a small story of what this person means to me. The piece above, Rebecca, was the first painting I did in this series. It will be interesting to see how this grows and the blog will be a great way to watch the progression of this concept.