REVOLUTION: To Revolt or Revolve?

Detail of Wave painting by MB Boissonnault

I have been thinking about revolution and what it means to an artist. The word is loaded with meaning - to revolt or to revolve? It also contains the word 'evolution'. So the question arises in my mind, are we really tearing down the status quo and forging new paths in art, or are we simply evolving and revolving around the same concepts as we always have?

For me this is a personal and philosophical question that can be directly applied to my art. To dispense with the rigid and rule based in favor of exploring and rebelling to create new work. But we can see that revolution within society also creates strong ripples in the art community. As the collective intuitive of the group of artists turns its attention to the tide of new thinking they incorporate these ideas into their work, knowingly or unknowingly.

Many feel that artists are the canary in the coal mine – the first to notice and say what others are too afraid to voice. The first to feel the change and not be able to repress their reaction to it. Recently a local show went up in Ojai called Water Works II. The show had been formulated far in advance of the recent drought in California but what was surprising was how many artists were looking at water as a subject to explore.

When artists pull the collective attention to a dire issue they facilitate the evolution/revolution of the conversation and ideas by giving it a visual focus. It is the horrible/beautiful that art can be, such as Delacroix and his view of the the bloody and violent French Revolution, that stands the test of time once all the revolutionary rhetoric has faded away.

Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix

There is an old saying, "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it." By arming ourselves with the knowledge of the past we promote a revolution in ideas, but the lack of knowledge dooms us to another revolution around the same path of history as before. 

Seeing the Light

Venice Beach Laundry © Taylor Barnes 2014

"Seeing the Light" may refer to the many levels that "light" is experienced when creating a piece of art. This recent painting posed the challenge of rendering a dramatically lit nighttime scene (alá Edward Hopper). In some ways, dramatic lighting is a cheap trick because if you do it at all well the result is a magical and dramatic work. Lighting used to portray a story within a story is something photographers and filmmakers understand only too well. A scene filled with dramatic lights and darks just screams to be interesting. Think, film noir.

I have passed this laundry for years and watched life play out in front of these well-lit windows. Some nights there is a line around the corner for the homeless to do free laundry, compliments of the management. Every night there is a congregation of homeless hanging on the steps trading information and hitting up the well-healed patrons of the Whole Foods Market next door. This laundry represents a true class intersection that is practically symptomatic of the entire economic displacement of people happening in Venice Beach. 

Through these windows, the light reveals a whole society of people normally hidden from view. "Seeing the Light" refers to the technical aspects of how this work is painted as well as the story it reveals. The emptiness is probably the future of this place. As wealthier families move into the area, they won't need a laundry. In the past, this was where neighbors gathered to meet neighbors, exchange information, or find a helping hand. Local artists painted the walls and there was a sense of an extension of home. The landscape is changing and some of the soul of Venice is leaching away with that change.

Of course, it is only a laundry mat but it is also a symbol - if we look, we can see the light.  The final part of the journey of this painting revolves around communication. In my effort to communicate clearly what I was seeing I rendered the white letters of "Venice Beach Laundry" with the precision of a sign painter. I failed to see the painting that was the engine to the image – until I showed it to both my mother and my daughter. Each, independently of the other, said the letters were too dominant and should be pushed back. Their critique helped me to "see the light." I realized that the danger of leaving the painting and the world it creates in favor or the literal world is to loose track of the dynamic of painting. By being too literal, I was loosing the spontaneity of the brush and what set my work aside from a photograph. Texture, depth of color and – lighting – were my tools. I pushed the letters back to a rougher form and the work was complete. 

In the end, I find each painting is a psychological journey into some aspect of my thinking that has yet to be revealed to me. This painting was about seeing the light, literally and spiritually. It is a little like playing God in your own personal universe, “… on the seventh day God said, 'let there be light' and there was light."

Good Beginnings and Good Endings

Convergence, Jackson Pollock, 1952

When I start a painting, I want to lay down a great base to work from but when I finish a painting, I want to recognize the perfect moment when I should walk away from the canvas. It is similar to a love affair – in the beginning; you are on your perfect behavior, trying to create a great impression for your lover. As the affair starts to lose steam, you still remember when everything was a beautiful event making it difficult to recognize the moment to say enough and walk away. You don’t want to destroy the gorgeous memories you have already made with one bad memory of the end. Beautiful beginnings leading to graceful endings are the ideal.

The start and the finish are the big moments in life and in art – everything else is just getting to or from one of those points. The ability to see these two moments is what separates the experienced artist from the student. Looking at the Jackson Pollock painting above, you have to ask yourself how he knew when to stop. How did he know when he had the perfect amount of paint on the canvas? Yet some artists never see an ending - Claude Monet was rumored to travel to museums with a small paint set in his coat and when visiting one of his paintings, he would pull out the set and touch up his work. I suppose you could call that a series of revised small endings.

There is energy in life and art imitates it through process. Embarking upon the journey starts with the first step (to paraphrase the famous Chinese proverb.) Ending the journey requires either knowing where you are headed or at the very least, recognizing it when you arrive.

So here is to the journey, which starts with the energetic and hopeful first step but ends with an elegant final step and a look backward to view the progress that was made.

Painting to Remember...

Ara Bevacqua © Taylor Barnes 2014

This is one of my recent works on a series about the people and places that are disappearing from Venice Beach. It is easy to try and create a more layered and symbolic back story for a series of paintings but the truth is this was born out of a very simple observation.

One afternoon I was in the French Impressionist rooms of the Los Angeles County Art Museum and decided to sit and sketch a Pierre Bonnard painting of rural life in France. I sat there looking closely at these works and realized these painters were simply painting the life around them but the pieces had become invaluable because of their historical context. They chronicled a life that had disappeared. Upon reflection, I saw the same thing currently happening in my city of Venice Beach. The subjects of my paintings may be simplistic to the current observer but I hope that someday they will stand as a historic record of a life that disappeared here as well. I can never totally escape my journalistic tendencies.

Painting has a unique way of capturing the artist and the emotion of the subject. The evidence of the artist's hand in the work lends another level of emotional interpretation. As I work my way through this series I hope that each piece, when finally shown collectively, will offer a summary of palpable emotion for the loss of a way of life. Venice lives in a tenuous state of gentrification which is wiping out a once seemingly indomitable creative spirit.

In the tradition of the Impressionist painters, who ventured out into a Paris of another era, they painted their city because they loved what they saw - I am doing the same with my Abbot Kinney Blvd., the Ocean Front Boardwalk, and the rapidly disappearing Rose Ave. I can't seem to shoot my reference photos fast enough. But these paintings will be the record of my emotional connection to Venice. And then it will be time to move on because the Venice I know and love will be gone - except for within my paintings.

Space... The Final Frontier

Both images by Mark Rothko, American painter 1903 - 1970

S  P  A  C  E 

It       is       

                               Intriguing...

                                                   Informative (even in the absence of information)

            b  e  g  u  i  l  i  n  g

... it is an artist's most understated tool for expressing message and emotion. Space in the mind and on the canvas is pregnant with possibility. It is the promise of something more. Space is the hidden but implied message that is defined by the surrounding elements. 

Many years ago, I went to a retrospective show of Mark Rothko's color field paintings. In most circumstances, these paintings are shown individually but for this particular show, they were hung chronologically. The very theory of color and space and shape conveying the powerful emotions of Rothko's torment were so available in this setting. It was the hidden message in the space between the works that was compelling – the empty wall space that led you to the next work and the next revelation of the inner conversation within the painter’s mind. 

Lately I have been listening to a lot of music on my headphones in an effort to create a free space in my mind. The music occupies an image free area but generates it’s own image. My painter's brain solves the problem by combining the random images with the design on which I am currently working. This is one part of the creative process. Throughout the process my mind needs the S P A C E to think, to breathe, to sigh it's way into a relaxed state of inspiration. Similar to dreaming while awake (not to be confused with daydreaming.)

Emotion is another element that takes up space in my work and my mind. It needs to be directed or I find it difficult to creatively problem solve. Emotion expands and creeps into space even when you think it is not there. Rothko's paintings are a good example of harnessing powerful emotion and infusing it into the creative decisions he made as a painter. The work grabs you and insists that you feel as you view. It is undeniable what emotions are being conveyed because of the impeccable use of the space, color, and emotion along with a cultural and psychological reference. Through it all, space is the container – it gives room for the color to expand and enfold you into it’s spell. It is in a word, "beguiling."

Space to think. Space to create. Space to process artistic challenge. I am trying to be conscious of the spaces in my mind and what I fill them with because eventually it will all find a path into my work.

Does the Age of Communication Herald the End of Creativity?

 

Birds on a Wire © Jessica Kerwin Jenkins

Birds on a wire... a visual allegory for humanity perched on the wire of technology. It's precarious, and like the birds, humanity seems to be blissfully unaware of the imminent danger we are sitting upon. But should technology slip our grip, it will be our split second survival response (our creativity, our wings) will be the only thing that saves us. Dramatic I admit but how far from the truth?

I read the title for this blog post in a daily horoscope and it gave me pause. I had to stop and really think about this since I straddle the analog and digital eras within my career. I have certainly struggled with how to integrate and authenticate my artistic voice into my digital work. I have been outraged by the lack of innovation and rampant copyright infringement that abounds on the internet. But this question – so personal – begs to be contemplated.

The Age of Communication is a daunting title. There seems no definitive value to the word 'communication' within this label so I am led to believe that it encompasses everything from reality TV to Stephen Hawking. But along with other era titles, such as The Age of Enlightenment, or The Dark Ages, there is the burden of imbalance. The pendulum must swing back in favor of anonymity, authenticity and personal privacy.

Where do we go as designers once we have been sucked into the vacuum of this new age? It's easy for us to overvalue the tools we use, the messages we send, the marketing force we create BUT is it an authentic contribution to the world? Is it really for the betterment and advancement of mankind?

Communication is God right now. Communication is unbridled and stripped of all its checks and balances (honesty, respect for privacy, attribution) and running rampant as it irresponsibly educates the population into rules and ethics that are hardly worthy living by. Communication is in its most pervasive and destructive form right now. The NSA digging into our every move, webcams being hacked, personal conversations splashed across websites without the permission of participants, invasive sales tactics, and our personal information being sold over and over again in an effort to encourage us to buy more and more useless things.

As a designer it would seem that I am biting the hand that feeds me by raising these questions but I see a deeper responsibility here. This may be the Age of Communication but there is an almost childlike selfishness about living in the moment with this new mindset.

Which brings me to the question of creativity. As more work is distributed to a less than critical audience where does the creative process belong in a world that really only values the revenue that is generated? There will always be a place for true creative geniuses but the audience that can truly appreciate their work may be shrinking. Creative process does not follow the linear pattern of binary code. It rambles, twists, and turns. The spark of an idea is in the the DNA of the person, in the rapid firing of our brain synapses, and the seemingly illogical combining of various influences.

Creativity is divine but the scientist will seek to define it, corral it, map it, and regenerate it. Can they? It is my hope that as we identify smaller and smaller molecular and atomic structures we will see that there is no end to the genius that is nature. We are drunk on a little bit of power and a little bit of knowledge but in the greater scheme of the inner workings of the universe we are completely ignorant. The pendulum will swing back to embrace the unknown, the spiritual and creative spark that works in tandem with our logical minds. And if we do it right The Age of Communication will create new ground rules for humanity.

Creative Collaboration - Can't live with it, Can't live without it!

Playing for Change - Stand By Me

Creative collaboration is something that happens in every artist's life. It is ironic that we are so dependent on the sharing of our work and processes with others when we spend so much time alone in our minds during the creative process. It gives us the illusion of autonomy but actually we are always working in tandem with someone or something.

As I watched the video above I thought about how much more powerful the outcome is when we collaborate with joy and the willingness to share our gifts. No ego. No hierarchy. No leaders. Just every voice, every creative effort being heard as part of the whole. Our current culture of narcissism has spawned an attitude that all art springs from the individual.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, has a wonderful TED talk titled, "Your Elusive Creative Genius" and you will see she has a compelling argument for why this me-centered creative mindset has not always been the case. She argues that in ancient times all creativity was thought to come from the divine, the gods, and channeled through us. Therefore the responsibility to be brilliant lay elsewhere rather than our own egos. Who can argue that you don't feel a connection to something greater than yourself when you are tapped into the creative flow?

Which brings me back to collaboration. I think that technology has created an environment where collaboration is easier and more accessible and perhaps in the future we will begin to redefine the process of creativity with less of an "I" culture and more of a "We" culture. I have noticed among the artists I work with that the older generation seems a bit less inclined to share the process and the credit but my younger artists are all about collaboration and experimentation. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in their culture no idea is sacred once it is made public on the internet. Everything can be copied, modified, changed, remixed, redrawn, and redefined without regard for the original creator. So doesn't it make sense that they would embrace creative collaboration?

Once the process is embraced that leads to some wonderful outcomes because the collective creative consciousness is more powerful than the single voice in the end.

I will leave you with Pharrell Williams "Happy" video project, a huge collaborative of creative people dancing to his song. This one is from Hong Kong. Had only one person been the expression of the song it would not have been nearly as powerful as the collaboration of people around the world for the sake of feeling happy. Imagine if this example of creative collaboration was applied to all aspects of our culture; finance, politics, food distribution, industry, and on and on... what type of society would we have with a grander collaboration of humanity?

I have been busy...

Just a quick post that I put two new sites up in the last week. They were fun to design and I thought I would share...

Site No. 1 - A photography portfolio for my talented friend, Roberto Ysais. He has traveled the world with his camera and his portfolio is of the quality that can only been built over many years practicing your craft. Please visit it and you will feel transported into another time. He is the best kept secret in the world of photography. robertoysais.com

 

robertoysais.com

Site No. 2 - This was for Paris West Real Estate here in Venice. This was actually a design challenge which is enjoyed trying to solve. How to make a building exciting throughout an entire website. I think the structure succeeded but feel free to leave comments. 520sepulveda.com

 

http://520sepulveda.com

I Don't Do Crafts

This is the only craft project I have ever completed - a shadowbox for my daughter's six grade graduation. 

The only reason I did it was because I didn't want my kid to be the one with the parent that didn't do one! 

I don't do crafts. As a result of not having the "craft gene" I feel guilty and worthless at this time of year. This was amplified when my daughter was young and there were certain parents (yes, even some fathers are more crafty that I) who would wow everyone with homemade cards, beautiful decorated cookies, stunning holiday tables, or scarves and baby blankets they had been knitting for months in trendy Italian yarn. I would look at the onslaught of creativity and wonder what was wrong with me? After all - I am an artist, trained in my artform, good with my hands - why wasn't I crafty?

Even my daughter seemed to value the crafty moms and wanted to hang out with them. The jewelry designing moms were a particular hit. The extent of my craftiness was merely an extension of my work – I would draw her notes to go home with a friend for a playdate - that was my big claim to fame. Why couldn't I have built a "Rube Goldbergesque" sculpture that moved little dolls, representing my daughter and her friends, from one room to another via a complex system of pulleys and tinker toys? Maybe my expectations got in the way? You think? But as my daughter grew older I found myself wishing I was motivated to make a wreath for the front door, or custom holiday cards. Then I woke up!

It is unfair for me to think that I should have been expected to apply my art skills to the tasks of decorating my life during the holidays. Some people do it seamlessly but not I! Within the last year I have been experiencing what is commonly known as an "empty nest" with my girl in college. She doesn't come home for Thanksgiving and now all I want to do on that day is something nice for someone else, get Chinese, curl up and watch a movie. The last year has been a process of getting to know myself as an artist all over again. I have realized that there are a lot of reasons why I am not crafty.

For some people crafting items that bring their family and friends joy is an active expression of community. I too love to express respect for my family, friends and neighbors but even my wedding was potluck! Why because in the case of my wedding it was the action, the internal dialog, and the moment that mattered to me. It is maybe the same reason I hated taking photographs for years because I didn't want the camera between me and the moment. That has since changed with my iPhone. Now I take so many pictures they are clogging up my digital memory but I still don't upload them to a crafty photo Christmas card that I would order online.

This attitude could go back to childhood when my mother, a true hostess by all standards, would have a mini breakdown before every holiday gathering in her quest to have everything perfect. My mother was so detail oriented she even special ordered smaller hot dog buns for our childhood birthday parties. As an adult I truly appreciate the hardwork she put into Christmas morning and the kid parties but all I remember is her being frazzled and frantic.

In true daughterly fashion I have rebelled by keeping it simple and redirecting my "crafty" tendencies to my illustration projects or my magazine. With that in mind – my daughter will probably be the Martha Stewart of her neighborhood, delighting her own children with the perfect knitted holiday sweaters, made from really cool Italian yarn, and lament in her own blog about how I never did crafts for the holidays when she was young.

All Hallows Eve – Revealing the Spirit World

 Cover of the Halloween Issue of 3.1 Venice – The Death Tarot design by Rudy Garcia © 2013

I have written before that I love Halloween – and I still do. The idea of the veil between the spirit world and the world of the living being at it's thinnest on All Hallows Eve intrigues me.

As each morning grows progressively darker and the days shorter I see why ancient people believed spirits roamed in the ample darkness. Imagine how black the night was then – when the world wasn't lit up like a Christmas tree at all hours.

I question loosing that connection with nature and the often unexplainable things that happen when you embrace the energy of the earth. Living in Los Angeles I don't have a sense of the blackest night sky, I can barely see stars. I don't have a sense of the deepest quiet of night except what I read in poetry. I don't have a sense of appreciation for the minute movements of the smallest and humblest creatures. I don't have a sense of the rising moon until I stumble upon it as I wonder outside after a long day of work. All of these things were essential to my ancestors for their survival.

So when Halloween rolls around, for a moment I feel a connection to the earth, the ominous fragility of the winter coming, and the tap on my shoulder from the spirit world as the veil thins. I like to imagine I hear my grandmother whispering to me and guiding me once again as she did when she was alive. It's not hard to see why all throughout Mexico they celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) this time of year. Honoring the past and remembering where we come from is essential to  better connect with the future.

But for all the serious spiritual overtones of the holiday I also love the playfulness of Halloween. Especially the costumes! The food, games, and general joy of running the streets at night with groups of other Halloween party goers. This is how I imagine the Pagan worshipers, drinking and dancing around the bonfires of Samhain in the Celtic countryside.

I love Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Day of the Dead and Samhain because the celebration of fall reaffirms our humanity. No matter how far we have come as a technological culture we still need to acknowledge the power of mother nature, our fragility and the coming of winter darkness.

If I Only Had a Brain

 Ray Bolger sings "If I Only Had a Brain" in the 1939 classic movie, "Wizard of Oz".

 

“I could think of things I’ve never thought before and then I’d sit

  and think some more.”

Thinking is important to our development as a culture – thinking creatively is vital.

CCI – the acronym for "Cultural and Creative Industries" and the idea that new economies are about selling ideas while the old industrial production model would be selling things. America was an industrial production leader for many decades ushered in with the vision of Henry Ford. In 2013 are we being left in the dust because of our archaic notions about our educational infrastructure? It's Brawn Power vs. Brain Power.

I am thinking specifically about education. We have been slow to adopt new ideas therefore a large portion of our society has been left behind - but not in the way the "no child left behind" legislation of the Bush administration would have suggested. Our population is being left behind as other industrialized nations move from production oriented industries to Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI).

For a country to be competitive in design and creative thinking education is a vital element and yet the US is still experimenting with systems and undervaluing the field as a whole. Finland is a good case study of a country that has successfully refocused itself from being an industrial production economy to a growing CCI economy. Even though it is a smaller country than the US, without significant ethnicity and/or religious confilict it is a current example of what can be right in an educational system.

Investment in Education: Forty years ago, the Finnish government decided the path to economic recovery would involve a stronger educational system. They implemented stringent teacher-training guidelines requiring every teacher must have a fifth year master's degree and teacher training school. Consequently, their teachers are pulled from the top ten percentile of students in the country and given the same status as a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. 

The status and value put upon the teaching profession not only encourages the best and brightest to become educators but also sends a message to society as a whole that thinking and training are valued. Since Finnish teachers are given autonomy in the classroom and encouraged to develop new educational thinking the education system again reinforces the idea that they are a society that values creative innovation and respects the abilities of its professionals.

In contrast, you have the American education system, which closely monitors the curriculum, teaches to the test, overvalues test taking, and is straddled with economic burdens which makes it difficult to implement new ideas. The American system currently ushers untrained teachers, fresh out of college straight into the classroom in an effort to keep the schools functioning but not necessarily flourishing. This is a corporate model for education, which is an extension of the old idea of a production-based economy. 

The production-based model measures quantitatively the effects of education upon its product (i.e. the student), rather than the development of creative thinking and successful problem solving. It is one of the contributing factors to why our younger population is at odds with the current culture. Their world is a fast moving, tech based, economy that they need flexible thinking skills to survive but instead they are being handed a group of archaic skills that are only good for following orders and producing product – the old industrial model. This style of education is producing an indefinable, widespread anxiety among young adults as they emerge into the work world.

Technology: The second element in the development of a CCI economy is technological development and wide spread access to the Internet, which in turn provides the knowledge and content to create new products. There have been several Congressional bills over the last few years that would have effectively put the control of the Internet into the hands of the service providers. Fortunately, these bills were defeated but had they been passed the United States would have set itself back several years in technological development – perhaps a move from which we might never have recovered. In a recent development and with tremendous foresight, major universities are putting their curriculum and some classes online for public access. The idea to socialize education is good for society as a whole and with regard to the development of a CCI economy, universal Internet access is the key to facilitating that. 

Once again, I look at Finland as the successful experiment – the Ministry of Education and Culture launched the “Development Programme for Business Growth and Internationalization of Creative Industries 2007-2013.” The idea that technology, education, and the creative ingenuity of their population could significantly increase the bottom line of their GNP was forward thinking and proved the right move to make.

Functional Social Structure: The third and most difficult hurdle for the US to overcome is to create a functional social structure. This idea can be examined on a micro level to gain insight as to how it impacts us as a nation on a macro level. For example: if the parents in a divorced family are antagonistic towards each other the children can suffer intellectually because they focusing upon coping with their emotional response to a fractured social structure. However, if the divorce is supportive, with open lines of communication and tolerance for differences the children can thrive intellectually and feel less need to focus their energy upon solving the emotional issues. Of course, this is simplistic but it is meant to show the importance of pulling together as a nation rather than against each other. 

Currently our social structure is deeply divided which is starkly illustrated during each national election as the population divides into red and blue states. There are religious, social, economic, and racial differences that pull us apart and cause our focus to shift from the fundamentals of pulling together. Using Finland as an example in this case is where we part company completely. Finland, and many smaller European countries, although they can have problems with religious and ethnic antagonism, have smaller populations of people to influence when shifting their country into a CCI economy. This could single-handedly be the biggest hurdle the US faces today. While adversity can often lead to startling leaps in creativity from individuals, it is when a country pulls together that you see world leadership born. In the current world economy many countries come to mind that could be potential candidates for that honor but the US is not one of the stronger contenders.

With our uneducated, reality TV based culture, we have turned our backs on our greatest export – the creative intelligence and ingenuity of our people. The promotion of a creative economy needs to become a concept that is understood by the individual American and something they are committed to with foresight and intelligence. If we understand that, the model of what we are educating ourselves for will shift from "how to build things," to "how to think of things" and we would begin to heal our social structure and legislate creativity into our government. 

These are utopian ideas but we are seeking answers. This article was inspired by one column on how charter schools are using young teachers in a transient manner to fill the leadership roles in our classrooms. This seems symptomatic of our band-aid approach to our future as a nation. This idea as well as many of our "knee-jerk" emotional short-term responses to long term issues will have the same effect that fast food had on America – it will satisfy an immediate need but ultimately it will be unhealthy for all of us.

Breaking the r / U / LE / s

 Raygun Magazine designed by David Carson

I have been thinking quite a bit about the "rules" of design and when I choose to break them. The "rules" make sense to me – following the grid – paying attention to balance with regard to scale and space. But when do I get to B-R-E-A-K the rules?

Knowing when to break the rules in design is as important as knowing the rules. One of my favorite designers is David Carson. I have reflected on the pure genius of his punk/grunge, groundbreaking design of Raygun magazine. Carson broke all the rules. 

If you have ever seen his TED talk he makes fun of the fact that his copy is often illegible and he happily claims to have a degree in sociology rather than design. He sees the world around him and interprets is differently from the rest of us and it all works. It works, because it defies your expectations. It works, because it makes your brain decipher the visual code. It works, because you remember it. It ALL works.

Carson didn't break the design rules because he was being rebellious, although there was a little of that I'm sure. He broke the rules because his design sense was telling him to. He was designing in the surf/sport industry and his audience had short attention spans and a lot of physical energy. If you think about his work it often has the sense of catching something as you pass by in a speeding car. The words would fly off the page, unfinished or difficult to read. There was a new energy to the work.

David Carson has been widely emulated by other designers, with distressed design and broken typography but when Carson did it his "rule breaking" design came from an internal place. He was having fun and using "whatever he had around the house." His xerox machine, photos from surfing trips or roadside advertising, emulating the dilapidated textures of the strange little surf towns he had visited. It was all present in his typography and photo manipulation. His design came from a personal place – that's how he knew when to break the rules, he had seen it done in real life and found the beauty in it.

I think about this and realize that if I follow the rules to a "T", I am doing what feels right for my subject and my audience. Of course my ego wants to create bone-ratteling, jaw-dropping, ground-breaking new work but if I were to pursue that as a goal I would fail miserably. So I listen to the little voice in my head and I play.

The first two issues of 3.1 Venice magazine have surprised me with regard to the final design. I thought that given my head I would, like a wild horse, run through the field, jump the fence, and stray wayyyyy out into the world of design. But I did not. Instead I went back to basics and applied restraint and discipline to my work. Balance became incredibly important. Flow. Keeping the reader engaged without tricks. My subject was the beach community of Venice, California and we are known for having one of the widest expanses of beach in Los Angeles.

Venice is a balance of congestion that ends on the edge of Pacific Ocean with expanses of blue sky, blue water, and beige sand. The magazine design reflected my internal feeling about the city. The expectation would have been to create a jumbled, crazy quilt design of graffiti art, wild color, and density but for me that is a design element, not the infrastructure of what Venice feels like. If you don't believe me just look at the large numbers of minimalist painters and architects that live here – obviously we are all picking up the same vibe.

Back to the rules – as designers we have favorite, "go-to" fonts, colors, layouts, and tricks. But what about that one new thing you have always wanted to try? When do you try it? I have one firm rule about breaking rules, if you are consciously deciding to do a design a certain way BECAUSE it breaks the rules... you have failed. If you are playing and experimenting and a happy "design accident" happens, be strong and roll with it. You just broke the rules and it didn't hurt a bit.

Art + Message = Change

 

Political posters, like the ones shown, often have a clear message to be brave, to speak out, to have hope, "We can do it!" or in the case of the United Farm Workers grape boycott, "Si se puede!" These posters were effective calls for reform and revolution.

Recently I have been drafting a call for art submissions, on behalf of 3.1 Venice magazine, for a poster project revolving around the idea of non-violence as activism. It is part of a much bigger editorial mission to provide possibilities to promote peace on a local level.

During the course of writing the submission guidelines I realized that the artist's statement - the thinking behind the imagery will be almost as important as the image itself. I wanted to address the recent violent events in Boston and (closer to home) Santa Monica, California with images that reinforce the desire to live peaceably.

I researched images that had a significant impact upon our culture - images that we used as a rallying point - images that create change because they are so compelling people share them willingly. The saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words," is accurate when promoting a desire for change. Sometimes more can be said with one well designed political poster than a thousand word editorial. Art allows for a fluid exchange of ideas on a conscious and subconscious level.

While thinking about the series of articles for the next issue of 3.1 Venice, I began to see the symbiotic relationship between art and activism. The public seemed numb to the recent shootings at Santa Monica College with my friends and colleagues barely posting comment about it. But what could we say that hadn't been said? What change could we effect by talking about it? Which lead me to think - how do we empower ourselves?

The images of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and more recently Occupy Wall Street creating social change through non-violence was a goal, an ideal. I don't pretend to have the answers but art is a powerful tool to create awareness and perhaps rally people to action - if you display a poster that is so compelling, so beautifully designed, so brave, so intelligent that you can't help but speak about it, post it and share it then, that art has become a catalyst for change.

This is certainly not a new idea - it is just a good idea. We are a society in crisis and the average person wants to find their voice, they want to create positive change, they want to live in a peaceful world. We simply have different ideas about how to achieve that. But if the teachings of the great leaders of the non-violent protests have shown us anything it is that answering violence with repression or more violence only perpetuates a cycle of destruction. We need to change our thinking – to do that, we may need to be still for a moment and take in the inspired thinking of an artist with a message.

The Collective Consciousness of "I"

 

3.1 Venice magazine – cover art  ©  Taylor Barnes 2013

I had a dream. I actually had an epiphany. I had a moment. Maybe a moment of insanity! But I did it. I started a magazine.  3.1 Venice was born May 30th, 2013 – weighing in at 60 pages and measuring 8.5" x 10.5".

I can use "I" with a sense of humility because I was the instrument for the idea. Much like giving birth to my daughter - I have a sense of bringing her into the world and having guardianship over her but what happened after that was her destiny, not mine.  

I just happened to have the skill set the universe required and it used me to get the word out. But the idea came through me like a Japanese bullet train. Four weeks ago it was a conversation at the local coffee shop, a statement of conviction, "I am starting a magazine." Four weeks ago, it was an impulsively bought domain name, 3point1-venice.com and a temporary web site proclaiming an arbitrary release date of May 25th. There was no particular reason for that date (and I missed it by five days) except to proclaim to the world that "I" was starting a magazine.

But the power of conviction is what convinced me that my little village of Venice Beach, California, was interesting enough to warrant a magazine – after all, there had been two before me. The publication and the website came fully realized and in four short weeks the universe ushered to my door everyone and everthing I would need to make this a reality. 

The theme of the first issue revealed itself very quickly and it certainly was not what I would have thought if you asked me at the beginning of this journey. The very first interview, with a wonderful urban farmer, Matt Van Diepen, led to an entire issue built around the farm-to-table movement here in Venice. Each story lead to another and the discovery of the people who make our community unique. We have musician Finian Makepeace talking about Mycorrihzal Fungi and his dreams for a community garden, a profile on the modern ukulele band The Ooks of Hazzard, and a piece about Chance Foreman's film, One Day in Venice. There are other stories – The Learning Garden and the Seed Library, and interviews, art, video, photography. Everybody had something to say! All of these stories emanated from the 3.1 square miles we call Venice.

But it's the design process that was affirmed and revealed during the creation of this publication. The idea that I could be so deeply involved with the subject matter, that I could have a vision and be the guardian of it was a renewed experience. I have been here before but it has been awhile and I'd forgotten how intoxicating it can be. This project was a joyful coming together of all my skills in one place. Today, three days post launch, I am exhausted from all the joy.

I found myself in the middle of a process of collaboration, discovery, invention and communication that was energizing and inspiring and I am reminded why I love publication design so much. There is a bit of withdrawl now because it is a heady experience to bring something to fruition that was just a dream four weeks ago. But every time I look at the sixty pages of original content and the list of talented contributors, I am in awe of how creative humans can come together to build something more powerful than the singularity of it's parts.

Even though I started this post with references to "I", "I", "I" – I am ending this post as the collective "I." Think of the Borg of the Star Trek series. They were individuals all tuned into one mind – this is the "I" I am referring to. Collective Consciousness driving many people towards one binding mission. In this instance it was to create, even for a moment, a sense of community and awareness that you are not alone in the world. "I" is also "eye" when spoken, so the use of "I" with reference to a magazine could be interpreted as "I see."

View the first issue of 3.1 Venice at issuu.com

Venice is Becoming Beige

BEFORE AND AFTER

The Laughing Buddha is gone.

The loss of this mural is emblematic of a greater wrong being done to the community of Venice. 

People move here because we have a rich street culture, infused with creativity and bubbling with anarchistic energy. Venice was once home to a cultural revolution, dog town, street performers and famous the world over for it's unique artistic inspiration. We had live jazz, amazing chalk art on Abbot Kinney, nude poetry readings at a local coffee shop, bikers and surfers side by side... and artists. 

The artists made this community – they defined it with their murals, their clothes, their music. People were attracted to their world and wanted to feel a part of the rare, incandescent creative climate – they moved here in droves hoping it would rub off on them. 

Many of the newly transplanted "investors" were not comfortable living with the slightly unpolished and unpredictable nature of Venice and decided to change it into something more palatable and less discomforting. In the process, they impacted the visual culture of the city. Similar to when an animal goes extinct in an environment and that ecosystem is changed forever - changing the landscape and not encouraging our urban artists is forever changing our "artistic ecosystem."

We are becoming beige - witnessed by the "after" photo above. Venice has never been beige!

Other cities hold their street art in high esteem – London, Paris, Buenos Aires, San Paolo to name a few. The art can exist side by side with great buildings of other eras. The streets are a fertile ground to grow the next generation of artists and history has shown that many make the jump from street to museum – Toulouse Lautrec or Banksy, just two examples.

Artists are the "cultural caribou" of the world – wandering from site to site – creating a community were there was none – and moving on when the environment no longer feeds their needs. Venice was that place but judging by how easily the Buddha was wiped from the world, with the stroke of a beige paintbrush, artists can easily be disrespected and forgotten. Venice is a fragile artistic ecosystem.

I wonder what the world would be like, if someone thought the Sistine Chapel would be cleaner and more modern with a coat of beige paint and they got rid of that busy and outdated ceiling mural? 

Cat People

Cat People © Taylor Barnes

I love the felt hats with cat ears and they are the inspiration for this illustration. 

While working on this piece I visualized a story in which, the hats were being worn by actual cat people. They needed those little pockets to put their ears into and keep them warm - human earmuffs wouldn't hide or fit their little cat ears. Even though they walked among us unnoticed the predator in them would surface from time to time. On those occasions the pupils of their eyes would contract to look like cat eyes and they would freeze and become fascinated by their prey.  

I am still not certain if they are dangerous. This character is cute and cuddly like your typical house cat but looks can be deceptive because she does have claws hidden under that window sill...

  

I Don't Know Where I am Going...

I Don't Know Where I am Going... ©Taylor Barnes

This piece is exploring the idea of weightlessness, both emotionally and physically. Titled, "I Don't Know Where I am Going," it is a response to moments when we are carried into unexpected directions, we can't see the way, we feel disoriented, and there is a loss of control — it is not always a bad place to be. The element of air and a sense of openness is prevalent in these recent pieces. Don't we all crave a feeling of freedom and possibility? A sense of "where will I land next?" Savor the moments when routine is challenged, because tremendous inner growth is often the reward. I have a feeling this theme will reoccur over a few more pieces.

Goddess of Freedom

Broken ©Taylor Barnes

Personal work is always so interesting. You never know what may emerge from the inner depths of your mind. Recently I took a friend up on the idea of participating in a guided meditation for 21 days. I was certain I would never follow through and if I did I would find it impossible to sit still.

To my surprise I have become addicted to the stillness. The imagery that I see during these moments has been rather self-revelatory. The idea of floating has been dominating my inner thoughts. Floating has so many correlations emotionally that I can't even begin to define what this means to me. So rather than write about it I have decided to do some illustrations around the concept of floating and weightlessness.

This one is about breaking free of the constraints of the material world. Hope and gratitude are also present on the journey. I call her a goddess because she is demonstrating my higher self in it's finer moments.

Selfless Portraits - Altruistic Art in the Facebook Era

Selfless Portrait by Taylor Barnes

Recently, I came across an article about a new Facebook app, Selfless Portraits. The idea is to create spontaneous, hand-made art based upon the prompt of a Facebook profile photo. In return someone will create a piece based upon your photo. It is anonymous and random which, is very appealing to me.

An artistic challenge - no matter how it is posed - can reinvigorate our commitment to our craft and help us the hone our creative decision making skills as an artist. I can honestly say that how I chose to approach such an open ended project surprised me.

As I reflect upon my process, twenty-four hours later, I feel that this public art experiment was a wonderful, private moment shared by my mind, my hand and my instinct.

As I approached this sketch I had planned to go with color and at the last minute decided I wanted to work in pencil. Color was the natural first choice because of the vibrant tulips but once I made the decision to go black and white I was primarily working with shape, line and shadow. If this was going to be interesting then those elements had better be compelling.

I started with light shading but quickly realized that the man in the photo was more interesting than the tulips he was holding. - His hands carried all the character - full of expression and life, they became the portrait.

The face is barely there as an anchor. The piece built from the foreground to the background. And then I was left with the tulips.

I love to draw flowers and struggled with the idea of making the tulips the only color or at least rendering them. But it was their shape, bisecting the man's face and casting shadows that was far more interesting than the eye-catching color. The shape was the designer's choice. I created an added element that could only have worked in black and white.

When I finished I realized that this exercise in a quick portrait of a perfect stranger had opened up the process and showed me a little more of how my artist's mind works to solve a creative challenge. Patience, the willingness to give yourself over to the challenge one moment at a time, the spontaneity of changing gears when an new creative opportunity offers itself are the elements of process.

I suppose some would call this artistic growth... I call it fun!

The Circle of Design

 

thebubuzz.com

I recently completed the redesign of Boston University's, The BU Buzz — their online student magazine. This job resonated with me more than others because I was working with one of my former students, Leora Yashari who is the fearless Editor-in-Chief. I found myself reflecting upon the impact that out giving, our words, and our actions have on others. When you teach, your students are dandelion seeds taking flight, landing and blooming but a little bit of you goes with each of them.

Leora is no longer my student and yet we can start a new dialog because of the language of design. Design is constant with changing variables. Maybe once it would have been a print conversation and now it is a web conversation but good design is still at the center. The desire to create beauty, symmetry and effective communication spans all generations.

The process of putting this magazine together and watching my former student apply the things I had taught her in a real world setting was gratifying. So please visit this site and see the energy and creativity these dynamic editors are bringing to the web! thebubuzz.com