We made it to 2010. Yah, yah, I know. I'm coming in late, but that's because I neglected to realise that December 31st would be my last chance to update until the 5th. Oh snap!

So, as is the custom for many individuals, New Year's Day is a time for reflection upon the previous year and making plans/resolutions for the new year. Since I don't keep a regular journal, you all get to be privy to my ruminations.

Last year, I learned five things in this order:

1. Having half a clue who the famous people of your time are is very important.
2. Diamonds in the rough are clean, shiny, smooth, and round.
3. Tabloids are just expensive kindling for campfires and stoves.
4. Vinyl records are AWESOME!!!
5. One of my friends has been in two movies and a TV show! Wait--What?!!!


This year, I hope to do five things probably in this order:

1. Watch one of my best friends and my brother get married...not to each other!
2. Get a full-time job.
3. Move into an appartment.
4. Finish the monster project that is currently devouring my free time.
5. Get a trial version of Painter...and maybe buy it.


So, what have you learned this past year and what do you hope to do this coming year?


~D~

I was hesitant to spread the news about these guys b/c I don't agree with their policy of not watermarking your art. I watermark my art for the same reason that I lock my car doors. However, they are making quite a difference in the art community here. Anyone who has had their art stolen or knows someone who has should at least take a look at what they're doing. If nothing else, it's worth following the comments and checking the galleries they highlight to see if your art is there.

While you're at it, check out the founder's gallery, too. He's pretty awesome!


~D~

...the new Red Rose. Actually, it's the old Red Rose, but it has a new index page. A prettier index page. Everybody go check it out.

The Red Rose

~D~

Do you ever feel like you see the world through a completely different lense than everyone else? I do.

I remember thinking as a child, "What if the things I saw and perceived as red, someone else saw and perceived as blue, and a different person saw and perceived as purple? We all called them yellow and understood what the other person meant, but our eyes actually saw three totally different colours." Now, sometimes, I feel like that is exactly the case, but in a different way.

Whenever I see anything, I am always looking for the beauty and grace, the composition, the lighting, the play of the shadows, etc. ... but everyone else just sees the mundane and commonplace. I'll watch a film with a group of people and, when it's over, they're talking about the acting and diologue and I'm sitting there thinking about that one scene where the girl's green shirt really popped out against the red background, focusing all attention on her.

Or, how about this? A storm devistates a certain area of the world. Oh, yes, I am terribly sad about the death and destruction. Such things are horrible. Where's the nearest charity? Oh, but wait! See how that beam leans against the building? Isn't that the most striking picture you've ever seen? Dang, but I wish I had my camera!

Or take belly dancing. Now, there is an art! I don't know how those dancer move like that! It facinates me! Actually, pretty much any form of dance facinates me, but belly dancing is especially beautiful. And, for the record, there should always, but always, be fringe or beads or other movable stuff around the dancer's hips. Belly dancing without that is lacking something seriously essential! Is belly dancing sexual? A tease? Maybe. But it's one dang beautiful sexual tease! Who cares about the nuances and innuendo?

Or let's talk about artistic nudes. In my opinion, nudity for the sake of nudity is crass. But there are two forms of nudity that are totally and completely acceptable to me. One is nudity that makes a point. Perhaps its depicting the tribal members of Africa or its focusing on the closeness between a mother and child. These are acceptable. A second form is nudity that celebrates the beauty of the human physique. Let's face it. The human body is beautiful...or can be. We are attracted to beautiful eyes, beautiful hands, beautiful arms, beautiful legs, beautiful breasts. Is it wrong to look at these things? I think not. Not if one has the eyes of an artist, seeking beauty in all things.

Once, after seeing a picture of Powergirl on my screensaver, a woman asked me if I had a thing for breasts. I was so surprised by the question, all I could think was, "Uuuuuhhh.............no?!" If anything, I have a thing for legs...and comic books. I love buying catelogues for prom dresses. I love watching Sadie dance. I love the sun shining through the fog in the early morning. I love watching a stallion prance with tail raised high. I love sheer fabrics. I love morning glories. I love watching a huge flag billow in the wind. I love Boticelli's painting of The Birth of Venus. I love Michaelangelo's David. Some people might find some of these things to be controversial or objectionable, but all I see is beauty.

Do my eyes see something different from other people? I don't really think so. I think it's more a conditioned way of thinking, than an actually difference in vision. But it sure FEELS like everyone needs to get their eyes checked!!!

~D~