A Slave to the Pen

Ehh gads! Another weekend spent in front of the word processor instead of having fun! I managed to get the MAEP proposal sent out only to fall prey to an available MN state grant for photography. I'll post the proposal when completed, but what a process! I can see why grant writing is actually a career for some people... and this is just a small grant.

I love it though... results focused. They actually want to know how the grant will change your career. Ok... deep breath... how many artist actually conceptualize their career path? And then... put an action plan together to get from point 'A' to 'B'?

A lot of deep thought has to go into that, along with some serious self examination.... and reality based at that!... why am I using so many exclamation points?

Do they offer grant writing as a class in fine arts academies?

I'll never forget the day my freshmen Design teacher at CMU came into class, looked around the class, and said "none of you are going to make a living in the arts". He didn't mean it personally, just as a general statement, and actually a challenge for self examination. But many of the students just took it as the old coot just getting out of the wrong side of the bed that day, or, just ignored what he said.

My reaction... was to leave school after that year. Not so much because of what he said, but because I've always been a bit inner-focused, and didn't see myself following in the footsteps of Andy Warhol who was often the topic of discussion, and who left CMU after a year or two. I left, unlike Andy, because I could never shoulder the facade, avant guard mantle or the hairdo as Andy did so well. I couldn't even go to a simple senior art opening without feeling simultaneously beneath and above that scene. AKA... out of place.

Yea... it is complex and I need therapy... not.

Designs For Good is my resolution and salvation.

I'm feeling good about the grant submission. It actually made me think about a career and why someone should give me money to further it.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Douglas (Pick) Pickering, who inspired me by being honest about our limitations in the face of the realities of the art world, while at the same time pushing us to ever higher standards.

OK... picture time.

I did take time to go to our garden to refresh my spirit. The following are a set of images of the Beebalm plant. I ran it through the Topaz Simplify filter and came up with the following. The first (top-left) is the untouched shot, and the second is the image run through the Topaz filter. You don't see a tremendous difference until you drill into the image by cropping smaller and smaller. Then you begin to see how the filter abstracted the image into elements of pure lines and color/hue shifts. You could go deeper into the image, but at that point is just becomes pure color and pattern.

You can click on the final image to get a close up of it, and you'll begin to see how the filter breaks the image down. Looking at that last enlargement it is hard to see how it is actually the same image (same jpg file) as the one at top right. Once you click on the image open your window as wide as possible and the picture will expand.

Enjoy!