afterSonoma

Hot January

Kraemer & Imperial, originally uploaded by p0psharlow.

The weather is a big story here, too. It's too warm! Pseudo-son, Cam, was in town this weekend, we went to an art opening in Chelsea, walking through the January evening in shirtsleeves. The day-time temps so warm, we've had to close up the windows in our apartment to run the A/C like it was July. Too weird!

Of course, the freakiest thing about it is the unpredictable character. No history of weather patterns applies and the changes could be in any direction. And extreme. Our earth's atmosphere cares little for our comfort or even our viability, it could suddenly be 900F as easily as 90F or - 90F.

New York City flooded with rising ocean levels, that's a given -- whether it's next century, next decade or next year, who can say?

People doubting industrial man's development having an influence, crack me up. "Just a natural cycle". I'm like, "Yeah, as long as you consider human development as an act of nature."

Nature, man, industry, agriculture... I don't have time to do a real review of the book I'm enjoying for a few minutes each work day on my 10 minute commutes, but, it is Ray Kurzweil's, "The Singularity is Near". I will do a thoughtful reaction to the tome when I get through it -- it's big and I read very little. But, for now, I'll just say that the evidence he calls to support his future predictions in nano-technology, genetics and robotics creates a hopeful, if radical, vision of our future. I love that he has an expansive defination of what is human, so that when we soon, as he sees it, "transcend biology", we will expand, not limit human consciousness. We'll make nanobots from excess carbon which will create our energy, clean our environment and even our bloodstreams.

Meanwhile back in the life of little Steve Harlow, I've had a family emergency. The day before Christmas my Dad, who's 87, fell, broke his hip. I flew out to SoCal, saw him through hip-replacement surgery and his transferal to a "Skilled Nursing Facility".

My sister and I did what we could, I got deathly ill for days, stomach virus I thought was food poisoning. Really out of it at an inconvenient time. Recovered enough to make a rough trip back to NYC. Ruth is doing the financial arrangements. My Dad suffers from dementia, is considered incompetent. He's comfortable, responding well to physical therepy, getting good care. We will, most likely, be selling his house so he can afford an extended stay in an assisted living faciality.

My Mother died three years ago on the day before Christmas. Our family is small and dispersed. There's just my sister, who lives near our Dad, her two grown boys, one is out here in NYC and my Nathan in SF.

Meanwhile, I've picked up a new, fun responsibility at work, I'm doing a daily video blog, interviewing our salesmen about what interesting products are available in their departments. Two minutes of talking head video, which I've got to shoot, edit, upload, create linking blog posts and ads -- getting it all done before noon each day. That's my goal, if I can do it, I'll be able to continue this fun and still do my old job in the afternoons. So, far, I've run way late, but, I'm hopeful.

And at home, with Ruth, we're trying to fit into our old art-making schedule, we drew today, preparing our new collaborative painting. She's got a lot of exciting new work at her job and some recent recognition as well. I'm trying to wrap up my dip into the street art scene with a post, Who Owns Public Art? on p0ps blog.

I have lamb shanks braising in the oven, what should be a good winter's dinner seems a little out of place after this sunny day, an hour after sunset, we have the windows open wide, the air is soft, the temp says 47F, but seems warmer. So, that's it, no good blog links, too many subjects -- bad blogger.

11 Spring - Grand Closing

11 Spring - Grand Closing, originally uploaded by p0psharlow.

11 Spring was an abandoned building in North Little Italy or as we say, "Nolita", on the corner of Spring and Elizabeth (a block down from where Martin Scorsese grew up). Throughout the almost 9 years we've been in NY, living several blocks from it, street artists have been adding art work to the outside. The building was recently cleared for condo development, the new owner, who is sensible, wanted to win the goodwill of the street artists before she renovated. She knew she'd have to kindly ask the artists to stop painting on the building after it's converted. She contracted with a nearby Soho community art non-profit organization, Wooster Collective, to supervise the opening of all five floor interiors for decoration by the street artist. During a 7 week period, artists came from all over the world to make "pieces" in the building, then last weekend, it was open for a 3 day public showing.

Ruth and I went early to the first day and enjoyed it immensely. As I wrote in Flickr, it was the most exciting art event I've experienced after all these 50+ years of looking at art.

I shot video of all the art and spent the rest of the weekend stitching panoramas from video stills. Those panos are collected in my Flickr set, 11 Spring.

You noticed that most of the comments on my work in Flickr were about the technique. This is because the commentors were all photographers and my camcorder-panoramas are unusual. It seems no one thought of doing that before.

I've been using this method for several months, making panoramas of construction sites mainly. The technique proved to be very well suited to the 11 Spring art, giving an emotional impression of the event rather than only a dry documentary image. No one was more surprised and impressed by the way the panos came out than me. I was very fortunate to have my technique down in time to cover this mythic event.

You saw composition in the panos, and yes, to me, that's the most attractive part, because my method allows it to form organically from the technique itself and not from my eye. I am almost completely surprised by the way they look. Traditional photography is all about framing the significant detail which implies a larger view, panos are about collecting the details and allowing them to manifest the larger view. I was delighted by the views I saw at the end of my pano-stitching process, I was only vaguely in control of it. For 11 Spring, every one of them turned out well, I stitched together everything I shot and posted everything stitched.

My photo of the outside of 11 Spring made it to the Flickr Explore "Most Interesting" for 15 September

After the panos, I spent all my art time for the past week editing and creating the soundtrack for the 3 minute movie below.

I've embedded it in its most universally usable form - from YouTube. Of course, as the movie-maker, I think the YouTube quality sucks. A higher quality version, in QuickTime, is here on blip.tv, the highest quality, capable of looking good full-screen, is here on OurMedia.org.

I'm quite pleased with the little movie, though it was created from left-overs from the panos. I love video editing. And the making of the soundtrack in Garageband is so fun, kept me happily obsessed for hours.

If you're interested in explanatory movies about the 11 Spring, I found some on YouTube and put them into this playlist.

The building is now scheduled to be renovated, they plan to put sheet rock over the murals, divide each floor into several units, finish them as residential condos. I'll be interested to hear if any of the condo buyers, remove the sheet rock to expose some of the art.

There's a virtual 3D environment collaborative creation tool still in the lab at Microsoft, Photosynth, which will be perfect for re-creating the environment inside and out of 11 Spring using all the photos everyone took. Future visitors will be able to "walk" into the environment, see all the art, move up close, back away, go up and down the stairs, it'll be killer cool and should only be a couple years away.

In the meantime, I'm instigating the re-creation of 11 Spring in the online virtual world, Second Life. That discussion is going on at the 11 Spring Street pool discussion. Though the photo quality will be better in Photosynth, In Second Life, we'll be able to make a social environment, visitors will be able to experience the virtual 11 Spring with others, represented by their avatars, each avatar with a live person at the controlling end of their behavior.

Library-a-Go-Go: Value Immeasurable

Library-a-Go-Go: Value Immeasurable, originally uploaded by carolinecohenour.

Gaining an audience in blogging, developing a strong web presence is all about picking a niche and developing useful content for it. I think the web needs our mid-20th Century roots to help form 21st Century culture. As elders, as experienced culture producers, our unique experience, our abilities and those of others like use may be used to form a web-based legacy which younger generations may draw upon to guide their cultural development.

We are a transition generation at an important historical crossroads. Our generation is experiencing and manifesting an evolution from Industrial Age authoritarian mass culture to an Information Age democratic community of web-connected micro-cultures. We and others like us, with our roots in 20th Century Art, Literature, Music and cultural values, have several opportunities:

1. to help others of our generation enter into web-connected methods for sharing information, knowledge and wisdom;
2. to help others of our generation use web-connected means of cultural production;
3. to help pass into the web-connected body of knowledge an appreciation of 20th Century cultural achievements;
4. to bring valuable insights from our experience of the Arts to bear on contemporary 21st Century challenges.

Your introduction of web writing into your Creative Writing curriculum is right on time and should be very valuable for all. In the visual arts, the obvious value of web-collaboration suggests that programming, coding and scripting skills are as essential to artists as drawing.

We may establish helpful interlocutor positions for ourselves by:

1. gathering and reporting on web-based individual and collaborative projects which manifest the Arts sensibilities we value;
2. we can research and present guides to the use of web tools for cultural production;
3. we can produce and publish our own work on the web, when possible;
4. we can provide web access to our off-line work;
5. we can stimulate web-based discussion with our own statements and helping others to web-publish their relevant ideas;
6. we can convene conferences, on and off line, of the best minds of our generation to strengthen and expand our understanding of relevant issues.

If this seems grandiose, research into other's similar efforts will help us more clearly form the shape of our niche.

Technorati Tags: Literature Art 20th Century 21st Century blogs

More from Steve Harlow at p0ps.com

Skyline Painting on Auction

Downtown Skyline, originally uploaded by p0psharlow.

Last Sunday, we started an eBay auction for this painting. It is our first time to do this and we're using all our web-venues to get the word out. The auction runs until Wednesday, November 29, 2006 13:41:05 PST. We put a starting bid in at $1500 and the auction has currently attracted one bid at $2000. We decided to cover the shipping cost ourselves, so the winning bidder will receive the large painting delivered to them anywhere, free. It is item #260054904882, the seller name is p0psHarlow, bids may be placed here. We were very nervous when setting up the auction, it is so unfamilar, such an odd thing for us to do. We're trying to tell people about it. Emailing all those who responded to the videos we published of the process. If you can't bid, pass the link to someone who might be able to and wish us luck.

Technorati Tags: HarlowParson Harlow Parson Harlow Parson NYC Skyline Collaboration painting art eBay auction

Why Grids?

Final NYC Skyline Painting Study Collage, originally uploaded by p0psharlow.

There's many reasons we use grids when painting from studies, the first is that's its traditional. While having the grid visible is not, we prefer it, even tho, a few times, it has been hidden, as in this landscape or this cityscape. The Bauhaus design moralist in me says, if your process is to use a grid to transfer the information from a study to a painting, you should make the process visible, because it is the basis for the truth of the image, the source of the image's beauty.

There's usually a grid inherent in paintings, even if it is not used in the painting process. Our paintings are painted on rectangular stretched canvas support, hung on a rectangular wall, in a rectangular room. The subject of our current painting project is the view out a rectangular window at rectangular city buildings and their gridded pattern of windows. It's a riot of grids.

Another reason for using a grid is practical, as I wrote here describing my "Work Ethic" painting series, a grid allows us to paint short bursts of time, necessary, because we work day jobs. Turning a limitation into a strength, is the idea.

Another way for us to deal with short sessions divided by long periods of other work, might be to paint very small paintings, ones which could be completed in a few hours. Essentially that's what's going on with large gridded paintings -- we paint one grid area at a time, like painting a series of small paintings. But, with these, 100 small paintings add up to one big one, which we like better.

The image's link above, it leads here, to it's page on Flickr, where, the description gives an explanation of the process used to make the study. It is a collage containing many different ways to look at the subject, making the statement that the best truth comes from considering all points of view.

In this image, views are captured on different days, at differing times of day, in various weather conditions. In addition to these photographic representations, I've included some "Photoshop drawings" of some of the photographs, produced by using the various image adjustments and filters available in Photoshop to produce rendered images with drawing effects.

What is photography? What is drawing? Is there a meaningful difference between the two? These are questions I've been pondering since I was a kid. I'll consider them in another post.

Technorati Tags: art painting drawing photography collage grid Harlow p0ps

Can I Complain About This?

NYC Downtown Skyline Oct. 14, 2006 4pm, originally uploaded by p0psharlow.

Getting back, getting back into the swing of things -- at home, making new panorama photos of our skyline for a new series of paintings; at work, ramping up the promotional apparatus for the shopping season - that disgusting annual retail event which is the life-blood of all American retail companies.

Sad now, giving up my hopes for a return to San Francisco.

Fall is New York at its nicest and I've been trying to feel good about being here. If my job was less hours, I'd feel more settled. My home, my personal life is in my art. I contact it one hour on work day mornings, one hour on those nights. Four to six hours on weekend days. It has been enough to keep it going, but not enough to get it to another level. I'm thankful to have the time. Of course, less hours on the job, I'd be happier.

If not San Francisco, then where?

Ruth's ten years away from being old enough to retire. At 62, I'm at the age many retire. We don't have the savings. The stocks we bought back when everybody was buying them have been next to worthless for five years or more. Showing some signs of life lately, but we can't expect to get much out of them with the disaster all the Born-Agains and Ralph Nadar visited on this country. We can't expect to produce enough art to have a chance for success that way, shoot -- we can't even blog enough for a strong blog presence. Oh woe, oh sorrow!

Such a joke -- really!

I'm sitting here, in good health, at my laptop writing into this the wonderful web word-processing service that used to be "Writely" and now is Google Docs & Spreadsheets, connected wirelessly through the free FON wireless router I share with the world, being a "Fonero", I can hook up to any FON wireless I find in the world.

I have my new (Intel) iMac busy stitching together a few hundred video stills to make a panorama photo of the lovely NYC
Downtown Skyline view I have out the window on this fine, sunny, Fall day. My old G4 Mac is busy with some Photoshop actions, tweaking the saturation, contrast and sharpness on about 700 stills which I gathered out of some video panning I did earlier this morning of the skyline and which will make yet another pano-photo for our painting study. The G4 is also playing a fine batch of old country songs through the "Hank Williams Station" I set up on Pandora.

So, I have real problems. I'm keeping two powerful computers automatically assisting my art, another computer sending these words to a server Google maintains and then to this blog which globally publishes them. The room's filled with music that Pandora selects for me based on my history of hitting "thumbs up" or "thumps down" buttons in reaction to its choices. My cute girlfriend, whom I love so very much, is sitting across the room from me busy with her desk work. A fresh breeze flows through the window.

And I was complaining!

My biggest problem is where to eat lunch -- should we pick a spot ten blocks away so we can walk to it or should we make something here, eat it in the bedroom, watch a DVD and maybe nap? Exercise or nap? Home food or restaurant? Man, life is rough!

Calico panorama FON Pandora NYC Downtown

Painting NYC Downtown Skyline

The painting is finished and the video of it is complete! We worked 10 months of Sundays on this project and are very pleased to be "done" and proud of what we've done. We will show the painting at Fountain Gallery, opening September 15th (more info to follow).

Here's trashy, but accessible youTube videos of the complete project. I'll add inks to higher quality videos soon. For now, check these out:

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

Technorati Tags: art painting NYC LES collaboration p0ps Harlow Ruth Parson

New York, Art and Web

Mary, You wrote of your summer job. I'd like to write about mine. I have many. Here's a list of them:

1. Finish editing the fourth and final part of our Skyline painting movie.
2. Publish the video.
3. Research shipping options for shipping the painting.
4. Conduct an eBay auction of the painting.
5. Complete the book design and publish "Wing Lox On Bashevis Boulevard" (a book of 116 illustrations), the first product from the project I've been working on for over 18 months with the artist I once identified as "crazy".
6. Begin with Ruth our new 6 part painting project, "Rabbit Hill"
7. Make a portfolio site.
8. Organize my online identity.
9. Make and publish a resume.
10. Apply for work in San Francisco.
11. Search for an apartment in San Francisco.
12. Pack and move to San Francisco.

Along the way, I want to devote steady time in Second Life, as well as all the social networking sites I can understand.

This means I don't have time to do the following:

1. Storyboard, create a shooting script, cast, find location and shoot a movie of the scene from your play which you sent me.
2. Edit, soundtrack and publish video movies other than those apart of the painting project.
3. Look for music available for podcasting and begin a regular weekly podcast.
4. Go on a plein-air painting trip.
5. Learn to develop web art collaboration applications.

Those things will have to come later, in San Fran. I hope to find a place in Laurel Heights or outer Richmond. I hope the job is in the city, not down the peninsula. I'm prepared work ten more years, 'til I'm 72, but, of course, I'm hoping I won't have to. Whether through painting sales or web-presence income or something else, I hope to not need a job longer than five more years. Ruth may not have an income for the first year or two, but should after that.

Ruth will be working to start a "clubhouse" in San Francisco, she feels it's time now to bring what she learned at Fountain House to San Fran. She has contact with some families there that want it, she has support for this endeavor from the International body which accredits such places, California State and she's working on the Mayor.

Whether we get the move done by Fall or not, I'm hoping to not spend another summer in New York, although with the weather changing everywhere (so far this summer, we've had more monsoons than the ugly muggy days) I can't depend on New York being awful and San Fran being cool. I've been ready to leave New York for several years now, I was waiting for Ruth to get what she wanted out of it. Recently, she said the magic words, "I'm ready".

Rivers
Gibbes Museum

Lichtenstein
Milwaukee Art Museum

Pollock
Web Museum, Paris

Basquiat
The Art of Pricing

What I wanted to learn in New York was how to get that "easy" look that New York painting achieves so well. Historically, this look has come from painting smart (i.e. River) or from hiring others to paint for you (i.e. Lichtenstein). I'm not so interested in hiring a crew of "studio assistants", I wanted to learn to paint smart, without the troubled look that comes from an artist trying too hard.

Of course, achieving a breezy quality in art is difficult. The most attractive quality any artist can express is confidence. Confidence trumps competence every time. Most artists are too torn between the various issues in their life to confidently pursue art. Too many are so buffeted by the disapproval of others that their art expresses defensiveness. Becoming successful is not enough for some artists to maintain a confident flow of clear production. Popular artists are often torn apart by the snipes of critics, other artists and the public, they get so they mistrust themselves, sometimes implode into substance abuse (i.e. Pollock or Basquiat), their art loosing the confident quality which originally made it popular.

With great sadness, I can't say that I'm dealing with the ravages of popularity. I'm struggling with the balancing act between job, family, community, ambition and art.

I came to New York to learn how contemporary artists deal with the demands of difficult times in a difficult city. My expectations were fairly open-ended, allowing the city to teach me. I could not have predicted the lessons I have learned.

One of my first lessons was that I was unwilling to enter the social life of the Art world. This meant no gallery shows for me. A tough lesson.

The next was that I'd have to produce my art around a full-time job. A grinding, on-going lesson.

Since I had to work a job, I thought I should be learning skills useful in my art, I chose to be trained and to find work in internet commerce. A good choice, I think. As it turns out, I love the internet, it suits me wonderfully.

A weakness in my participation in web design is that the innovators and leaders of the field are willing to devote double-time to their work. My time is split between what I do for my employer, my own art-oriented internet development and my analog, physical world art work. The innovative internet developers are running circles around me, my internet art and my painting are moving at an snail's pace.

However, I'm proud that I'm able to produce anything at all in these three areas, that I maintain an interest in online merchandising, display and marketing, as well as the promise of collaborative web-based art production and my painting. Each artist's best attribute is their uniqueness, this is mine, no one has my particular combination of skills and interests, few artist of my age, rooted in 20th century American art are as active in the the Internet as I.

The Lasting Image

Of the Christo and Jeane-Claude's projects I know, I like best their 1972 - 1976 "Running Fence, in Sonoma and Marin Counties of California. I was very close to this one, but I think, objectively, it is the most beautiful of their work.

I wasn't able to be hired on to the project, I needed my steady job at "The Last Great Hiding Place" in Cotati. Some of my friends were able to work on it, they, universally, were thrilled to do so.

The "Fence" began a few miles down Old Redwood Highway from my house near Penngrove, I could see a glimpse of it from my back porch. It continued 24.5 miles across the gorgeous rolling hills of rural West Sonoma County, to the sea just south of the Marin County line.

From what I heard, Christo and, especially, Jeanne-Claude completely charmed most of the land owners and government officials they met to gain permissions for the project. One administrator of Petaluma Fairgrounds, which was used as a staging area for the material and equipment told me, "She (Jeane-Claude) was a lovely woman, just wonderful." Most of the local ranchers were proud to be a part of the project, trusted Christo and Jeane-Claude, were delighted with their vision, gladly let them on their land without expecting payment, but accepted small gifts of television sets or furniture which they believed Christo and Jeane-Claude took pleasure in giving.

Many of the ranchers could make good use the fence's materials, for them, Christo and Jeane-Claude had the large woven nylon panels folded neatly, the nylon lines coiled, the metal poles stacked in sheds or barns at the end of the project's two week public showing. Other land owners had no use for the materials, so Christo and Jeane-Claude removed everything, donating all to local non-profit agencies who wanted it.

I wanted a panel, was willing to trade one of my, then current, large abstract paintings, but could not close a deal.

Some land owners wanted nothing to do with these European "artists" traipsing across their land, disturbing their livestock, making a mess. The project routed around them. Some greedy land owners in strategic locations held back their permission until Christo and Jeane-Claude gave them money or materials equal to tens of thousands of dollars. One rumor had it that a rancher near the township of Valley Ford got over one hundred thousand dollars from Christo and Jeane-Claude.

Some citizens argued against the project at the many public hearings. The discussion following their objections make up a big part of the public record which became the Christo and Jeane-Claude's art. The video, audio and transcriptions of hundred's of hours of argument over the appropriateness of government approval of the art project making a lasting record of rural California's thoughts on public art in mid-70's. That record alone makes the project valuable.

But, it is the Running Fence's spectacular beauty that remains it's most lasting cultural memory. The Fence was completed the day before the official "opening". There was a full-moon that night. I went with friends in a car along the fence's route for a preview. The silvery-white panels reflected the moon's light looking magical from a distance the fence slipped along the land's contours. Up close, it glowed powerfully. As we drove, the fence darted away from the road to disappear into trees, reemerged flashing on the crest of hills, running back close to parallel the road.

Where the fence bisected Valley Ford, we got out to touch it. A few people were out in the one-block main street. Some were Christo workers, some were fans like us. It was a celebratory atmosphere, we bought some beer at the store, drank it beside the fence, with the moon light reflecting from the eighteen feet high fence covering us with silver.

Continuing, we followed the fence's route into Marin County. At the beach where it dipped into the sea, there was a gathering of Sheriffs, officials and Christo workers preventing us from walking down to the beach. It was a crime scene. Christo and Jeane-Claude had broken the law to run the fence the last 1000 yards of public land to the sea. The Coastal Commission withheld permission for it to cross the State controlled beach.

Christo and Jeane-Claude had broken the project's promise to respect legitimate rules and regulations to execute the entire installation and removal of the sculpture with permissions from all legal owners and governmental bodies. An Art Critic wrote the next day for the San Francisco Chronicle that Christo and Jeane-Claude had "violated their project's integrity". Those who shared this view held that the fence should have stopped short of crossing the beach. Myself and the fence's fans thought that Art required the fence to touch the sea, the image of the fence slipping into the ocean was essential.

A young woman friend of mine, a brown-skinned, leggy, hippie artist told me she had been riding with Christo between him and one of his lieutenants in the front seat of the pick-up truck Christo drove when the decision to run the fence into the sea was made. Using radio walkie-talkies, Christo and the crew chief at the coast had been in conversation over the issue of stopping the fence or proceeding to the sea. Mid-day, Christo was still undecided, the crew chief demanded a decision, the crew needed to wrap up the construction, make the area presentable for the scheduled public viewing the next day. Pushed, Christo radioed, "Down to the sea, yes, take it down to the sea!" A cheer went up both in the truck and on the beach. But, Christo was quiet, worried.

The lesson I took was that it is important both to create within strict rules and to sometimes break the rules. The rules give the artwork shape, breaking the rules can give it life. In this case, the artwork's vision needed to be respected as well as the law. Since the Coastal Commission's refusal was only based on a fear of diluting the law's protection by granting a construction exemption, no actually harm was expected to the area and the reasonable argument was that no future Coastal Commission or Court would be able to equate a lightly constructed temporary sculpture with permanent commerical construction on the tidal area, the fear of setting harmful precedents did not seem reason enough to curtail the completion of the artistic vision. Today, remembering that moonlit night, when I looked past the tumultuous foreground to the shining fence slipping into the surf I still think Christo did the right thing.

Another friend of mine, ended his work on the project by walking the entire route from coast to Old Redwood Highway sowing grass seed after all material had been removed, marks and holes filled. He was ecstatic over this beautiful ending to his experience as one of Christo's "artists".

A lasting social impact of the project was Sonoma County gaining about one thousand people with paid work as "Artist" on their resumés. Christo and Jeane-Claude hired them from the local population, as Artists. They worked for more than three months, then were laid off at project's end, causing the County's employment statistics to show a large number of unemployed Artists. Since, at that time, we had a Democratic administration at both State and Federal levels, the governments actually tried to help the unemployed. This political situation allowed a group of us, a year later, to successfully get a grant approved which brought Federally funded salaries to unemploy about a dozen artists to create and operate an Art Center in a beautiful, but abandoned Santa Rosa elementary school building. Somehow, I got myself into that undertaking, becoming a staff curator of the Lincoln Art Center Gallery, where we produced a vigorous schedule of gallery exhibitions and events from 1977 to 1980. Most memorably, for me, was an electrifying performance by Ruth Parson.

Remembering The Gates

gates100, originally uploaded by p0psharlow.

Actually, it's more about figuring out how to use Flickr. I uploaded a set of pictures I had handy of our visit last year to The Gates. I wrote some stuff about The Gates and Christo, who has been a favorite inspiration of mine. I have much more to say about their work and influence, but this is what I wrote in Flickr to accompany The Gates photos. I'm blogging this from within Flickr, a feature I think I may use often. I could easily blog "from" other people's photos as well. I probably will. There is a lot going on with photography that I'd like to write about using other's pictures on Flickr to illustrate. Flickr, You Tube, MySpace are three of the most popular Web 2.0 services that I'm interested in using. They are making the web usable and enjoyable for all -- a good thing.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Gates at dawn, in the snow.

I like Christo, his art projects, his wife, Jeanne-Claude, that they work together, that they work in public, that they consider their art to be the entire process from conception, through gaining permissions, to the execution, clean up and documentation. Many people don't like their art, they feel cheated or bothered, it is dismaying to me how upset some people get over Christo and Jeanne-Claude' projects. I'm sorry they miss the beauty, the fun, the art, but there's nothing I can do for those who don't see it, so I try not to spend time feeling sad for them.

I like some Christo projects better than others. I like their early work with wrapping objects, wrapping store fronts, buildings. They won me over because of the look of the wrappings and the shear nuttiness of it. I really got IT though, when they proposed to wrap the Reichstadt in Berlin, requiring the cooperation of both halves of the, then divided, Germany. I got that it is the effect on the public of public art that is the subject of their art. All the discussion, documented and undocumented, official and casual, public and private becomes the art, plus all the contracts, the materials, the effect on the social and physical environment. The public viewing of a temporary sculpture event is the focus, but not the only or even the most important part of the art work. They do social sculpture.

It is essential that the proposed artwork, the center of each project, be striking, have resonance and beauty. The Gates qualified, the repetition of curtain hanging gateways with their luminous color, had a walker's rhythm, providing fresh framing of familiar park views. They created dotted lines like brush strokes across the park.

I liked the way the work enveloped me sometimes and opened out into distant dashes of color at others. One of my favorite effects was the way the gates color "leaked" into the landscape through reflections on water, ice, even bouncing into shadows. Another great effect was saturating my retina with the red-orange, then turning away and having my retinas project the complimentary blue-green over the landscape.

These photos are stills from the video I shot that morning. If interested, you may find a link to my movie of that day on p0ps.com homepage. I'm not distributing it officially until I make an original soundtrack.