Permission To Suck

Photography from Emotion and Concept – w/ Renee Byer’s TEDx Presentation

25. April 2010

I can’t grip rational leverage on conceptual composites that look like photography but really aren’t even, though they defy any other category and have original photographic components. What are these things?

Creativity is Analog; Digital is Facsimile

20. April 2010

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My point is that the richness you and I perceive as quality, just like my experience in China, can be like old and new competing for road space. Creativity is analog. There is no such thing as digital creativity, it's only a simulation.

Interview with Jeff Goodby by BigBuzz Kevin Kelly

9. April 2010

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Mainly, Jeff Goodby is the Creative Director and co-Chairman of Goodby Silverstein and Partners Ad Age's Agency of the Decade. He was the principle guy who made you "get" milk. Kevin Kelly of BigBuzz.com interviews Jeff Goodby in a short video.

Food for Thought – James Geary’s Metaphor

25. February 2010

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Visual metaphor is not only the staple of advertising but the backbone of all art. James Geary points out in his TED presentation (embedded) that metaphor is when we perceive X = Y. Though, in our struggle to understand visual abstractions, I believe we search for metaphor rather than analogy. We adore closure.

VW ‘Punch Dub’ Ad is the Winner of the Super Bowl Spots

8. February 2010

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Just in case you were wondering about my opinion, Volkswagen is the ad winner - for my money (not that it has anything to do with my money) - of the 2010 Superbowl spots and here's why.

Is Your Best Work Ahead of You?

1. February 2010

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It’s important that we know our best work is yet to be produced. Our best is what is in us now, not what we – or others - admire about the past. Jazz Composer, Maria Schneider, has a story to illustrate this point.

Crowds are Dull, Committees are Deadly, Creativity Needs Freedom

25. January 2010

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The committee is usually wrong; yet the crowd is commonly right and incredibly dull. If you’re part of the crowd you’ll be sourced and forgotten. Ji Lee and his bubble project is a good example of how it's done right.

So Where is the Democratized Artistic Genius?

18. January 2010

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Evidently neither technology nor egalitarianism does anything to stir the soul, yet, Rauschenberg erases beauty and inspires – or provokes - the heart of an artistic movement. Watch a short video interview with Rauschenberg about his erasure of a de Kooning masterpiece.

Creative Denial, Anger, Bargaining, & Acceptance

14. January 2010

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Lately, creative professionals are suffering the heartbreak of a fading uniqueness and coping with the pressure to add value in other ways. Clay Shirky gave his first TED talk in 2005. His institution v. collaboration presentation must have appeared abstract to more folks then than now, nevertheless, Clay’s talk hasn’t faded in value for those of us trying to recover our bearings in a once familiar profession.

Photographic Point of View – Ralph Gibson

11. January 2010

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Listening to Ralph Gibson speak, and reviewing his work, something hit me. Yes, his work is simultaneously complex and simple. Its complexity is hidden by simplicity. His chosen frame is the disguise. But moreover, his work over five decades is astonishingly similar and that, to me, is especially remarkable when bearing in mind that I consider changing my approach daily.