Permission To Suck

Did You Make Art Today? – The Swanko Solution

Monday, July 19, 2010

I have a friend who asks at the end of a shoot, “Did you make art today?” “I think so” was my typical response because I’m never sure what I did with my camera that day will be considered art. Thinking back, it’s probably because I’ve assessed too many contact sheets and digital proofs filled with prosaic visual records.

What makes great photographs and illustrations?

Thursday, July 1, 2010

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There are elements of a great picture beyond composition, simplicity, light, color, texture and all that designy-crafty stuff. With some tormented thought, I’ve narrowed it down to three elements that seamlessly overlap but are also separate enough that they seem to own a category.

You Waiting for Permission?

Monday, June 7, 2010

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What is the street artist’s intent? Anti-social pop art with an extreme satirical point intended for consumption across all socioeconomic barriers, or is it hype driven brandalism by an artistic terrorist bent on pulling one over on a naïve culture?

Heightening or Cheating the Creative Encounter

Thursday, May 20, 2010

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Artistic creativity is an act of intimacy or not; it’s genuine art or it's artifact. Learn to manipulate tools and their crafty mechanisms so they become secondary or not.

The Vernacular Photograph an Accidental Masterpiece

Thursday, May 6, 2010

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Like colloquial speech is to literature, vernacular photography is any type that isn’t intended as art. "There are no accidental masterpieces in painting, but there are accidental masterpieces in photography." - Chuck Close

Creativity is Analog; Digital is Facsimile

Tuesday, April 20, 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.

Seth Godin on Linchpin, Interviewed by Piers Fawkes of PSFK

Monday, March 29, 2010

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Linchpin is his most personal book to date. In it he describes our current economic transformation from an individual's viewpoint. Think of it as a pep talk for Purple Cows or a kick in the ass for the rest of the herd.

What I Learned from John Maeda, I Used on the Beach

Monday, March 22, 2010

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Complexity assaults me because I’m not close enough to what’s important or it overwhelms me because I haven’t stepped back far enough. John Maeda wrote the laws of Simplicity a few years ago and I pressed a few into service on a trip to Bulls Island, SC.

Finger Painting Is My Instrument of Survival

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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In this video interview, Milton Glaser offers a definition of art, or at least what art isn't. “If it moves you to attentiveness it is art, if it doesn't it's something else.” - Milton

The Modern Kitsch Experience

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

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Defining art has never been all that controversial; it’s the "good" part that carries the debate. New tools have made discernment tougher still. It’s not all that hard to make the work appear good through imitation or mechanized craft and then assert its worthiness.