Fine art website: redesign taking mucho time

Sitting here listening to WHAM "AT40 5/25/85 #01 - Wham-Everything She Wants" while restructuring/redesigning my website: kickthefaucet.com. Not one of my favorite Wham songs, but it did actually hit #1 in 1985. Seemingly, I can't get enough of 80s music though!

I'm redesigning the website out of flash. It will still have flash components to show the fine art paintings, but I know the flash is not as search friendly as pure HTML/CSS.

It is unbelievable how long this redesigning and restructuring of very similar content is taking! To be fair it is like a brand new website.

Anxiety Art — If a cast could heal the broken mind...

People who suffer from mental disorders, like uncontrollable anxiety, wish it was that easy. The pain IS as real as a broken arm to them, but there is no easy fix like a cast.

A good bit of the concepts that derive my fine art stem from stories of obsessive compulsive disorder sufferers. Fact is, many people don't even know what the acronym OCD stands for though. If they or someone they know experiences obsessive compulsive behavior they just chalk it up as being anxious about something.

There are differences between anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive ones, but they can be subtle. Anxiety and OCD show up as separate ideas in my paintings and artwork.

I actually suggest that OCD is a subset of anxiety disorders:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  GAD can manifest itself as persistent worry about events or activities and produce physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, muscle tension and difficulty sleeping.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  OCD is usually specific obsessions and compulsions. The obsessive thoughts are uncontrollable. And the compulsion is a repetitive behavior to relieve the stress caused by the obsessions.

GAD and OCD could actually mix in the sense that the anxiety can cause heart palpitations and then the OCD would obsess into thought patterns that drive the sufferer to the emergency room several times.

Any way you slice it, anxiety is very real to its sufferers. It is a disability.

Non-suffers can't comprehend the weight of the realness that anxiety can bare. Mostly this non-suffer incomprehension leads to a few facial frowns, with raised eyebrows as they subtly shake their heads in disappointment about the actions of the anxious ones. They see the sufferers as inconveniences in their daily routines... thorns in their sides... speed bumps in their roads to fruition.

This interaction of the sufferers and non-sufferers is unfortunate. In my fine art about anxiety I try to paint this dichotomy. The concept of complexity on one side of the human race and misunderstanding on the other.

You can't outsource creativity!

"But as he points out, you can't outsource creativity." Daniel Pink author of A Whole New Mind
Full story here: Why right-brainers will rule this century

It is good to hear that I have job security.

Creativity IS a huge headache to try to outsource.

Not to mention outsourcing creativity is also far from efficient and cost effective. Don't believe me? Try it! By the time you go back and forth with "Leroy" and his team from India a few dozen times (trying to communicate your idea), and then re-do (what feels like) a few hundred design proofs/submissions, you'll find you could have completed 10 different campaigns in-house.

I've always said that there is no such thing as "job security" in today's global economy. Every job I can think of can be affected or replaced by advances in technology. So the closest thing there is to real "job security" is to stay on top of technology — AND be creative at it.

Fine Art — trim the fat!

Fine art has tremendous value, BUT...

"the days of the $300 million dollar sale are over"
And I say they should be! I've always believed globalization will determine true value for all things: labor, commodities, materials and even the fine art market. In a recession true value is determined very quickly.

NY art auction market in "free fall" for spring
This article suggests this fine art slow-down is because the sellers are holding their fine art, and not because there are a lack of buyers. Or maybe it is easier for the fine art investors to hold than to admit they overpaid to begin with.

...Allow me to step up on my soapbox...

$300 million at a single auction is a bit exorbitant. And remember, this is coming from the mouth of a fine artist.

Think about it – and it may sound cliché but – that amount of money COULD do so much for so many. That amount of money could change many, many lives. Yet it switches hands in exchange for a few paintings (at a cool $100 million each).

One things is for sure, in a global recession, possibly heading for a global depression, the fat gets trimmed from EVERYTHING! The true value of fine art is being realized.

Shameless self-promotion: For much more reasonably priced original fine art