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

Technophobia is not a phobia!

Technophobia is no psychological disorder... no phobia... just unwillingness to learn! Let's call it what it is.

It is a bit of malaise! A bit of just plain laziness! A bit of the old proverbial "towel" being thrown in and admitting that you are old!

Stevie Nicks is a self-proclaimed technophobe, but I say she has no phobia:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/09/entertainment/e055214D27.DTL&type=music

No doubt, learning most new technologies is hard work.

Technophobia is the strong dislike or fear of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. This "phobia" is far from the normal class of phobias associated with psychological disorders, like a germ-a-phob. See, the germ-a-phob has not the luxury of choice, and unusually has very little control over this mentally substantiated phobia.

The term technophobia was most likely coined back in the industrial revolution, but I'd say there were so-called "technophobes" as early as the invention of the wheel.

Being a technophobic and saying you wont use new technologies because you believe it is destroying todays youth is a bit like saying that Nintendo was destroying the youth of the 80s (that would include me)with Super Mario Brothers - ha! And the evolution went on from there, as it always has, with the Atari 2600, Atari computer, ColecoVision, Commodore 64 and so on, all the way up to the iPhone today.

Face it when you refuse to pick up on the new technologies you might as well get out the old rockin chair and plop down on the old front porch with your old newspaper (while you can still get a newspaper) and just be old.

"Digital Fine Art" is an OXYMORON!

Part of what makes fine art fine art lies in its creation process

First allow me to define oxymoron and fine art:

An oxymoron is basically a set of expressions with stark contradictions in the, usually two, terms. Commonly these oxymoron (paradoxes) serve a kind of rhetorical effect. Typical examples are:

• act naturally
• deafening silence
• jumbo shrimp

Further definition of the word oxymoron: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron

Fine art's function (another oxymoron?) is mostly for aesthetics and concept, not utility.

Further definition on the words fine art: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_art

The main problem with "digital fine art" (or "DFA"), for me, is in its creation process. Its artistic process is not real. You see, in the creation of fine art there are naturally accidents, albeit happy accidents, nonetheless things that happen that are not planned. These "not plannings" become part of the fine art itself! They are actually part of the process of what makes the art fine art. Now, within the digital realm you have tools like Ctrl-Z (or Command-Z on a Macintosh - for which most graphic designers use). This digital erase-erase kills the authenticity of the creation process, as it leaves NO trace.

So I'd suggest a new term for digital fine art. And that term would be...

...wait for it...

...graphic design!

Really, as soon as a photo or image hits the fully controlled realm of the computer it loses its fineness; it may even be a stretch to call it art, but I won't go out on that limb. Once images or objects can be moved around the page without a trace of their original existence, cloned, cut, pasted and Gaussian blurred, they become a process of design. This type of design, as in moving objects around to create an aesthetically pleasing environment, is more for utility.

Lancaster, PA – Amish or Fine Art?

Could the city of Lancaster be the next Soho?

I read an article in the local newspaper this past Sunday that suggested that Fine Artists are leaving the exorbitant, high-cost-of-living areas of New York City, Boston and Philadelphia to settle in areas around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The article suggested that artists that normally show their work in places like Soho will now show in Lancaster.

Although the article could have been mostly a sales push for the galleries, the shift could be taking place, anything is possible (in theory anyway).

Come to think of it, on warm summer evenings, on the first Friday of every month elbow to elbow crowds are not out of the ordinary. Galleries and museums extend their hours on these Friday nights mainly for the many artist receptions and exhibit openings. The main walk on Prince Street is packed.

The city has a pretty successful annual Art Walk also. So the interest is here!

But is the demand?

The supply of the artists is definitely here. This area has seemingly tons of art schools churning out artists every semester at an endless pace. Talent is abound.

Is it possible that someday Lancaster will be known more for its Fine Art than for its Amish?