Case-Notes from the Artsy Asylum

Colors That Won't Make My Eyes Bleed

Our friend Rob Wood at Jamdo, fantastic resource that he is, has more good stuff to share. His latest suggestion is a neat little color selector thingamabob.

". . . for those of you who enjoy design, I just came accross a funky little colour wheel thingy that you might find useful.

These kind of tools are good if you are trying to figure out which colours look ok together  . . .

Hypnotic Onscreen Images

And now, for something completely different, the Artsy Asylum presents the music - complete with hypnotic on-screen images - that we stream into the rooms when we're trying to get the asylumite  "guests" to put away the scissors and embossing powder and go to bed before three AM.

I mean, how cool is this - being able to stream a scrolling score along with Claude Debussy's piano piece in a BLOG? I've moved the video screen to it's own page so the blog loads faster, but it's still here on the blog as you will see when you click below.

So let's have a big hand for cool technology!

Illustration Friday - Under the Sea

After last week's Illustration Friday topic - also known as the "Scary Robot Episode" it was a relief to get today's subject assignment:
     Under the Sea

It gives us a welcome chance to think about summer, suntan lotion, and boats coming out of winter homes to slip onto sparkling water.

My entry recognizes both the hard labor and exhilarating sport of things Under the Sea.  

Click on the image for a larger view of Ephemeria Poste's Issue #2006.04.10. You can also find the 4 sheet download packet at the download portal at Lulu and check here for ideas for how to use artistamps

Susan & Shatner : Two Degrees of Separation

It's interesting what we grab onto as signs of accomplishments as we move along the ladder in area of interest, employment, community activities etc.

In the blogosphere it's a thrill to have an A List blogger leave a comment on our blogs. Heck a C Lister will do fine for me.

I keep slipping back from Lowly Insect to Crunchy Crustacean in The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem. This is so pitiful I'm thinking of putting up a sign "Will Work for Links."

Beyond blogging, being asked to teach a class or write about our work, our theories, our whatever - would be an accomplishment to almost any of us. Musicians want a record to go platinum - or just get airplay. Painters want solo shows and the more earthbound are happy if our creation is published in Cloth Paper Scissors.

It turns out that what terms we use to describe these achievements is interesting, which I noticed when reading an email from one of daughter #2's old high school boyfriend. His mailing list updates us on the progress of his acting career and today it announced that he will be:

"Co-Starring (fancy Hollywood term for having like 2 lines) on the Season Finale of "Boston Legal" starring Emmy winners James Spader, Candice Bergen,  and William Shatner"

Internet Chicken Pox : Your Secret Weapon

Did the photo-montage and green "play" button get your attention? It's one of those ideas that is captivating; a lot like my seven year old granddaughter. And that comment fits the theme because she was vaccinated for chicken pox . . but has a lovely case of them nonetheless.

It's so contagious that her doctor was afraid to let her walk out of the office through the waiting room. An interesting idea can be just as contagious.

Spring Cleaning in Cyberspace

I haven't organized myself to the point of planning on the reboot day which the bloggosphere does kind of informally each May first. Probably because it sounds too much like work if planned. Apparently I understood on some level the need to put a fresh face on the Asylum Blog though.

Interestingly, Problogger's regular contributor - Aaron Brazell in discussing the annual May First Reboot says:

"I've learned:1) change is inevitable, and 2) people hate change. 

"The exception to this rule seems to be websites. Most people (and I say most because it’s a suspicion that I have no way to prove one way or another),

Are You Discriminating Online?

Subtitle: The guy with green spiked hair will probably pass me by to sit near my 20 year old daughter - aka the chick with the sexy Mo Rocca* rectangular black glasses

In the Everyday Economist Blog, the author writes about  The Bus of Discrimination, telling this story

"Everyday I ride the bus to work. Recently I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon.  As people choose seats they reveal their prejudices.

". . ..  once every row has a person in the outermost seat, new passangers on the bus tend to walk to the back of the bus hoping for an empty seat.  As they realize the probability of an empty seat is low they quickly find a seat.

". . .people find seats of people like them selves. Hispanic women tend to find a hispanic woman to sit with.  A black woman with a black woman.  A white middle aged man will find another white middle-aged man."

Thinking about it, I wondered if my friends, fellow bloggers, entrepreneurs and artists couldn't be accused of doing the same thing every day.

Your Secret to Support is Jammin

It's just reality. Not all paper or mixed media artists get our work published multiple times a year. Heck - lots of writers don't even get published several times a year.

But artists and others need to have their work, words, images, views, music, expertise - or whatever commodity we're talking about - be seen, read, viewed, etc it's nice to have a strategy that doesn't involve:

• working like mad to meet an artificial deadline, not to mention sometimes sketchy guidelines
  
• sending our work off to some office on the other side of the country, and
• then sitting around waiting to see what someone else decides

That's the situation that flashed in my mind when I heard that Denise and Patsi (aka the Blog Squad) and originators of the 90 Day "Blog to Book Project"  are now publishing a

What Ten Firefox Tabs Do You Have Open?

Rob Wood from the Jamdo blog wonders if You are an Internet Time Waster?  He admits:

I am an internet addict. It’s just the way I am. I would plug my head straight into broadband if the technology was available!

..... In fact I use Firefox and usually have at least 10 tabs open at any one time.

When Your Writing Isn't Good Enough 5ives Keeps Cranking

5ives is a collection of lists of five things. While I toil over a hot drawing board to come up with content, a guy named Merlin Mann who is described as "a stony recluse who probably lives in a tree somewhere in Northern California" is producing entries about fives.

Here's what I've got to say about that.

        No fair!