Art

ART: ɑːt (noun) 1. the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
2. the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.
“the visual arts”

10 Reasons Why Animators Should Make GIFs

| Paul Greer
1. They’re quick to do. 
Animation is traditionally a lifetime torturefest of pain, self-doubt and confusion. You can make a nice GIF from just a few frames and that’s the end of it.

2. They catch the eye.
There’s nothing like a moving image in a sea of search results to make people look twice. (We’re living in an attention economy, people).

3. You can provide a nice teaser to your Vimeo page.
Like worms for fish.

4. No-one will ask you to explain the sub-text.
Which is especially good if it is not in your best interest to tell people what exactly that is.

5. People rarely click and watch a video on Tumblr.
With a GIF, TOO LATE!! They already watched it.

6. It’s down with the kids.
Kids love GIFs, GIFs love kids.

7. You can do self portraits and no-one has to look at your ugly face.
I’ve been participating in the Guest Directed Self Portrait project initiated by Molly Peck. I think I am only recognisable in 1 of my 7 submissions so far made.

8. You can try stuff out and get quick feedback.
Nothing says something works by a tsunami of reblogs.

9. You learn the virtue of brevity.
There’s nothing worse than a time waster.

10. You can recycle old work.
Remember that crappy piece of work you did years ago that you’re too ashamed to show anyone? GIF the good bit, bin the rest.

Werner Herzog’s Note To His Cleaning Lady »

Link | | Paul Greer

“You constantly revile me with your singular lack of vision. Be aware, there is an essential truth and beauty in all things. From the death throes of a speared gazelle to the damaged smile of a freeway homeless. But that does not mean that the invisibility of something implies its lack of being. Though simpleton babies foolishly believe the person before them vanishes when they cover their eyes during a hateful game of peek-a-boo, this is a fallacy. And so it is that the unseen dusty build up that accumulates behind the DVD shelves in the rumpus room exists also. This is unacceptable.”

via

“What is some advice you can give to an aspiring young artist?”

Aside | | Paul Greer

Reblogged from mollycrabapple

“Work hard, make friends, don’t give up.

A bit more: be incredibly opportunistic and on the hunt for places that can use your art. Be hard on yourself. Shun all the woo woo vagueness that people tell artists: “fulfilling your dreams”, “nurturing your creativity”, the whole lot of that. It exists to sell self-help books to dilettantes.

Care about money. You’ll need it. If not now, when you’re sick or old or have a kid. Never listen to anyone who tries to shame you for caring about money.

Be mercenary with most clients, but be incredibly generous with comrades in arms who inspire you. I still do a considerable amount of cheap or free work, for musician BFFs or Occupy Wall Street. I can do this because I charge alot for my paid work.

Remember that you actually have to make things that people want to buy, and if people don’t want to buy them it’s not because they’re awful philistines. Endeavor to both do better and find your audience.

Generate your own projects that you believe in. Work hard on them. Show them off.

Don’t illustrate people’s self published children’s books for free. Trust me.

Make friends with people who aren’t artists, and have interests that aren’t art. Hackers, entrepeneurs, journalists, models, construction workers, professors…

Draw all the time. Keep sketchbooks. Go to figure drawing classes. Copy old masters. Be hard on yourself and address your flaws. Find the voice that’s yours

Remember that the future belongs to multi-disciplinary mutants, and that a father-figure gallery/agent/manager probably isn’t going to swoop down and make you famous while you hole up in your studio and draw all day.

Learn how industries like marketing and the media actually work. It’s not hidden knowledge. You can learn to write a press release in five minutes via google.

There’s no shame in promoting yourself. No one else will do it for you unless you’re already making them money or they’re trying to suck up to your dad.

Invest in good equipment and good presentation. Crappy iPhone pics of your work aren’t going to get you jobs.

Pay your quarterly taxes. Get an accountant as soon as you can. Freelancers are fucked in America.

Don’t spend 150k on an art degree.

Make a cool website.

But most of all: if you want to be an artist for a living, you can’t half-ass it. You have to want it more than anything, and be willing to sacrifice sleep, social life, crappy high-school boyfriends, after-work drinks, and pretty much every other trapping of a fun, chill, early twenties experiance.

If you don’t want to do this, being a full time artist isn’t for you. There’s no shame in this. Drawing for fun, because you love it, is a beautiful thing.

But if you know that there’s nothing else that you can do but make art all day, that it’s what you were born for, you’re going to need to make sacrifices.

Good luck.”

Masters of photography – Diane Arbus (documentary, 1972)

| Paul Greer

Someone must have sent me this or linked to it recently, because it was in my “watch later” list on the Youtubes.

I listened to it three times today already whilst working, I might listen to it again.

“Everybody has that thing when they need to look one way but they come out looking another way and that is what people observe.

You see someone on the street and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw.

It’s just extraordinary that we should be given these peculiarities and not content with what we were given we create a whole other set. Our whole guise is like giving a sign to the world to think of us a certain way.

But there’s a point between what you want people to know about you and what you can’t help people knowing about you, and that has to do with. what I have always called, the gap between intention and effect.”