I like to gamble! There, I said it. But sometimes it’s better to watch the action rather than play the action, so check out the Zynga Poker Final Table Shootout. My buddy narrates the action. Game on!

Hi Everyone!

I haven’t blogged in almost a year! Can you believe it? I can. Oh my. Well I’m back in action!

As a special hello, I’d like to share an arts and crafts project I just finished:

I was inspired by this cardboard animal head that I saw in a sweet urban interior design store. I thought, “I have got to have that but I’m not loving the price”. So, with the boxes I had from a recent apartment move, I decided to make my own.

Let’s just say it’s a fairly simple project that can be satisfying with the proper amount of patience. Maybe I’ll attempt to sell them on my Etsy page, but after the labor and time spent on it, I can see why such a product has a high asking price. (But hey, mine isn’t laser cut—just my own two hands!)

Last month I posted my Geek Art YouTube video.  I’m super happy to say that my video won the Global Geek Week YouTube video contest!  Thanks to Mashable, The Society for Geek Advancement, @GuyKawasaki, @ShiraLazar, @ecogeek, @hotforwords, Wei-Hwa Huang, and Lisa Donavan for putting up the opportunity and judging my video the winner.

To see the announcement of the winner, check out the Vlogbrothers video below, at the time stamp 3:06:

In other sweet news, Moxie the Maven pointed out to me that my Dream Captcha coverage on Apartment Therapy’s Unplgged blog is the #1 Top Post today. That article is a year old. Why the sudden interest? Perhaps a correlation with the YouTube contest? Who knows, but thanks for all the views folks! Be sure to check out my Etsy shop for more information regarding all things Dreamy Captcha.

It’s Global Geek Week! I like the idea of this week, brought to you by The Society for Geek Advancement and the Summer of Social Good.

Well the week starts off with a bang, and that bang is a fun YouTube competition. How do you use your inner geek to spread love and joy around the world? Well, check out my response!

It’s been a bunch of hours now since the news broke of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson’s deaths. I’ve been glued to Facebook and Twitter like they were the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Summer Olympics. I even got a call from my mother, being the saint that she is, to pray for them.

This unprecedented activity on both social networks was instigated by news websites reporting unconfirmed gossip that, in the end, was true. The frenzy of condolences, humor, and plain confusion from users mimicked a public rally of a swarm of voices all yelling at once. Who’s voice was the loudest? Well of course it was the next buzz worthy gossip: the death of Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford, too! (As of writing this, Jeff and Harrison are alive and well.)

When Farah’s death was confirmed, there was minimal activity on Facebook with respect to my 500 something friends. When Michael’s death was announced and confirmed a few hours later, the Facebook activity was phenomenal. Personal messages of grief and witty remarks of humor blended into a surreal home page where I could not distinguish friends who were genuinely upset from friends who were simply playing around with another piece of entertainment news.

The day a celebrity dies social media must commit to a resurrection. After Heath Ledger and Natasha Richardson’s publicized deaths, I thought “I can’t handle social media’s expressions of grief anymore”. I have all but confirmed my personal feelings with today’s news of two celebrity deaths followed by two more unconfirmed.

My Facebook and Twitter home pages are bombarded by news of terrible tragedies. I grow accustom to the information and experience each stage of grief and loss in less than half an hour. I get pissed off when someone disturbs this feed with unrelated information like a new mobile picture of a cat. Then I realize the absurdity of my attention span and revert to blogging about my suffering.

So the moral of the story is that Facebook and Twitter feeds are organized chaos. It’s a sea of voices that, unfortunately, individually manage to hook my attention. Each second I spend on each voice adds up to minutes and then suddenly I realize I’ve been refreshing my feeds for an hour. An hour of “RIP MJ” and “I’ll miss you, King of Pop” and “this is a sad day” has numbed me. This sea of voices also reminds me of a sculpture I created titled Tagged 4.0, which you can see below:

Tagged 4.0
2008
paper
each square is 1 3/4″ squared (4.46cm squared)
13″ x 12″ x 12″ (33.0cm x 30.5cm x 30.5cm)

The artwork reveals a ton of iconic Facebook photo ‘tags’ in a beautifully organized yet chaotic mess. Each tag climbs on top of another, pushing other tags out and down, just to be heard at the top of a social ladder. It becomes a hypnotic experience to weave your eyes in and out of each square much like my eyes wandered throughout my social media feeds this afternoon.

Today, I read on JoeMyGod that Craigslist is dropping their “Erotic Services” category:

Online classified ads service Craigslist will get rid of its “erotic services” category that critics called a front for prostitution, replacing it with an adult category that will be reviewed by Web site employees, state attorneys general announced Wednesday. Pressure to remove the category increased this spring after a Boston medical student was charged with killing a masseuse who authorities say he met through Craigslist. Two months ago, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart filed a lawsuit alleging that Craigslist allowed the solicitation of prostitution and had created the “largest source of prostitution in America.” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the attorneys general of Connecticut and Missouri met with Craigslist officials last week seeking an end to ads they contended were advertisements for illegal sexual activities. Madigan’s office said Wednesday such existing ads on the Craiglist Web site will expire in seven days. –Associated Press

What y’all do behind closed doors, especially with sex, is none of my business. It’s terribly unfortunate that people are abusing the system and others are being attacked and killed as a result of this kind of instant access to one another, but I don’t think that removing the category will change anything. There will be a new way to present a for-profit sexual service, through some acronym like P2bD (Payment to be Discussed), in another category like the personals section.

Craigslist Ads: 23 (detail)
2008
book, edition of 23
7 1/2″ x 5″ x 5/16″

Perhaps Craigslist will just have to be a place for furniture and freelance work, and we’ll all have to get used to it being a platonic site. As if.

April has come and gone and that means the first ever April Art Attack! has wrapped up. I want to thank all the artists who took the time to share a little bit about themselves and their artwork. It was cool to read the great variety in answers to the simplest of questions: I wouldn’t expect anything less from a bunch of creative individuals!  And thank you to all the readers out there: I hope you enjoyed these voices as much as I did.

1. What is your definition of art?
That’s too hard to pin down. There might be more art in how you walk than in how I paint. Guaranteed, in fact.

2. What medium do you use?
Photography.

3. What is your art about?
About landscape and how I relate to it: the inner self and the outer world. Mostly, I haven’t figured it out yet.

4. How would you describe your artwork?
Typically black and white photography emphasizing light, abstraction, connection.

5. How has your artistic practice changed since you first began making art?
It has become more abstract, more allusive, maybe less immediately appealing.

6. What influences your art?
The world around me, other art I see, artists I talk to, books I read…

7. Who are your favorite artists?
Somehow I don’t think in terms of favorites. What I’m looking at and learning from now: Robert Irwin and David Hockney. But I don’t always necessarily their actual artworks.

8. What is your favorite artwork by another artist?
Impossible to answer! Too many amazing and inspiring things.

9. How do you title your work?
No title or simple description or, in one series, a haiku

10. Do you have formal training?
No.

11. Where do you show your artwork?
Temporary exhibits, a gallery now defunct, and on the web.

12. Describe one challenge you constantly face in your practice.
Finding enough time for it! The day job and other responsibilities are too demanding.

13. When are you most creative?
Unpredictable.

14. How do you know when an artwork is complete?
It never is. I can always re-work the digital file I show or print from.

15. What is one discovery you have made while working?
I can’t tell what’s good until later.

16. How separate are you from your art?
About 50%?

17. What is the role of the artist in society?
Survival. Friendship. Teaching. Make it up.

18. What artistic trend are you seeing a lot of lately?
Lots of deadpan photography, lots of comment on pop culture.

19. What is your least favorite occupational hazard?
Stepping in poop.

20. What is the strangest comment someone has said about your work?
Can’t think of anything good–I must have blocked it out!

21. Do you consider yourself the next Michelangelo?
Nope.

22. What else do you do besides make art?
Write software, wander in the wilderness, read, write,…

23. Are you an alcoholic?
No, but I like wine at meals, a habit from living in Europe.

24. What advice would you give to a young artist?
Get a day job that leaves you time and energy. It frees your art.

25. “My kid could do that,” has become the ultimate diss on a piece of art. Give a new one for the ages.
I can do better in Photoshop.

Artist:
Steve Durbin
futtara@gmail.com
stephendurbin.com

April Art Attack! is a month-long online art festival dedicated to giving creative individuals a new platform for conversation. Organized by Gus23, the festival will bring together remarkable voices throughout the Web into one blog for one month. This collection of artistic ideas will highlight the importance of the Internet as a tool for necessary and meaningful communication.

1. What is your definition of art?
expression of honest emotion entertainment fun!

2. What medium do you use?
photog, video, music, drawing, painting – anything, any combination of

3. What is your art about?
being alive, interaction with other humans and the world around us..and awe

4. How would you describe your artwork?
playful

5. How has your artistic practice changed since you first began making art?
the experience somehow how gets deeper and lighter at the same time:)

6. What influences your art?
brooklyn, counterculture, travel all over the world

7. Who are your favorite artists?
egon shiele, paperrad, tamara gonzales, secret project robot, porkchop’s stuff, conrad from black label, swoon, etc.

8. What is your favorite artwork by another artist?
there isn’t one but i did enjoy seeing the brucke exhibit at neue museum recently, william eccleston at the whitney, chief mag. show at the arm gallery, brooklyn, last summer, and swoon’s boat trip from coatia to venice that they are currently in the process of.

9. How do you title your work?
mostly untitled or sometimes where it took place

10. Do you have formal training?
yes but mostly i had to unlearn it all and start over. i was too traumatized after art school to do art for some years:)

11. Where do you show your artwork?
brooklyn, internet, other cities, etc.

12. Describe one challenge you constantly face in your practice.
letting go of stuff and showing it to others, not hiding it in the closet or left on my hard drive somewhere

13. When are you most creative?
often after 12:30 at night. definitely not concurrently with trying to work a hectic day job

14. How do you know when an artwork is complete?
when the deadline comes to submit it! no, i just feel it.

15. What is one discovery you have made while working?
to pace myself. how necessary honesty -but not drama- is in work

16. How separate are you from your art?
mmm, kind of a combination of completely separate and completely merged

17. What is the role of the artist in society?
to provide a deeper level of experience at the same time to keep shit light and get people out of their heads, into a new perspective

18. What artistic trend are you seeing a lot of lately?
animal drawings on photo collages, pixelated binkies, etc.

19. What is your least favorite occupational hazard?
poverty

20. What is the strangest comment someone has said about your work?
“catchy!” when i told him my cussword band name (too shocking to mention here)

21. Do you consider yourself the next Michelangelo?
well, the current rebecca gaffney

22. What else do you do besides make art?
make shit

23. Are you an alcoholic?
actually yes!

24. What advice would you give to a young artist?
just keep going and work on being humble, and it’s a war, not a battle!

25. “My kid could do that,” has become the ultimate diss on a piece of art. Give a new one for the ages.
oh wow, that reminds me of deitch project’s love parade show from two years ago

Artist:
rebecca gaffney

April Art Attack! is a month-long online art festival dedicated to giving creative individuals a new platform for conversation. Organized by Gus23, the festival will bring together remarkable voices throughout the Web into one blog for one month. This collection of artistic ideas will highlight the importance of the Internet as a tool for necessary and meaningful communication.

(I always answer this stuff incredibly slowly because i over-think my answers. To combat that, I am combining this quiz with that facebook put-your-i-pod-on-shuffle-and-let-the-song-titles-answer-the-questions-game. We’ll see how it works)

1. What is your definition of art?
“Little Triggers” by Elvis Costello

Think all about those sets of sequences…

2. What medium do you use?
“Come On Down to My House” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

If you were to look into my studio, right now, at 2:14 am, you would see gouache, ink, charcoal, graphite, markers (probably not archival), and paper.

3. What is your art about?
“My Doorbell” by the White Stripes

I don’t think this one worked. Although, this song sounds like it must of been alot of fun to write. So yeah, my work is about cramming as many of my interests into as many pieces as possible while still having a good time. I’ve been doing so through drawings and paintings that tell a Myth narrative and through Encyclopedia Destructica, an art-zine that I co-direct in Pittsburgh.

4. How would you describe your artwork?
“Preachin’ The Blues, Part 2″ by Son House

A scratchy, static filled recording from somewhere between 1929 and 1934. Right now my artwork looks like what would happen if you combined Jack Kirby’s “New Gods” with your nearest museum’s collection of Persian miniatures.

5. How has your artistic practice changed since you first began making art?
“Interesting Results” by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

That one kindof works.

6. What influences your art?
“Karma Police” by Radiohead

My influences come alot from literature and comics and organizations like McSweeney’s that do many things all at once. Oddly enough, I’m not looking at alot of contemporary art work. I think a great question posed to me by Nayland Blake (and I now ask myself this often) (this is a paraphrase) was 1st: What are you really into that isn’t “art work”? 2) How could you bring more elements from answer 1 into your work?

7. Who are your favorite artists?
“Jump Up” by Elvis Costello

Apparently Elvis Costello is one of my favorite artists, as he’s shown up twice in this series of questions. Jack Kirby. His imagination and work ethic puts every other artist to shame. Shahzia Sikander, Josh Tonies, Chabon (check out his recent genre work), Rushdie (combining character narratives with national narratives and magical elements), Matt Fraction (When is Casanova?), Grant Morrison (The Invisibles, All-Star Superman)…

8. What is your favorite artwork by another artist?
“You Are” by Pearl Jam

Jeff Songco’s Society of 23 is my favorite ongoing work of art.

9. How do you title your work?
“Can’t You Read” by Tampa Red and Big Maceo

I usually describe exactly what is happening in the image. Example: “The Cosmic Hermaphrodite Dreams the Noosphere into Existence.”

(I think that i-pod answer actually worked quite well)

10. Do you have formal training?
“Wind Chimes” by Brian Wilson

Yes. BFA from CMU 2005.

11. Where do you show your artwork?
“Baby Doll” by Bessie Smith

In Pittsburgh, mostly, with the occasional group show elsewhere. Currently getting ready for a solo show at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (May 1st). I’m attacking so much artwork during the month of April to get ready for it.

12. Describe one challenge you constantly face in your practice.
“Martha My Dear” by the Beatles

“Is this too illustrative? Does that matter? Maybe all of this stuff sucks.” Me. My challenge in practice I always face is me telling myself I’m failing. I usually tell myself to shut-up and stop being so stupid. That usually works.

13. When are you most creative?
“Home I’ll Never Be” by Tom Waits

Interesting. I do think that traveling helps me focus alot at the time it allows me to take in alot of new information and influences. Also, when I’m able to collaborate.

14. How do you know when an artwork is complete?
“Gloria” by Van Morrison

It usually tells me when to stop. Usually after finding the one tiny detail that pulls everything together.

15. What is one discovery you have made while working?
“Some of These Days I’ll be Gone” by Charley Patton

16. How separate are you from your art?
“Forever” by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Not much at all. My drawings and paintings are ways for me to combine everything I like to read about/look at/talk about. The art-zine I’ve been co-directing since 2005, Encyclopedia Destructica is part of my day-to-day existence and helped shape much of my social circle. I think about these things constantly.

17. What is the role of the artist in society?
“Process” by John Lee Hooker

See, if this whole i-pod-will-magically-answer-your-questions game actually worked, my i-pod would have played the Howard Zinn lecture I have on here titled, “The Artist in Society.” I could have quoted him verbatim. Way to fail, i-pod.

18. What artistic trend are you seeing a lot of lately?
“Scarecrow” by Beck

19. What is your least favorite occupational hazard?
“When the Train Comes Along” by Henry Thomas

Art Speak, I try my hardest to not be struck with art speak while working.

20. What is the strangest comment someone has said about your work?
“Search for Delicious” by Panda Bear

“I want to lick this person’s pubic hair…” said by a friend about a drawing I did of the Cosmic Hermaphrodite hatching from a giant egg on the surface of the sun.

21. Do you consider yourself the next Michelangelo?
“Separate Lives” by Phil Collins

This one worked too. Thank you, Phil Collins.

22. What else do you do besides make art?
“On the Way Home” by Buffalo Springfield

I read alot of comic books, co-direct Encyclopedia Destructica (which doesn’t really count as “besides making art” because I do consider it part of my “practice”), drink way too much coffee and way too much whiskey.

23. Are you an alcoholic?
“Easy to Remember” by Billie Holiday

Don’t look at the above answer.

24. What advice would you give to a young artist?
“Prison Shoe Romp” by 16 Horsepower

Work.

25. “My kid could do that,” has become the ultimate diss on a piece of art. Give a new one for the ages.
“Big Green Country” by Neil Young

“Neil Young could do that”

Artist:
Christopher Kardambikis
kardambikis@yahoo.com
www.encyclopediadestructica.com

April Art Attack! is a month-long online art festival dedicated to giving creative individuals a new platform for conversation. Organized by Gus23, the festival will bring together remarkable voices throughout the Web into one blog for one month. This collection of artistic ideas will highlight the importance of the Internet as a tool for necessary and meaningful communication.