Ward Shelley: Hand- Painted Visualizations (via Brain Pickings)

How to visualize complex information has always been difficult - and today, with ever more information, it gets harder and harder. Given that communication is a critical skill (and asset) of leaders, this work seems to me be helpful and indeed at the leading edge.

Ward Shelley (who I discovered through Brain Pickings) is a leading exponent of how to visualize the complex. He works over time (Who invented the Avant-Garde, The influences and impact of Frank Zappa, The story of the Beat Poets etc).

It is far more than sketchy mind mapping - it is art in its own right, and has levels of detail which are both informative and astounding.

To quote Ward:

"It is the mutually formative effects of subject/mind and object/world that gives shape to the space that exists between them. These paintings are a record of this shaping process. They are about the struggle of form to express content in the cognitive space that exists between the Subject (us) and the Object (the world). If that cognitive space is a territory, these paintings are landscapes of that territory." 

Here's a painting that tracks "Who invented the Avant-Garde ...

 

 

Please fully respect the copyright of Ward's work - I only post it here to help other people discover.

Posted via web from mick's posterous

Reflections on and wishes for the New Year - with a little help from the 60's ....

It has been an excellent Holiday break, and I hope you have all also had a great time with family and friends. Like many of you, I am sure, I was lucky enough to get some time on things that I do not usually get around to - mainly artwork and photography - and I set myself the project of creating a gallery of "good stuff".

I've been a long time user of flickr (images here) but only fairly recently found RedBubble. This site is an interesting mixture of art, writing and design - all to a high standard - and, like the best social network sites, it is very well self-policed. People politely ignore your junk, and if you don't stick to "RedBubble etiquette", well ....

So, as I was wondering about a New Year's message before returning to daily work, I was also organizing an online art gallery. And I found some inspiration from the 60's. I used to paint a lot - but one image came to the top of my mind, for which I had also written a companion poem. Both are a bit "of their time" so please indulge me, but the sentiments seem to sit perfectly well today.

In the 60’s, everything was possible: colour was everywhere, music and the arts were being re-invented daily, there was a little money in the pocket, education was opening up, civil rights came of age ... and things always smelt good. Yet politics was rubbish, and the world was on edge. Society was changed for ever by people who never realised what was impossible, who never wanted to fight, who just hoped to make things better and help everyone have a good time.

My wife and I both feel very optimistic about 2010, and this weekend's remarkable "blue moon" boosts that positive feeling. Still, it seems to me that a little extra "60's spirit" could help us all through this New Year.

So, with that in mind, here's the painting, the poem and the sentiments .... and on to a brilliant 2010.

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Walking with my girl

I see the scent of sawdust,
Moist with coloured inks.
I feel the fog and the trees
Singing in unison.
I taste the thunder of Heaven,
And paint the thoughts of flowers.
I hear the music of peppermint
And the melody of darkness.
I smell the sweet spray of contentment
And the voices of friendships.
But within all of these,
I sense the presence of God.

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Original artwork and poem are here, on RedBubble

Posted via web from mick's posterous

A visit to the Tate Modern ... Pop Life (Warhol, Koons and Emin) ... and the "Box of Darkness"

I'm a regular Tate goer, having been an art student all of my life. Today, we were able to visit the Tate Modern's "Pop Life" exhibit, which was a fascinating romp through the "artist as brand" which has developed since the time of Andy Warhol. Perhaps Takashi Murakami is today's best exemplar of such artist/entrepreneurs (or is that Damien Hirst with his diamond studded pieces?). We all know some of the stories around Andy, and even about his "commercial sell out" when it seemed that his pursuit of celebrity took over from his art.

But it struck me that Andy and his peers were simply trying to make a point about the complex interaction between commerce and society.

What struck me most within "Pop Life" was not Jeff Koons "for over 18's, my-life-as-sex-act works", but it was a piece by Piotr Uklanski on "The Nazis". There was no explanation - just 164 prints of Hollywood stars dressed in Nazi uniform, from movies over the years. 'We end up looking at things with our mouths open, fascinated, regardless of what we watch, whether it's a Nazi flick or people on fire', he has said.

Pause for thought

And then, in the Turbine Hall, was a massive installation by Miroslaw Balka called the "Box of Darkness". We all walked inside, no lights, and clearly we were in a cavernous space from the rather dead sounds within. People walking in could see nothing until they hit the wall. Then, turning around, we could see a dimly lit entrance. A disorienting space, which, if taken slowly, also led to moment of reflection. Here's my own version of the experience.

To quote Tom Lubbock of the Independent newspaper, "It's like a mouth of hell. Or rather – as surely everyone feels – the association is not with the old metaphysical hell, but with the recent historical hell. I mean the Holocaust, that ultimate nightmare vision which is now available at any moment. That's what this void of annihilation calls up."

So why blog about this? Simply that we, in the world of business, apparently spend far to little time thinking about the Arts and their impact on Society - yet it seems artists have commerce on the top of their agenda. Time to redress that?

Posted via web from mick's posterous

blurb .... book publishing for everyone

Amongst my long-time passions has always been art and photography. And, when you combine that with an interest in social networks, it is probably no surprise that flickr has always been an interest of mine. Maybe I have come to this a bit late, but I have been exploring blurb recently - a venture that allows anyone to publish anything - and then sell the resulting book.

Well, I had to try it - so I collated some of the recent work I've done using Photoshop on original photographs. The result is a small book called "canvus". You can see a book preview here.

But, whatever you think of the book, I'd suggest you poke around on blurb...

Johannes Gutenberg would have been proud!