RTBTCKI (The Craft Artist)

I'm still buzzing from Star Trek. It keeps creeping into my thoughts. Lines come back and I keep thinking about the movie as a whole. For me that meant it is a good film. Wrath of Khan is still my favorite of the films but this one is right up there.

I had a fine Mother's Day with my family. The girls made me chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. We went to a local restaurant for lunch and I had a rare slice of cheesecake with "fresh" strawberries which was very good. I watched the ballgame and did some work that I wanted to do and got lots of hugs. All in all it was a very good day.

Today will be some of the things that I didn't do yesterday because it was Mother's Day.

Mets are on a seven game winning streak. They won by one and they won by a lot. But they look more like a ball club than they have all year. I don't think it going to last but right now watching the Mets is fun.

There has been a recently bit of a dust up in two of the art groups that I read and, sometimes, participate in. People writing their "good-bye cruel group" posts and put in the subtext that they don't feel welcome by the group because they don't think they are an artist anymore because they haven't done art in a while. Then there are a couple of people who are "tired" of the "negative attitude" of some of the members of the group. What is this attitude? They disagree with some other members about something that has more to do with life experience than a firm right or wrong. And I swear I am going to reach through the computer and punch the next person who uses the phrase "you shouldn't be so negative because it is not fair to the others in the group." We're not debating politics or religion, we are talking about our experience which is not always happy, happy, fun time.

One of the doll groups almost dissolved into art vs. craft but some of the older hands who are listened to managed to nip that one in the bud. Then there is the pattern debate which I think I could set my calendar to these days. If you change a pattern a lot when does it become an original work so you don't have to credit the original pattern. There was one person who, if you read carefully between the lines, was taking several patterns altering them to suit what she needed to do and then drafting it up as her own. Because there are only so many ways to sew a leg. I am very dubious of her claim.

Then we had a round of those elite snobs who don't get my art chant. I kept my mouth very shut on that one. I don't understand computer graphics and how computer art works. However I do feel if what is being done is based on things that were created by someone else that you are eletronically manipulating and recoloring, that is a new version of the coloring book and not original art. And don't give me the "it took me six hours to create that" look BS. And how hard you work to get the color right and then rag on other artists who are doing the exact same thing that you are doing and, frankly, a better job than you. Of course the galleries aren't going to take your art seriously. They have seen it before and they know they have seen it before even if they can't place where.

Simply not everyone is going to like every piece or type of art. Science Fiction art is not discriminated against any more than children's book illustrations or comic book art. Yeah, some of the stuff that gets sold for more money than a couple of us will see in our lifetime that looks like my cat tossed it up after getting into the plants but that is what the art world sees as valuable. At least there are other venues for artists to sell their works besides those Galleries and auction houses.

The pattern debate is not going to go away anytime soon. I avoid it by drafting my own and using a couple that were given to me by other puppeteers to be used by me in any way I see fit. One reason that I don't sell puppet patterns is that pieces are based on other's work. I have given them away to people so they can try their hands at making puppets but that's how I got the patterns that started me in the first place.

I am grateful that I got Caroline off to school on time today considering what time she got up.

RTBTCKI (The Crafty Artist)

I'm still buzzing from Star Trek. It keeps creeping into my thoughts. Lines come back and I keep thinking about the movie as a whole. For me that meant it is a good film. Wrath of Khan is still my favorite of the films but this one is right up there.

I had a fine Mother's Day with my family. The girls made me chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. We went to a local restaurant for lunch and I had a rare slice of cheesecake with "fresh" strawberries which was very good. I watched the ballgame and did some work that I wanted to do and got lots of hugs. All in all it was a very good day.

Today will be some of the things that I didn't do yesterday because it was Mother's Day.

Mets are on a seven game winning streak. They won by one and they won by a lot. But they look more like a ball club than they have all year. I don't think it going to last but right now watching the Mets is fun.

There has been a recently bit of a dust up in two of the art groups that I read and, sometimes, participate in. People writing their "good-bye cruel group" posts and put in the subtext that they don't feel welcome by the group because they don't think they are an artist anymore because they haven't done art in a while. Then there are a couple of people who are "tired" of the "negative attitude" of some of the members of the group. What is this attitude? They disagree with some other members about something that has more to do with life experience than a firm right or wrong. And I swear I am going to reach through the computer and punch the next person who uses the phrase "you shouldn't be so negative because it is not fair to the others in the group." We're not debating politics or religion, we are talking about our experience which is not always happy, happy, fun time.

One of the doll groups almost dissolved into art vs. craft but some of the older hands who are listened to managed to nip that one in the bud. Then there is the pattern debate which I think I could set my calendar to these days. If you change a pattern a lot when does it become an original work so you don't have to credit the original pattern. There was one person who, if you read carefully between the lines, was taking several patterns altering them to suit what she needed to do and then drafting it up as her own. Because there are only so many ways to sew a leg. I am very dubious of her claim.

Then we had a round of those elite snobs who don't get my art chant. I kept my mouth very shut on that one. I don't understand computer graphics and how computer art works. However I do feel if what is being done is based on things that were created by someone else that you are eletronically manipulating and recoloring, that is a new version of the coloring book and not original art. And don't give me the "it took me six hours to create that" look BS. And how hard you work to get the color right and then rag on other artists who are doing the exact same thing that you are doing and, frankly, a better job than you. Of course the galleries aren't going to take your art seriously. They have seen it before and they know they have seen it before even if they can't place where.

Simply not everyone is going to like every piece or type of art. Science Fiction art is not discriminated against any more than children's book illustrations or comic book art. Yeah, some of the stuff that gets sold for more money than a couple of us will see in our lifetime that looks like my cat tossed it up after getting into the plants but that is what the art world sees as valuable. At least there are other venues for artists to sell their works besides those Galleries and auction houses.

The pattern debate is not going to go away anytime soon. I avoid it by drafting my own and using a couple that were given to me by other puppeteers to be used by me in any way I see fit. One reason that I don't sell puppet patterns is that pieces are based on other's work. I have given them away to people so they can try their hands at making puppets but that's how I got the patterns that started me in the first place.

I am grateful that I got Caroline off to school on time today considering what time she got up.