Gather and see the music
with original portraits on vinyl.

Home | About | Press | FAQ | Gallery | Shop | Custom

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Think Locally, Act Globally [EC]

Jimi Hendrix

When I look at the server logs from my main site and this blog, a large number of visitors are from outside the United States of America. It's really exciting to think of people who don't speak English getting to see my work. I wonder how my art is perceived through the eyes of other cultures.

A few blogs have done posts about my Vinyl Art in other countries:

Enrensenf (German video blog, I'm at 3 minutes in)
CHEWINGHOME (French blog)
wheeze (Ukranian LiveJournal)
bluevolvox (Italian blog)
Psicodelia Colectiva (Costa Rican blog)
APPUNTI NOVALIS (Italian blog)
winylowe.com (Polish blog)

Pretty cool. I also was featured in an Italian magazine called Match Music. They asked me some questions via email and put the Q&A in a half page addition to an article about the increased interest in vinyl.

A very interesting international connection is with a gentleman from Lebanon. He's collecting autographs and small pieces of art from all over the world to create a large show about world culture, and he was delighted to get one of mine.

Lebanon. Rough place. Beautiful, but not the best place to be at the moment. He's just told me that he had to postpone his exhibition until after the elections there because of the increased violence.

Wow. I certainly haven't had to do that, to change my plans due to fear for my life.

With all the craziness out there in the world, I think it's important to remember that we're all connected. We're all human. We all need understanding and love, and help. If we can expand our thought and hearts to try to change the world, to bring people together, we can make it better for all of us at home.

I'm trying to imagine if locally we had events occurring that restricted our freedoms that drastically. I'm trying to imagine how difficult it would be to carry on, especially if I felt that the rest of the world was an enemy. We need to act, to show people around the globe that we understand their local problems.

I know there are great charities out there with programs that act on a global scale. So, for this painting of Jimi in my EC series, how about giving the $100 to a group like the Peace Corps or Amnesty International or UNICEF that has that global perspective?

I would be honored if you wanted to own a piece of my art in memory of acting to help the world.

Peace.

2 comments:

Bar L. said...

wow,congrats on your mention in that mag. you're going all international!!!

i love how small the world is online.

good reminder about Lebanon, it reminds me how easy our "hard times" are compared to some people's everyday life....

Daniel Edlen said...

Thanks! Yeah, it's pretty cool to see my work discussed in other more beautiful languages.

I don't know about the world being small idea. The thinking is that because it's so easy to communicate halfway 'round the world it somehow makes it easier to get a grip on the world or connect or something. I don't really feel that way.

If anything it's the oppposite, because it makes us realize how much there is to know.

Godin recently did a post about distance and specificity, meaning when we say we're going to another country, we usually say, "we're going to Spain" but if we're going to a local friend's we say , "we're going to 742 Evergreen Terrace".

By connecting with other parts of the world, the places we need to be specific about spreads farther and farther. I can still say I sent art to Lebanon, but Canada... I've got to say I sent art to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Makes some people scared of what they don't know, some excited to learn. But overwhelmed, definitely.