Closet Collector

No, that doesn't mean I collect closets. It means I collect in the dark. In the depths.

Anything. Everything.

It's been thanks to my wife that I live in an organized and navigable home, with a reprioritized life. Seriously. If I showed you a picture of my room as a teenager... archaelogical layers going back through school with a path only to the window and stereo.

What it means also, though, is that I value objects for their own sake, for their place in a group of similar things comprising a set, for their own intrinsic connection to everything and everybody that came together to produce them.

Records, I celebrate with my Vinyl Art.

Books, I'm starting to present with my Liter(art)ure, my drawings in books. http://literarture.info

A simple start, with just a phone number and link to the posts on this blog about the pieces I've done. I'm very excited to gradually work through the practical "affordable and portable" matters that will allow me to sell them. We'll see. I know some pretty nutty book people.

I know collectors.

Peace.

Be My Guest

As I'm nearing my 500th post to this blog, it is going to change. For the better I hope.

I don't have the time or oomph to blather on about what I'm thinking anymore. No more philosophical ramblings. Hopefully. I really shouldn't be on about that.

What I should be on about is the music, the art.

I will continue to update you all about what's going on when major things happen, but continuing plot lines in the story of Vinyl Art will mostly be found in my email newsletter, which is free to subscribe to on http://vinylart.info/. And you can find discussions and likable links at http://facebook.com/DanielEdlen. And when minor things happen, I share them at http://twitter.com/vinylart.

So then, what's left for this blog is the art. New pieces. New exhibitions. New commissions. That kind of thing. Better, no?

And, what I'm REALLY excited about is making this blog more communal, more focussed on what I'm here for - the music. I've met and built relationships with some pretty cool people online. Some of them really good writers. Some of them really passionate about music. Some of them interested in what I do. Some of them willing to write guest posts for this blog.

How COOL!

The post prior to this was the 1st in what I hope becomes a series of writings from Zane Ewton, the ever-so-nice fellow who won my contest last year and has since become a close friend. Also, a bunch of others have signed on to do a post for me. I'll introduce them before their posts so don't worry about not knowing why you're reading what you're reading here.

Then, hopefully, comments will abound. The art, the music, will take centerstage. If you'd like to be my guest, please stay with me, and share your story.

Peace.

Family Focus

Until March next year, I'll be "out of the office". Abbey will be about 2 months old then, if all goes well with her year-end delivery, and that feels like a good amount of time to devote solely to our growing family. After that, I'll take care of business again, responding to emails, blog posts, tweets and so forth, and painting commissions.

Besides Abbey's birth, I'll have the Bookmans show sometime in January. So definitely check in come March and I'm sure I'll have news to share. This business of Vinyl Art has been built on moments when I say "That was unexpected", so I'll bet there'll be surprises too.

Like Alice Cooper signing a piece to auction for Ear Candy Charity.


Happy Holidays and New Year!

Peace.

Ignorance Is Not An Answer

Earlier today I talked about "yes". Responding and receiving yes as an answer is satisfying when backed by a good gut-feeling.

Ignorance isn't an answer. Yes, no, and maybe-so are.

Peace.

SOLD - Frank Zappa 12/15/09

For You, Yes

It's nice to hear "yes". It's nice to be able to say "yes".

It can lead to some unfortunate situations and events, like the death of Michael Jackson, though. Thus it requires listening to one's gut to figure out if a "yes" is possible and positive.

Usually I can say "yes". After all, creating for you what you want is largely why I do what I do. But I treat everybody uniquely, as you are unique, answering every question the best I can when asked. As I type "Peace." uniquely every time, with intent and desire, I answer "yes" with presence and enthusiasm.

This Michael Jackson is a gift for Bob Bookman, a thank you for my upcoming show at all 6 Bookmans locations in southern Arizona. As details have been worked out, they've said "yes" to my requests, making me feel appreciated, valued. But their "yes"'s have all come after careful consideration and planning, making me feel confident in the decisions behind the "yes".

MJ wasn't so fortunate.

Peace.

Authenticityness And Life

I like making up new words that are just a bit different than what dictionaries present. This is most helpful when a word has become so bogged down with buzzissicity or cultnotation and I don't want to convey all that crappage along with what the word actually means. See?

Authentic is one such word. Merriam-Webster says it means genuine, actual, and real. Nowadays, though, it's applied to people who appear to mean what they say, I guess, and do what comes from the heart. In essence, "keeping it real". What the heck does that mean, really?

If you mean "not fake", then what is fake? What's a real fake?
If you mean "true to one's character", then what is not true to one's character? What's a poseur?

How do you do that? I mean you are what you do. Is as does. So if you act like a fake, then it's authentic in that you, well, are acting like a fake.

I just get all fidgety when labels are applied that are buzzwords and have weird connotations. Who needs all that baggage?

As far as I, myself, am concerned, what I can say is that what I write comes from my gut. I don't set out to manipulate or game anybody. Yes, my intent is to promote and sell my art as well as share of myself, but that's what I'm here for in the first place. What you see is what you get. I just try to make sure my "packaging" matches my "product".

What I do, what I accomplish, what I gain are Life experiences. That's all anybody can hope to gather, to accumulate, to get. Life. That's authentic.

Live it.

Peace.

SOLD - Otis Redding 12/10/09

Thankful: for Tumblr

Before Thanksgiving I shared my thankfulness. Now I'm really excited. I've figured out a way to do even more.

See, as an artist, I'm largely a visual person. So doing "Thankful: for" text updates to Twitter with things during that day that I appreciate is all well and good, but what about taking pictures and sharing those? Or videos or audio even? How do I directly share the full range of creativity of our culture that inspires me?

Enter Tumblr. I'd created a tumblog awhile ago, just getting a feel for how the site works. It's really pretty cool. It's basically like this blog in that it displays in reverse chronological order, has a modifiable template, allows comments and sharing, and is public. The difference is that the primary use of tumblogs is to share small bits, an image, an audio clip, a quote from somewhere else online, and it allows uploading of original content online and from cellphones. I didn't quite know how to take advantage of it though.

Now I do.

I realized that Twitter and Facebook, while extremely popular and very good at sharing small bits, are member-only sites. You have to create an account and profile to access the content. This blog isn't. But this blog is more meant for sharing about my art and life in slightly longer, rambly, daily-ish posts. Tumblr combines the best of the two and can be unrelated to me directly without confusing readers, hopefully.

So, I've started my Thankful: for tumblog.

Peace.

Impishness On Fire

Last Friday was John T. Unger's birthday. I got this from him that same day, the piece he traded with me for an unframed Robert Johnson. This is Fire Imp #12 in raw steel, cut from scrap metal left over from his firebowls which are in turn made from scrap propane tanks.

I talked about John and the legal battle in which he's engaged. Since then, he's founded Defend Art, an organization designed to help artists nationwide with legal issues both financially and informationally. How cool. Good coming out of a really messed up situation.

If you haven't checked out this post of his, I strongly suggest you do now.

Now.

Peace.

How Twitter Can Help An Art Business

This video wouldn't have happened without Twitter. Plain and simple.

I've been participating on Twitter for some time now. It's been hit and miss as far as usefulness in the moment. But when it hits, it hits. And the hits are much more fulfilling than a straightforward sale. This post is about some examples of those hits I've had with my Vinyl Art.

For me, my art is largely about the connections I get to make. That's what Twitter is about. Yes, there is the noise in the room there, but if you get good at tuning your twitterstream, you can make some great connections.

I've had several. Some that have ended up with transactions financial, others with transactions social. I've developed a relationship with one of my favorite musicians, Bob Green (@thegrassyknoll), whose music I'd discovered years ago during my lazy college days spent listening to random used CDs. Brilliant stuff. I've communicated friendly-like with Prince Campbell III (@chartreuseb), whose blog blew me away, and he even entered my last Vinyl Art contest. Also, brilliant stuff. I respect these creative people enormously. To have produced the content they have and put it out there, and then to interact with people on a very real level is wonderful.

Then there are those connections that have resulted in both a friendship and a sale. First to mind is the one with Ryan Barton (@RyanBarton). He's the fellow who made this video for me. I won't tell you all the particulars about his generosity, but basically he bought 3 pieces from me after I'd jumped in on Twitter seeing he had bought a print from Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) and was thinking about buying my art next. That's the beauty of Twitter, the evesdropping on relevant conversations that persist as tweets but occur as real-time exchanges.

It is the strange hybrid structure of communication, both asynchronous and synchronous, that allows for more connections and more development and expansion of those connections. It happened with Brian Clark (@Copyblogger) as well. He and I conversed first about @chartreuseb and his blog and the crazy comments they'd gone back a forth with long ago. Then he took a liking to my art, eventually buying 4 pieces, sharing my work with his followers and even writing a blog post suggesting how I could improve my business. It is that building of relationships and the ripples which spread uniquely on Twitter that have added a marvelous dimension to my art business.

I was able to give back to a hero of mine too. After finding David Lynch on Twitter, I was then made aware of his foundation (@DLFTV). They enjoyed my work enough to have me paint Mr. Lynch and then have him autograph the piece for a future auction benefitting the foundation. I then painted Mike Love of the Beach Boys for the same purpose, Love signing the piece at one of the foundation's charity concert.

This connection to reality with Twitter relates to local action as well. I will be having a solo show locally at Bookmans (@bookmans) this winter. This is because of Twitter, as Scott Henderson (@espressojunky) found me there and offered me the idea of a show, and then bought a piece for himself. Further, I was able to learn about Nate Anderson and Ear Candy Charity (@earcandycharity) on Twitter. Nate and I have struck up a relationship and $50 from every piece sold or commissioned at the Bookmans show will go to the charity and their efforts to provide musical instruments to kids music programs.

So I get to give back in a very real way to people not even involved with Twitter due to relationships formed on Twitter. I'd say that's a hit.

Peace.

Yay! I CAN Paint!

I'm still adding more pieces to my redone online gallery, but I'm back to painting too. I've gotten some really cool commissions, and I'm excited to get to them!

I feel so lucky that I CAN paint. Not that I have the skill, but I have the opportunity and wherewithall. This is thanks to my support system, primarily my wife, now in her 3rd trimester (http://tinyurl.com/VAbaby). To have such support is incredible.

This piece is Robert Johnson. I'm trading it to my friend John T. Unger. He has a place in my "Online Motivation" list to your right in the sidebar. If you haven't checked out his article about life and death, do. It's insanely inspiring.

I'm trading this piece to John because, 1) I like him and want him to have at least one of my pieces and 2) he needs financial and moral support. A used car salesman has ripped off his designs and then had the gall to sue HIM to overturn his copyrights for his Artisanal Firebowls. The legal fees could bankrupt John, but his attitude is so amazing (see the article he wrote, really) that he's fighting back with creativity. He's taking the scrap metal from the already scrap metal he uses for his firebowls to make whimsical small sculptures he's calling Fire Imps.

Here's the one I'm getting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johntunger/3948843548/in/set-72157622441515552/

This afternoon, he's finally released the info about the lawsuit, having been advised by his lawyer heretofore to stay mum.

Here's his article about the situation along with how you can help: http://www.johntunger.com/legal-defense-fund.html

I hope you'll take a moment to check out his work and see if you might like a piece of his, or if you'll be moved enough to share the story with others. I know I was.

Peace.

Traded - Robert Johnson 10/26/09

Can I Paint Again Yet?

Whew! What a week!

I got it done though. My new gallery!

http://www.vinylart.info/why.htm

This is just in time, because that video I talked about a little bit ago is done too! It turned out amazingly! I'm so proud of it. Ryan at http://rhynomarketing.com did such a good job.

I've embedded it on my "About Me/An Introduction" page. If you want to see it in high quality, you can go straight to YouTube. Then if it doesn't start in HQ, you can click the HQ button in the bottom right of the video box. It'll take a bit longer to load, but the paintings look way better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjagBX3VFug

I also sent out my email newsletter this morning. Baby and Bookmans news were the main topics. Good stuff. If you'd like to be included in my mailing list, just email me and let me know!

http://www.vinylart.info/press.htm

Have a good weekend! I'll be back to painting next week. Some cool commissions.

Peace.

Under Construction; No Dust

The nice thing about having a virtual gallery, instead of one made of brick and mortar, is redoing it doesn't require closing up shop during construction. Handy.

In my last post, I introduced new genre labels for my blog posts. This week I'm going to revamp my main site gallery to be more user-friendly. Each piece is going to have its own page, bookmarkable and shareable. The pieces are going to be the actual pieces, instead of representative images. And they are going to be organized both alphabetically and by genre. Cool.

I realized after creating the blog post genre labels that I have enough pieces to do this now. The gallery will have the pieces listed for sale with PayPal "Buy Now" buttons, or will show the pieces as on consignment or sold. This'll make it much easier to tell people which pieces are on your wish list. Nice.

I'll be letting my newsletter subscribers know first when the change goes live, along with some other cool personal and art-related news. If you're not on my list, you can simply email me at the address above and let me know! Easy.

Peace.

Nina Simone 10/19/09

Categorically Reluctant

I have over 400 posts on this blog now. I've tried to keep posting every weekday both for my sanity and to keep sharing with you, my art and my life.

This week I sold a Clapton to a woman as a surprise anniversary present to her guitar-playing husband. Very cool. But it was difficult to, over the phone, have her get to the examples of my paintings of blues guitarists. I only have that drop-down list over to your right.

But how do you categorize Clapton? Is he blues? Is he rock? Is he classic? Is he psychedelic?

I really don't like labels, but I know to expect you to be able to find who you want from one huge alphabetical list with a scroll bar is quite unfair. So I'm working on labels. Here they are so far, you can click on each to get all the posts which I've put in that category:

classic
popish
alt
metal
grunk
soul
jazz/blues
hip-pop
country

What do you think?

Peace.

Culling Curators

Middlemen have it the roughest these days. Record labels, book/magazine publishers, car salesmen, art galleries, realtors. With artists like Slash breaking traditional industry boundaries and with the well known issues of online distribution of information and content, it's tough.

But there's a new breed of middleman. Some of them are calling themselves curators. I'd not use such a, well, stodgy word. I'd use culler, a word not commonly used yet, but accurate. These people are filters.

Remember portals online? Like Ask or Infoseek or, well, AOL? Of course you don't. They've been replaced as the active, social media sites have revolutionized the sharing of information. I don't mean the actual information, the content. Blogs and the like have revolutionized the sharing of that. I mean the sharing of the sharing, the filter, the value-added directory.

So now, on these highly active sharing sites, the deal is to be the best at focussing on what you like to share and then finding the best postings online about the best examples of that, the fastest. These people who have thousands of followers on Twitter and hundreds of friends on Facebook spend their time grabbing links, repeating the ones that fit their focus, perhaps scanning original source sites like newspapers or even content producers and sometimes sharing links from those that haven't yet been shared. It's about building a reputation as the one to follow if you like such-and-such, and it's about connecting with other cullers to get insider tips, faster links, more followers.

I'm not sure what'll happen, but I know there'll be a shakeout, a quick one because everything on these social media sites happens, like, yesterday. It's like a vacuum in 2 senses: it'll suck you in and spit you out, and it's very echoey. Many are basically acting as relays. There are clever uses of the technology though.

I joined in one last month. A lady, @kim on Twitter, started #Artwalk. On Twitter, one way information gets connected together is through hashtags (#). Twitter makes these into links so you can click on them and it acts kind of like an indexing function. Kim's idea was to, once a month, have people share art links they like with the hashtag #Artwalk. Sort of a stroll through art online, turning Twitter into a virtual gallery. Culling at it's finest, if the quality is there.

And that's the trick I think, quality. With so much repeating of links and connections for the sake of connections, the actual content, the painting by Van Gogh on the museum website, can be lost. We need original, um, content. Again, not the actual content, the link content. The cullers who will make it out with maybe a real thing going will be those who find real stuff to share.

Seems obvious, but the noise level is rising online and it's still hard to tune in a signal. So I call out to you cullers, what do you really want? What do you want to share? Be as specific as possible and put that in your bio info. Then you can become the active directory people will remember and go to, like the old Yellow Pages.

I don't envy your mission, but if you choose it, commit.

Peace.

Slash 10/15/09

Head-On Profile

Something hopefully very cool is developing. The fellow who bought the 3 blue jazz pieces, including Miles Davis, is working with me to create a professional video profile! Using our new Flip videocam, my wife recorded me as though I were answering interview questions about my Vinyl Art. I then recorded myself painting this piece of Miles Davis. It'll all be editted together with music and stills and timelapse shots into a clip to share online.

I was really nervous filming myself. I'm not familiar enough with how I sound, let alone look, on camera to know how to do it. Fortunately my wife is honest! After half a beer I both sounded and looked much better, apparently. Yeah, I'm a light-weight. ;)

But having grown up an introverted listener, speaking about myself, especially in public, has always freaked me out. I'm bad enough writing about myself without questions to answer. And you should've heard me give my high school graduation valedictorian speech! I'd wished I hadn't done as well in school after that.

I do like talking about my art, answering questions. That's why I redid my 'About Me' page on my site as a Q&A. Along those lines, oh readers of mine, I'd love to know what other questions you have about me or my art. I am really open and, when prompted, can ramble until my wife tells me I should stop. ;)

So, what do you want to know?

Peace.

Do You Wake Up To Music?

I've been really curious if this happens with other people.

I wake up with music playing in my head. Usually it's something I've listened to the day before, but sometimes it's totally random. It's like the iPod or jukebox in my head is on shuffle.

The cool thing? If I loop whatever chunk of music is in my head I can go right back to sleep.

Does any of this ring a bell? Or is it just me?



Peace.

Friends, Family, Fans, Followers, Flickr, Phew!

"Badges! We don't need no stinking badges!" I added the above Flickr Badge to my Facebook fan page today. I was trying to figure out a way to make a widget so that those of you who'd want to would be able to share a mini-slideshow of my work on your site or profile or whatever.

I'm a little famooshed this morning after trying a bunch of new things with my online stuff. Stuff. What else do you call it? Presence? Accounts? Profiles? Social Media?

There's Facebook which has a fan page and my personal account with friends and family. There's Twitter with followers. And there's Flickr with contacts. Each site, each environment requires a different approach. Subtle, but different. All try to do the same thing, engage and connect with music lovers and artsy people, yet...

Flickr is the simplest. Upload images, add tags and description, add to relevant groups. The strange thing is though that I get more random connections there. People just interested in art. A lot of street artists. I only communicate with them there for some reason. News about vinyl art shows usually ends up there first.

On Twitter, it's more about sharing ideas and people and links related to my art, but not my art directly so much. Followers seem to like big news, like being featured on Playboy, but the better updates are the ones that show who I am as an artist. I like architecture, this architect, these buildings. I came up with this saying on my way to lunch today. I like this lyric from this band I really like. There's this other cool guy here who does this neat artwork. That kind of thing. There is the ability to send messages, but users seem mostly to add images as favorites and occasionally leave public comments.

On Facebook, my fan page is solely news in various forms about my art. This is the charity event to which I donated pieces. Here is the video clip in which Mike Love signs my piece of him for DLFTV. This is the show in London to which I've submitted pieces. Those kinds of things. There is the ability to have discussions, but users seem to pay attention to fan pages more as a news feed with feedback.

Then, also on Facebook, my personal account is, well, more personal. Still about my art but mostly family and old friends and new ones I've made online. The updates are rarer there, as I figure most other stuff besides news about Abbey Grace is too mundane. I do go back and forth in comments more though, with multiple people joining in briefly.

And that's been the most complex part, figuring out where the conversation works the best. Since email seems to be fading, for whatever reason, and is being replaced by all these social sites, where do you find it the easiest to participate in discussions? The most comfortable?

No, really. I'm asking you. Where?

Peace.

Being An Artist Is Hard

So I overwhelmed myself again. Not with too much to do, but with the other usual concern, money matters. I'm not complaining, and I'm not doing badly either.

But there're no roadmaps for being an artist, a financially successful one. Especially since I'm largely avoiding the traditional gallery consignment route. In the course my dad gave me I'm supposed to write a business plan today, and formulate an ideal day. What are those for artists?

I dislike the commoditization of anything let alone art, and certainly time. This idea is sort of rubbing me the wrong way. Yes, there are certain things I could put into a routine. I think I'd benefit probably. So I'll give it a go, especially when money is tight and will get tighter with the birth of Abbey Grace.

I suppose the planning and organizing is just another thing which right now has a long-term payoff with short-term expenditures of time. I hope so, because as I was contacting Sir Paul McCartney's publicist yesterday, I looked at this post again, remembering my most important ultimate personal goal of creating Vinyl Art.

Peace.

The Best Of The Most Popular Vinyl Art Posts

I've been meaning to assemble a list of blog posts that have been popular and that I enjoy the most. I know that the prospect of not only keeping up with reading a post a day, but digging into the archive unguided is overwhelming. Your time is precious, and there're some posts that, beyond having a neat painting are, for different reasons, not worth that time and thought.

So I figured that I could at least share the posts that more people have checked out, those I think are worth your time.

The most trafficked posts are the one with JFK's famous line from his inauguration speech and the one with the discussion of my favorite funny people because of the reference to SNL's 101 top moments. These are found by searchers looking for something completely off-topic from my work. So I wouldn't count these, or point you to them.

After those, my introductory post with a painting of The Beatles is the most read. Good! That's the best post to get a handle on what I do, what I'm about and the point of this blog.

Next is one of my more philosophical posts with a painting of Tom Waits. I like this post a lot too, so I'm glad it gets seen. The painting is being used for the poster of this year's Vinyl Killers show, and Waits himself posted a tweet complimenting the piece. What I say in it is worth the read, I think, as well. About value and people.

Following that is my contest post with the painting of David Lynch that he then autographed to auction for his foundation. I received some amazing entries to that contest and this post shares my interest in stories, your stories. Stories persist, facts fade. It's still a good post, and hey, if you send me your story still, I'll send you a sticker.

Skipping a couple more posts popular only because of wayward searchers, my reproduction post with the painting of Santana that, along with John Lennon and Mariah Carey, eventually was reproduced for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel is a good story. The result of my adventure certainly was positive. I do still have to frame the copies I got.

Next is another great story post with my philosophical and practical thoughts about the largest record collection in the world and how to find a buyer for it. It's always a matter of the value. Not monetary. Human.

That is indeed why I paint Vinyl Art, to celebrate and find value in humanity. The creativity that I bring together, from the album cover artist to the photographer of the photo I draw inspiration from to the musician and the production of the album to me is very cool. With a simple portrait, I hope to share the meaning of all that combined contribution to humanity.

Something meaning more than it simply is, by being simply what it is.

Do you have a favorite post of mine?

Peace.

Unsticking Myself In Time

This was my desk this morning. This has been my desk, in general, my whole life. My floor of my room in my parents' house was a maze of stacks, the beautiful Chinese silk rug completely covered except for a narrow path to my stereo. Mentally, I'm a hoarder. It's fear-based. I have in another room ALL of my school work from pre-school through college organized in folders by grade and class in banker boxes.

I fear losing my past.

It's difficult to say, to write. My fingers tremble a bit at the realization.

It's never been so much that I'm worried about getting done what I need to get done. That takes care of itself, honestly. I get to it. It's that I hold on to the physicality of the chronology of my Life. I attach so much meaning to objects as placeholders in time.

It's time to change that. I'm currently working on some life lessons provided to me by my dad. The task I picked to focus on today relates to the well known lesson that if your desk is cluttered, so are you. So to set a new behavior, I needed to clean my desk. But not just clean it, meaning opening the drawers and sliding all the stacks into them. I needed to organize it, setting up new habits that don't rely on chronological order.

I needed to organize myself. So I did.

All has been filed appropriately and notes of info and to-do's have been consolidated in the notebook on the scanner to the left. And I even took previously hid stacks out of drawers and organized them too.

It's really just a matter of committing to the change, writing it down, telling somebody else about it. It works!

Peace.